Chapter 3 · San José, Costa Rica

Getting There

Thursday, Jan 1 Los Angeles, California

On the way back from Costa Rica in February 2008 I was bumped from my flight and I received a free return ticket to Costa Rica. I thought I would make a day trip to Panama, as it is a one-day bus ride to Panama City. My grandmother lived there as a teenager while her Father, C.A. Gates run a sawmill in the jungle. Digging through old family photos I found that the saw mill was in the village Rio Congo and started looking into the possibility of visiting the village.

Rio Congo is on the edge of the world. There are no road to Rio Congo. The closest road is more than 30 miles thru thick jungle and swamps. I am very excited about finding Rio Congo. I grew up with stories from my Grandmother and I cant wait. I leave in 9 days and I am 90% packed.

Thursday, Jan 8 Los Angeles, California

One day to go before I leave. I am all packed and I am double checking everything. Just finished up some design work and practicing spanish. I listen to spanish TV and radio every day and well as watch several youtube.com spanish lessons.

I have been wearing my new Vasque boots to get used to them. They are so comfortable. I might never go back to my old shoes.

I pulled my back the other day so I am been taking it easy on working out. I had been spending allot of time getting in shape for the trip. There is not much exercise in designing web sites. Except my mouse finger. That’s in great shape. The rest of me I am working on.

Saturday, Jan 10 – Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina.

I am sitting on the floor waiting to board my plane in Charlotte, North Carolina. I have been on planes or in airports for 14 hours now. And I have 5 more hours to go before I get to Costa Rica. They just called a pre-boarding passport check. All the costa rica passenger are lining up at the counter.

This concourse of the airport is all flights to cool tourist destination, the islands, central america, etc. Most of the people boarding my flight have Carry on bags with rollers. Not quite the free sprit backpacker crowd. Although the costa rica crowd seem to prefer to sit on the floor than in the row of seats provided by the airport.