Lo Vis

I’m going to load some pictures first then post after.

Our last day in Costa Rica. 😢
It’s been a very good vacation. There were some things that didn’t go exactly as planned but, I think things turned out well. I probably had the most fun on the jet ski, I was most excited to see the sharks and rays in the water and the best part was traveling with Emily. We had a lot of fun and even found time to relax. I really don’t have anything that sticks out as being bad, that said there are things that you will always find could be better or different. Sometimes they are a cultural thing that you should come to expect when traveling, they don’t always do things like people from the United States and they definitely don’t have to follow the same standards.

Today we were up early and went down to the beach to do some snorkeling, none of the travel books or articles ever said that snorkeling off the beach in Brasalito was any good, we found it to be some of the better snorkeling here.
Today I was able to see the rays in the water, they didn’t want to swim with me. They did again with Emily though. They should be more afraid of her, she’d be more likely to try and touch them, I just wanted their picture.
I also seen another eel and some sea snakes. Puffer fish here are all over the place and barracuda this morning were lurking just at the edge of visibility. I’m sure there was a lot more out there but I couldn’t see it. I do have some pictures, quality varies depending upon the visibility. It was a nice activity to end our trip on.

After we got cleaned up, relaxed some and then had lunch. We had just enough time to get our billed paid up and everything ready before the taxi arrived.
The taxi ride is long and boring, the driver takes the long way, he probably doesn’t like taking his taxi van though the river crossings. Costa Rica is needing a few stop lights or roundabouts and some two lane bridges. That would speed things up. The taxi has WiFi so you at least have that.
One of the things I forget to mention is all the open bed vans and trucks with ladders sticking up over the top, occasionally they are tall trucks with tall extension ladders. They would definitely hit stuff with them back home!

There’s not a lot of draw backs to visiting Costa Rica. Traffic isn’t always bad, heat and humidity (depending upon who you ask) always about 12 hours of sunlight, Tico time, you should know the metric system and some Spanish. There’s a lot to do, the weather (see previous note), people are friendly, it’s not hard to find someone who speaks English, they will take dollars and you can pretend that you are also Tico (a local) and not be worried about the time.

We’ve been in Costa Rica for almost two weeks and if we still had a couple of days I think we could still find stuff to do and enjoy. We think that we’d like to get a rental instead of hotels in the future, especially for the 10-14 day trips. Hotels are okay since we don’t spend a huge amount of time in them, we do spend enough though that some chairs and a couch would be nice along with a kitchen. Now thanksgiving we are committed to going home I am ready for being back. I think after our covid tests yesterday it started to sink in that the trip was at an end and mentally I started thinking about being home. I know after ten days in Jamaica I was ready to be home, Peru wore us out with their schedule so we were ready to slow down by the time that was over. I will have to look at posts from the end of Columbia and see how we felt.
Seems like every trip that I have done though the common thing is once the end comes I start wanting to be home. My stateside travels included.

We left our boogie boards at the hotel. They can either use them for guests, staff can take them or they can be responsible for causing anyone to become wave chasers and give them to a child. There was just too much at risk.

Random fact, there’s a lot of top knots here. Some Tico and some travelers. One of the French guys had a hair tie that was on his starter top knot, his hair wasn’t much longer than mine! I sort of get the surfers with the long hair tying theirs back in the water but they probably could get a haircut and accomplish the same thing and not have a top knot. It’s a good thing we didn’t cause someone to become a wave chaser and have it being our fault they have a top knot on top of everything else.

Another random fact, sugar cane has a white flower/ tassel that pops out the top when it is ready for harvest. If I heard correctly they burn the cane fields because it’s sharp and it’s cheaper to harvest by hand than machine.

We made it to Miami! The first flight was okay, came in a little early then had to wait for a gate. I don’t think getting to Miami early is a good deal. It was that way from St. Louis as well. We made it through Global Entry and are now waiting in line to have our carry ons rescanned. They should have a direct line for those who are connecting that doesn’t involve going through TSA again. Especially for trusted travelers.

It’s going to be late getting into St. Louis so I’m going to post this now. Hopefully we will get food here otherwise we’ll be eating snacks out of my bag.