Packing Day

We have enough experience traveling to know that on any long trip (more than a week) we really need to leave the last full day completely open. We make that the packing day, even though it doesn’t take all day to pack. In addition to the physical packing of suitcases, we usually need that last day to buy last minute items, run last minute errands, and so on. The longer the trip, the more things there are to do on that last day, and this one was no exception.

The first order of business was to turn the rental car in. The time on the contract was 11 am, and they were supposed to come pick it up. But when Wito called them to confirm, they said they didn’t know they were supposed to come pick it up. They said they’d be there around 12 to 12:30. So we scored an extra hour or so.

Cristina and I ran up to Galerón to buy the rest of the coffee, guayaba jam, and Bio-Land stuff (Costa Rica’s brand of organic products…everything from shampoo to cookies). I’m sure people could tell we were tourists about to depart: we had two carts and one of them was filled with bags of coffee.

The rest of the day was a blur. I took charge of packing the suitcases and Cristina was in charge of errands and phone calls. For example, she went to the Democracy Plaza to pick up her custom-made 9-pointed star earrings made of coconut shell. She picked up our old camera from the repair guy who didn’t fix it because I refused to pay $60 to fix a 3-year-old camera (I love the concept of reduce-reuse-recycle, but I’m also a cheapskate). Cristina paid our airport taxes at the bank (more on that tomorrow). She picked up her contacts from the optical place where we got our glasses. She called Ifigenia (the author of the sphere book) to arrange how to get her book back to her (she’s going to come pick it up next week). And in between all that, she talked to a bunch of people on the phone (Vicki, Jennifer, and I’m sure others) to get last-minute conversations in before we left.

Around 3, Carmen stopped by with the kids, who promptly struck up a final game of Qwirkle on the front porch. Later, Miranda stopped by with Sophia. And Ricardo and family came by as well. I didn’t do much visiting because I was so busy packing, but it was nice for the kids to play one last time. And nice to say goodbye again. They’re all so sweet and have totally taken us in as part of the family. I look forward to being able to speak better Spanish someday so I can actively participate more in conversations.

Because of all the visits, the two younger kids didn’t get to bed until 9. This was not ideal, since they had to get up at 3:30 am. But it was better to visit with family than get enough hours of sleep.

We had 7 of 10 suitcases packed and under 50 pounds each. #8, however, weighed 67 pounds, so we had to do some creative shifting. We finally had everything ready to go by 10 pm. We loaded Wito’s car with almost all the suitcases, showered and were in bed by 11.