Heading Home

The plan for getting to the airport was this: Ramon and I would head to the airport at 7 with most of the luggage. He would drop me off at the airport with the luggage and then return his car. Cristina and the kids would get a ride to the airport from Carlos’s neighbor, who is an uber driver, for $15.

They all got to the airport right around 8 as planned. As we were checking our bags, I noticed some old friends from Gainesville, D.J. and Marybeth Head, a couple of counters down from us. What are the odds? We chatted with them for a while, especially since they were on the same place as us. They were in CR for 5 days shooting a video about turtles at Tortugeuro. Funny, we live in the same town as them, and yet we rarely see them. “It takes going to Costa Rica for us to hang out,” DJ joked.

Cristina spotted a nice wooden spoon rest in a gift shop. It was the kind fo thing we had been looking for in all the artisans markets. Even though it was slightly overpriced in the airport, we got it. Plus, I had 8000 colones I needed to get rid of. I paid the rest in dollars, which came to $3.40. She didn’t have any US coins, though, so she offered to give me the 60 cents in colones, or a pack of mints. I took the mints.

The plane left on time. On the plane, I got caught up on my blog (I had been about seven days behind). It was just as well that the TV in my seat didn’t work. Otherwise I might not have blogged.

So our six week post-graduation journey comes to an end. It had its highs and lows. We didn’t do adventurous touristy stuff every day, but we did more than we’d ever done before: zipline tour, horseback riding, coffee tour, white water rafting, multiple hot springs, multiple waterfalls, multiple hikes. We got a few practical souvenirs (beach towels, cutting boards, spoon rest, dish paste). And we came in under budget! Overall, I think (I hope) that Alex will have fond memories of this trip, unlike the trip to Europe where he felt like we were squeezed into a car all the time and didn’t do anything.

Now we have three years to plan Bella’s graduation trip!