A very soft landing....

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Trip Start Dec 17, 2006 Trip End Jan 17, 2007 Next
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  Alajuela, Costa Rica
Tuesday, December 19, 2006

This may have been the easiest entry to any foreign country we´ve ever visited. Well, I guess  not including Canada. Not just that Customs was more a suggestion of controlling what enters the country more than actively keeping out drugs, contraband, etc (I could have walked a Clydesdale stuffed full of heroin baggies past the customs agents without a blink. Probably because not many people are smuggling drugs INTO Central America...) but also that Libby met us at the airport doors. She wasn´t too hard to spot since she´s about 2 and a half feet taller than the average Costa Rican. And she has been wearing a hugely brimmed black hat, so she´s easy to find and nice to seek shade under. This is especially helpful since Costa Rica is not only located on the southern portion of the Central American isthmus, it is also on the surface of the sun. It has been hot. Not like "Wow, lets get out of this heat and drinks some cold Fanta" more like "Oh, God! My eyes!! It liquified my eyes!!!!!" Phil is as miserable in this temperature as a manatee at a speedboat convention. But he´s soldiering on, bolstered by the promise I made to spend our next vacation in Nunavit.
So we took the bus from the airport to the Hotel Cortez Azul in Alajuela, which is kind of a suburb of San Jose. Anikah, who spent much of the plane ride complaining about, um, something (well, she only has like 8 words, but she used all of them. Loudly.), promptly fell asleep. We ate dinner at a place down the street and learned that Costa Ricans, also known as Ticos, love children. Wait. That sounds like they love them for dinner, which is a distinctly wrong impression. I mean to say that Ticos of all ages, even macho teenage boys, came up at cooed, "Que linda (cute baby girl)" at Anikah. She responded with her patented Anikah staredown. Unlike Americans, though, Ticos aren´t intimidated by her lack of enthusiasm, and usually keep talking to her as long as we stand there. They also ask me all kinds of complicated questions about her, to which Libby responds while I stand there bobbing my head and smiling like a moron to make up for Ani´s death stare.  Ah, cultural interaction at it´s best.....
 
 

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