According to Google, Costa Rica is a rugged, rain forested Central American country with coastlines on the Caribbean and Pacific. It is known for its beaches, volcanoes, and biodiversity.
But for me, Costa Rica is so much more. It is a place of warmth and love, filled with good people that open up their homes and hearts for you without looking for anything in return. I visited Costa Rica around seven years ago, mainly work related but with the chance for a little exploring, and fell in love with the place.
A former workmate had moved to the UK from Costa Rica but had recently returned to his homeland. He invited us to go back to see more, but this time as proper tourists. Jose Pablo (JP) and Natty are two of the kindest warmest people I know and this was an offer too good to miss.
Alas, due to work and family commitments, it was impossible to make timings work for everyone, so it was another trip to take without Titchy… so it became that my kids and I were heading 5,300 miles to other side of the planet for our summer break.
We flew out of Heathrow and, being the tight bugger that I am, thought I would save a few quid by driving down there from Newcastle. By the time you took petrol, food, parking and taxis into account, I could have upgraded to premium but….lessons learnt!
Heathrow is a hell of a size, a whirling mess of people very eager to be somewhere, anywhere, else. Yet within that mess is order, lines of people slowly shuffling into the machine to be spat out in the direction of their destination. Magically everyone in that building will end up somewhere else on the planet soon enough.
We were flying with Delta and the first step was Houston, Texas. It was nearly an eleven hour flight so maybe I wasn’t in the best of moods, but one hour fifty minutes in America was an eye opener.
As we stood in queue after queue just to pass through their country for the briefest of moments, the frustration levels grew and grew. The lines prior to baggage check snaked around and then were held as the escalators to take you upstairs for departures weren’t working.
This was only for our safety as having hundreds of people rushing the stairs and then queuing on them clearly wasn’t going to be safe, especially in the most litigious country on the planet. A typically loud and brash American guy then started shouting “HEY, MOVE THE LINE, WHAT’S GOING ON THERE, MAKE A DECISION” and so on and so on. All very un-British. Do people not know how to queue and suffer in silence around the rest of the globe?
With blood pressures falling, we hopped on the UA1055 for the 3 hours 45 minute skip over to paradise. As we boarded the plane it felt like getting off a first class train at Kings Cross and then jumping into the back of on unlicensed taxi cab. The seats looked torn and broken, the earphone sockets didn’t work and I am sure there were still signs of ash in the ashtrays. None of this seemed to bother me too much as I pretty much fell asleep the second I sat down and woke up as the plane descended into San Jose, Costa Rica.
We quickly got through customs and baggage reclaim and were met by my friends with open arms. Many years ago, JP and Natty joined me on my trip to Las Vegas and a picture of me giving them a special welcome of my own was blown up and turned into a ‘Welcome to Costa Rica’ sign. It was only a few months since we last saw each other, but it was great to be able to give the guys a hug…..we were ready to start the holiday!
Itchy Feet and Titchy Feet 