We made it to Costa Rica!

We left home at 4:30 pm on Dec. 10.  Scott drove us to Uncle Max's and Aunt Sherry's house in Stillwater.  From there we all headed out together to meet Jeff, Charla and Allison in Edmond.  We all had a nice dinner together in Edmond and then we spent the night with Jeff and Charla.  Jeff took us to the train station in downtown Oklahoma City early on Dec. 11.  We road the Heartland Flyer from Oklahoma City to downtown Fort Worth.  The train ride was really nice through rural Oklahoma and Texas.  We were delayed for about 30 minutes once in the middle of nowhere - we think there might have been a "stickup" by some baldknobbers, but we're not sure :)  After arriving in Fort Worth we took the commuter TRE train to a station near the airport, then we hopped a bus for the remote airport parking lot.  Then we took another bus to one of the airport terminals.  From there, we called for our hotel's shuttle van to pick us up and take us to our hotel.  We spent the night near the airport and had the shuttle take us back to the airport at 3:30 am for our 6 am flight to Costa Rica via Fort Lauderdale. 

We finally arrived in Costa Rica around noon on 12/12/12.  We were met at the airport by a taxi driver holding a sign that said "Beth Seliger".  We decided that had to be for us.  We tried to ask about our host Richard and found out the taxi driver spoke no English.  I managed to ask him in spanish "where to sleep" and he answered "Ricardo's".  About that time another man that spoke limited English came to help us with our luggage and said they were taking us to Grecia, so we hopped in and headed out.  The taxi was so small that one of the drivers had to sit in the front seat with one of my suitcases on his lap.  I gave him a nice tip. 

We drove for about 30 minutes on winding roads headed uphill from the airport in San Jose and reached the Grecian pillars of Grecia. We then drove through Grecia for a long time, we were both surprised at how big and spread out Grecia was.  We kept winding our way uphill and the air got cooler and fresher as we went and then we entered the village of El Cajon.  At El Cajon, we turned off on a dirt road and started going down.  We realized that this will be the road we have to walk along to get to the bus stop.  When we were first told that it was about a 500 meter walk from our apartment to the bus stop, we didn't picture it as uphill all the way.  At least the walk back with groceries will be downhill.  We were met by Richard's neighbor, Ursela, a sweet polish woman in her 70's. Richard had written us before we left to say that our apartment wouldn't be ready until Dec. 13, so we would stay the first night with his neighbors.  Ursela and Henry are both Polish and retired here after working in Dallas, Texas for years.  They have two small guest rooms below their house that they can rent out.  After we got settled in, Richard called to make sure we had arrived and everything was alright.  He was giving a tour.  We explained that we didn't have any food so he called a taxi driver that spoke english to go to the store for us and bring us some groceries.  That service cost us $12  which at that moment was a bargain.  Ursela fixed us some wonderful sandwiches and ice water to tide us over. 

The yard in front of our guest room is gorgeous and we have a beautiful view of the coffee fields growing all around on the mountain sides. 

We have a poinsettia growing right outside our door - so we are all ready for Christmas. 

Ursela and Henry checked on us about every 10 minutes to make sure we are comfortable.  They are really nice.  They are trying to start their own organic farm.  They got some new baby chicks the day we arrived, so Eric shared his chicken expertise with them.  They didn't have much experience with chickens coming from Dallas.  Their dog, Duma kept us under constant surveillance and we thought he didn't mind very well until we realized that we didn't speak his language - Polish.     

We spent the evening drinking Costa Rican coffee with Ursela and Henry on their terrace overlooking the central valley.  We could see the lights of San Jose, Alajuela, and Grecia spread out before us with mountains in the background. 

We both slept well and woke up with the sun.  There was a misty haze over the mountains that burned away quickly.  Mid-morning the fog is still over the mountain tops, but clear over us and the rest of the valley below us.  As we drank our coffee, we got to watch the coffee farmers across the valley heading to work on the coffee plantation.

We made scrambled egg and ham sandwiches for breakfast that we enjoyed on our front patio with a few cups of great coffee and Duma to keep us company.  

It was so nice to be able to relax after the few weeks of getting ready to go and two and half days of travel.