A bit of Relaxing, some Fires and then Home again.............sigh....

A long travel day from La Paz through Lima, Peru to San Jose (this is in Costa Rica, not the place that they sing about in California) followed by a teeny tiny plane (imagine how well that went over with me, I knocked myself out with two gravol) that flew us to Liberia, Costa Rica.  A 45 minute bus ride and we arrived at our resort.  Right on the beach (which is mostly black volcanic sand and hot to walk on) with a large two level pool and a swim up bar. 

Ah, a vacation from all the difficult travelling we have been doing for the last 10 months.  The weather in Costa Rica is smoking hot without a whole lot of clouds in the sky.  Though on about our 4th night the night sky was a lit up with fires. The resort is nestled between some small mountains and the surrounding farmers decided to burn off the undergrowth.  So at night the fires were very pretty to watch but it got quite smoky as the wind was non existant. Come the morning though the winds from the ocean which were not strong would blow the smoke up into the hills.  The last day we were there the fire had burned all the way down to the staff quarters. 

 I guess they were not concerned, but we were glad to leave.  So off we flew to Houston.  Ah, the U S of A.  Only in America do you actually have to clear customs when you are just making a connecting flight.

Oh yeah and there was a "special" line for people doing just that.  There was one customs guy at our line and he took about 3-5 minutes per person.  Did I mention there were 50 people ahead of us?  Oh yeah and we had bought duty free.  Once we cleared customs in an hour, we went down to find out that the run had to be checked.  We went to the counter and got looked after quickly which was good as our flight was supposed to leave in 15 minutes.  They said oh well you have to put it in a special container.  We said, check it as is and we will hope for the best.  He hummed and hahed and finally we just said enjoy the rum we have to catch a plane.  He said as we ran off I don't think you are going to make it.  Great, us and about 15 other people.  We ran up the stairs to find out that there was a HUGE lineup at security.  Surprise, surprise.  You pretty much have to strip naked to get through security in the U S of A.  So after another 40 minutes, we got through.  We came out at gate 45, our plane was at, yes, you guessed it, 29.  So we ran and when we got there they said your plane had gone.  Great, a year of travelling and this is the only stupid connection that we did not make.  So we got our hotel voucher, got our flight booked for 7:30AM with Air Canada (we had been on United) for the next day and then asked about our luggage.  They said, oh it went on the plane you were supposed to catch?  I am sorry, WHAT?  Is that not a breach in security?  Stupid U S of A. Where will it be when we get there the next day?  Oh it will be sitting somewhere.  Great.  So we arrived the next day, our luggage was there, along with about 40 other bags from the other 15 people who missed the flight and we came home.  What a nice surprise later that day to get a call from United telling us our duty free had arrived on another flight and could they deliver it?  Wow, they did not have a party and drink all of it, what a surprise.  Thus ends our 10 month journey around the world.  I cannot believe how fast the time has gone.  We have seen and done some fabulous things.  I hope if you have been following the blog that you have enjoyed it.  Now, its back to reality which really does suck but what can you do.  Ciao for now. A&D