Day 8 (In Which We Celebrate Our Safe Arrival Home with Traditional American Homecoming Feast at Taco Bell)

Day 8 (In Which We Celebrate Our Safe Arrival Home with Traditional American Homecoming Feast at Taco Bell)

I woke up to the tightly controlled chaos of Nancy making final preparations for our departure. Almost all of the packing was done the night before. I recall getting a phone call in the middle of the night. We had left an interior light on in the car. Isaac and I generally take about 20 minutes to fully wake up and realize what is going on, so thankfully Nancy went out to address the problem.

We called for housekeeping to inspect our room. This was to make sure we didn’t steal the toaster oven I suppose. During the hectic check in, we did not understand that we needed to inventory the room upon arrival. It was only at final inspection that we learned we were short a towel and a bowl. I explained that two other towels had been stolen the night before at the pool (I was completely paranoid about or cameras, cash, passports and GPS the whole time we were there and always kept one eye on them whenever we were off of the resort property. It was only on the last night, inside the resort compound that someone stole our crappy hotel pool towels.)

When the inspection was over, the housekeeper made it clear that we were to leave right then and turn in our keys immediately. We checked out and were billed for the purloined towels. (Almost $20. It was too early in the morning to argue in broken Spanish.) We grabbed a quick bite at the grocery store (no veiny bottle openers there either…..I looked.), gassed up/ returned the rental car and arrived at the airport.

The porter at the airport worked only for tips, but knew the system well. He carried our bags, made sure we had the correct customs forms, provided us with pens, and directed us to the correct desk to pay our $26 per head exit tax. You read that right….Costa Rica charges you money to leave the country. (I don’t know if the tax is waved if you show proof that you purchased a wooden frog or not.) The entry fee is at least embedded in the cost of the plane ticket.

The waiting area and most of the airport was made of logs and a tin roof. (They were building a larger airport about a half a block away.) Within an hour, the place was packed with Americans who naturally wedged into every square inch of the gift shop to spend their last few colones. The little restaurant proved to be too much of a temptation (they had an honest to goodness grill next to the counter with shrimp and steak in the waiting area for Pete’s sake.) and I enjoyed the last Tico meal with an Imperial lager.

Shortly before our plane arrived, a great rain storm commenced. Thankfully American Airlines provided us with umbrellas for the walk across the tarmac to the plane.

We arrived in Miami and literally ran through the elaborate system of trains, moving sidewalks, customs, immigration, baggage claim, re-checking the bag, going through security a second time (where we got to watch an amusing little piece of improv theater in which a traveler was trying to convince a TSA agent to let him bring his bag of duty free liquor on the plane. I hope the janitorial staff at Miami International had a nice party that night when they found his unopened bottles next to the trashcan.), another train back out to our gate where we arrived halfway through the boarding process. Total plane transfer time was 45 minutes of non stop, full speed motion to end up two gates down from where we arrived.

Our plane left the gate and was fourth in line from taking off when the pilot explained that our route had changed. We were now going to travel up the west coast of Florida which was not only going to be a longer flight, but we had to go back to the gate to get more fuel. At this point I was actually a little grateful that we were not all seated together. The last of the granola bars were gone and we were exhausted. A large youth group was returning from their mission trip to Trinidad and treated the plane like their own private church van. Thankfully for everyone involved, I did not overhear the young woman seated behind Nancy and Isaac reviewing her pictures from the previous week and loudly commenting to her friend how this person looked “So Gay” and this other guy was “such a faggot.” I was so tired, hungry, and pissed off that their church would have held a special service to pray for my soul by the time I was done. (My sister and I have no tolerance for youth groups who behave poorly in public. If your sponsor isn’t keeping you in line, we will step up and help them out.)

We arrived in Greensboro well after 10:30. We stumbled to the car and found the only take out restaurant that was open, Taco Bell. Neither Nancy nor Isaac will normally go to Taco Bell for any reason, but they were both indulged me. Nancy laughed at the size of my order, but I explained 1) I had not eaten in 12 hours 2) I was ordering for them because even though they said they weren’t hungry, as soon as I started eating they were both going to want something and 3)It is Taco Bell. They are inevitably going to forget something. (All three things proved to be true.)

The next day while Nancy did laundry and worked on a trip web page, and Isaac overloaded on Phineas and Ferb (in glorious English), I wandered off to help with a locally made movie. We had lots of time together the previous day and were happy to be in our own little worlds for a while..

What did I learn? It is hard to say. I know that we had the most exciting experiences when we were trying new things that we normally would never do. I was also surprised at how much we enjoyed hiking over rugged terrain. The trip made me want to learn and practice more Spanish. I learned that without a computer to keep me awake at night, I tend to follow my body’s natural sleep habits. Isaac has an incredible knack for finding animals in the wild. Nancy takes very good care of Isaac and I. She surprises herself at what she can do. She trusted my Spanish and other times when things were out of her control.

Thanks for reading and for the kind comments. If you will excuse me, I have to go find something to open this bottle with.

Strength and Honor
Big Matt