Sonia and I knew a few other people that had been to Costa Rica and had a wonderful time. Lots of beautiful birds, interesting scenery, a good time, and easy to get around. When our friends, Linus and Shirley, and us were looking for options to go on our next trip, we eventually came around to Costa Rica. We first looked at a Eco Hotel in Arenal to stay at for a week. But I wasn’t sure we wanted to spend an entire week in the same spot. Linus and Shirley had used a travel service before called Exoticca, they had a trip that started out in San Jose, then a few days in Arenal, then the beach city of Jaco, and finally returning to San Jose. It checked all the boxes for me.

Our trip started early on Saturday, September 26, 2028. We made no special arrangements to meet up with Linus and Shirley, but we ended up meeting just past the airport security. A great way to begin the trip. We got some breakfast in IAH on the way to our gate, excited for what lay ahead.

It is about a 3 and a half hour flight from Houston to San Jose, Costa Rica. On the way Sonia watched a movie “Best of the Best”. It is about this dance team and a lot of college drama. It was a continuation of the story of “Never Have I Ever”. I ended up catching pieces of it, and it looks to be a fantastic movie. I look forward to eventually watching the whole thing. I spent the time on the plane reading. And I noticed that they had two of the SpaceX Starship movies available on the flight. “Critical Path” and “Test Like You Fly”. I know United Airlines will be installing SpaceX’s Starlink on all their flights. I wonder if having these videos available to passengers is part of the arrangement. The Starship Flight test 14 was schedule for Monday (2 days from our flight). I do not think that people can comprehend at this point how transformative having a fully reusable orbital vehicle will be. It is hard to imagine the world that comes after. I am glad to see all the effort that SpaceX is doing in sharing the path to get there.

Here is our first view of Costa Rica from the airport.

There are 3 things that you will keep running across on your visit to Costa Rica. Sloths are depicted everywhere. Sloths are the mascot (perhaps unofficial) of Costa Rica. They are depicted everywhere. Here is a resting sloth (apparently doing Yoga) that we saw before even getting to immigration.

The second thing that you will see a lot in Costa Rica is American brands. We asked our driver that picked us up at the airport “Could you recommend a place to eat lunch”. “Yes! I can recommend you the best place to eat. The best food in all of Costa Rica”. We were excited. And completely unprepared for what he said. “Denny’s”. And there were American brands everywhere. Burger King, Taco Bell, McDonalds, and even the hotel we were staying at was a Holiday Inn.

But at least you know you will get a good quality room at a Holiday Inn,

Complete with a nice courtyard with a pool and a hot tub.

Right next to the hotel was a Casino. A Denny’s can’t be the first place we eat in Costa Rica (but it would not have been the first time I went to another country and at an American brand. The first place I ate on my first trip to Tokyo was a Sizzlers. And I had one of the best steaks with a wasabi/soy sauce that was just out of this world, not to have been replicated…)

They were not quick with giving us menus or food at the casino. I think they were hoping/expecting us to do some gambling. But I have no interest in that. The math just does not work out. And while the casinos try their best to make YOU feel like you are the especially lucky one, I know that is not the case. I keep remember the time that I went to Singo Bingo with our friends Mike and Marry. The host of that was very upfront. “How many of you think you are going to win tonight?” Of course everyone raises their hands. “Okay, make a friend so that when you go home without winning, you will have someone to console you.”

We did eventually get some food.

Afterwards, we were excited to start seeing the place. But it was raining by this time. It would rain for a bit everyday on our trip. But most of the day was dry. Lucky we had ponchos and umbrellas. (You can see another American brand in this photo: Gold’s Gym)

And even “closer” to home is the Duke’s Texan Style BBQ. We didn’t eat there, but could see it across the freeway from where we were walking.

We ended up walking an extended block. We were using “dead reconning” at first for navigation. “If you keep turning right, eventually you will come back to where you started.”

We ended up stopping at a BYD dealership and checking out the cars. Looking forward to these being an option in the US. (Though unless they have full unsupervised self driving that is as good or better than Tesla, I really have no interest in a different car.)

We tried a couple of times to get an Uber from the BYD car dealership. But wasn’t able to get one. That was the only time we had trouble getting an Uber. Also, seems that Uber is illegal for drivers. OK for passengers, but drivers could be fined. We also attempted to find a place to play Pickleball. But I called and no one answered. It would have been an Uber trip away too. But time to turn on Google maps and figure the best way back. We came across a park and checked it out.

We ended up turning in to our respective rooms relatively early. I feel like it was 7ish. Sonia and I were able to login to the TV using our NetFlix account (just scan the QR code and able to authenticate on your phone’s Netflix app) and watched Kissing Booth. A film about a boy and a girl who were born on the same day. They end up become best friends. And they have a number of rules to help make the relationship work. One of them is that they won’t date each other siblings. Of course the guy has a really good looking brother that the girl likes. And you can imagine where it goes. It was a nice movie though.

But afterwards feeling a bit hungry. Sonia and I go to the Dennys for a snack. It is still raining but the Dennys is attached to the hotel.

Then time to turn in to go to sleep.