Sunday, June 7, 2009

40 Hours of Daylight

*** The next several posts will be shorter and without pictures because I am much busier in Costa Rica and have less time to write and take pictures ***


I did not sleep last night. Not a single wink.

Our plane finally arrived at 1:00 AM (3 AM Alabama time). The lady sitting next to me had just finished doing some mountaineering in the Chugach Mountains. She was about 5’2” weighed probably 125 lbs, and had blonde hair and extremely tan skin. The most unusually thing about her was her hands. They were very short and stumpy and covered in scrapes and scars, some of which were more than an inch long. She looked like she could crush my hand in hers if she wanted to. She was reading a book that I think was written in Portuguese or Italian. I could read most of the book, but some of the words were foreign to me.

We landed in Salt Lake City, where we changed planes onto a much smaller aircraft and then flew on to Denver. It seems to me that the further you go east and south on this continent, the prettier the girls become. It was funny for me to see a dozen girls in Atlanta that looked just like the one girl who stood out in Anchorage.

In the Atlanta airport, my dad and I met up with Ben Talmadge. After swapping out luggage, I was left with one backpack containing all of my stuff for two weeks in Costa Rica. After saying our goodbyes, I parted with my dad for the first time in a week, and was about to set out for Costa Rica, but not before the waiter at a restaurant had a chance to spill ketchup all over me. He was extremely apologetic, and I was not particularly bothered by the incident, but the manager still decided to pay for my meal and the waiter brought me some ice cream for dessert.

The flight to Costa Rica was peaceful after that. It was wonderful to see nighttime for the first time in over a week. I sat next to Bryan, who is a senior at Gettysburg College. He is on his way to Costa Rica to live with a family for three months to make up for four semesters of foreign language classes that he needs to graduate. He does not speak any Spanish, and his host family does not speak English.

We caught a taxi to Grace’s house in Tibo. The driver charged us either 18,000 colones (~$36 US) or $25 if we paid in US dollars. Grace lives in a nice big house, with two trees in front of the yard. She is very motherly, and already I feel at home. I am glad that Anna Grace has someone to stay with who will make her feel at home.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Yeah! Me too! Way to go Grace!

Oh, and we live in Tibas. But no big deal.

I'm really glad I got to spend a week with you last week at Ana's. Hopefully I'll see you at the airport on Friday!