Feb 3, 2008 – Sunday – Flying from Victoria, Canada to San Jose, Costa Rica

2008 Costa Rica Southern Skies Fiesta, Volcanos & Rainforest

Today I travel to Costa Rica. I’m up at 5:15am, do some last minute packing, say goodbye to my family, and I’m out the door at 6:20am. I drive to the Victoria airport, park in the long term parking, and check in at the Horizon counter. My checked bag is overweight by 5lbs, which costs me $25 extra – not a problem, since I can’t lug anymore carry-on luggage. The security guy asks me about the Astrotrac tracking mount for my camera, and we then get into the inevitable discussion about astronomy.

I find a power plug for my notebook in the gate area and sit down to write in my journal to kill a bit of time. My friends (who are also going to Costa Rica) arrive a few minutes after me. Our flight to SeaTac is delayed by about a half hour, but once airborne we are treated to a flight path that loops over Mill Bay, the Malahat and Victoria as we head southeast to Seattle, Washington. Despite the delayed departure, we arrive in plenty of time to find our bags, clear customs, and find the gate for our Continental flight to George Bush airport in Houston.

Our flight to Houston is also a bit late taking off, however we have a smooth flight – seeing Mount Rainier (see banner image above) along the way is a treat before the clouds close in for the last part of the flight. We have less than a half hour between flights in Houston, so Continental has a motorized cart waiting for us at the gate to ensure we connect with our flight to San Jose. The gate for the connecting flight is way across the terminal, however the nice lady driving the cart gets us there with time to spare. As we find our seats, the overhead bins are full, so I keep two carry-on bags on the floor under my feet for this flight.

I’m seated beside a huge guy from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who overflows the seat with his enormous tattooed arms and shoulders. I manage to survive by ignoring him as best I can, plugging into my music with some Shure in-ear earphones I bought awhile ago to use on this trip. They are fantastic at effectively shutting out the aircraft engine noise in particular, so when we arrive in San Jose my ears are not ringing as they normally do. The airport is controlled chaos, but we clear Costa Rican customs in short order, find our transportation, and are transferred to our hotel after only about a 20 minute wait.

The Courtyard Marriott hotel is pretty deluxe with North American style rooms with Internet connections, telephones, TV, wet bar, coffee maker and hair dryer. I take advantage of the free Internet connection to contact a few folks back home to let them know we arrived safely and will be on our way to the lodge tomorrow. Speaking about La Ensenada “Star” Lodge,I understand that it is more primitive, so it doesn’t have Internet, and even the telephone is not always working. I’m assuming my cellphone won’t work there, unlike here in San Jose where it roamed on the local provider right away.

My friends and I have some beer from the wet bar, and chat about a few things. We are excited about the astrophotography possibilities at the Lodge we are going to stay at starting tomorrow. I go to bed around 1:30am local time (11:30pm Pacific time).