London to Costa Rica

Welcome to my Costa Rican odessy. I have been writing daily posts in a diary style, but haven't been able to get onto the internet very frquently. I'll be posting a diary entry every time I manage to log on. I hope you enjoy!

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We arrived in Costa Rica yesterday after a mammoth 21hr door to door journey.

The flights were actually reasonably pain free. Delta airlines did us proud with as much leg room and as comfy seats as you can expect in coach. The food wasn’t too bad either. As we boarded two guys in front of us; who had seats in the row behind us, decided to plonk themselves down in business class. They were politely moved back just as we were taxiing to the runway. It got me thinking how many people try that trick each flight? And if you are stupid enough to try it, will you be the sort of person that is really annoying to sit next to on a long haul flight? Thankfully they sat there quietly during the rest of the flight.

The customs officials were polite and efficient, the sort that even Shakespearsmate wouldn’t be scared of. Their slightly indifferent attitude to immigration and airport security reminded me of what it used to be like entering Britain a few years ago.

We picked up our hire car at approx 10pm and headed for our hotel in Alajuela. After a long love affair with the Lonely Planet I had my first disappointment with the travel guides as the hotel we were staying at, was marked in the wrong place on the map. It took us over an hour and a phone call to the hotel to find it. Once at Hotel Los Volcanes we had a good nights sleep. The hotel was definitely better than I expected from the website.