It´s finally begun and I´m in Quito (of the Ecuadorian kind) today!
I have reason to be both surprised and pleased especially given that Panama City was enroute. For those who wonder why, you obviously haven´t heard of my attempt to fly into Costa Rica more than a year ago. That trip has a lot of events to remember it by - not least that it was the first of a million scuba trips to get certified (okay, I exaggerate a TINY bit but it´s pretty true) - but the one that sticks with me went something like this...
a) Sasha misses Newark to San Jose flight due to fog (which is the star of our story) in Boston.
b) Linda and I take off after trying to delay Newark flight to get aforementioned Sasha in it.
c) Linda and I land in Liberia (Costa Rica, not West Africa) which has an airport the size of a Walmart parking lot - of course, Linda thinks I´ve been smoking something when I wake her up and tell her we´re in Liberia...before I tell her it´s the one in CR.
d) Linda and I take off after 2 hours of sitting in the plane (Liberia CR doesn´t have custom officials to deal with a plane the size of ours) when Continental decides that if Air Mexicana can land in a foggy San Jose, so can they.
e) Linda and I fall asleep.
f) Linda and I wake up when the plane lands to hear an announcement welcoming us to Panama City, Panama...I´m NOT kidding.
g) Of course, we are the only people on the plane not holding US passports and without visas for Panama (I´d like to point out we had our Costa Rica visas), so our passports are confiscated and we wait for our "escort" while the airport security sings Happy Birthday to me (it WAS actually my birthday).
h) Our escort keeps watch over us for an entire day (we exchange lessons in English and Spanish) and we find out that she doesn´t know our plane is leaving for San Jose earlier than planned...I stand in front of a bus holding the other plane passengers and refuse to let it move.
i) We finally leave...and meet Sasha who is already in San Jose (of course!)
I think I´m justified in wondering where we were actually going to get to when I reached the gate at JFK...but we landed in the right spot, alright!
Side-notes:
- Follow-up on previous post; Costa Rica is one of those countries that now allows Indian citizens (and more) in for up to 90 days if you hold a US visa.
- I fully recommend harem pants for travel as long as you´re okay with being singled out for a security frisk; they want to know what you´re hiding (special note to the one who gave them to me :) )
