Arriving Costa Rica.

I think Lindsay and I had almost 36hours with no sleep. A flight from L.A to El Salvador, Our seats were right beside the toilets and people kept walking past all night long bumping into us and putting their hands onto the tv screen and turning off my movie all the time. Boston Fell asleep easy, sleeping across everyone. Dani and Noah didn't sleep either.

So when we arrived in El Salvador Boston was a box of birds and we were all the walking dead. We had to go through emigration. Which involved walking to the gate and getting on our new plane. Emigration was tight....

A quick up and down to land in Costa Rica. Something that you need to prepair for is the lack of impulse to get off the plane. Costa Ricans and others take their sweet time getting off the plane, slowly getting their stuff and getting off. stopping to greet people and chat. Blocking the exit ways. This wouldn't happen in NZ you would grab your stuff and go.

We headed through customs and we were asked where we were staying in Costa Rica.... what address were we staying. We had no idea. Richard had booked it all for us. We ended up saying we were staying with Iveths parents. So they finally let us through. After us looking stupid not knowing where we were staying. We were saying family family... until she finally got it and stamped our passports and let us through.

We had to pick up our bags and head through the scaning process which involved throwing whole bags through xray machines and no one was even looking at them. Looked around picking up our bags and headed to the exit. Which we assumed took us to a lounge.... no... it took us onto the streets of Costa Rica. I looked over my shoulder to count kids and make sure Lindsay was there and I heard my name being shouted.

People were in our face yelling "Taxi taxi" and we shook our head spotting Iveths parents. Whom were there to meet us. We were then put onto the phone with Iveths brother who spoke English to say Richards plane was three hours late.

So Bernie and Lily took us over to the car, and put our bags in and put us all into the car and took us to a mall for some lunch.

36 hours no sleep, with people who don't speak English very well and we know a few words of Spanish, awkwardness followed. lucky Dani was tech savy and put my phone onto google translate and we were able to order lunch and have a bit of a chat with everyone.

We headed back to the airport to wait for Richard. We had to stand outside the airport. Noah and Dani slowly went from sitting to sleep very quickly. 38 hours no sleep.

After waiting an hour and they still did not come and a police man came along asking what the children were doing we took them to the car which was in a nearby parking building where they all went to sleep and they finally arrived.

Driving in Costa Rica is insane, I think the road markings are just a suggestion. And cars go fast and the roads around the streets are narrow and there is no parking on the side of the road.

We headed out of San Jose into the hills where we had a house for three nights to rest before heading towards Coco. We stopped at Iveths parents place and it suprised us that they drove right into what we would think the front of the house. The gate open and it was a tiled floor and it was like driving onto the porch.

Across the road there is a man operating a store out of the front of his house. you see this all over Costa Rica almost every other street small stores selling food and people pull up and buy some food and leave. Food is very cheap. We pulled up to a fruit stand and asked the man for ten banana's a watermelon and some corn. It come to what would be $3 NZ. We went to the bakery and brought all this amazing baked good, milk, and the food is completely out of this world. It would put the local bakeries in NZ to shame. I also brought some milk. 1.8l.

People can just set up a resturant out of the front of their homes or a shop or hairdresser. All they have to do is pay their taxes and that is it. There are little tiny shops all over.

I looked at the till it said. 5.500C. I was looking at it which meant it cost Five thousand five hundred colones. One New Zealand Dollar to 500c. So three massive bags filled of baked goods like pasteries squares, cost around $11. (Including the milk).

Our first night here we had dinner at our rental home for three nights with Iveths family and sister. We had tradional Costa Rica Chicken Rice, beans, chips(potato) and it was great. But we were so so tired. Noah actually went to sleep the moment we arrived here at 3pm and I woke him to eat at 6pm and we didn't see him until ten the next morning.