The Journey - Monday & Tuesday, December 13-14

Explore Costa Rica with some possible in country flying.

By now, you all know that we made it to Costa Rica safely, and as I said, it's time to have a little fun on the ground. Our plan for now is to golf this afternoon at the resort's course (looks awesome) and to try ziplining tomorrow. I'll try and post a few comments and pics as I can. Otherwise you can expect a full report again after Wednesday's day of flying.

Quick update, Monday night - Golf course was very nice, but we both played terribly. To add insult to injury, I forgot the camera in the room. Oh well, I really didn't want any physical record of that round existing anyway. Our ziplining tour is scheduled for tomorrow morning, and I will NOT be forgetting the cameras for that!

On the flight, north of Managua

Yesterday was a very fun day with our zipline tour. I have a lot of videos, but was only able to snap a few photos with our camera, as it was very hard to use the camera with the glove we were required to wear. However, the tour had a photography that zipped with us and took many photos, and we bought the CD. Only downside to that is the netbook I am using does not have an optical drive, so I will have to wait until home to upload those. No matter, the videos are the best, anyway. The zipline tour even included a quick detour when our van suddenly broke down on the way back to the hotel. Good thing is that it broke down right in front of a bar. Jerry and I both think the driver's brother probably owns the bar, and they do this everytime! Good (maybe bad) news was that we had a replacement driver arrive to take us the rest of the way after having only finished one beer.

Upon arriving back to the hotel (approximately 2:00pm), I began to work on informing Belize of our planned arrival for today, and once again, the learning process began anew. From the information we had collected, we were under the impression that Belize did not require any advanced notice prior to arrival. I still had a contact at the Belize City International Airportfrom a friend that had flown privately to Belize several times in the past and thought that it would be good to give him a call anyway. And the trouble began.

Calling outside of the hotel to another country was the first hurdle to jump. I followed the instructions printed next to the phone to no avail. After 5 attempts, I called the front desk and asked if they could connect me. . .same result. After 5 more attempts working with the front desk, the call went through and a beautiful English speaking voice with a hint of Creole accent on the other line picked up the phone (reminded me of Jamaica. . .oh how I miss Jamaica). I asked to be connected to Rudy (the person I needed) and was transfered immediately. However, after several attempts, Rudy did not pick up. The operator told me that she could provide me with his cell number, which I could try again. Oh great, another call to make.

Another five attempts with the front desk to place the call and once again, I was finally connected. But, as you may be thinking by now, no Rudy on the other line and no voicemail to leave a message. It was here that I thought to email some people in order to secure an email address for Rudy. I sent the emails and waited about 15 minutes for responses. I didn't get an immediate reply, so I thought, "Well I've been working on this for over an hour and a half, guess I'll go to the pool and check the email a little later."

I arrived back to my room close to 5:30 pm and discovered that I had left for the pool just prior to several important emails arriving into my inbox. Naturally! The overall content of these emails can be summarized as this, "Marc, here is Rudy's email, send your information to him NOW as he needs 24 hours prior to your arrival to process your permission to land." "24 hours notice? With their office already closed and my communication issues? Well, that ain't gonna happen," I thought.

I resigned to the fact that all I could do was send the information as quickly as possible, and wake up today ready to take on the hotel phone circus act in order to see what magic I could work. I had a night cap and went to bed, ready to take on the morning's challenge.

-Marc