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First Day

Landed around 9am, took the train into the city, made it to our hotel around 11. Checked our bags and got started! 

We decided ahead of time to get tickets for the hop-ok on hop-off bus, thinking a round trip would give us the lay of the land. It helped! It also included a ticket for a short Thames river cruise, allowing us to see a number of sights we probably didn’t have time for. 

Late in the afternoon, we stopped by Buckingham Palace to visit the Queen, but apparently she was indisposed.

A New Adventure Begins

Melissa and I are spending a few weeks in England! Our plan is to spend several days in London, train to Oxford for a day, then rent a car to explore the Costwolds and head north to York. Couple of days there, then back to London. 

We decided to document it because we recently re-discovered our Ireland and Costa Rica recaps and they reminded us of a number of things we’d forgotten. 

Here’s an obligatory photo from a jet window. Recognize anything?

Some Final Thoughts

Now that we've had a chance to put a few days (and a lot of snow) between ourselves and Costa Rica, a couple of things have sort of been itching at my brain about the whole trip.

1. If you're planning a trip to Costa Rica, plan ahead, but plan to be flexible. We rented cars because we had eight people traveling and we stayed in private homes that were a bit off the beaten track, but if you're a smaller group and staying at resorts or major hotels for any length of time, it's probably cheaper to avail yourselves of the local transportation they provide, and hire a personal driver to take you on longer trips. Plus, a manual transmission on some of those mountain roads was a real workout. If you do rent a car, pay the extra $15 a day for total insurance coverage - it's well worth it.

2. I'm not sure I'd travel at Christmas again. Extra seasonal demands, large crowds, weather issues - it really adds a significant amount of stress to the entire venture.

3. HIRE A TOUR GUIDE. Just about every one we hired was a wealth of information, well worth the fee and a sizable tip.

4. Consider the size of the group you're traveling with, there are advantages and disadvantages. When our housing was cancelled, it was a miracle they were able to find another place that could house eight people. A group of four probably would have had little difficulty. On the other hand, when we wanted to kayak, they were pretty much closed for the day, but they were willing to re-open for us because we were a large group.

5. They charge you $27 a person to leave Costa Rica. 'Airport tax,' they call it. Or, extortion. Sometimes your airline includes it in your ticket price. Spirit Airlines does not.

6. When the tour operator for your inflatable raft trip tells you there's no chance you'll get wet, do not believe him.

Anyway, it was fun. Hope this wasn't too boring. And now, pictures!

Travel Day

We say goodbye to Costa Rica.

Everyone looks happy because we're thinking about sleeping in our own beds.

The day turned out to be long and taxing. I got us off on the wrong foot; two roads on the map led to the airport, and the one I chose took us on a winding trek through the mountains. At one point we were driving along the ridge at the very top of a mountain, with steep valleys dropping away from us on both sides of the road. Ridiculous.

Our flight out was delayed, and we were subjected to an additional security check at the gate (where they confiscated everyone's beverages that they purchased after the first security check - Melissa suspects a Spirit Airlines conspiracy to make you buy drinks on the plane). We also were bused across the jetway to our jet, with Sam humming the Indiana Jones theme song as we climbed the portable stairs. 

The Ft. Lauderdale airport, despite being a complete dump, was very efficient in moving us through customs and getting us and our baggage back through security. Amazingly, we would have made our connection even if it hadn't been delayed, which of course it was.

Thousands of people were packed into terminal 3, and some of them had been there more than 24 hours. They would move in waves as departure gates were switched, groans would rise up as flight cancellations were posted, and applause would break out as boardings were announced. We were convinced we were spending the night in the airport, but our plane finally arrived and we began to board around midnight. Many, many people were still there when we left, mostly travelers to the East Coast.

It was 95 degrees when we left this morning, we returned to this:

O'Hare is strangely beautiful in the snow, particularly when you thought you might never see it again.

Our limo driver deserved combat pay for navigating through a blizzard. Arrived at Fred and Nancy's to find the battery dead in my van. Argh. Fred drove us home. 

Laid down in bed at 4am. End of the trip for us; everyone else had to be up at 6:30 to take Sheridan to Midway airport for her return to Kansas. She still had a three-hour flight and a three-and-a-half drive before she was home. We heard this afternoon that she arrived safely.

I have decided that adventure traveling is for the young.

Final night

We spent Friday afternoon at the beach, then headed back to the house to pack our things for the trip home. We've been hearing horror stories about snow storms and stranded travelers back in the states; our anxieties levels are high when we anticipate tomorrow's 'adventure.'

Lily finds a quiet spot to read:

We headed to the resort across the road for a final dinner, then sunset by the ocean.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Spice Farm

On the final day of adventure, we split up. Pam and the girls went into Jaco to shop, then returned to get Sam and head for the surfboard rental place on the beach. Fred went into town to investigate cigar shops. Nancy, Melissa and Rob headed back south to a spice farm called Villa Vanilla.

Tour-wise, it could have gone either way, but it turned out to be one of the most interesting activities of the trip. Latin America used to be a heavy-hitter in the vanilla industry, but a blight in the early 2000s wiped out virtually all of it. This farm is one of the few places where it survived, due to the owner's reliance on traditional growing methods and refusal to use pesticides.

Vanilla beans during the drying process:

The process is labor intensive. The flower is opened for only one day, and must be manually pollinated. If not, the flower falls off, and no bean for you. Here's a vanilla plant:

Instead of spraying pesticides to deter pests, they intersperse ornamental flowering plants to distract them.

They grow a number of other spices here as well, including allspice, tumeric and cardomon. They also make their own chocolate. Here's our tour guide pointing out a cinnamon tree:

It takes eight years to grow, and they have to cut the whole thing down to harvest it. The cinnamon is in the bark, which you can just eat. Tastes kind of like red hots. This guy is carving the bark:

Cocoa fruit - the beans are inside:

Cocoa beans:

Um, I was told there would be snacks?