Day One: Arrival

So I would like to start off with an apology. The idea of this blog as a whole is, in its simplest sense, a way of keeping track of my misadventures while abroad. However, I'll most likely attempt to inject my somewhat dodgy sense of humour in places and apologise for doing this. I will also in all likely hood, lose interest in continuing this endeavour after two posts, three if we are lucky, so sorry if you actually get engrossed in my ramblings. Finally I apologise for the very nature of this blog. It is, in truth, my attempt at becoming a highly successful social commentator and a way to inflate my own sense of self importance. It will probably fail on both counts of this. Is this technically three apologies? Probably, but neither of us should be counting, so on with the important part; my travel ramblings.

As it is the least interesting part of my travels, I shall make only a brief mention of the first several leg's of the expedition towards Central America. I successfully managed to depart Bedford, make my way to Heathrow Terminal 5, navigating both National Rail train schedules (surprisingly accurate for once) and London Underground (complete with engineering works) in the process and board my trans-Atlantic plane. For the most part, this was all very boring, especially as it was in the small hours of the day. However, I did find a very large Christmas tree in London St Pancras station constructed entirely of Lego. This impressed me greatly!

Following a very boring 9 hour flight from Heathrow I landed in Miami. I thought I had been very clever at this point and had avoided American border control by having my bags checked all the way through from London to Liberia, Costa Rica. Sadly, this didn't turn out to be the case. For some reason the Americans are infatuated with who has landed in their country to the point that even a traveller in transit with no need to collect luggage has to go through passport control and customs and check back in the other side! This did manage to eat up an hour of my 3 hour stop over though so I suppose I should be thankful for this. As an aside, I don't recommend anyone fly into Miami Airport if it can be avoided. It was clearly built in the 60's or 70's and hasn't really been upgraded since.

By this point I'd been travelling for some 15 hours total and my brain had taken on the consistency of marshmallow. As such I didn't really take a lot of interest in the argument that erupted on my second flight. From what I recall, a French guy got quite angry because the woman behind him kicked his seat as he tried to recline it. However, I failed to take a lot of notice. What I recall is that I got a good look at the faces of everyone in front of me as they all turned around to stick their noses into someone elses business. Maybe I was just being the typical aloof English man while everyone around me was a stereotypical American wanting to air their views. I will now never know!

When finally landing in Costa Rica, the airport was like several others I've been through in tropical climbs; open to the humid atmosphere with large fans lazily turning in the ceiling and, being dark at this point, insects by the bucketful. Thankfully I wasn't held up here for too long. After playing luggage roulette with the rest of the travellers from the plane, I left the airport and was met by my driver. Sadly, due to marshmallow brains, his name has escaped me, but he was one of the friendliest guys whom I've ever met and, despite a mediocre grasp of the English language, proceeded to discuss such topics as world politics, ntive flora and fauna, the best radio channels in Costa Rica and more. As an introduction to Costa Rica, he was a welcome way to kick off really kick off my trip.

After roughly a two and half hour drive we turned off the main road towards Nosara, the village which I was staying near. What had been a smooth trip up until this point, suddenly turned quite bumpy, literally! This second road was essentially more hole than road, and what should probably have taken 15-20 minutes under normal circumstances ended up taking 45 minutes, simply due to the fact that it wasn't possible to drive in a straight line for more than a hundred metres. This wasn't going to stop my driver though, as he courageously braved the potentially suspension-breaking canyons and craters in the road to get me to my destination.

And finally, some 22 hours after I first left the front door in Bedford, I finally arrived at my destination; Surf Simply Surf Resort, Playa Guiones, Nosara, Costa Rica. And it was a beautiful sight! A bed was within reach, a shower awaited and I could finally relax. And this is exactly what I did!

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And at this point, I shall sign off. My laptop battery is about to die, and I'm feeling a nap calling me. Until my next chapter, I bid you all a happy mid-November!