Day 13

We had out last sunset in Manuel Antonio at Jefe's. iQue triste!

Oh boy. Where do I even begin about today? We sadly said hasta luegs to Kaiti this morning as she hopped on a bus to head to San Jose to then fly back to the US of A. It wasn't long after her departure that we had to say goodbye to the rest of our friends at Hotel Plinio - Ceasar, Carmen & Cristina were our mini family who took care of us for almost our entire stay in CR so far.

Our taxi miraculously arrived on time (not on 15-to-20-minutes late tico time). There wasn't enough room for all of our luggage and our 5 bodies in the car, so the taxista just threw Kim and my bag on top on the SUV. We stood their waiting for the dude to strap the luggage down, but he then quickly shoved us into the car. I asked Ceasar if he was going to strap them down and they both laughed at me. So we drove the 10 minutes to the airport, which by the way you would never guess it was an airport driving by. There was no security - just barbed wire looped around a waist-high fence and a $2 entrance fee into the airport.

The "terminal" consisted of plastic patio furniture, 2 reservation desks and a microwave which they advertised as "fast food available". We approached one of the reservation desks and proceeded to check in. The process consisted of us handing over our passport, weighing our checked bags, weighing our carry ons, then weighing OURSELVES. What? Yes, we had to be weighed along with our baggage to make sure that the plane could handle it. As we're checking in, the ticket-agent-lady that was helping us yells "ah! my plane is going to leave without me!" and runs out and jumps on a plane. Another ticket agent pops up to hand-write our boarding passes.

An hour passes and it's 11:23, our flight is supposed to leave at 11:35 where's the plane? Literally, 5 minutes before we were supposed to take off, it lands. The pilots get off, walks into the terminal and says let's go and welcome aboard. The plane is smaller than a "special" short-school-bus (http://www.natureair.com/natureair-fleet-information.aspx).

The seats were like sitting in a little tykes kitchen chars. There was no door to the cockpit. Oh boy. Our 18-passenger tin can takes off and we're all trying not to panic.

Kim filled our heads with things like "going over turbulence in the air is just like hitting a pot hole or speed bump in your car." My white knuckles gripped the seat in front of me as my right hand fanned me with the safety information card. It was a good 90* in the plane but I was both shivering and sweating. It was really cool to get a canopy tour of Costa Rica in a small plane, however, I am being completely serious when I say that this flight was the longest 30 minutes of my life. Susan yelled the "F" bomb as we dropped, shifted, and tossed about like in a bad undertow. Multiple times. We could feel every breeze that was in the air that morning.

It was so scary. We landed and just about kissed the ground when we got off. Our pilots unloaded the plane as we tried to stop shaking. Did I mention we have to fly 3 more times while we're here on the same kind of plane? We're not looking forward to it. Upon trying to exit the airport, we are herded into a line where we had to pay an exit fee. What gives? I'm fully certain that if there is something that the Costa Ricans can charge for, they do it. I snottily asked the desk man in my most distasteful Spanish accent, why there was a tax to leave the airport when we already paid for a flight and other taxes included in the fare. He said that the airport is private, as are most in CR, and that we have to pay. ANNOYED!! We hop in a cab and arrive at our hostel to find that my hostels.com booking confirmation number and confirmed reservation was no good, despite having paid a deposit. We took this as a sign from Jesus Cristo himself to encourage us to find a uber-posh luxury hotel. Despite being "low/green season" everywhere seemed to be booked! Ugh. An hour of being on the phone and internet trying to find a new place, the lady at our original hotel moves some reservations arounds and gives us the "hostel" suite for the 5 of us which has 5 beds and 5 cots. We are planning on staying here 2 nights, then hitting up the Baldi Springs Hotel (http://www.arenal.net/hotel/baldi-hotel/index.html)for our last night here. In conclusion today was rough and we're all exhausted and ready for bed even thought it's only 5:10 here.