Day 1 

I flew with M from LAX to San Jose, Costa Rica. We met Wayne at the airport and he drove us to the hotel in town. 

Our day started very early 4:30am to get to airport at 5:00ish. My wife dropped us off at Terminal 6. My Aunt Lulu works at Alaska and told us to meet her friend JeanC at check in. We did meet her and she was very kind. Security was light early in the morning. 

Terminal 6 is fully remodeled and pretty nice. We sat down for a leisurely breakfast at Wolfgang Puck the Kitchen and had a latte while we waited for boarding. We took a direct flight from LA on Alaska Airlines. 

The 737 was fully loaded, mostly tourists headed to Costa  Rica. The taxi lane for take off was packed. We sat in line for 30 mins, just waiting to take off. During the 5hr 3min flight, I flipped through Costa Rica Reader, Wildlife of Costa Rica, Spanish for Costa Rica, and did a bunch of Sudokus. I slept a tiny bit and ate lots of snacks and another breakfast. M slept and read books too. When we arrived above San Jose Costa Rica, there were thunderstorms so the plane circled for about a half hour and then dipped in to land. Immigration and customs was a long line but it moved pretty fast. We metanother  family from SoPas in line. M recognized one kid from SPHS. 

When we walked out of the terminal, it was lightning and thunder and pouring heavy rain! Discover Corps guide Wayne met us with a sign and had the van pick us up. We rode over to the hotel nearby. Wali the driver and Wayne gave us some local facts about Costa Rica. Seven provinces. Active volcanos. San Jose is the national capital. Rainy and dry season. We’re in the rainy season now obviously. 

At the hotel, we met a couple more family here on different trips. We had dinner with another teenager and her grandma from South Carolina. Wayne was an hour late for dinner by accident. The food was okay at the hotel restaurant. Seafood spring roll. Mushroom chicken. Lemon pie. Coffee. Wayne says there’s one more set of people arriving at midnight. We’re driving down to the Uvita beach where our home base for the week. Discover Corps is a volunteer/ eco/ education / vacation. There’s training times. There’s work times. There visit the national park times. Wayne told his story. His dad was a coffee farmer. His family was a wildlife poacher. He went to the US for a bit and then returned and understood that he needed to protect the environment and animals. Discover Corps might not change everything overnight. But the education of the little kids will teach a generation of respect and culture. 

I’m trying to squeeze in some training, but today was a wash out, literally. The thunderstorms kept me from running this afternoon.