Charlottesville to San Jose, Costa Rica - May 17

I spent much of my day (6+ hours) hanging out at the Charlottesville and Atlanta airports.  All I can say is God bless free wi-fi!   I left my house for the airport around 9:30 after a morning of frenzied last-minute cleaning.  I even cleaned and wiped down the fridge.  I think I need an intervention!  But it will be very nice to come home to a clean house next month.

The check-in, 2-hour wait, and subsequent flight to Atlanta were all uneventful although I did run into a librarian from UVa at the airport who will be sailing on the Spring ’13 Semester at Sea voyage.  She was headed out to a conference in Seattle so we had a nice chat in the café while waiting for our flights.  Don’t you just love serendipity?  

The lay-over in Atlanta was waaay too long – four hours.  I spent some of it in a restaurant (location of the free wi-fi) and got caught up on e-mails and web surfing.  During my time in there, a husband and wife came in and sat at the bar and struck up a (loud) conversation with the staff.  Turns out they were professional ballroom dancers.  They were soon persuaded to give a demonstration – although it didn’t take much persuasion – and got up and did the cha cha, or maybe it was the rumba.  Difficult to tell with my almost total lack of dancing knowledge.  Maybe I should be watching more Dancing with the Stars…or not.  To my untutored eye, they looked quite good.  They encouraged one of the wait staff to give it a try and soon had her cha-cha-rumba-ing.  Very entertaining.  She got more applause for that than they did.  That was the brief, shining moment of non-boredom while in Atlanta.  Kind of pathetic, actually.  Aren’t you glad I shared?

The flight FINALLY left the gate at 7:00 and 3 1/2 hours later we landed in Costa Rica. The immigration line was blessedly short but it took forever for the luggage to make an appearance.  When I finally emerged from the building I was bombarded by men wanting to provide me with transportation.  Zut Alors!  After a long day of traveling, it was a little overwhelming to be approached by so many people.  One particularly assertive man asked which hotel I was staying at and immediately took me over to the hotel rep waiting for me.  What a relief!  

A short bus ride later and I was at the hotel and barging in on Anne who was already asleep.  Oops!  Fortunately, she was very understanding and, after a brief conversation, we were both ready to turn out the lights and get some sleep after a long day of travel.  But -- we are in Costa Rica and ready to have some fun.