80. Want To Go On A Trip With Us?

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Saturday 5/21- You may remember about 9 months ago the fun we had with our very first border run when we went to El Salvador. Long story short- we flew there, stayed the night, tried to leave the next morning, got trapped in an airport, spent an extra day in El Salvador due to a canceled flight, and finally got home a day later than expected (read all about it in Blog Posts 38 & 39). Well, we decided to try it again! People are having trouble with the Panama border again so we decided not to risk the land crossing and to fly somewhere instead. Once again, El Salvador was the least expensive country to fly to that you don’t need a COVID test for, so we are going back, hopefully this time really for only one night.

We got up this morning at the same time we always do (I’m usually awake before 4:30 and out of bed by 5, Ramie usually sleeps till around 6). We left the house at 7 to bring Breeze to the dog sitter. We decided to bring her to the doggy daycare again instead of asking Stuart & Gem to watch her. The place wasn’t very far away, but Breeze is always excited to go for a ride. Once we were on the road through the bamboo forest on the way to Paola’s house, I think Breeze figured out where we were going and got very excited. We have been telling her for the last few days that she got to go to a slumber party this weekend, but I don’t think she understood what that meant until now. She remembered from last time that she got to go play with all of the other doggies. Once we got to Paola’s house Breeze ran around a little bit and went into the fenced area without too much coaxing. As we left, she did run to the edge to watch us pull away, but I think she will really enjoy her time there. It’ll only be about a day and a half, but I’m sure she’ll be exhausted when we go pick her up.

We left Paola’s at about 7:20 and then we were on our long drive to the airport. Driving North we typically make pretty good time, so when we got to the little restaurant that we often stop at, we had plenty of time to get some breakfast. (After some of our prior experiences, it now seems like a good idea to stop and get some food before a flight, it might be 15 hours before we have another chance to eat.)

We got to the airport at about 11 for our flight that didn’t leave until 2, and when we checked in we were informed that there was a delay because of weather in NY, where the plane was coming from, and we wouldn’t be leaving until 3. (Of course, with our track record, why wouldn’t this happen!?) Well, this will be a LONG day of sitting in the airport!! At least we wouldn’t have to wear a mask all day- a couple of weeks ago they lifted the mask mandate, so at least we don’t have to wear a mask for the next 7 hours! Since it is a small airport- only about 20 gates, there wasn’t even a lot to walk around and look at things, so here I am writing this blog live at the airport! Writing a blog as it’s happening and not weeks later is pretty rare for me, lol! Honestly, I decided this morning to bring the computer with us (originally I wasn’t going to) specifically so I could catch up on writing blog posts! When we walked through the doors the security line looked super long and like it would take forever, but by 11:30 we had made it through security and to our gate. The flight leaving this gate prior to ours hadn’t even left yet, so we walked down to the other end of the airport, stopped at the little bar, and had a drink. We almost never do this (this is only the 2nd time we have ever bought expensive airport drinks on a trip together) but a treat is nice once in a while.

Once we boarded, our flight went very quickly. Our 3rd seat-mate was very chatty and talked our ears off for almost the entire flight. Just about the time he was done talking and we took out our devices to read/watch movies/whatever we were planning to do during the flight, the captain announced that we were getting ready for our descent. I know it’s a short flight (only an hour) but that seemed to go by so quickly!

We landed in El Salvador, got through immigration and customs very quickly, got outside to meet our shuttle driver and noticed that in the last 9 months they had really made some major upgrades to the airport. I guess they work quickly here! This shuttle driver picked us up right outside of the airport so we didn’t have to walk/drive through the airport tailgate party this time.

Sorry for the poor quality I had to capture this while driving

Many of the stands along the side of the road. Drivers just stop in the lane to buy things

We made it to the hotel, checked in, dropped our backpacks, and headed down to the pool area. It was too late in the day for us to want to go swimming, but it was time for a beverage before dinner.

Relaxing

Delicious Nachos for dinner!

We hung out here until dark, eating dinner and watching a group of guys, probably on a “guys weekend” get hammered. Once we were done eating and just relaxing by the pool we decided to head up and go to bed. We aren’t that much farther north than we are in Costa Rica, but we can tell that it does stay light out later here than it does in Uvita.

Sunday morning 5/22- All went according to plan! We got up, ate breakfast, caught our shuttle to the airport, noticed some more major upgrades (you can’t get locked in your terminal any more, thank God!), our flight left on time, we made it to CR on time, there was absolutely no line to go through immigration in Costa Rica (which has never happened before- we’ve waited in that line for over 2 hours if there were numerous flights all landing at approximately the same time) and it was one of our smoothest flight days yet. With our track record, I even joked with Ramie asking him if this was the first time ever we didn’t have any major flight issues on a trip. He thinks that this may have been the 2nd time! 

No lines at Immgration!

We made a couple of shopping stops on the drive back down to Uvita to stores that we wanted to check out, got back to Uvita to pick up Breeze by about 2:30, and had the rest of Sunday afternoon to ourselves. Even though we were only gone for a day, Breeze was super excited to see us, but once we got home she took to her spot and went to sleep. I guess her slumber party wore her out.

Pura Vida, another border run in the books. Only approximately a dozen left to go before we don’t have to do them anymore.