Dry as a bone... in a lake

i have finally arrived in Costa Rica, a mere 20 hours later than planned! phew - an epic struggle.... the plan was fly to JFK, then change planes and fly to Costa Rica. there was 1 hour 45 mins between flights. but alas, a delay on my first flight scuppered the plans thereafter. i missed the second plane by 10 minutes, and there were no other planes till the next morning, so i was put on a plane to miami... that was also delayed because a previous passenger had puked on MY seat and the cleaners took 2 hours to clean it, while everyone else sat on the plane and i stood up in the aisle. i felt famous after that and had the feeling that people followed ME to baggage reclaims, customs etc as i am wearing my England hat so probably quite memorable even if they hadn't spent 2 hours looking at me in the aisle of the plane!

so i got to miami at 11pm local time (4am for me) and the airport was closing down, and although i'd been told in JFK that i could get a free hotel voucher, every official i went to in miami said they were clocking off for the night and i had to go and speak to someone else! anyway i finally got the voucher and got the shuttle bus to the hotel (lap of luxury, king size bed, giant plasma tv, ... probably a really bad idea just before i am about to go and live in a wooden hut in the jungle!) so i went to bed about midnight and slept till about 6.30 am, when i had the biggest (free) breakfast ever of pancakes, waffles, fruit, spicy potatoes, and scrambled eggs (not all on the same plate!) then back to the airport to get the plane to Costa Rica. That plane was ALSO delayed by about 2 and a half hours, because someone had checked a bag onto the plane, and then not got onto the plane. jeesus... the other passengers and i were like "who cares? let's go without them!" but the cabin crew said you know things like that could be a problem as we don't know what is in their bag, or why they've chosen to put a bag on a plane but not to get on the plane, but let's not go into details or think about the worst... i think he was hinting at bombs or something, which doesn't really fill me with confidence about the level of airport security!

i've now made it to costa rica though, and GVI have been in touch and said they'll pick me up tomorrow instead of today (phew!) then the adventure really begins.

anyhow that's it for now. the weather in JFK (New York) was 25'C, hot and sunny; the weather in miami was 29'C hot (even at midnight); the weather here in costa rica is about 18'C, grey skies, pissing it down with rain. the taxi driver said it's like this every day! ah well, if you will come to the rainforest you can't very well complain about the rain (but i still might!) It has literally been chucking it down with rain for the past 5 hours in Costa Rica, and when i went to the supermarket, i was wearing a cagoul and using an umbrella. Upper body: dry. Legs: piss wet through. however, i imagine that that is about to become normality, so it may not even be worthy of comment in the future. Hey, just assume i'm soaked to the skin, unless otherwise stated! :P