Good riddance, North America. Hello, Central America!
I landed in Costa Rica yesterday morning as part of the very long journey to Ecuador. I visited Ecuador last December but went directly from Las Vegas to Quito--and it nearly killed me Midnight flight out of Vegas, land in Fort Lauderdale around 7 a.m., then wait 8 hours for my connecting flight to Quito, arriving in Quito at about midnight. Never again. I'm way too old for that shit. So this time I decided to break it into two: I'm spending 3 days in Costa Rica before heading to Bogota, Colombia, then Quito, Ecuador, and then finally Cuenca, Ecuador. That in itself will take the entire day. Costa Rica is amazingly beautiful. Lusciously green everywhere with a city plopped in the middle and a giant volcano looking over us. Just magnificent. My Airbnb hosts for this leg are delightful! They even picked me up at the airport, for which I am eternally grateful, because no one wants to watch an old, fat gringo lady try to drag three massive suitcases onto a local bus. The weather...