Tag Archives: Travel

Day 1 – Getting There

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Sunday 19 February 2023 – We were fortunate to have a civilised departure time – 1325. So the morning was reasonably leisurely, the taxi was on time and the journey uneventful.

We did, of course, pass one of my favourite travel road signs, which I find very reassuring

but I promise not to make any more Orville jokes about it.

Our previous experience traveling Air Canada enabled us to find the right check-in desk, which is in a dark corner at the extreme end of Heathrow’s Terminal 2. It’s school half term, which I inferred from the very high density of school kids clustered together by the Turkish Air check-ins.  I mean the physical density, of course. I expect some of them were quite intelligent.

Once checked in, we collected some US dollars at the Travelex desk, as we are assured that (a) these are widely accepted across Costa Rica and (b) trying to buy Costa Rican currency outside Costa Rica is a fool’s errand.  The currency is the colon, which I hadn’t known before but which is an easily-digestible fact.  Our travel pack recommends getting some local currency via ATM once we’ve arrived and I have acquired a Starling Debit Card to do this, as there are no commission charges for using it.  So once we have got some local money, I suppose our currency holding will be half dollar and semi colon..

Thank you.  Thank you for listening to my joke.

Next stage was security, which gave us our usual opportunity to shake our heads in disbelief about people who look perfectly intelligent but haven’t twigged about taking liquids in hand luggage.  The sooner they can that requirement, the better.  I also sneaked a photo that captured someone else’s packing strategy, which nicely combined comfort for travelling with luxury for the destination.

Check the coat. Check the shoes.

And then, with some time to spare, we found our way to the Air Canada Maple Lounge for some welcome refreshment.

Well, it’s got to be done, hasn’t it?  We had 13 hours in various jetliners in prospect, so one must fortify oneself, eh?

The first leg (on a Boeing 777) went entirely unremarkably, with very cordial service from the Air Canada staff, and a perfectly decent view from the loo.

On arrival into Montréal, we headed for the Correspondance, and were efficiently shepherded along towards our next gate, which just happened to be beside the Air Canada lounge, so we had a comfortable wait for our next flight. There was a gap of about an hour and a half between flights, which seems like a reasonable window of opportunity for the baggage handlers to get our bags from one aeroplane to the next one.

The second and final leg, on a Boeing 787 this time, was just as agreeable as the first.  Our arrival into Costa Rica airport was slightly unusual. After taxiing, the plane came to a halt and the captain told us that we would have to be patient as the plane would be towed into position.  This took a little while, but then the seatbelt sign was turned off and we could prepare to disembark.  This involved quite a wait as well.  I could see out of the small window in the plane’s door, and all I could see was what looked like the handrail of a staircase wobbling about rather a lot, so it was clear we weren’t on a jetway and I wondered if the driver of the stairs was having a bad day or something. While we waited, the steward explained that since there was only one gate and two jets had just arrived, only the first one could get anywhere near the terminal; so we were waiting for buses.  The reason, he told us, that we were towed into place is because there were a lot of private jets at the airport and there was concern that the backwash from the engines of a 787 might damage them as it went by into its parking spot.

Said parking spot appeared to be a long way away from the terminal, based on the length of the bus journey.  However, we eventually got there and there was the usual concerted rush for the passport queues. There were broadly two queue options, “Nacionales” or “Visitantes”. Obediently, we headed off down the latter and were immediately pointed into the area for the Nacionales, where several desks had opened up.  Although our queue was short, our wait was interminable as the operative seemed to sit immobile while studying passports with a puzzled and slightly mournful look on his face.  When we eventually presented ourselves for processing, he did a bit more of this studying of our passports whilst mumbling gently to himself, seemingly to be certain that he’d made no mistakes as he went through his procedures. The practical upshot, however, was that he let us through at just about the time the bags from our flight started arriving on the carousel.  Hearteningly, both our suitcases were among them, so we picked them up and went out (via bag scanners to which no-one was paying any attention) into the arrivals hall, where a chap called Alex was waiting to take us to our hotel, the Xandari.

The ride to was instructive in two major ways: Alex’s English was only a little better than my (virtually non-existent) Spanish, but Jane has been learning Spanish these past few weeks and so it gave her a chance to practise in a real-life situation; and I got a chance to get an impression of the roads, as I would be driving us around for the coming weeks. I think that my reaction times will be sorely tested as we move around the country, as potholes and speed bumps seem to appear at random and in fair profusion. Progress will, I think, be measured rather than rapid; but we’re on holiday travelling, so time will not be of the essence.

Some 30 minutes’ bumping along got us to the Xandari Resort and Spa, where Felipe was waiting to check us in, provide milk for tea and show us to our room, which is very large (pictures forthcoming when daylight illuminates it rather better than its lightbulbs, for it is worth a photo or two) and which offered a view over the twinkling lights of San José.

It being past midnight by this stage, and thus approaching 23 hours since we rose this morning, there was nothing more to be done than bend the coffee machine to our will to make a slightly coffee-flavoured cup of tea before turning out the lights and hoping for a decent night’s rest before the rigours of the morrow.

Which I will address in the next thrilling installment. Which I hope you will come back to read in due course.  For now, buenas noches.

Do you know the way to San José?

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Friday 17 February 2023 – In our case, the way to the particular San José which is the capital of Costa Rica is via Montréal, Canada, and we have two sleeps to go until we entrust ourselves to the tender mercies of Air Canada. So – of course – we are in a froth of not-quite panic in preparation for our departure.

Costa Rica, as a holiday travel destination is a bit of a dark horse for us.  We understand Europe, North America, the antipodes (largely) and we understand that there are large tracts of the world which are Off The List right now (e.g, tragically, Hong Kong).  But we’ve never been to central America before.  Now, “so what?” you might say (and I think I heard you). Surely, you might think, Central America is just like South America except for the latitude; and we’ve been to South America before. But I think we’re in for a completely different experience with its associated steep learning curve.

Costa Rica, for example, has extraordinary biodiversity.  It is home to more than 500,000 species, which represents nearly 5% of the total species estimated worldwide, making Costa Rica one of the 20 countries with the highest biodiversity in the world. (Of these 500,000 species, a little more than 300,000 are insects, which is likely to make the nights a bit itchy.) So the wildlife is going to be a huge part of the experience. I bet I end up with hundreds, possibly thousands, of photos of landscape where a really interesting animal was to be seen just milliseconds before.

Sustainability is also a very important topic for Costa Rica. With a goal to be the first carbon neutral country in the world by 2021, sustainable practices are (we are told) observed in every region of the country, across all industries, adopted by all citizens and embraced by visitors (that means us – so we’ll find out what it means to be sustainable tourists – and also whether it made its 2021 goal). From local Costa Rican cuisine to artisan crafts to traditional customs and celebrations, sustainability is embedded deeply in the culture and traditions of Costa Rica. I hope this doesn’t affect too markedly the supply of comfortable beds with handy en-suite facilities (necessary at my age), food that my digestion can handle, and gin.

The practical upshot of all this strangeness is that packing for the trip is not just a matter of bunging some T-shirts and shorts into the suitcase.  OK, we’re away for a month, but even our two months in the strange and bear-infested wilds of Canada didn’t merit a tourist information/instruction booklet that is the better part of 2 cm thick!

We have a lot to learn, a lot to see and a lot of different places to visit. This is our trajectory:

There will be lots of wildlife. There will be lots of scenery. Accordingly, there will be lots of photography, so there’s an enormous amount for me to look forward to along with the obvious thrill of getting to know about another culture. As usual, I’m struggling to work out what photo gear will best serve me and thence how to fit all the bits of it with Lithium batteries into cabin baggage. I’m hoping that this list will serve:

  • The Big Camera (Nikon Z6, with 24-200mm lens attached)
  • A 100-400mm zoom lens for the wildlife
  • An Olympus Tough camera for the snorkeling
  • A drone, for aerial photos and video
  • A miniature video camera (DJI OM Pocket 2)
  • A gimbal for my mobile phone – if I can fit it in
  • A laptop for processing the photos and writing the blog
  • A tablet, for reading the papers in my abundant leisure time (hollow laugh)
  • A portable Wi-Fi hotspot so I can post smug photos at any time of the day

As well as this, I need to find room for a power bank, several charging cables and power adapters and a backup disk for the photos.  I suspect the backpack will weight over 15kg for this trip, just as it did for Canada, and I will have to re-learn the art of nonchalantly swinging it around as if it weighs a great deal less.

The spare bedroom looks like an explosion in a clothing factory whilst we work out what we can get of what we need into two suitcases. “I’m going in now; I may be some time.”

I hope we will be able to capture what is sure to be a unique and absorbing experience for the next month, and I will do my best to record it on these pages.  Please join us on the journey….

Windy Peg

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Sunday 25 September 2022 – We might have done with Montréal, but Montréal (and fate) had not done with us. As I mentioned in my last entry, the itinerary we’re following has evolved over the course of three years and, as a result, has produced some wrinkles. The order of cities was one; the timing of this morning was another. We had grown rather alarmed at the prospect of an 0530 pickup at the hotel – particularly when we saw that the flight that this was to take us to was not at 0800 as originally specified, but 0855. So we had a bit of a back-and-forth with Discover Holidays, who are in charge of local details, and they agreed that an 0630 pickup was OK. 0630 is not good, but it’s a whole lot better than 0530.

0530, however, was, of course, the time we had to set the alarm for. Having done so, and heaved ourselves up to face the rigours of the day, a text arrived at 0553 from those nice people at Air Canada, telling us that our flight was delayed until 1045, “due to a technical problem with the aircraft”, and would be departing from Gate A9.

Hah.

It was too late to change the timing of the pickup, so we got ourselves ready and checked out before 0630. Unsurprisingly, we were alone in the hotel lobby, apart from the receptionist and a chap in a cap. Equally unsurprisingly, it turned out that he was our driver, André (an Italian-Canadian ex-truck driver with a New York accent), and he took us out to the car.

Perhaps a bit OTT for two people and two suitcases to go to the airport, but, hey,

it perks the day up a bit. So did the sunrise.

Our hopes that perhaps fate was making up for the mix-up with the early start were at first slightly lowered when the Air Canada machinery wouldn’t take our checked-in bags and then dashed when we headed for security.

You’ll remember (of course) that we were heading for an A gate, and you can just make an A out in the distance. When we got near it, though,

we saw that there was a huddled mass of humanity between us and it. This was Montréal, we thought, having the last laugh. Actually, it was only about a 35-minute queue and then we were free! Noticeboards were still talking about our flight leaving at 0855 from gate A1, but we smiled, knowing that Air Canada had given us the skinny of the new gate and time. So we sat at Gate A9, not worrying at all about our almost total isolation because We Knew The Score.

At about 40 minutes before the scheduled departure, though, we began to worry that We Didn’t After All Know The Score, so we hurried off to Gate A1, where AC371 (yes, our flight) was still showing as departing. A lady at an adjacent Air Canada desk saw us and the uncertainty we were radiating and shouted out that the flight was no longer going from Gate 1, but was just about to board at Gate 15. So nice of Air Canada to contribute to our exercise regime.

The rest of the journey was fine, involving as it did a decent but not excessive amount of gin and Pringles. It was a little bumpy towards the landing

due to a not insignificant wind. We arrived in Winnipeg (for that was the correct destination) at around midday; by the time we arrived at the carousel our bags had just appeared and we had just a short (but slightly puzzling) walk to our airport hotel, the sumptuously named Lakeview Signature by Wyndham (which is not sumptuous at all, and has a view only of the airfield, but otherwise appears to be perfectly workmanlike). Our room was ready, and the organisers of this next segment of our holiday were obviously on the ball, as there was a board in the hotel lobby telling us where we had to be and when for the introductions and briefing.

So. Why are we in Winnipeg, a westward step in our otherwise eastward progress, significant enough to warrant a change in time zone?? You’ll find out if you keep reading these pages.

In the meantime, we had some hours to kill, and Jane had spotted that Winnipeg airport is home to the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada. This seemed to be only a couple of minutes’ walk away, but the hotel reception virtually insisted that we take the hotel shuttle bus. I think this was to make the driver feel part of the team, because it was a ridiculously short drive. We were greeted by a charming lady called Hedie and welcomed to the museum.

Which was not huge, but really interesting.

Assembled here is a collection of those things that are significant in Canada’s aviation history, particularly in the development of the bush plane. For example, the first purpose-built example, the Fairchild AC71

had great capabilities for all those things that bush planes needed to do (e.g. land on and take off from water). It suffered a little from the fact that the pilot’s ability to see forwards was very limited because the cockpit was set so far back, so it never entered commercial production.

The museum also gave me a chance to show you another one of them Fokkers, in this case a Super Universal.

There are many curiosities on display: an example of a sesquiplane, something I’d never heard of before – a plane with one and a half wings;

a nuclear bomb, which I’m glad the organisers rendered inert before displaying;

a replica of the Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar, a top secret US Air Force funded attempt to create a supersonic fighter capable of vertical take off and landing (it was underpowered, unstable and cancelled, having never got more than a metre into the air);

the Froebe Helicopter, designed in 1937, built from salvaged truck parts and featuring design points that are still in use on today’s helicopters,

but underpowered and hence also not able to rise higher than one metre from the ground; the Vedette, the first attempt at a boat that could fly;

and – my favourite – the Canadair CL-84 Dynavert.

As soon as I saw this beast I thought “Bell Boeing Osprey” (for those of you not familiar with it, here’s a picture of one I took at Farnborough Air Show some years ago)

FIA 2012 - Bell Boeing Osprey

and, indeed, the Dynavert was a predecessor – well ahead of its time, having first flown in 1965, a quarter of a century before the Osprey (though it never found a buyer so was cancelled in 1974).

I particularly like the little helicopter rotors on the tail.

There were many other, more serious, exhibits as well, but I found these the most engaging and we spent a happy hour at the museum in one of those lovely bits of serendipity that contribute so much to life’s pleasure.

Rather than attempt to call up the hotel’s shuttle bus for a return journey, we dared the walk back unaided – the hotel is just under the control tower, so it wasn’t exactly a major expedition. So we stepped out – into an astonishing wind – and fought our way home against it. Apparently it’s been windy here all month.

And this brings you bang up to date. The sunset here is as interesting as the sunrise this morning back in Montreal

and we have about 90 minutes to wait until we get our briefing on the next few days. All we know is that we have to be up, packed, checked out and breakfasted in time to leave the hotel at 0700 tomorrow. So there’s no chance I will report back today about what we learned at the briefing and what we’re up to over the coming days – you’ll have to come back tomorrow to find out more. See you then!