Nurse on the Run

I’m back from surf camp!  I left last Saturday and got back on Saturday…two days were spent traveling since Malpais is really hard to get to, but the other five were spent in Costa Rican paradise!  I’m going to break my adventure up into a few different recaps since it was a jam-packed week!  I’ll post them throughout the week so you’ll have something to look forward to.

a little background

Why did I decide to go to surf camp?  Well…why not??  Growing up in Chicago, no one really surfed, or at least no one ever talked about it.  It was always something that looked cool on TV, but clearly people don’t surf in Lake Michigan.  Surfing was definitely something that I would say I would try if anyone asked (not that they ever did…I lived in Chicago!), but nothing I ever really planned to do.  My (half) marathon running buddy Paul went to surf camp within the past year, which planted a bit of a bug in my ear.  At the wedding I went to in January, I learned that one of the other bridesmaids surfs in New Hampshire, which I thought was totally awesome!  Got me thinking a little bit more.

When it finally became time to plan my vacation, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do!  Since this was the first vacation I was doing solely on my own, I kinda wanted something with some structure and something where I could meet other people since I didn’t want to be traveling totally by myself.  The idea of learning to surf kept getting back into my head, so I researched various surf camps and picked Pura Vida Adventures in Malpais, Costa Rica.  Go big or go home, right?  So worth it.  Here we go!

traveling – planes, trains ferries, and automobiles taxis

For the record, traveling to Costa Rica is NUTSO.  I worked on Friday night, getting off work around 11:30pm, and had a 6am flight the next morning.  Since it was an international flight, they recommended being at the airport two hours before the flight, so I left for the airport around three in the morning.  No sleep for me!  I was a wee bit excited so I had no trouble staying up.    My flight from Philadelphia left on time, and I had about an hour layover in Miami.  No worries…grabbed some coffee and waited at my gate.  Welllll the plane was I supposed to be on to San Jose had “mechanical difficulties,” so they delayed our flight.  And then delayed it some more.  Then some more.  Then got another plane.  Then changed our gate.  Needless to say, we left three hours later.

This would all be fine and dandy, but I had another flight in Costa Rica to catch!  I knew it was going to be close, so my parents were calling the airline to let them know that I’d barely make it and to see if they could hold they plane for me.  Since the flights can only carry about twelve people, they will sometimes do that…and they said they would!  I actually thought I had a chance to make it when we starting taxiing to the runway.  However, we had to turn around and go back since the closure on the luggage door wasn’t closed all the way.  Away went all my hopes of making my flight!

Fast forward to Costa Rica…I made it!!  I pushed my way off the plane (I was “that girl”), just to find myself waiting for a bus to take us to customs.  Waited in customs, ran and grabbed my bag, and ran to find the next plane.  I looked lost, and some man grabbed me and ran with me towards the other airline.  My flight was at 2pm, and the man was pretty convinced I wasn’t getting on my flight, but I could see my plane sitting on the runway, I was hopeful.  When I got to the desk…no dice.  Not allowed on the plane.  Another woman was waiting at the desk, and she had gotten off my flight from Miami and wanted to get on my same flight in Costa Rica.  They wouldn’t let either of us on the plane even though we could see it sitting on the runway!  Neither of us were sure what to do, and after a minute or two, we both realized that we were going to Pura Vida, which changed everything.

The taxi drivers around kept telling they could take us to a ferry, but that seemed a bit shady to do on our own, but with the two of us it seemed like a good idea.  The next flight out was in the morning, and the taxis/ferry would get us there that same night.  Away we went!  An hour and a half taxi ride, an hour waiting for the ferry, an hour on the ferry, and another hour taxi ride later, we made it to Malpais!  Glorious…

Just got on the ferry!

Looking awesome with no sleep and lots of travel stress…

The roads in Costa Rica and specifically Malpais leave A LOT to be desired.  Some of them are “paved,” but that doesn’t really mean much!  Most are muddy (especially in the rainy season!) with lots of ruts around…every morning we had to patch the road to the beach with rocks and palm branches so the van could get through!  Many people just drive around in ATVs, which is probably the smartest way to travel.  I can’t even begin to explain how they drive in Costa Rica, but they’re all crazy.

Example of a REALLY GOOD road in Costa Rica.

My hotel was right on the beach, and it was a cute area with little walkways everywhere…really dark at night, but pretty during the day!

Pretty hotel walkways.

We pretty much got around town by walking or taking a taxi.  Our group of seven would pile in and away we went!  These types of taxis are pretty standard…I think because they need to be able to fit surfboards since the only reason people really go to Malpais is to surf!

After one of our adventures…taxi time!

The end of the week was much like the beginning of the week…it POURED all night before I was supposed to leave and showed no sign of letting up that morning.  The regional flights were being canceled so people needed to leave early to taxi-ferry-taxi to San Jose.  The last thing I wanted was to get stuck in San Jose overnight because I missed my flight, so five of us headed to San Jose the same way I came.  I’m a pro at this point!  Plus, it gave me another chance to experience the crazy taxi drivers of Costa Rica.  I’m shocked we didn’t see any accidents!

My flight to Miami got off without a hitch, and we landed around 11:30pm.  My travel  buddy missed her 2:45 flight to Miami (by minutes…literally), so she was on my flight.  We had overnight layovers, and I had already planned to just sleep in the airport since Miami doesn’t have a hotel in the airport and I’m too cheap to pay $120 to sleep for four hours.  For the record, sleeping in the airport is THE WORST IDEA EVER.  I didn’t get a wink of sleep, and I really wish I had a picture of me curled up on the floor cuddling with my bags.

Miami Airport at 3am

We ended up playing cards at 3am because neither of us could sleep, and I said bye to my travel buddy on her 6:15am flight and waited a little more for my 8:15am flight to Philly.  I curled up in my seat and fell fast asleep on the airplane…one of the perks of being little is that economy can be comfortable!  Landing in Philly around 11:30am, drove home, and got back around 1pm.  I spent 26 hours traveling to get to Philly…can’t say I’m happy to be back, but it was a great week!

That was the traveling portion of my travels!  I had to start with the boring stuff otherwise it would seem even more dull after I talk about surfing!  Stay tuned.