Day 1

After a long day of travel, we’ve arrived in Costa Rica! Our flight from Chicago to Toronto was only 1.5 hours, but we had a 6 hour layover at Toronto Pearson Int’l Airport.

Here we are before our 8:00am flight to Toronto.

In Toronto, we had plenty of time for lunch, exploring the airport, and getting to know each other. Then, we boarded our flight south to San José, Costa Rica. It’s been a fun learning experience so far for some of our travelers - several have filled out their first immigration forms and used foreign currency for the first time. 

We cleared customs in San José, then met our guide, Christián, and our van driver, Pablo. They’ll be accompanying us during our entire week. Pablo drove us in our tour van to the town of Alajuela, which is where our first hotel is. During the 15 minute drive, Christián gave us a brief introduction to Costa Rican culture, and what to expect this week. 

When we arrived at our hotel, we were given complimentary glasses of fresh guava juice and sandwiches, which made for a special welcome. In the hotel lobby, we discussed the schedule for tomorrow (breakfast at the hotel restaurant @ 7:00am, meeting in the lobby to board our tour van for San José @ 8:30am)

We haven’t had a chance to explore our hotel since we arrived at 9:30pm, well after the sun had set. But we have our own building of rooms together.

Lots of traveling today, but our touring begins tomorrow. After breakfast, we’ll drive to San José to visit some markets, a museum of gold, and to experience the typical city life of the ticos.

¡Pura vida!