Journey to Costa Rica

I was headed solo to beautiful Playa Hermosa in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica for the beach wedding of Dan & Jen.  It was no easy trek to get there, 16 hours, 3 airports, 3 planes and 3 taxis but I finally reached my destination, Pranamar Villas.  I was surprised to find out that my third plane aboard “Nature Air” was not a simple transfer from the San Jose, Costa Rica airport, but at another smaller airport about 30km away.  Racing against the clock I snagged a taxi only to find an accident on the route, which had me nail-biting in the back seat of the cab.  Luckily I made it just in time, but to my surprise the plane was SOOO small.  I guess I wasn’t prepared for this tiny little prop plane, but the alternative would be a 4-5 hour taxi to my final destination.  I was permitted 27 lbs of luggage, and my gear weighed in at 77 lbs!!  Long story short, the gear made the flight, and I had the ride of my life!  I sat directly behind the pilots and watched as they casually shared vanilla wafer cookies from a ziploc baggie.  The ride was fairly turbulent with a few shrieks and whimpers from the other eight passengers (not me of course!) , but the views were spectacular and worth every minute of the queasiness.  We landed on a tiny strip amongst the jungle where the airport consisted of a covered shed and a coke machine.  After paying my $2.25 airport maintenance fee I caught my last taxi and about an hour later I was finally relaxing to the sound of the ocean waves outside of my villa.

I thought I would share my little travel adventure, as destination weddings come with their own quirks and stressful moments.  Keep watching the blog for highlights from Dan & Jen’s beach wedding coming soon…

Melanie