Traveling in Paradise

A Story of 14 Students Studying in Costa Rica

Days 1-3 (Travel)

Editor’s Note: These posts will all be much longer and much more in depth than the next pages. I have far too much free time on my hands right now. Also I will post pictures as soon as I figure out how to…

Day 1: Travel to Miami

Today was one of the more exciting days of traveling I’ve had in a long time. The plan for the FSP (Foreign Study Program) group was to meet at Miami International Airport and there catch a flight together to San Jose, Costa Rica. Little did we know that apparently someone else had other plans. Upon arriving in Miami, I subsequently learned that all flights to Costa Rica had been cancelled due to volcanic activity. Fantastic. What do we do now? The obvious answer would be to grab our bags and check into a hotel until the earth stopped belching hot ash all over our landing site. Sounds easy right?

Nope.

Apparently there is no standardized way to deal with checked bags on a connecting flight that had been cancelled. Somehow, I ended up with only my SCUBA gear making it to the baggage claim – great, now I can walk around Miami in 4 mm of neoprene. Two others on the trip had their bags disappear into thin air as well. Now all we can do is hope that the wonderfully competent airline staff manage to find them in whatever circle of hell bags from cancelled flights get tossed into.

Thanks to some diligent work by the TA’s and professors we managed to score a night in the wonderful “Sleep Inn” in Miami. The best part? They have a pool! Looks like my SCUBA gear will come in handy after all. I mean who needs a change of clothes anyways? As I write this we are planning a trip to the gourmet, delicious, decadent, all right, fine, the sketchy IHOP down the street. I guess this is as good as Costa Rica right?…..right???

 

Day 2: Adventures in Miami

Thanks to that volcano, our flights to Costa Rica were switched to Friday (Day 3 of the trip). Turns out we needed to find something to do in Miami for the day to keep ourselves occupied. So what does the Biology FSP decide to do? No guesses? We went to the zoo. Yup, the Miami Zoo. The perfect place to take 15 ecology students about to go study in Costa Rica for three months. And you know, it really was a good time. If you’re ever in Miami, you should probably check out the zoo.

Apparently fate hadn’t turned against us (see, volcanic eruption, missing bags, etc.) and actually decided to throw us a bone this time. Our professor in Costa Rica received an email out of the blue containing recordings from 1992 of species now extinct in the research station we plan to visit (La Selva). He decided to forward us this email (15 minutes before leaving for the zoo) as something interesting to read through. Attached to this was the name of biologist currently working on amphibian decline in La Selva, currently based out of the Miami Zoo. Coincidence?

I think not.

Our TA, Braden, decided it was worth a shot to send an email out of the blue to this biologist and see if he could host us for the day. This is at noon, mind you. Five minutes later, Dr. Steven Whitfield replied with a warm welcome and said he would be glad to talk to the group about conservation efforts at both the Miami Zoo and zoos around the world. It was awesome! We chatted for around an hour and he talked to us about the new direction zoos are taking in today’s day and age, with a much larger focus on using their resources to aid in conservation efforts for endangered and threatened species worldwide. Apparently accredited zoos in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums have in depth records of all their animals and will use this shared knowledge to bring in species from many different parts of the country and breed the most genetically diverse and fit offspring to ensure healthy populations. He reinforced the importance of education and general awareness of the danger that enormous amounts of species worldwide face in terms of extinction due to habitat loss and other forms of anthropogenic change. He told us of a breeding program for the endangered Puerto Rican crested toad that keeps the wild population from total collapse simply due to the loss of suitable habitat for the amphibians.

It was really promising to hear that many zoos are changing their focus to include serious conservation efforts, and even though we have a long, tough road ahead before we can solve many of these issues, I feel a lot better about contributing to these organizations and what they stand for. We’ve come a long way from animals held in cages for our entertainment.

After the zoo, it was time to find those disappearing bags again (yes, I still have no luggage). During the morning, two out of the three bags had been located and returned to their respective owners. Can you guess which bag hadn’t been located yet? Yep, mine. I DON’T GET IT I JUST DON’T GET IT. How hard is it to take my bag off the plane, NOT put it on a CANCELLED flight, and just send it down the baggage carousel with all the other bags?? Apparently that is really, really, reaaaaaaaallllyyy difficult. After waiting in another half hour customer service line, we finally got to the representative and she punched in the number of my bag that had been requested at baggage claim over 24 hours ago at this point. Where is it? OH GREAT, turns out it’s on the next flight to Costa Rica. Which is taking off from the tarmac in precisely 12 minutes. Which means we have absolutely zero chance of getting it.

Fantastic.

Really though, just what I needed. I’m only in Miami for the first time in 80 degree weather and 90% humidity (I know, Floridians, this is nothing, blah blah blah). I really just wanted to change my clothes and brush my teeth. Oh well. Apparently we spent all my good karma at the zoo. Looks like we’ll just have to see if my bag really is in Costa Rica. If not, this is going to be a very, very long trip.

After an excellent dinner at Five Guys, we all met at the hotel and planned our departure for tomorrow. Hopefully the volcano calms down and we can finally make it to our destination. Will we? With my luck?  At this point we’re probably never going to see anything but the inside of the IHOP and a plane ride home. But hey, at least all my clothes will be safe and sound in San Jose.

 

Day 3: We finally made it (ok… some of us made it)!

After countless issues, today was the day. All 16 of us had been rescheduled onto 3 different flights heading into San Jose. After a hurried breakfast and a (not so) sad goodbye to the Sleep Inn, the two groups on the earlier flights loaded into the rental van and head off to the airport. Sadly, this meant I had to check my bag of SCUBA gear, which I did with very little hope of ever seeing it again on this spate of luck. The groups parted ways to their separate gates and the wait began. Would the volcano erupt again? Probably. We weren’t expecting much.

However, amazingly, we managed to get onto our flights and after a two and a half hour trip we landed in San Jose, Costa Rica! Then, as we all turned on our phones, even more good news arrived. The flight that had landed before us had gone ahead to look for my bag (remember, the blue one? Lost all that time ago thanks to the Man and the Bureaucracy?) in the storage area…and they found it! Amazing! After an encounter with a customs officer having a truly terrible day–or so I gathered from the ice-cold interaction–I was wonderfully reunited with the bag causing so many headaches.

We met up with Professor Ayres outside the airport and awaited the bus that was supposed to take us to the hotel. I was expecting some kind of school bus, right? Hard nope on that one. For the 12 people heading to the hotel, we had a HUGE luxury coach with more amenities than I could have ever hoped for and room for probably 80 people. It was great. Except for the fact that on the way we learned the third group still in Miami had their flight delayed. To the next day. Meaning that, once again, we weren’t home free.

On the positive side, our hotel, the Park Inn (we have been staying at some seriously uncreative places) has been a great experience. Some of us (myself, Mariko, Francesca, Caroline, Amber, Gabby and Louise) walked to the market in San Jose earlier tonight and got supplies for the upcoming six weeks. San Jose is by far not the cleanest city ever, but it was an awesome walk and fun to experience some of the city before disappearing into the jungle.  We ordered pizza and the hotel grabbed it for us, put the pizza slices in those silver tureens you find at fancy restaurants and served us all mango juice while we watched some of the strangest TV (including a channel of nothing but “classic” music videos, such as ‘Can’t Touch This’, ‘Barbie Girl’, etc. and another with a bull-fight that involved over a hundred people in an arena running around in colored shirts trying to avoid getting gored). We were all exhausted at that point and promptly left for bed fairly quickly.

Because the third group is still in Miami, I managed to score an entire hotel room to myself. I’ve attempted to take advantage of the amenities here as much as possible, because tomorrow we leave at 7:15 am to pick up the other group and travel to Palo Verde. This should be good, seeing as we’re about to start the real FSP.

4 Comments

  1. Have you finally figured out the universe thinks you’re special? It just has a unique way of showing you. Tell Louise I say hi, and have her tell you about our travel troubles in Nicaragua!

  2. Please include me in your messages.
    GD

  3. I am loving your blog Eric. Such a talented writer. I look forward to reading more about your amazing adventure and all that you and your group experience

  4. Karen O'Connell

    January 9, 2017 at 7:00 pm

    Eric we all got a good laugh out of your story. Keep them coming. Hope things start going your way soon. However, some the best life lessons are from figuring things out when life deals you bad cards. Sounds like you are doing a great job of rolling with the punches.
    Love, Karen, Jim & Emily

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