The Adventure Begins!

by Julia
Allentown, NJ

We have a 3:29PM flight from Newark to San Jose this afternoon. Tom and I enjoyed a bicker-free final packing session last night, a feat few couples accomplish the night before a big trip.

Pretty much everything we're bringing (click to enlarge)

All our items are neatly stowed in our big packs, most getting tucked into their own sterile, labeled, plastic baggies. More toiletries have crept into my bag than I originally anticipated to bring - some dry-shampoo here, baby powder there, another lip balm for the road. While I realize that I will have this all on my back for the conceivable future, my boy-scout instincts (I say boy-scout because all I ever learned in girl scouts was how to make friendship bracelets and bake low-fat chocolate chip cookies) tells me to go over-prepared rather than under-prepared. Still, if I had to guess, I would say that baby powder is getting left at a hostel within the first week...

I know I should be excited, but with the whirlwind of the past few weeks - the moving, the wedding planning, seeing friends and family - I really haven't had a chance. We've been planning this day for so long that it never felt like it would actually arrive. I don't think it will hit me until I step off the plane into Costa Rica and there's that sudden rush of "otherness". The smells, the sounds - all the sensory stimluli that tells you you're not in Kansas anymore.

We arrive into San Jose around 9 tonight and will be staying at a small hostel called Casa del Parque. Tomorrow we will meet with the director of a volunteer organization in San Jose who will take us to meet some volunteers and homestay families. Thursday we head to the Nicoya Peninsula for a week of R&R. Surfing. Mango Smoothies. Hammocks on the Beach. Ahhhh...

As Charles Dudley Warner said,"There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it." We're clean, our bags are spotless. Nothing has been stolen. We haven't been delayed or blackmailed. We have yet to see all the amazing things we will see. But I'm hopeful for it all. And getting excited.