Pura Vida! We're here Safe n Sound

18th-20th July 2012

Hello :-) holly here, giving you the first report since we saw you all 2 days ago. It’s been a long 2 days for the group travelling from little old Billingham to San Jose in Costa Rica. After our final farewell we had a team talk about things such as the tight airport security in America and budget to what we would need to do over the travelling phase. We then watched the movie ‘Arthur’ until the first team were transported over to Middlesbrough for the mega bus. Following the many hit musical songs we sang on the bus ride over to Middlesbrough we had a short 15 minute wait for the mega bus. On the actual mega bus we were all separate but that didn’t particularly matter as we all fell asleep! The overall impression from the team was that the mega bus was very small but it filled its purpose.

We arrived at Victoria coach station, London at 7 on time and we were very glad to get off the bus! It was a short 5 minute journey to the tube station and although there was a little confusion about tickets, we got there in the end. We then encountered another problem when the tube we were taking was not going anymore but don’t worry folks, we managed it :-) ! So after our journey on the tube (some a bit more squished than others) we arrived at Heathrow terminal 4 at around 10 o’clock.

We met up with cliff and got checked in. We then went through security with no problems and boarded the first of 2 planes; Heathrow to New Ark. The seats were very spacious and comfortable and we all received our own pillow, blanket and set of headphones for the individual TV that there was in the back of the seats. We had a 7 hour flight that was spent watching the wide range of programs and films as well as playing the games that they had. We had 2 meals and lots of drinks and landed in newark NY at about 3:30(NY time). We then had a 2 hour wait in the airport until we boarded the second of our flights – Newark to San Jose. I am informed that we were delayed for a while, waiting for planes to go and storms to pass. I say informed because I fell asleep! (Ed. yeah she was snoring in my ear :-/) This journey was only 5 hours and throughout the team spent time watching TV, sleeping and eating.

We arrived in San José at about 12 pm San José time and took a taxi to hostel Pangea. We arrived at about 1 am and first impressions of the hostel were that it was very psychedelic. That was because the walls are covered in tribal drawings! We got settled in to the hostel, some of us showered then and others in the morning. We were all very glad to lay out on our dormitory beds and have some sleep.

We were then all up again at around 7 today and we took a trip to the local supermarket and our breakfast consisted of a lovely baguette filled with mad cow cheese and chorizo washed down with various fruit juices and either an apple or an orange. Our in country representative arrived and we have just had a discussion about transport and food etc. We have now split off into groups with our various tasks to complete. You now know what has been happening over the last 2 days, keep looking ! holly out.



Holly Laing