We depart Costa Rica Thursday, March 25 I usually like to wait till the last minute when catching buses or planes, but the $5 shuttle to the airport from the Buccaneers Hostel only left at 5am. Our plane boarded at 8am. However, I'm very glad we were forced to be at the airport three hours early, since we Sandwich: "I like your haircut!" Beck: "Why thank you." waited in line to pay the departure tax for over an hour. We had exactly enough colones left to pay for mine, and Talina used her credit card to pay for hers (there is significance there). Then another long line while airport guards individually searched each person, including their stowed luggage....why they checked the stowed luggage I don't know. Our flight back was with Southwest Airlines again, meaning there was no complimentary food. We were starving when we reached Phoenix, and we figured we had more than enough time to order soup and a sandwich from this little shop in the food court. When Talina went to pay, her credit card was declined. It eventually emerged that Washington Mutual Bank has a "protective" system where using your credit card in different countries or states causes your account to be put on hold. Because, you know, it's not possible to travel between countries in a day. What with having to use horses and carriages and all. Talina got on the phone to her bank and furiously tried to get them to reactivate her card. We couldn't abandon the food because it was all made-to-order, and besides, we really wanted it. By the time I caved in and paid for the lot of it on MY credit card (Visa through Bank of America, never had a single problem), our plane was already loading. We scooped up all our food, shouldered our big backpacks and Talina's myriad gift bags, and ran for it. Note that we hadn't gotten takeaway because when we ordered, we had plenty of time. So we were balancing bowls of soup and large, elaborate sandwiches, running down the airport corridor with all our bags. When we came to yet another airport security block, we were like, "Thank you very much 9-11." Between panting breaths, we told the security guards that our plane was leaving in a couple minutes. The guards looked at us skeptically like, "That's exactly what a terrorist would say." They made us run our food through the x-ray machine and when it came out the sandwiches were all mashed. We tried to walk through the metal detector with our roll of film (there were signs everywhere saying that the x-ray machine can potentially damage film) and they stopped us. When we pointed at the signs as an explaination, the guard rolled his eyes and shouted "Hand check!" At the slowest possible speed, another guard detached himself from his seat and sauntered over to us, took the camera in slow motion, PRODDED at it... Talina and I, near tears, were like, "For God's sake, just run it through the friggin' machine." On the other side of the checkpoint, we sprinted towards our gate. It was disheartingly empty and with a feeling of defeat, I asked, "When is the next flight to Seattle?" He was like, "Seattle? This plane was for Cincinnati. You want the next gate over." We ran over to the next gate, and managed to get on our plane with seconds to spare. All in all, we decided that the Phoenix airport was extremely unlucky. Jade (Talina's boyfriend) picked us up from the Sea-Tac airport, and we babbled incessantly about our adventures. Everyone else can just read about them here. Home | Pictures 1 2 | Beck and Forest in Fiji | Forest in Australia 1 2 Poppy in Australia 1 2 | Mp3s | Beck and Talina in Costa Rica Beck and Descie in Europe