Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas World!

Christmas, San Jose, Costa Rica 2008

81 degrees, partly cloudy. Winds from Bolivia.

We arrived in San Jose last night at 10 pm. Sara and I flew from Laguardia to Charlotte, North Carolina where we were offered free roundtrip tickets to fly to Miami, then to San Jose five hours later. Ok, we were offered a pair, each, of roundtrip tickets to anywhere in the Caribbean, Latin America or Continental U.S. So we hunkered down in a drizzly MIA. 

The flight from Miami to San Jose was 2 hrs, 24 minutes. We arrived, picked up our luggage (which had arrived five hours earlier), found a Tico cab and raced the 20 kilometeres to our hotel, The Dunn Inn and promptly passed out. 

Slept like babies. 

Woke this morning at 10 am for our complimentary breakfast in the hotel's restaraunt (pineapple, papaya, watermelon slices, toast, local cheese) and stumbled downstairs. The first thing we hear is the cacauphnic drumming of the FOX NEWS intro music. We turn the corner into the restaraunt and a massive tv is blaring, in English, that's right...FOX NEWS! HAPPY CHRISTMAS WORLD! HERE ARE THE STORIES WE ARE COVERING!!!!

Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Gretta von Republican and a host of other carbon copied plastic personalities re-hashing last night's CHRISTMAS EVE SPECTACULAR (complete with footage of the the pundits playing Pictionary) and TODAY'S NEWS (Man In Los Angeles Dressed As Santa Shoots/Kills 3 Then Sets A House On Fire, Sludge Leek, Travelers Stranded Across the Country, Pacific Northwest Buried In Snow). Completely drowning out the local fauna, the nicest woman you could ever hope to meet who tolerates my Gringo Espanol with Christlike grace (this is no lie, I may have not in my life ever met a more genuine, gentle human), then points toward the heated pot of milk next to the coffee for cream.  

There's a lot to be expected when traveling to a foreign country: language barrier, cultural taboos, misguided travel instructions. But Fox News? Really? I mean...Really? Somewhere God is laughing. (For an excellent story about God, see This American Life, Episode 369 - link below). 

Today we are wandering, photographing, opening presents. More later. 

M



1 comment:

  1. Yayyy, you made it! "Done Inn," indeed. Jeez, sorry about the "partly cloudy" weather report. We were greeted with ... snow! Again! Over a week of sub-freezing and on-and-off white stuff from the sky. Gracie, however, loves it ... including the glow-in-the-dark pink ball she got from Santa. Speaking of Santa, thank you! for the feed bag and the book. Both hit the spot. I think this Comment will limit me to no more words, so for now: Love, love, Dad and Cher and Feliz Navidad!

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