I left Austin just after 7pm on Friday night, and arrived at the Dallas airport in 3 hours with my Yahoo Map and one stop for gas. !!!! After only one wrong turn on the airport roads, I arrived at the Hyatt, parked in the garage for the week, no extra charge. Saw Warren as he and Keri pulled up to the reception area. I spent that night on the VFW party floor. Good thing I can almost sleep through anything!

At my 4:30 am wake up call, I jumped up, got dressed, repacked all my stuff and headed downstairs to catch the 5 am shuttle to DFW. Didn't recognize anybody, but got to my terminal okay, and had to haul my bag up an escalator and then find "Champion Airlines", which was hiding down the hall past the baggage claim section. While waiting in line for what seemed like FOREVER, I saw most of the people from the pre-trip meeting. Finally got my boarding pass (aisle seat, which is better than the middle), went through xray and wandered down to my gate looking for some coffee or water. Found neither, so just hung out and waited for boarding instructions.

On the flight, I sat with Deb and Ken. Lance, Kathy and Sandy were in front of me. Warren and Keri were across the aisle, and James and Penne were across and back. We were all in our vacation outfits, and Lance was in his travelling clothes complete with tax laws for bedtime reading. I took this opportunity to read my borrowed version of The Talented Mr. Ripley, which I had tried to watch unsuccessfully several times on my US-Taipei excursions.

We arrived in Liberia, Costa Rica, at approximately 9:30 am, went through immigration and customs, and caught our bus to the hotel at La Playa Hermosa, the Sol Playa Hermosa Hotel and Villas. "The Group" includes me (of course), Keri and Warren (trip leader), Deb and Ken (Keri's parents), Kathy and Sandy from Lampasas, Nancy and Terrell (the quiet ones from South Austin), Penne (dive instructor), Nancy (dive master), James (or "Jaime", the spanish pronunciation, after the noon hour), Lance (former UD executive and current board member) and Chris (pharma sales dude aka "Big Daddy") from Dallas. There was also originally another couple, but she had to have knee surgery and the doctor told her if she went, he wouldn't let her do anything (and they were the first to sign up...OUCH).

The bus ride and check-in were pretty uneventful. Our bus driver was "Fabio", and he took very good care of us over the week. Nancy, the dive master, had the pleasure of sharing a room with me :). I did find out later that I was almost put with James, but since I didn't know anybody, Penne volunteered to be his roommate, 'cuz she knew him.

By now we are all STARVING, so the first thing we do is dump our stuff in our room and go to the restaurant. CLOSED. Go to the next restaurant. CLOSED. The resort restaurants don't open until 12:30! And it was still only 11!!! :( So we got on our swim gear and hung out in the pool, where we were entertained by the splashing and fountain boys, until they FINALLY let us eat. I sat with Keri, Warren and Lance, and ordered nachos, after much debate on if we should get the lunch buffet, until we found out is was $16 american. !!!! Lance and I got our food in a timely manner, and shoveled it down. The nachos were interesting and tasty, especially with home made chips. Mmmm. :) Meanwhile, Keri and Warren waited for theirs. And waited. And waited. Eventually we got a waiter, someone forgot their order, so Lance and I waited with them until and while they finally were able to eat.

I took a walk down to the beach and caught up with Penne and Nancy. We just wandered down to see what there was, found a grocery store and several interesting-looking restaurants (Italian even!), although we never did find the expensive place. We also met a guy from Texas who used to work on the Fling and the Spree, the two Flower Gardens liveaboards. He moved down to Costa Rica about 7 years before, worked at a dive store, and since moved on to construction and the selling of natural bug spray. He knows several of the dive shops in Austin, and thinks he may have met "Tom". I always wondered if there was a "Tom", and I guess there is. I noticed during this week that pretty much everybody we met was from Texas. It seems nobody else in the country travels to Central America except Texans. :) As we were walking back down the beach, we ran into James who had been out kayaking the cove.

As we made our way to the hill to the hotel, Nancy and Penne suggested we take the shuttle because on their way down, they got a ride to the top of the hill where the villas are. So I agreed and up, up, up we went to the very top of the hill. Beautiful. We got back to the hotel, changed for dinner, made our way back to the beach, and found everyone at the Hotel Velero restaurant. It was a really nice place complete with lawn chairs and two hammocks (for "the boys" :). We joined them for dinner; I had a baked potato and a guabanaba ("guave") daiquiri. Mmmmm. :)