Day 1 (July 25, 2024): heading to Costa Rica on our 32nd Anniversary

Getting ready to go away is always stressful and hectic. It’s a nice feeling when you can slip into your airplane seat and finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Air Canada’s flight to Montreal pushed back at exactly the same time as our WestJet flight to Toronto did. The sun was just cracking over the edge of the horizon, you can see it behind the Air Canada tail. 

Pam captured this beautiful fog effects over the forest as we took off from Halifax International. 

The view of the Bedford Basin and Halifax Harbour upon ascent out of Halifax International. You can see the heavy fog along the coast.

We were shocked to learn (in advance) that WestJet doesn’t serve as much as a muffin in business class for a flight leaving at 6 AM and lasting for 2 1/2 hours, as ours from Halifax to Toronto did this morning. So I put together a breakfast tray for each of us, consisting of prosciutto, ham, salami, cheese, grapes, cherries, a boiled egg, and an orange. It really complemented, WestJet’s snacks and beverages well.

Young Street comprises a second downtown of sorts for Toronto. Here is its office and condo high-rise concentration, upon descent into Pearson Airport. 

As we were about to land, we were gob smacked by the concentration of transport trucks clogging the 401. Zoom in on the picture above to have a closer look.

A WestJet 737 is towed at Pearson Airport, with Mississauga’s high-rise concentration in the background

The flight path from Toronto to Liberia took us straight south over the United States, straight down over Florida, then over Cuba, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Our flight path from Toronto took us over the Florida Keys, which is a long series of islands connected by a highway, ending at Key West, the most southerly point in the United States of America.

In the 20th century, huge swaths Costa Rica’s forest were destroyed. But through conservation and reforestation efforts, the country went from 47% of forest cover in 2000 to 60% of forest cover in 2020. Still, large sections of clearcut forest remain, such as this scene, upon descent into Liberia. 

This is the Inter-American highway. It is part of the Pan-American highway, and goes back to the early 1940s, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when the USA realized it needed an overland route to connect the USA to the Panama Canal.

A team of 23 people met our aircraft in Liberia. It was a small army! Compare that to the bare bones squad that meets a typical jet at a Canadian airport.

Our WestJet Boeing 737 from Toronto to Liberia was actually one of the old Swoop 737s.  WestJet terminated its Swoop low-fare operation in 2023. Swoop was entirely configured as an Economy class airline. We paid dearly to upgrade to WestJet business class, but when we bordered the flight, we realized they were using one of the old Swoop planes and that we were in regular Economy class seats, despite having paid a business class fare. Not happy!

The flag of Costa Rica, flying proud at Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in Liberia. 

Rolls of hay in Costa Rica are wrapped in green plastic and placed on their side. In Canada, we wrapped them in white plastic and we stand the other way!

All along the Inter-American highway, we saw signs advertising Rosquilla, which are basically donuts.

A street vendor in Canas selling Rambutan, an exotic fruit.

Heading inland from the Inter-American highway towards Lake Arenal, the views were quite stunning. And the hills make a perfect location for wind turbines.

This is the Mirador (“lookout”) of Laguna (“lake”) Arenal at the extreme westerly point of the lake, looking to the east.

As we meandered along the north shore of Lake Arsenal, a rainstorm began to take shape quite dramatically. There were times when the heavens opened up, and the rain came down as hard as we have ever seen it. And it continued well into the night.

All along the road north of Lake Arenal, the steep banks showed signs of landslides.

What do you see above is typical of every bridge over a river that we have come across so far in Costa Rica secondary highways. All of a sudden, the road narrows to a single lane as it crosses a bridge. The only other places we have seen this in our travels are New Zealand and Ireland.

To give you an idea of how windy the roads are, this is a 16 km stretch along the north shore of Laguna (“lake”) Arsenal  Once we got off the Inter-American highway, it took 2 1/2 hours to cover 82 km to our hotel. That’s how slow the going was. It took us over half an hour to drive a few kilometres over the worst dirt road we have ever seen. We know we had a guardian angel watching over us on that stretch, because there’s no way we should’ve gotten through it without a flat tire(s) and/or seriously damaging the undercarriage of the rental car.