This is the landing of our crazy air taxi flight into Gulfito. You don’t get a real sense of the angle we were flying in on, but to give you a visual think San Fransisco and the hills. It was like that. Not the flat level landing strips we’re used to in the US.

Hi Everyone-

I just wrapped up the first full day in Costa Rica. It is a beautiful country. The day started out traveling from San Jose to Porta de Jimenez, which is an interesting trip since the landing strip in Jimenez is under construction.

You start by taking a cab through San Jose to the local airport. Hop on a puddle jumper which is more like an air taxi because you stop at multiple towns, drop off and pick up people. We had a quick stop in Porta Drake and then on to Golfito were we got off. The runways were a trip. In Drake there was a cow on the side of the runway as we landed. Golfito looks like your flying into the side of a mountain with a runway that is on and uphill slope out of no where on the mountain(videos to come.) Then we hop a cab over to the port where we grab the boat taxi. This takes us across the bay to Port Jimenez.

The roads down here are crazy. Potholes in Chicago are nothing in comparison - even with the bad summer we had up there. The rains wash away the roads and so I assume it would be similar to driving on the moon.

The Osa Yacht Club we’re staying at is gorgeous. A half dozen personal cabana/huts which are nicer than some of the apartments my friends live in at home, a small pool, a bar/restaurant area where our personal chef Joe spends his day making some tasty treats. Today we had some fried plantains, lightly battered snapper, (caught by today’s crew) this amazing pineapple with ice cream dessert, among other stuff.

I ran into town with a couple of the guys. Not much there, but was able to pick up a box of Cuban Romeo & Juliet - Churchills for less than I can buy the Dominicans for in the states. Sharing with the guys, I’m sure these won’t last the week, but man are they good.

After dinner we played cards with the other guys down here. They are the owners of the club who are down here for a couple of days to view a property where they are building a larger lodge for the club. They’ve been great company and tomorrow we’re planning on Zip-Lining through the forest at night. Should make for some great video.

Speaking of video; besides the daily video blogs, I’m going to be posting a bunch of scenery videos as I have time to upload them. For now I pass out. Getting up in 6 hours is going to be tough, but I’m so excited to go fishing that I’m still wired.

-Gary

With gas prices on the rise, this poor college student is looking for new cheaper ways to travel.

This past week we had the great opportunity to take a couple of laps around Chicagoland Speedway in Nascars. The experience was amazing. During the ride-a-long we hit over 165 mph and were also able to hit 140 while driving ourselves. Here is a quick clip of Erin prior to taking a ride-a-long: