Jog in Costa Rica

We got up around 7 and started the day with a jog along the beach, we jogged around 6km round trip along the beach back to the accomodation. My lack of stretching, rolling and gym finally caught up with me at about the 3km mark when a knot formed in my right quad that put pressure on the connective tissue in my knee. This caused a fair amount of discomfort for the jog back. Christine was well into preparing breakfast by the time we arrived back at the unit. We ate left over spaghetti with eggs, cereal and fruit for breakfast. This was a great way to start the day with such a long flight ahead of us. 

The drive to the airport was smooth and we followed the signs to return the car. It was actually really straight forward. Going through customs I am pretty sure we had the longest line and wait time yet. The line was actually massive and took about an hour to get through. Once inside the terminal we found a restaurant that was set up a bit like a Subway but it also made pizzas, this was a genius concept as Subway sandwiches, wraps and pizzas generally share the same or very similar ingredients. We ate a couple of baguettes with chicken, cheese and salad. I had actually ordered a wrap, but it had gotten lost in translation. 

Saint Louise

We flew to Saint Louis, a city in the  centre of the US in the state Missouri. As we flew in over the city we could see that all of the outlaying farmland, buildings and houses were covered in a thick layer of snow, any large volumes of still water were frozen solid. After we landed we could see a large pile of snow under the Aerobridge. Luke was the only person in the place wearing a basketball singlet and a pair of shorts, everybody was stopping to take a look. We took the opportunity to hunt down some more food. This time we asked for chicken and salad baguettes and ended up with chicken and salad bagels. 

Back in Los Angeles

The flight from Saint Louis to Los Angeles was smooth and we arrived at about 7pm LA time. This required winding the clock back about 4 hours. We had a straight through run out of the airport as it was a domestic flight. We took the shuttle bus to the Uber pick up point and this deserves a mention. The bus driver wanted the bags organised in a certain way and she was not backward in letting everyone know. There was a passenger who said that he was a pilot and he was actively antagonising her and being a smart Alec with comments like “here comes the bag nazi”. A couple of potential passengers opted to walk instead of trying to figure out how the system was supposed to work. We said “welcome to the US” and the pilot passenger corrected us with, “welcome to LA”, apparently things were not like this where he was from, with good old Donny’s second inauguration only a few hours away, I had some serious reservations on that sentiment. 

We caught an Uber down to the accomodation. We checked in and then wandered down to the Thai restaurant down the road. Christine and I shared a curry with rice and vegetables, it was a delicious way to to end the day. We wandered back to the accomodation via a service station so that we could pick up some water. The attendant was originally from Guadalajara in Mexico and she spoke fluent Spanish. We had a great conversation with her about our trip and some of the extra places we should visit in Mexico when we go back. 

Los Angeles Day 26

Now I will be the first to admit that thus far the bits of the US that I had seen had been somewhat underwhelming, however this day went some way towards improving this view.

Breakfast Aussie style

Due to the time difference I woke up at around 4am and struggled to get back to sleep. I eventually got up and did some yoga. This was awesome for my knee and really freed it up. We got organised and checked out and ubered our way to Venice Beach. We dropped our bags at a bag drop place and went for breakfast at an Australian themed cafe. We had scrambled eggs with toast, avocado and salad. We made our way down to the Santa Monica Peer and the beach beside it. Our plan was to take a drone shot from the beach, alas this was not to be. Someone had flown a drone into one of the helicopters during the recent fires and the government had put in place restrictions to stop drones from being operated in this area. 

Biking at Venice Beach

We went in search of hire bikes and a lady who was walking around the park pointed us to a bike hire place that was in an arcade just opposite the beach. Here we were able to hire bikes at $10US for two hours. We hired three bikes and went in search of Golds Gym. We rode along the path that is beside the ocean. Even in the middle of winter there were truck loads of things happening. People were playing volleyball and ultimate frisbee, there were people working out at muscle beach, there were at least three yoga classes going on in the parks on the other side of the path. Other people were walking around and doing various types of fitness training, the place was absolutely pumping, we could only imagine how it would be in the middle of spring and summer when all the water activities would be going on as well. We deviated from the beach path and went to check out Golds Gym, the place was massive with equipment both inside and outside the bit that we could see from the outside had a stack of people all working in their fitness. We decided that we would come back later for a workout. 

We re acquired the beach path and rode on to the next peer down from the Santa Monica peer. This peer was beside the giant skate park that you often see in movies that are filmed in LA. We stopped to watch the skaters there doing all manner of different tricks. They were all well practiced and made the tricks look easy. Here we were far enough away from the action to use the drone to take some shots, there was still a bit of restriction, but we were able to work around them. We went to do a fly over shot but the drone hit a digital wall that was in line with the skate park and stopped. We recorded a few shots of ourselves with the various back drops and even took a video of the few surfers that were out braving the freezing cold water. 

Muscle Beach

Once we were done we rode back to muscle beach to have a play on the equipment. I climbed one of the two large ropes, the first time I climbed to within one meter of the top, decided that I was high enough, and then climbed back down. Another bloke then climbed all the way to the top and back down. Not to be out done I climbed up again and touched the top before coming back down. The other bloke who was climbing the rope had been coming down to climb them for 6 years as a part of his exercise program, he was pretty good. I then saw a group of people swinging on the rings and decided that that looked like fun. When I got there there was a bloke at one end chatting to a group of people I took the opportunity to have a quick go from the other end. I swung through the course and received a disapproving look from the bloke giving the talk. I think that maybe he was some type of fitness coach and that these were his rings and that I had just used them without instruction. 

Gold’s Gym

Once we were done playing on the equipment we took the bikes back to the bike shop. The lady at the bike shop recommended a Mexican cantina just around the corner by the name of kings and queens. The food was indeed delicious and plentiful. After lunch we took an uber over to Golds Gym, paid the $50US each entry fee and smashed out the most expensive workout of our lives. While we were there we took a stack of photos and videos of ourselves working out in the Mecca of body building while the body building greats peered down at us from the surrounding walls. After our workout we took a shower and then wandered down to a local supermarket to buy some food for the flight, nobody wanted to go hungry on this flight. 

We took an Uber back to the bag drop place to collect our bags and then continued on to the airport. We dropped the bags and then joined an epic slow moving line to pass through customs pre screen check, before passing through security. Once through security we had plenty of time so found a Mexican bar come restaurant where we could get some food. The bloke working there was actually from Guadalajara and he was more than happy to chat with us in Spanish. 

The Flight back to Oz

We flew from La to San Francisco and then from San Francisco to Australia. The flight was pretty smooth and we had our snacks, our eye mask head rest straps and we were all reasonably tired after the days adventures. I stayed awake by writing this journal and watching a movie called Atomic Blonde that was set around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I slept for a few hours and then watched Bad Boys II, I had only just finished the movie when it was time to pack up for landing. This flight had been with United and the food was really good, as such we didn’t end up needing all of our snacks. Having said that, it is far better to have too many than not enough. 

Just to be fair and to finish off the story. During the trip I had really been having a go at how out dated and inefficient the US Border Control processes are, especially the long slow moving lines. Well we got off the plane in Australia to an absolute disaster. We went through multiple check points all effectively doing the same thing with massive slow moving lines that stretched backwards and forwards across the building. It took a good one and a half to two hours to clear through customs. You could tell it was bad because there was a huge sign that read ‘abuse will not be tolerated’ indicating that Customs are aware of the problem but rather than fixing it Customs will simply put the blame onto the customers for getting upset and hostile. Perhaps the people with the capacity to take action could learn a lesson from the Latin American Countries who were fast, efficient and effective at getting people across the border while still detecting and dealing with infringement. So no I can’t say that Australia’s systems are any better than the US and in fact there is a good chance that we are worse. 

Reflection

All in all this was an epic trip, we had so many good times and great memories. I have really enjoyed writing up all of the blogs and putting the videos together. It has given me an opportunity to re live the experience all over again. Even the US came through for us with some great experiences at the end of the day, By far the most epic of all was finally having the opportunity to meet up with Diego, Erica, Juan, Sarah, Charlie, and the extended friends and family in Colombia. This was an opportunity of a life time and one that had been set in motion 10 years previous when Diego and I had embarked our our journey to learn each other’s language. Every moment with those guys was something that all of us will cherish and you can rest assured that we are looking forward to the next reunion and adventure with those guys. Finally all of this wouldn’t have been possible without Christine’s epic planning skills. She worked many hours to ensure that every detail was accounted for including the accomodation, transportation and events. All of this meticulous planning paid off to ensure that the whole trip ran smoothly and we ticked off the vast majority of attractions and activities.