March 20, 1997 - Thursday. I (Jill) am really exhausted. I had to get taxes done before we left and our son had this huge school project on bugs to finish. I also was attempting to get the Microsoft Office suite loaded on about 60 computers are work. But finally the software is loaded, the taxes are done, the suitcases are packed and the time has come! No we didn't take our cat, though it looks as if she was hoping.

We picked Jonathan up after school.  Since he will miss 2 weeks of school, he starts doing some of his homework on the way to the airport. We had booked a night flight, leaving around 7 PM to arrive in LA at 10:30. Our plan was to sleep on the plane from LA to San Jose, but this turned out not to be a wise thing for us.  We left LA about 11:30 PM on a plane that was nearly full. 'Dinner' was served about 12:40 AM; we ate not knowing how convenient our next meal would be. Though tired, it was difficult to sleep--I think we were too wired. Jonathan, however, was out before his dinner was served and slept most of night.  Dean was able to nap for maybe 4 hours and I only 2.  The magnificent sunrise from 38,000 feet easily brought me from my shallow sleep.

It dawned an hour or so before we arrived in Guatemala City at 6:30 am local time. As we were approaching the runway, I saw a makeshift village of shanties on a hill not  far from the airport. People were living in tiny room-sized boxes in very close proximity.  I could see a few people gathered around what appeared to be a water spigot in the midst of their makeshift homes.  This was quite a contrast to the tall, modern buildings in the distance. 

We had to stay aboard the plane for about 50 minutes but with the back door opened, the cool fresh tropical breeze sure felt good.  Some tourists from Japan were also on the plane; a man gave Jonathan an origami he had made from a napkin and a woman gave him a packet of 'cookies' that looked like chips made of black seaweed.  He thanked them for their kindness.  (We still have the cookies.)

The rest of the flight to San Jose took only one hour, flying over Nicaragua and along the coast. We were given customs papers on the plane to fill out ahead of time.  Any electronics you plan to leave have to be declared. I recognized Puntarenas as we flew over from pictures on the net of a hotel with 3 very large swimming pools.  As we flew along the main highway inland from the coast to San Jose a brown parched landscape led the way.  This is about 3 to 4 months into the dry season which usually starts around November and ends in April or May.