We landed safe and sound. I snapped a couple of pics standing in the immigration line. The TACA flight attendents were very cordial and professional. Mom was so impressed that they would ask her if she wanted the whole bottle when they would pour her soda. And the breakfast was actually really good. (no red bean anything on this flight, Taiwan teacher friends) The flight to Costa Rica was on a brand new plane so it was super comfy. All in all, despite the luggage snafu and the frequent flier mishap, we would recommend TACA.

The immigration line was long, but moved quickly. We were through immigration and customs and to our shuttle within 45 minutes of landing–not bad! My very first impression of the city when walking out of the airport was “yeah, this is nice.” It was cool, but not cold. It was green and mostly clean. And I knew I was only a few minutes away from wherever in the city my children were. :)

Uh yeah, that really was all of our luggage. And yes, I really was everything I hate about inexperienced travelers. I was weighted down by luggage and I was whiny. But give me a little credit…two of the suitcases came with my mother, and I had good reason to be whiny. Do you see the two gigantic red suitcases? I bought them just last week on sale at Ross, and my sweet friend carefully packed each of them with the children’s clothes making sure they weren’t over the allowed weight limit. And before we packed them, we almost lost them when making a donation to the thrift store, but that’s another story.

So we go to check in at TACA for our LAX-BOG leg of the trip and we were told the suitcases were too big. What? Too big? What? We checked them on Southwest with no problem. I know the airlines each have different size and weight limits, but it never occurred to me that I would ever be checking baggage that was too big. So for us to get the items on the full flight we would have to pay $100/bag and they would only go stand-by so there was no guarantee they would make it to Bogota with us. Our hotel is 35 minutes away from the airport and it is not cheap to get back out there. We had no idea when or if the suitcases would ever actually arrive. Once, when Adam’s luggage was lost on a domestic flight in Taiwan, it took two months for it to arrive in Las Vegas!!! I explained to the young girl at the counter *while not quite holding back my tears* that those specific suitcases have all of the clothes and other items that we need for our adoption of four children. This would not normally be a tragedy, but for me, because of our circumstance, it was so bloody unbearable.

We had to walk down to the international terminal, find some cheap but expensive baggage, re-pack the bags in the middle of the tiny luggage shop, walk back to the now packed TACA line, and check the new baggage. Oh yeah, we had to ditch the brand new red suitcases also. I think Adam gave them to the guy at the luggage shop and told him to try and sell them and keep the profit! Very funny, I know. I should have left them at the D.I. with my donations. It was totally a sign. One upside–the girl booked us in the Emergency Row all the way to Bogota. We think she felt bad for making me cry and for doing her job.

By the time we got on the plane at 2:00 a.m. I was in a much better mood, and I was very tired. The flight to Costa Rica was five hours, and I probably slept a little over half of it. Adam and mom slept a lot less. The Costa Rica-Bogota leg was much faster—a little over two hours. I think I slept half of that one and read my trashy gossip mags for the rest. I love mindless reading on short flights. Our layover in San Jose was full of blogging and Cinnabon. Yes, you can get a Cinnabon for $5 as you walk off the plan.