Getting to Costa Rica

After some technical difficulties, here is Day 2. We left Lewes, DE at 9:15 AM and drove to the Philadelphia International Airport.

There are many people going on this research trip. There are of course the scientists like Dr. George Luther, but also graduate assistants, undergraduates and post doctorate fellows who are researching the many different parts of the hydrothermal vent ecosystem. Several Universities are represented besides the University of Delaware. They include scientists from the South Carolina, along with countries like Israel and Turkey.

Some of the research is being done on the bacterial colonies themselves, who through the process of chemosynthesis are the center of life at the bottom of the sea. Others are interested in the oxidation-reduction of metals such as iron and manganese, often found in various states inside the living organisms themselves.

We were stuck in Philadelphia for over 45 minutes due to a shift change by the ground crew. Fortunately, we arrived in plenty of time in Miami, Florida to catch our connecting flight.

Finally making it to Miami. A balmy 82 degrees.

I did have time to check out some really cool fish art in the Miami airport! My son loves to fish. This makes me think of him.

These fish circles were of all species and were all over the airport. Got me excited for our trip out in the Pacific!

We basically went from one gate to another to catch our connecting flight and boarded quickly for San Jose, Costa Rica. The flight left Miami at 6:30 PM.

We arrived at 8:00 PM local time (2 hours behind us - they don't recognize Daylight Savings Time) We were greeted by this strange statue. No one seemed to know why or what it was for! It was next to a poster about the Zika virus.

I had to take a picture of this ad on the wall. Even Costa Rica has my new phone. Nice to know that I am in good company. Now if I can only figure out how to use it.............

The grad students are trying to help me.

This is a picture of outside the airport. We are trying to get to our hotel through the throng of crazed taxi cab drivers. This after going through foreign customs with a whole bunch of science equipment. They were not overjoyed.

Finally, we arrived at our hotel by 9:00 PM local time. We have a long day tomorrow - getting to our port, Puntarenas on the northwest coast.