Just like the swallows and other migratory birds, it’s time for us to fly away. After a great summer at home (lots of sunshine, a minor knee op, campervan trips (in a borrowed van), a wedding and other celebrations), the cool mornings whisper that winter is coming. The apples are fermenting, the leaves are dropping …like the temperatures….and we are busy packing and getting ready to leave.

You might wonder where we are going? We didn’t really know ourselves until we booked our flights as we kept changing our minds -there are so many wonderful places in the world that we would love to visit. We decided on Central America because we had never been there and based our choice of starting country on price, fewest stopovers and using only one airline. So….we are flying to Costa Rica tomorrow with Air Canada via Toronto and we are coming back to Ireland on December 13 from Costa Rica. We get into San Jose, the capital, at about 10 pm local time tomorrow night (Costa Rica is 7 hours behind Ireland) and we have booked accommodation for the first three nights.

Our knowledge of Costa Rica is sketchy (we plan to read the guidebook on the plane🤣) but we know that it is a beautiful country with lots of biodiversity AND that it is the wet season there at the moment. The temperatures should be about 25C to 30C which is pleasant, but the humidity will be high. It’s far wetter at this time on the Pacific coast so we might head to the Caribbean Coast first. We know that there are buses that go to Guatemala through El Salvador – about a 24-hour journey – so we may head north first to escape the rain (and hurricanes) and then make our way slowly back down to Costa Rica. We really would love to visit the Mayan ruins in Guatemala and maybe snorkel in Belize which has the largest barrier reef in the Northern hemisphere. We hope to travel overland between countries using public transport but only time will tell what we actually do and what countries we visit on this trip.

Its’ all very exciting and I have a little flutter in my stomach with anticipation – the last time we were outside Europe was in November 2019 when we visited Ethiopia for three and a half weeks (an amazing experience). Our bags are almost packed, we are travelling very lightly this time, even lighter than usual. We have opted for small carry-on backpacks so that we can move around easily.

You are welcome to come along with us…..we’d love to have your company and I’ll post here regularly. But never feel you have to read any of this.

Until next time…….hopefully posting from Costa Rica😎✈✈✈