Why I will Never Fly with Copa Airlines Again

We were told that we'd be met by a Copa Airlines representative once we arrived in Miami, and she would take us through customs and baggage, and bring us to a hotel to spend the night.

Once in Miami, we were met by an agent, however she was pretty useless and didn't help us get through customs or baggage as promised, and by the time we were through, it was 2:30am.  American customs is brutal at the best of times, and at this time in the morning, they only had a couple people manning the booths.  There were 2 or 3 flights worth of people waiting to get through, and it took FOREVER.  We were exhausted and extremely frustrated at this point.  When we finally made it to the customs agent, he first gave us a hard time why we didn't have an address to stay at in the US, and once we explained why we were there, he told us should we ever have a similar situation again, we can speed up the customs process by going through the VIP line.  Thanks Copa!  Sounds like a very important detail that you should have shared with us!  (so angry)

That frustration was amplified when we met the next incompetent Copa Airline agent: Winston Clark.  Winston waited until all 9 of us passengers who missed our Toronto flight were through customs before he began the long process of slowly hand writing out each hotel and meal voucher.  He told us that he received the email from Panama nearly 4 hours prior, and therefore KNEW how many people were going to need vouchers, and yet he WAITED until 2:30am before organizing a place for us to stay overnight.  Instead of sending us in a couple of shuttles to speed up the process, we had to wait for everyone to have a voucher before he even called a shuttle, and so we had to wait even longer for a shuttle big enough for all 9 passengers to arrive.  At this point it was after 3am.  He was really unsympathetic and quite rude, and he even mocked an elderly passenger when she asked if the hotel rooms would have a Jacuzzi.  I agree that it was kind of a ridiculous request at that late hour of night, but for him as a professional representative of an airline who had ruined our travel experience with their sheer incompetence to mock her in front of the rest of the passengers was completely uncalled for.

Winston had decided to arrange rooms for us at a skeezy theme-roomed local motel called Miami Princess Hotel.

We were put on the shuttle and Winston left for the night without confirming that we arrived safely.  At the hotel, the rude girl at the front desk refused to honour the vouchers we were given, saying that she had never seen them before and she had told Winston that rooms were $160/night each.  She kissed her teeth at us and sent us back to the waiting shuttle. Back at the airport, where all Copa Airline staff, and pretty much everyone else, had already gone home for the night, the 9 of us tried to sleep on the dirty floor or hard benches until the airport reopened in several hours.  There weren't even any food stations open, so we were hungry, tired, dirty, cranky and uncomfortable.

The next morning, we were able to meet with Jorges Eapinoza  who was the first Copa employee who actually listened to our complaints and tried to help us.  He gave us proper vouchers so we could have some breakfast at the airport, but at that time there was no sense in getting a hotel since we'd have to be back at the airport in a couple hours.  Further more, Mr Eapinoza told us that he had no idea why Winston Clark sent us to that hotel, as he's never heard of it and Copa Airlines has agreements with several other proper hotels that regularly accept their vouchers.  

Costa Rica - Day 11 - Uvita to home...sort of

It poured all night with various intensities, all of which were magnified under our tin roof.  I don't think Sabina or I slept for more than an hour total that night.

 Heidi collected me at 6am and we left to the shore at 6:20. The beach was virtually uninhabited at that time and once again we found ourselves in awe of Uvita's beauty. The beach was at low tide with about 60' of mirror-like reflection off the top off the sand, and the sky was just getting bright with big fluffy clouds. The hills over the beach still had clouds evaporating from them and all we could hear was the lapping waves.
The walk to the Whale's Tail took about 45 minutes.  To get there we had to cross two rivers of fresh rainwater from the forest that had created a small rapid. It was really neat how fast it was coming in, how cold it was, and how the water made a small canyon in the sand. I wish I had a camera but we were warned many times that all valuables bought to the beach would be stolen by young riffraff ticos. 

Once we were at The Tail we explored the tide pools that were left behind from the receding water and found small hermit crabs, mud skippers, fiddler crabs, and small yellow fish.

Aerial view of the Whales Tail, courtesy of Google

We carefully made our way out to the reefs to snorkel.  This was very difficult because there were so many razor sharp rocks and the forceful waves kicked up enough sediment that you weren't able to see where your feet were stepping. I stubbed my toes repeatedly and ultimately ended up with several deep cuts. I was getting angry and would have given up the attempt then but the other girls were pretty keen on continuing. 

Pretend this is us, and not just an image I found on Google

I'm happy they were because once I was belly down snorkeling it was so much easier to float and maneuver around the reef, and there were a lot of fish to observe. Even though the water was only thigh-high, there was plenty of room to float above the reefs and the temperamental waves were much easier to handle. We probably saw just as many, or even more kinds of fish there as we did while scuba diving!  Snorkeling is one of my 'happy places'...there is just nothing like it.  Being weightless and silence, maneuvering around corals and among fish with simple flicks of your feet is nearly indescribable. 

We spent about an hour exploring the reef before we had to head back. It was Caroline's first time snorkeling and it was a really good one. We saw countless fish that we'd otherwise see at Big Al's, as well as urchins, starfish, and a few crabs.

A guard stopped us on the way back and told us sternly in Spanish that we hadn't paid $6 to use the park. Unlucky for him we didn't have any money on us. We were easily able to brush him off by saying 'no habla español', but he was persistent and showed us a fairly clear pictogram. We lied and said we'd be back later that afternoon and would be sure to pay then. Lies are okay to make someone else feel better.  He should get up earlier next time!  It's also curious that they hire a Spanish-only guard for a heavily tourist-inhabitant beach.

We went back and the other girls were now awake. We had breakfast together, showered, and finished packing. We said our goodbyes and then our cab to the airport arrived.
We had arranged a taxi to drive us the 3 hours to San Jose airport the night before.  He was a very nice man, not too far off our age, and it was nice chatting to him about the differences between Costa Rica and Canada. 

Photo credit: Google image search :)

One of our final goals in Costa Rica was to see the Tarcoles River that we had missed earlier because it was too dark.  Our driver agreed to accommodate us, and we stopped at the tourist trap.  From the parking lot we ran across the bridge that overlooks the river and joined a bunch of other tourists who were peering over the edge in amazement. The crocodiles were huge and were living en mass in the river under the highway.  A local was outlining the history of the beasts in exchange for tips, but we joined the crowed near the end of the story, so we never got to learn their story.  Oh well, that's what Google is for: http://www.anywherecostarica.com/attractions/river/tarcoles-river. We took some quick photos and carried on.  Before loading back into the car we surveyed the gift shops to spend the last of our money, and the owner said there were 1300 of them! 

I asked them who's job was it to count them,
but he just laughed like I was making a joke

The rest of the 3 hour drive to the airport passed uneventfully.

The airline was Copa, and our first flight was delayed by about half an hour, and then we sat on the runway for another 20-25 minutes to fuel. We told the ticket taker and our flight attendants that we had a connecting flight and everyone said it was no problem. Our concern was further amplified when we got to the Panama airport.  First we were stuck in the plane on the tarmac, then the shuttle wouldn't open its rear doors so it took forever for all the passengers to board, and again when the bus dropped us off at our gate. Then the escalator didn't work, then they didn't unlock the tunnel doors, and THEN, even though Caroline RAN to the connecting gate, she was about 2 minutes too late and they had closed the door to our flight.  I have never seen Caroline angry before, and I bet the woman at the gate is happy to never see an angry Caroline again.

Our options were to stay in Panama for 2 days and fly out on Thursday night, or to take the late flight to Miami and the mid-morning flight to Toronto the next day.  Both options had Caroline missing a very important work meeting,  but we chose the Miami option (even though 2 free days in Panama didn't  sound bad to me!) because both Caroline and Heidi have important jobs and meetings that they absolutely had to return for.  For me, I assumed the cartoon world would keep churning whether or not I was there to manage it.

We ate Haagen Daz and perused the internet to kill the many hours waiting for our flight to board, and headed off to Miami.  And that's where shit got ugly.  It's a big of a long story, so click HERE if you want to experience my hatred for Copa Airlines and find out why you should never ever book a flight with them.

Costa Rica - Day 7 - Monteverde

We had a rough first night, as although the Cayoba Tropical was very beautiful, it is too close to the main road, so we were kept awake by traffic, fighting dogs and another bloody rooster. The next morning Paul made us a really nice Costa Rican breakfast before we took off towards the Manuel Antonio National Park. Our prebooked guide had cancelled on us the night before but Mike knew of a couple well-known guides and gave us their names to search for once we got to the park.  We hopped on the bus and traveled along the main road towards the public beach, and were entertained by all the tourist traps and fancy restaurants along the way. As we rounded the last corner and the ocean came into view, we all "oooh'ed" at the same time.

We accidentally got off the bus a couple stops too early, but it was easy enough for us to make our way down the road to the entrance of Manuel Antonio National Park.  Along the way, we were approached several times by would-be guides, all promising a money-back guarantee if we didn't see any animals.  That sounded like a pretty decent deal, but we were pretty set on locating one of the specific guides that Mike had recommended.  Luckily for us, once at the gate we only had to ask one person and he was able to quickly find a woman off our list, named Astell.

Almost the moment that we walked into the park we saw both a couple spider monkeys and a sloth.  I could see now that the previous guides' money-back guarantee was actually something of a joke.  The monkeys were completely unbothered by the crowd of tourists below them and totally focused on their pursuit of foraging for bugs.  The sloth to the left of the path moved so slowly that the tour guides outside the gate could continue their sales pitches based on him alone. Astell let us get over our monkey-glee for a little while there before leading us further down the path.  She had a really good eye and was easily able to point out several types of spiders, birds, and insects that no one else seemed to catch...or were even looking for. 

She would set up her telescope and fix it on the tiny creature from metres away, and we could see and take photos through the scope. 

She found us interesting plants along the way and explained where they we from and what medicinal purposes they held.  One tree was called 'yellow rain' that can be boiled into a tea to cure diarrhea. The Spanish brought it with them when they arrived for that particular purpose.  Then there was the 'Sleeping plant', named in respect to how its leaves wilt on contact as a defense mechanism. When ground into a paste it can be used as an anesthetic.  There was also a toxic tree that grew along the beach.  Its leaves, sap and nuts will all cause a burn or rash on your skin, and apparently the nut tastes like 10 jalapenos all at once. People without guides were sitting under them on the beach because they are also great shade trees.

While on the tour we saw a bunch of Capuchin monkeys, including one with a baby riding on her back, a few more spider monkeys, and a handful of sloths too. One sloth had a baby riding on her stomach! This was more impressive to me than the baby Capuchin because sloths seem more rare and apparently don't breed as quickly.  It is true what's they say about sloths.  They barely move and do actually grow moss on their fur.  One sloth was directly above us on the beach path and at first his face was obscured by some leaves, but every slowly became visible as he ate them chomp by chomp.

Towards the end of our tour we saw some raccoons scavenging around tourists on the beach to steal their bags. We watched one pull a backpack over a log before the owner came running.  It was really funny and they are much more bold than their Canadian counterparts.

The other couple on the tour with us were French and once Astell realized that most of our group spoke French, she nearly stopped speaking English all together. Only Sandra and I don't speak French and I found myself having to ask the other girls if what Astell was saying was just aimless chatting or relevant to our tour.  I was really annoyed by this, and how Astell took a call every few minutes to set up tours for later in the day.  I know she's got to make a living, but it's not great business practice to forgo your current tour for one that's not even happening yet.  She was good at finding us animals when she was off the phone but imagine ask the other things we might have seen.  Before she left us, we each handed her our payment and when she saw I didn't tip her she about 3 times if I enjoyed myself.  I simply said 'yes, it was nice' because I'm too much of a chicken to have given her honest feedback.

After the tour we stayed to lounge on the private beach.  It was so beautiful, with such warm water and perfectly rock-free sandy beaches.  The waves were a bit stronger than we anticipated and both Christine and I were thrown off our feet at one point. After about an hour we left the beach to follow the Cathedral hiking trail, which took us up the hill to a few look-out points. Personally I would have preferred to stay in the water, but it was a very nice hike.

Back at the bed and breakfast, we cleaned up as fast as we were able to and found our way back to a highly-recommended restaurant to watch the sun set over diner.  Unfortunately there wasn't a spectacular sunset that evening but the food was very good. We had something called a shrimp tower that was made of fried plantain crisps alternating with a shrimp and avocado salad. Might sound odd but it was delicious.  Since we all were uncertain about what to order, we each got a different dish and passed our plate to the left after a minute.  It was a really silly and fun way to try the whole menu. We perhaps also drank a lot...can't remember  ;)

I tried to grab some money out from the bank on the way home but was thwarted, even thought both Christine and Caroline we able to take out cash, and all three of us use the same bank.  I was annoyed and embarrassed because I had to borrow more money, but at least the bed and breakfast had free calls to Canada.  I would have to sort it out with my bank later.

In the evening, which comes a lot earlier than in Canada, I spoke to Drew for a bit online, then joined the girls at the Jacuzzi. It was a bit shocking at first as you except it to be hot, but its just as cold as the pool, only with bubbles. We sat around and chatted for a while before I decided I waned to venture into the forest above us at the end of Mike and Paul's property. Mike had told me earlier that day that they had a lot of tree frogs up there, of which I was yet to seeing the wild.  As I unlocked the gate to climb the stairs into the woods, I had a moment of clarity and decided I should take a dog with me for protection, just in case.  I called for Shadow, who was the sprier of the two larger dogs, but both her and Rica came bounding towards me and pushed through the gate, up the stairs and into the woods before I even knew what was happening.  I managed to get the gate closed before Ginger, the Jack Russell, joined them.  She wasn't too happy about that. I ran to the top of the stairs and was taken aback to see that the forest had absolutely no trails, no fences, and no light whatsoever.  In a panic, I called for the dogs to come back, but they were gone. I was  so terrified that I lost Mike and Paul's beloved dogs, and that they'd get attacked by a poison snake, or run through the woods onto a road and got hit by a truck.

By this point Christine had gotten out of the tub to help me find them. She stayed at the top of the stairs calling them while I ran back to my room to get some jeans and proper shoes on. I had to go after them and couldn't hike in the dark woods wearing a bathing suit and flip flops.  I was praying that they'd have already found their way back by the time I got back outside, but no such luck.  Christine was still calling for them and Caroline was shaking their kibble bowls to try to lure them home.  Back in the woods I tried to make my way through the trees calling their names, but just couldn't...the ground was uneven and there really was no path to follow. It was like walking into a wall. I turned around and tried another direction, calling out the dogs names, when Shadow ran to me out of the darkness! I grabbed her collar and escorted her back down into the backyard, where Rica had already appeared. She must have just climbed down the garden wall or something because the other girls didn't see her come back either.

After that excitement, and with me getting a good ribbing from the girls, we all went to bed.

Costa Rica - Day 10 - Uvita

Today we had a canyoning tour booked with Costa Canyoning. This was one of our most anticipated adventures while in Costa Rica, and definitely one of my highlights.  The tour included a river hike, rappelling down 6 water falls, a swimming hole, and natural water slide.  

We arrived there around 8:30am and were met by Scotty, Barney and Raven.  They were all classic surfer dudes, super friendly and very personable.  Rob and David from the day before were part of our group, as well as an older guy and his uncomfortably young Chinese girlfriend.

We got fitted for our harnesses and helmets at their camp, and then were loaded onto the back of a pick up truck to drive to the canyoning starting point. I love Costa Rica for moments like that…it was no big deal that a bunch of human cargo were driving down the roads, climbing up steep hills into the forest, through shallow rivers, and just hanging on for dear life.

Once at the starting point, we had a quick tutorial on what to expect during our tour, and a bit of safety instructions. We were told that the most likely injury would be a rolled ankle from hiking through the water. I believe it...the stones were mossy and slippery, and sometimes you couldn't see the bottom where you were stepping.  Many times I'd take a step to find there was no ground left and dropped straight into the water! 

It was a lot of fun hiking through the river.  Even before we saw any of the rappels, this was the best hike ever.  It required a bit of clambering along...sometimes stepping carefully, other times we'd have to use all fours, and occasionally it was just easiest to get on your butt and scoot down the smooth rocks like a slide.    The water was a bit cold because we were deep enough in the canyon that we weren't getting direct sunlight.  The scenery was stunning: trees tall above us, rock faces and waterfalls everywhere.  It was unfortunate that we weren’t able to take our cameras, but luckily Scotty kept his waterproof camera handy and set us up with a ton of photos afterward.  Really though, he and his team would have been the only people with the stability to take a good picture…the rest of us were too busy trying to keep our balance in the running water.

Our first waterfall was about 20' and was meant to be our easiest.  Barney and Raven just dove off the cliff into the pool below to set up for us.  It looked pretty cool but a bit nerve-wracking for all us foreigners who aren’t used to diving into rushing water. 

Scotty demonstrated how to rappel and what NOT to do. Their motto was Feet Flat, Lean Back.  If you're on your toes you'll slip forward and crash into the rocks, and if you're on your heels you'll flip upside down and hit the back of your head on the rocks.  You have to be 90° to the rock face to be the most secure. All that was much easier said than done.  It was really hard to just trust your harness and rope and allow yourself to lean far enough back to be perpendicular to the wall.  If Scotty hadn’t have been so encouraging and confident I’m not sure where I would have found the confidence to give it a try. 

It took a long time for each individual in our group to brave our first rappel.  The first two guys went very quickly because they felt like they knew it all already.  But they slipped and were shamed for their bravado.  The Chinese girlfriend (hereonin rightfully referred to by her name: Tina) didn’t heed the ‘feet flat, lean back’ motto and flipped upside down, but successfully sorted herself out.  Her older manfriend had super skinny legs and he slipped a lot, too.   

When he felt you had the knack, Scotty kicked some water on your face from above. When Christine was going, he instructed me to kick water at her.  I hesitantly did it, but kinda wimpily because I didn't want her upset at me, then Scotty kicked extra water at her because my attempt didn't meet his standards.  She didn't look impressed with me, but hopefully she's since forgotten.

The girls and I did pretty good!  We were slow, but for the most part didn't make mistakes.  It was very scary going over the edge, trusting that the rope was strong enough to hold you up, and the harness cuts into your lower back so it’s not the most comfortable sport in the world.  The worst part of that first waterfall was one spot near the bottom where you had to stand on the rock face using only your toes, hang your heels over the ledge, and just lower yourself on the rope until your whole feet made contact.   At the bottom, we had to let go of the rope and kick ourselves off the wall into the water below. This was a bit of a challenge for me because of my intense feelings for cold water, but clearly it was worse for Tina, who panicked and her manfriend leaped out to rescue her. She just ended up pushing him underwater and Raven jumped in to rescue them both.

The second rappel was 40' in height and gave us the option of zigzagging into the waterfall or descending adjacent to it.  I mostly went next to it but tried to get in a bit, too.  My distaste for cold water prevents me from full awesomeness.  

The third waterfall was even larger but a dry rappel this time so we went down it two by two.  I partnered with Sandra.  On my side, there was one steep ledge where I had to step down from my perpendicular positioning onto the horizontal ledge.  That might sound easy enough, but believe it’s scary and physically difficult to balance on leg and step blindly down whilst changing your centre of gravity. It worked out thought.  Sandra beat me to the ground.

The fourth waterfall was another fairly small one, the fifth a medium one, and the final one was about 80'.  You had two choices for this one: the “Rad” way, or the “Radical” way.  Both were steep and slippery -the most challenging yet- but the “Radical” one also provided the pleasure of having to cut in through the waterfall for a few feet.  Being 90° to the wall face also meant the full weight of the water is crashing down directly on your stomach/chest/face.  Sandra, Caroline and I did the Rad route and everyone else manned up and took water in their faces.

I got to go first and for the most part it was like all the other ones except longer.  The top was tough to get over but thereon down it was alright, just very high.

Sandra and Caroline made it down well, and we watched nervously as the rest of the group came down the “Radical” route.  The two Americans nearly ran down the falls, more reeling and bouncing than climbing.  The old guy had some trouble but recovered and by the time he reached the bottom his short was stretched out to a sexy off-the-shoulder number. Tina also lost her footing but persevered and made it down.  We were really impressed with her. The rest of our girls got down pretty gracefully except for a couple of forgivable slips.

They told us after that Barney at the top of the ledge and was laying down in the river to redirect some of the water to help us out.  Except for the Americans… for them he laid down to collect a pool of water, then quickly got up to send a heavy dump down on them.  And that’s why you should never be rude to your guides.

Since us ‘rad’ chickens went first, I was very cold by the time the rest of the group joined us at the bottom.  We had to get back into the water again to get to our final location, and to take this sweet  group photo with the last waterfall in the background.  

We plotted through the last stretch of river to a sunny swimming hole where the water was much warmer.  We jumped off the rocks into the deep pool and then swam towards a quick current that scooped us up and sent us along a mini rapid.  After a few seconds you needed to kick off back towards the rocks to avoid getting sent further downriver. My first time through that route I didn't kick off soon enough and was almost swept away.  Not sure where I would have ended up but I’m happy I didn't have to find out.

Once the truck arrived we all clambered aboard and headed off to the shop. On the way Sabina was chatting with us and Sandra yelled her name. She turned around in time to get a branch in the face.  Barney laughed, then paused to say it wasn't funny, then couldn't help but laugh at her again. Luckily she was all right.

Back at the headquarters we reminisced about our best and worst moments of the day, and ordered sandwiches from a sandwich shop Sandra had really online about, which lived up to their reputation. Scotty told us about how he's brought his two year old on the canyoning tour in one of those child carrier pouches, including on the radical route!  When we tried to tip him, he passed all the money along to his team, which was really nice.  He even called a few different shuttles for us too, to help us figure out how to get to the airport the next day.

We hailed a cab to take us to the beach to watch the sunset. Sandra, Heidi and I had a long romantical walk on the beach, discussed how fortunate we all are, while the other girls stayed put on a log to enjoy the scenery.

Once back at the hostel we split our times between packing, napping, and internet before regrouping for wine, guacamole and chips, and Cards Against Humanity.  We hit the hay at 10pm, and Care, Heidi and I made plans to get up at 5:45am the next morning so we could walk to the Whale's Tail for some last minute snorkling before our 10am airport pick up.