Photos from trip to Costa Rica

as a note, i realize i have several sensor dust spots that are visible. i cleaned my sensor yesterday and most of them are gone. the edits aren't the greatest, either.

LACSA (Líneas Aéreas Costarricenses) operated by TACA
Flight 661 (JFK-SJO)
March 17th, 2006
Airbus A320-200 (registration unknown)
departure at ~5:15AM from JFK's Terminal 4

takeoff was from runway 31L...

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(unfortunately not in focus)

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approaching SJO

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AA 757 and Martinair A320

LACSA (Líneas Aéreas Costarricenses) operated by TACA
Flight 660 (SJO-JFK)
March 26th, 2006
Airbus A320-200 (registration unknown)
departure at ~6:30PM

no photos from the actual flight because it was dark...

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ironic that my last aviation photo of the trip is most likely the next plane I'm flying on.

If you're interested, I have a lot of non-aviation pics I could post. just let me know.

Matt, there is a very friendly local spotter group in SJO who I correspond with, they upload mostly to JetPhotos, did u hook up with any of them while you where in SJO ? And yes I would enjoy seeing the non-aviation photos as I hope to go there one day !

Cheers

LGA777

Ron,

Unfortunately I didn't do any spotting there. I was there with a group of about thirty classmates -- we were working on a construction project in a neighborhood of San José. We also went to the Arenal volcano (and saw it erupt) and the Nicoya Peninsula (along with various destinations in and around San José) during our trip. If I can remember, I will post some of the non-aviation photos when I have more time tomorrow.

Matt you're very lucky to have gone to Costa Rica, I was here a few years ago and its a truly wonderful country, rich in culture and beauty. I hope you enjoyed you're time there.

A couple years ago, I also went to Costa Rica and stayed with a nice little family in a little town called San Gerardo (in the Nicoya region you went to). Its a great place and I'm sure you had a great time.

finally some non-aviation photos from my trip...sorry if it seems like too many...I took about 1400 pics over the course of 10 days, so I had to narrow them down quite a bit.

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hillside community

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students walking down the street

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the Arenal volcano from my room at our hotel (forgot the name)

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hiking to the lava fields at Arenal Volcano National Park

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no hunting

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quite a sense of scale

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pastures...lots of green tones

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this isn't the best picture, but I saw this kid seemingly trapped in his/her own home and it seemed surreal for some reason

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can't escape globalization

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the streets of San Sebastian, a barrio of San José

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stark contrast of palm fronds and car parts at our worksite, a daycare center, part of which used to be a car parts shop

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patterns looking through the roof of the unfinished classroom

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San José at night

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Hostel Toruma -- our home for our week of work in San José

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evening light from a hike in Escazú

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another good sense of scale

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hiking down towards Escazú...high above San José at night. the sound was incredible--a muffled roar with various things that you could hear clearly.

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performance of traditional Costa Rican dances from the provinces of Guanacaste and Puntarenas

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more dancing

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morning commute in San José. even though it's overexposed, I like the effect the overexposure had.

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Hostel Toruma at night

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pond? lake? bay? caldera at Poás Volcano. it was a crater that had been dormant for many years and had filled with rainwater. due to the chemical content of the volcanic earth in the crater, the water is acidic and hardly anything lives in it. the day after we visited the caldera, there was some major volcanic activity with geysers, etc and the national park had to be closed temporarily.

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palm frond beneath cloudy skies. color photo.

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various paints at our worksite

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fishing boats in Puntarenas on the Pacific coast

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sunrise from the beach in Curú on the Nicoya Peninsula, on a private coastal wildlife refuge where we stayed for the final two days of our trip

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the beach shortly after sunrise

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the Nicoya Peninsula has tropical dry forest as opposed to tropical rain forest. the leaves fall off the trees like they do around here, yet it's a completely tropical environment. felt sort of weird.

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white-faced monkey preparing to leap to a tree

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these crabs were all over the beach


comments appreciated. sorry if there were too many.