We were excited to be flying Southwest out of San Jose Juan Santamaria International Airport in Costa Rica. We love Southwest Airlines and bought our seats on the first flight from San Jose several months ago. When we tried to book our roundtrip reservations returning from Phoenix, they didn’t even have the return routes and schedules mapped out yet!
So when we got to our departure gate about 6:00am, we realized there was a LOT of excitement about Southwest Airlines flying out of Costa Rica! Our gate was decorated with red, blue, and yellow balloons (Southwest colors) and tables were scattered in the area with red, blue, and yellow tablecloths. We noticed a breakfast serving area being set up and it wasn’t long before we smelled fresh coffee and other wonderful things and realized they were offering complimentary beverages, muffins, and egg sandwiches. And then the music started and Costa Rican dancers began the celebration.
It was fun people watching with all the festivity and sampling some coffee and muffins while we waited for our flight. Once the boarding process started, photographers appeared everywhere. One of them focused on our cute little Mosie dog in his kennel and got down on his knees to photograph him being carried all the way down the jetway!
Once we were all seated and the plane was ready to take off, we noticed firetrucks and water being sprayed all over the plane just as the flight attendant announced we were getting a “water cannon sendoff”! Looking out the window, we saw a huge crowd gathered cheering and clapping as we backed out of the gate area. We were told even the President of Costa Rica was there participating in all the fanfare! It was definitely a memorable, fun sendoff.
Typical for Costa Rica… celebrating life and “Pura Vida” !
Tropical Dreams 