Aero: Tiffany Bane – Costa Rica 2016 – Travel

Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project

Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project

During the trip, I experienced many forms of travel. I have taken airplanes, buses, and taxis all before, but international travel is quite different.

Tiffany Bane

Tiffany Bane

For me, international travel via airplane was very similar to traveling within the US on a plane. One difference between international and domestic travel is that when you are traveling internationally there is paperwork for immigration and customs that has to be filled out before you land. The forms were a challenge, because I had never seen them before and I had no idea how to fill them out at first, and I was separated from the professors on the plane so it was a struggle.

The security processes in the airports wasn’t as hard to get through as I thought it was. I thought that going through immigration and customs would involve more baggage checks, but the only time my bag was checked was before being allowed on the plane in San Jose. When getting back into the United States though we were running through the airport because we had to go through baggage claim and security again, and the line was pretty long.

For the trip we had a bus, and a guide that drove us around. It was great to not have to worry about having to take a bus, or taxi all the time. We did take a bus one day to the Zooave. The bus ride was crowded, at every bus stop the driver kept picking up more people. Our group also took a taxi to go from the Central Park to one of the host family homes to go swimming. The ride was a little scary, the taxi driver didn’t stop at the stop signs, and we almost ran into a bus! The driving down in Costa Rica scares me. There doesn’t seem to be rules down there, people just do what they want when driving. The pedestrians don’t have the right away, so you have to really pay attention to where you are walking.

Getting the experience traveling in a different country can be helpful in the future because I’ll know how to take every mode of transportation without hesitation because nothing could get worse than that taxi ride.

Tiffany Bane
LEAF Contributor
ML@FLCC: Costa Rica 2016

Modern Languages @ FLCC: Costa Rica Study Abroad 2016