ready to boo-ya!

Since these clowns posted, I guess I'll write something too. We are currently sitting in the Dallas airport waiting for our connecting flight and I found a computer with twenty minutes of free internet. Things are looking good. Not much to tell. Our flight here sucked because there were two crying babies in front of us that wouldn't shut up... I was about ready to kill a b. We had some tasy Fudruckers and are looking forward to the in-flight meal. We also talked about how we are going to get kidnapped in Managua, becausae apparently cabbbie kidnappings are common there.
I have also decided to carry my "little brown book" so I can write down stupid stuff we do/say aso we don't forget it. Guess what time it is? My, my, my time!

Love,
Prez

Ready to Roll

14 hours until we're in the air and I'm already having problems - ha. After a night out on the town raging in Minneapolis I somehow managed to leave my wallet in the back seat of an Airport Taxi mini-van at 2am... Needless to say, my license and credit/debit cards are now gone. Fortunately there was no cash in the wallet. I'm still hopeful it'll turn up, but there's no way I can get it before tomorrow. Good thing I didn't lose my passport.

Anyway, after being completely nonfunctional for a majority of the day, I am finally packed and ready to roll. We'll be jetting off to paradise at 10:40 tomorrow morning unless some Minnesota winter weather delays the journey (hopefully not). We're scheduled to touch down in San Jose at 8:20 - just in time to bring in the new year.

Have a frigid January everyone and be sure to check back throughout the month for updates on our adventures, which will hopefully include staying out of trouble.

I will always remember... The three legs of the tripod.

It was perhaps stated best in the movie The Girl Next
Door:

Eli: Okay, you know what the three of us are? We're a tripod.
Klitz: A tripod?
Eli: Yes, a tripod. Which means that if you knock out one of our legs, WE-ALL-FALL!

The Tico Tripod is our attempt to blog (me, for the first time) to keep all of you back home up to date on our adventures in Costa Rica and Nicaragua over the course of the next few weeks. As of now, our travels will take us from San Jose to the east coast and then back to the Pacific. Somewhere in the middle of all that we hope to tackle Costa Rica's tallest mountain (which boasts a view of ocean in both directions), white water rafting, watching a volcano spew lava at night and of course master the art of surfing: in no particular order. Oh yeah, and Chris wants to get tan. On the 17th of January we'll take a break from relaxing and head north to Nicaragua for 10 days to make the world a better place, hopefully. In all seriousness, it will be my 3rd trip (the 1st for the others) to the remote city of Jalapa, Nicaragua. Apparently it even has its own Wikipedia page now, go figure. Located on the Honduran boarder, the three of us will be joining a team of about 25 (including 3 other Oles) in Managua and then will be making the journey north by bus. Our hope is to survey a number of small villages with health questionnaires prepared by the University of Minnesota so future groups of doctors will know the greatest needs of the Nicaraguans there. Following that we'll make our way back to San Jose (if my math is correct- about 400 miles) and have yet to determine how exactly to spend our final few days. If all goes well we'll be back just in time to watch the Vikings win their first Super Bowl in early February.

For now David, Chris and I are still here in the frozen tundra that is Minnesota, due to leave mid-morning on Thursday. Lets hope that none of us are suspicious enough to be kept from boarding the airplane- thanks a lot Bin Laden (and now Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab). With sub-zero temperatures greeting us the past few days, its hard not to be excited for a change.
If I figure out how to map our trip on Google Earth or MapQuest I'll be sure and add that. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

One last thing. Because I am obsessed with the weather, I decided to attach a link for the 10 day forecast for San Jose. I'm not sure if it will update or work- I can't even make it a hyperlink just copy and paste it i guess: http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/CSXX0009?from=dayDetails_topnav_business

I'm not sure how entertaining this blog will ever become, but feel free to share it with anyone who you think would enjoy it. I'm sure that we'll forget to tell (accidentally of course) some of you who we really do care about. No doubt David and Chris will add their two cents at some point.


-Luke