dsf

Hello, FT trip report readers. I'm normally one of you, but today find myself atypically on the other side of the fence. Thing is, on a (very) recent holiday in Costa Rica my girlfriend Helen and I took some internal flights which I humbly think may be of interest to the denizens of this forum, so I'm attempting to write a report slightly outside of my usual (external to FT, what with all the profanities and other nonsense) style to fit in around here. Indulge me if you will as I attempt an informative and/or entertaining guide to my Fly SANSA experience in Costa Rica: from San Jose to Tortuguero and back, with a stop in La Fortuna for good measure.

I'll split the report in two: this post, containing preamble and SJO-TTQ, and a separate post for TTQ-xFON-SJO.We found ourselves in Costa Rica (my 51st-55th different country, depending on how one counts them) courtesy of Iberia's extremely generous and flexible business class, um, promotional fare from June 2016. Our itinerary had us spend 5 days based in Alajuela and visiting lots of attractions in the surrounding areas, then escaping to the coast for 3 days before heading back home. We plumped for Tortuguero, the options for reaching which seemed to be:

1. buses, boats, and possibly bandidos, for ~4-7 hours
2. 35 minutes on a plane

With Helen's attention diverted elsewhere, she left me in charge of internal transport and naturally I chose option 2. So it was we were booked on a triangular route: SJO-TTQ on the way out, then 3 days later TTQ-FON-SJO to get back. Long haul this is not.Fast forward to the day itself. We arrived on foot at the Sansa terminal building, their own separate facility at SJO. The internet had promised us storage locker facilities, and we'd dutifully spent an hour or so that morning playing baggage tetris to ensure we could leave one case behind and only take what we needed for the weekend. Much to our surprise, then, our first interaction with a member of Sansa staff was them telling us nuh-uh, no way, there's no lockers here. Guess we're taking everything then!

Check-in involved taking our passports and highlighting our names on a sheet of paper with a yellow marker. Our cases were weighed, and then so were we ourselves, standing on the scales while holding our carry-on bags. That was a new one on me! Then, boarding passes.



Not much personal info here, just a laminated piece of card with the destination on. Security check consisted of a wave with a wand and some amusement at just how many USB cables we had, and then we were "airside": about 20 plastic seats and a shop that claimed not to be a shop.



This was also the source of wifi, which disappeared at some point. I saw the shopkeeper reset the router, which explained things.

I'll admit to some trepidation on my part about the actual flying. Prior to this, the smallest plane I'd been on was a leg from PHX to FLG en route to the Grand Canyon, when I thought my row 9 seat would be "quite near the front". Patently it was, but row 9 had in fact been the last row. On Sansa, however, row 9 doesn't exist. Their fleet consists of Cessna Grand Caravans, configured to seat between 9 and 14 people in total. We'd seen their terminal and planes after taxiing past them from our IB A340 on arrival, but still I hadn't fully grasped just how small and light these things look. It'll be OK, right?



My heart and head fluctuate between excitement and dread, but mostly excitement. Helen stays mostly within dread.

It was rush hour at the Sansa terminal. The TTQ flight goes out at 1200, but several other destinations are served soon after. Accordingly, during our time waiting 4 or 5 planes arrived and kicked their passengers off, while numerous other departees showed up too. Eventually, at around 1155 someone with a clipboard and a hi-vis jacket shouts "Tortuguero!". Another couple stand up before us, have their names ticked off and boarding passes collected and go through. We're next, and last: there are only the four of us onboard. By now I'm in 100% excitement mode. Everyone poses for photos - who are we delaying but ourselves?



And then we're onboard. The other couple had taken seats at the rear, so Helen is free to position herself directly behind the pilots and I directly behind her.

We're on the right, in the 2 seater sofas. Left of the aisle are the single seats. There are 14 in total on this plane.



Everything seems very new, clean, and well maintained. The flight crew are impeccably turned out and achingly cool, and the dashboard is all kinds of fancy with colour displays and stuff. The aircon is aggressively noisy, there's a seatbelt and no smoking sign, an inflight magazine, even power at some of the seats. It's almost like this is a real plane. Legroom and headroom are both at somewhat of a premium, however.

I hesitate to say there's a cockpit, because in my head that conjures images of a separate room. Let's just say the crew are in row zero.



We taxi. I'm sat right under the wing, and now entirely convinced I'm going to love every second. I'm sure the same is true for Helen. As soon as we take off I'm admiring the views of SJO, Alajuela, San Jose, etc. We turn and climb and turn and climb and the views are great, albeit not of spectacular volcanos or what have you.



It wasn't the clearest day, and I thought I could make out some interesting weather on the dashboard up front. We moved between what looked to my amateur eyes like thunderstorms, and there was a tiny bit of turbulence. While it's a bit cloudy outside I enjoy watching the displays despite understanding virtually nothing.



Despite announcing at the start that we had to turn all electronic devices off, the pilots spend a bit of time showing each other stuff on what seems to be WhatsApp. (This is possibly not what they were doing, but they definitely had their phones on and I doubt we were high enough to not have a signal!)



20 minutes in, things started to get greener.



Then, much greener! And bluer, in fact, as the Caribbean came into view. Hello, Tortuguero. 4 minutes until landing. Cabin crew, doors to manual and ... oh, wait. Forget that.



The TTQ air strip is next. This is, to all intents and purposes, the entire airport.



There's a terminal building but ... well ... I'm not sure whether it has fallen into disrepair or just was never finished. Either way, welcome to Tortuguero!



All 4 of us get off, and a few other folk are waiting to head on. The other two pax are met by people from their lodge. A guy in a hi-vis jacket shakes hands with the pilots, and asks where we're going. "To the village? Gimme 5 minutes, I'll take you". This is Paolo, a man with many jobs: wildlife guide (he shows us a 3-toed sloth, heron, crocodile), tour guide, taxi driver, and every member of TTQ ground staff going. After doing some paperwork and picking up the cones, he puts us in his cab.



In his Sansa polo shirt, he takes us direct to our accommmodation's private dock, and is honest enough to not take the accidental double amount I pay him thanks to a comms hiccup regarding the price (I think he's quoting thousands of colones, he's actually talking about US dollars, of which we possess zero). The inbound TTQ ground experience is incomparable. Not a bad destination either, really.

dsf

After a few days in the village, relaxing, walking through rainforest, and taking in a dawn canal tour, it was time for us to head back to the aiport. Our accommodation's resident igaunas wanted the decking to themselves anyway.

The cab arrives early, in common with every taxi - land or water based - we got while in Costa Rica. Since when were early cabs a thing? It's a lovely sunny drive up the water, and the parking lot is empty. Probably because we are, ludicrously, an hour early.



Our arrival surprises some local teenagers, who disappear into the distance. We're left sitting in the shade, amazed to discover there is wifi available here - courtesy of the nearby Tortuga Lodge, whose network requires no authentication.



Because we've so much time to kill we can explore the airport. It takes all of 5 seconds, which is roughly how long it takes before finding the sun brutally hot anyway. Mad dogs and Englishmen...



I like that you can walk onto a Caribbean beach right from the strip.

Paolo turns up at around 1205, 40 minutes before scheduled flight time. After laying out cones at the end of the strip, he checks us in. This involes writing our passport details on a sheet of paper, and weighing us on some bathroom scales.



It's a good thing that he and we are all early, because the plane arrives at 1215. One passenger gets off, another stays on. For this leg there'll be only the 3 of us, this time on a 12 seater with slightly older seating but more legroom. We stay on the back row, close to the emergency - um, only - exit.





Take-off is spectacular. It's to the south, with great views of the beaches and village, and we immediately perform a 180 and then a further 90 to go west, inland. I have a time lapse video of this on instagram:
Soon, there are clouds. There's a few more pronounced bumps during the climb; I'm a single seat on the left, Helen is on the double to my right, and not looking overly happy.



Then, more clouds.



And now, lots of clouds. Grey ones. Which we're flying through, varying our altitude every few seconds. Mostly I'm quite enjoying it, though at some points it's pretty disconcerting and I do let out an audible "Jesus!" at one bump. Poor Helen is closing her eyes and making her own exhortations. We're being battered with rain, which is loud, and can't see anything at all.



Once we finally get above the clouds it calms a bit, and the pilot puts fingers from both his hands in the aircon vents. Someone would rather he at least pretended to be aviating.



It stays cloudy, but less terrifyingly so. In front of us loom some volcanos, Arenal and friends. We're descending towards La Fortuna, FON, over interesting farm land.



Fairly suddenly we bank left, and left, and left, and left, spiralling to our landing. I have another time lapse video of this on instagram:
The airstrip is much worse than at TTQ - it's basically a gravel track - but there's a real terminal building. It has a foosball table and an automatic door!



The other passenger gets off, and so do the pilots. Then, a NatureAir plane turns up.



After a few minutes a load of bags are loaded, and a 9-person party all seemingly from one American family board, taking us up to 11 out of 12 seats in use. I'm a bit gutted that we no longer have the almost-private-jet feel. Helen is still considering bailing and getting a bus.

We take off ahead of the NatureAir plane, taxiing the full length of the gravel track, pulling a U-turn and then setting off. I prefer flat concrete. Then, we're back in the air and heading towards volcanos. We skirt between them, but do get some nice mountain views.



This leg is short - only 42 miles. We're about 40 minutes ahead of schedule, and this leg passes without much incident. I see smoke coming from the ground in a couple of places and decide against joking to Helen "hey, they must be landing sites of previous flights".



When we land at SJO there are a bunch of big, boring planes. Helen wants a welcoming party and medal for surviving the journey, I want to do it again. Perhaps not today, but definitely again.

The ground experience here is less pleasant than at TTQ. After picking up our bags, we walk outside and there are no cab drivers waiting at all. It's a hot walk to the scrum of people waving signs and shouting outside the international terminal arrivals area. We get a cab to our accommodation, which provides a beautiful coda to our flights with this question/response in their welcome pamphlet.



I know planes of this size are not rare, and I'm reasonably confident we were perfectly safe at all times. Nonetheless it felt moderately perilous - yet that didn't stop me from enjoying the entire experience, turbulence and all (some retrospect required), and I wouldn't hesitate to use Sansa internally in Costa Rica again.

Hope you enjoyed the report!

ft4lyf

^
Enjoyed reading this!

steveo

haha I had a similar experience doing the nature air flight to drake bay, but hey I didn't die!

dsf

I've now posted a short version of our entire trip to Costa Rica in the Central America forum too.

Thanks!

^

lamphs

^

TPJ

Great report! An amazing experience! Thanks for sharing...

rdurlabhji

I flew Sansa in Costa Rica as well. Quite an experience.

lamphs

^

onobond

Enjoyed both your story and pics. Some million years ago, in an other part of the world, did a similar trip. At many times during your report, I felt I was on the same bumpy "road" again. Planning a second SA run coming November, these posts got me thinking...

Thanks for sharing. ^