In the safe harbor of Costa Rica?!

On March 16th, we are sitting at the airport in Panama and are glad to have made it this far. Disinfectants are hanging everywhere and in Panama we would not have been allowed to enter at this time. We are looking for accommodation for Santa Teresa on Airbnb for the next 9 nights and hope for a sense of arrival after all the excitement. Santa Teresa is said to be a touristy but remote place and one of the most beautiful places in Costa Rica. We also chose Costa Rica because it has the best healthcare system in Central America.

We continue to fly from Panama to San Jose and upon entry we were asked more questions about our onward journey than where we come from. Until now, only China and Italy were actually on the forbidden list. We have never been so happy about a stamp in our passport.

We took a taxi to the bus station and caught the only bus that was going to Santa Teresa on that day. So we drove in a stuffy bus for four hours over land. Then we had to wait for 90 minutes for a ferry and after another 90 minutes we arrived in Santa Teresa. On the ferry we booked a hostel for the first night. The next day we were able to move into the Airbnb at noon. However, since our rented studio had water damage, we were upgraded to the larger apartment on the floor above with its own mini pool. Finally, we were able to let go of the travel stress a bit and start rearranging ourselves. We rented a quad for three days and drove it on the dusty roads of the peninsula. We discovered beautiful beaches, many animals and many plants along the way. That was actually the reason why we wanted to spend more time in Costa Rica.

We continuously followed the news in Costa Rica and Switzerland. The call from the EDA to come home made us reconsider over and over again. But until this point, Costa Rica had less than 20 cases. We considered staying there, renting something nice, and waiting out the virus. We kept checking flight connections and the news in Costa Rica, and as everything was moving in the right direction, we decided to stay. It was an up and down that we had to go through in retrospect. And suddenly the virus had also arrived in Costa Rica, much faster than expected. Within a few days, the situation worsened and borders, restaurants, hotels, and beaches were closed.

On Thursday, March 18th, in the evening, we decided to give up our dream of traveling and to cancel our trip while hugging each other with tears in our eyes. We realized that we could no longer continue our travel plans due to Corona. So we booked a flight for Sunday with Air Canada on Friday morning. So we had two more days to say goodbye to our travel lust, our new selves, and the many memories. As difficult as this decision was, we were also relieved to finally have made a decision.

On this Friday, we made our way to the beach and enjoyed every moment once again, looking forward to having one more day.

When we returned the quad in the evening, we realized that we had no more cash. It was probably a call from fate, as we actually wanted to go out to eat directly. So we went back to the Airbnb. Carla quickly opened the email and oh shit - our flight from Toronto to Zurich was canceled. Since we had become an unbeatable team in this crazy world, we grabbed the computer and booked a new flight. The only and last option was to fly tomorrow... Yes, so we didn't have one more day to say goodbye, we only had one more sunset and then the journey home was announced. So we went for one last long swim in the sea and tried to get our emotions under control.

So the next morning we took the transfer to the airport in San Jose at 6:30 a.m. At the airport in San Jose, we had to wait for ten hours. Accordingly, the chaos there was huge... We spent the time outside in the parking lot and were relieved when we finally had our boarding passes in hand. So we flew to Toronto on Saturday evening. The little sleep of the last nights made us sleep a little at least. We landed in Toronto in the morning and had to go through the entire transit area first. Then we had to wait another ten hours for our flight to Zurich. Since we were not allowed to change terminals, our space to move around was limited and the food options were either burgers (take-away) or burgers with fries (take-away). We talked more and more with Swiss people who went through the same thing as we did. That somehow calmed us down. We were incredibly grateful when we saw the plane that would take us home. So we could be sure that our flight would go and not be canceled, like countless others on this journey home.

We boarded the plane on Sunday evening and landed in Zurich at 6:00 a.m. on Monday, March 23rd, with tears in our eyes. We don't have to explain how often you imagine such a moment of coming home after a year, right? Definitely not like this! We were only allowed to leave the plane in groups of 25 people and outside Basil picked us up by car and took us to Reigoldswil.

Yes, here we are for almost three weeks now.

We are grateful that we have found a place to stay here.

We are glad that we have come back healthy and made the decision.

But the pain of saying goodbye to our dreams and canceling our trip after 256 days is still so deep that sometimes we cannot talk about it and tears just flow, like when writing these lines. We hope that we will soon be able to overcome this and talk and laugh about our travel experiences.

We hope to find our ground in Switzerland again in the near future, be able to go home to our apartment, and most of all we hope to be able to embrace all our family and friends tight, as we would have done on July 11th, 2020 after 366 days around the world... But one thing is for sure, we will never stop believing in our dreams!