Get Me Outta Here: PYL In-Flight Entertainment (May 20, 2021)

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Terri Hanson Mead

5 min readMay 20, 2021

Welcome Back My Adventurous Passengers:

Five years ago today I was in the British Virgin Islands enjoying my first trip to Necker Island (one of Richard Branson’s private islands in the BVI). Gotta love Facebook Memories to remind me of these past adventures making me feel both good about the past experience and bad in that I desperately want to be there again (next time with my husband Zeke).

Fortunately, things are opening up and we (me and my 16 year old Finn) are preparing for a trip to Nicaragua to visit my friend Christy who has lived there for six years.

Christy is a leadership coach and runs retreats in places like Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Bali.

Finn is going to help her with some social media and photography for her next retreat scheduled for the end of June (I think there are still spots open if you are interested in an 8 day mind/body/soul retreat)

I am delivering Finn for their mini-internship and since it’s a bit of a trek, I will be staying about 10 days. The things we do for our kids!. My friend Amy will be attending the retreat and Finn will be flying back with her at the end of June.

Is this safe? Hopefully, yes. Is it risky? Life is risky. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

Finn and I have been fully vaccinated for Covid-19 (thank you Pfizer), Hep A and B, and Tetanus. We’ve decided against the Typhoid vaccine largely because the manufacturer is no longer shipping the oral vaccine and there’s little risk to contract it where we are going. We have malaria pills but have also opted not to take for the same reason.

We are flying into Liberia, Costa Rica and will be staying the night before crossing into Nicaragua where Christy will meet us to make the 2.5 hour trek to her place.

We will need a negative Covid test to enter Nicaragua (but not Costa Rica) so Finn and I will be tested on Thursday to get results before we leave on Saturday and hope they are still within the 3 calendar day requirement for Nicaragua when we cross the border on Sunday.

To get back into the US, we can use the at-home tests that I acquired for $25 each at CVS. The rules just changed on this last week so we won’t have to try to get a test at the Liberia airport before entering the US on our return.

All of this has been a lot more complicated than I expected. And the rules/requirements change daily.

Because I don’t have any record of my immunizations prior to 2014, I had to get a blood test to confirm whether I’d received the Hep A and B vaccines (negative). While dealing with trying to get the Typhoid vaccine, I learned I could get the Hep A and B vaccines at my local CVS pharmacy in Target. While the folks there were really nice and helpful (especially the pharmacist), apparently not all vaccine administrations are covered equally by my Blue Shield health plan (a very expensive PPO I might add) and had to pay out of pocket for them. WTF!

Because there’s only one (sketchy) airline flying into Managua right now, we are flying into Liberia, Costa Rica.

There’s only one direct flight a week from SFO (on United) into Liberia so we are arriving on Saturday around 8:30 PM. The Costa Rica / Nicaragua border closes at 10 PM so we are staying the night in Liberia before crossing over the next day.

Finn is coming back on the one direct flight a week (Sunday) but since I am flying back on a Wednesday to be back in time for my 25th wedding anniversary, I get to fly through Houston.

To complicate matters, since Finn is 16, we will need letters of authorization for them to travel out of the country with me (without Zeke) and to be out of the country without both of us. I’ll get to those next week as I chip away at the never ending to do list.

Oh, and I can’t find the one debit card that I can use to get cash out (fortunately USD is used in Nicaragua) because I never use or have cash. I should have the replacement from Schwab by the weekend.

I think I am going to write another blog post about this to give tips and a checklist for others who may not have traveled in a while, during Covid, or to Nicaragua with the caveat that the information may be outdated as soon as I press the publish button.

I know, I know. First world problems. I am grateful that we are able to go in light of what is going on in other parts of the world and what we’ve all endured over the last few years.