Hawaii to LA to San José (CR)

Strap yourselves in, we've got about 24 hours of travel coming up...

First stop, the Honolulu airport via a taxi from Waikiki. We leave at about 5am. There's a guy on a food delivery bike preaching the good word to a couple of hostel residents having a smoke in the gutter. Really getting into how God's forgiveness works. The girls in the gutter are agreeing vehemently.

The flight to LAX is smooth. No issues. We leave the airport and head straight for our favourite (been there once before) Chipotle in Santa Monica.

We smash a buritto and a burrito bowl and head towards the beach. Jeff does his usual spin out when he recognises random buildings and areas that are replicated in GTA 5.

We get down to the board walk and wander past the pier. We head to the outdoor workout equipment and watch people trying to do the rings (swing from one side to the other). There is a resident expert handing out advice and chalk. No one is able to get past about ring 5. Jeff steps up and manages to grind his way to the end whilst nearly ripping his arm out his sockets. He'll pay for that tomorrow. The resident expert then shows us how it's done with a touch more grace.

We continue on, overhearing what sound like made-up phone conversations. We then hear a live meeting of the minds ("unless you've lived that experience, you haven't experienced what other people have experienced") at another workout spot where there are some alternative approaches to weightlifting going on, with a side of raw cow's milk, of course.

The sun is slowly setting over the ocean. It's a beautiful day. You get the feeling that every day is like this in LA. There are people on bikes and skateboards everywhere, music blaring from portable speakers, or even a live DJ set. The people watching is great, although it's safe to say about 5% of the people we see are on the other side of "interesting". Cooking with gas, as we like to say.

It's the pointy end of the MLB season and the LA Dodgers are playing. We spot a bar/restaurant with the game on and try to enter but have to wait for a woman (on roller skates) screaming at the workers there, calling them racist. This goes on for a few minutes then she skates off promising she'll be back. We duck inside and grab a seat and 2 big pints of Pacifico.

It's an interesting setup. A mix of locals come and go. Everyone seems to know each other (which we find odd given the location). There's also a steady stream of people on roller skates heading on down to the restrooms. The game is on though and it's attracting a fair bit of attention.

We stay for about half the game before heading off. It's dark now. There was a run club going past before, must have been 1000 runners. But we're well into witching hour now. Most of the shops have shut and it went from weird to seedy veerrry quickly. Not unsafe seedy, but we've seen enough and it's time to get back to the airport.

The lyft back is easy. The checkin is easy and soon enough we're on our way to Mexico City. About a 4 hour flight on the most budget Mexican airline out there, Volaris. We're in good company though; the lady across the isle has her lovely little dog with her. The poor pup is a bit stressed though.

The view of this infinite city lit up as we descended was incredible. We touch down before the sun is up, rocking a few patchy hours of sleep.

From here it's like we went from one purgatory to another. We have 4 hours between flights though, so it's not a problem, but man, this airport is a mess. It's undergoing some renovations, but one gets the feeling that the dead-end hallways, broken travelators and sketchy elevators might be par for the course here. We get some conflicting information about where to go for our conexión but eventually make it to the right area.

We try and order a coffee at Starbucks but they don't currently have running water. We find an alternative and the coffee is pretty good. We stumble our way to another area and into a restaurant for a plate of chicken, tortilla, avocado, cheese all stacked on top of each other. It's far too big and defeats both of us.

One last leg to go to get us to San Jose. At this point we have no idea what day it is. Stay tuned for Costa Rica.