July 13, 2011

"Hey, I Can See My Ma From Up Here!"

A couple of years ago I worked outside of San Jose, just on the other side of Juan Santamaria International Airport. From my house in Berlín de San Ramón, it took me at least an hour and 10 minutes to get to work by car, and significantly longer if I tried any sort of scheme involving buses. As it turns out, I should have flown, since I would have gotten there in about three minutes instead.

Every time I've left Costa Rica by plane in the last 5 years, I've tried to find Berlín when looking out the airplane windows. I know that from my house I often see a lot of planes flying low, close enough to even see the airline's logo. Plus, our town has a lot of really distinctive towers, since it's really high up and apparently a good place to transmit all sorts of things from, such as radio signals, microwave internet service, and anger at the inefficiency and corruption of the government. Still, even with all that equipment providing prime landmarks on the ground, I'd never seen the town from the air--until today! Surprisingly, it was really cool, in a nerdy way!

I think the trick was that I started looking immediately after takeoff. Before, I'd always waited about 10 or 15 minutes, and it seems that Berlín would have been long gone by then. But after what was about two or three minutes, sure enough, I saw a cluster of antennas that looked like Berlín's. I thought I must be seeing something much closer to San José, and until I'd identified Palmares, San Ramón, and the Pan-American Highway, about 30 seconds had passed. I then found La Berlinesa, a famous house in Berlín (famous because it's big and no one knows who lives there or what goes on inside...basically the town's crown jewel). From there I quickly traced the road to our house's roof, got nerdily excited, and notified Angela. 

All that means that I didn't get a picture of much in the town except the one above. It was just a bit too late, but I was able to get a good picture of San Ramón, which you can see below, with all the famous sights marked:


Anyhow, has anyone else seen their house from the air? Google Earth doesn't count, by the way, although it is cool, too. 
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

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