.this is what happens when you have a lack of imagination.

So with my exam date now on the horizon (gulp...August 17th) Leif and I are making plans to take a vacation.  We were pretty sure that we were going to go back to one of the places where we went for our honeymoon in Punta Uva, Costa Rica (we also went to Arenal).  However, since we last went there has been a change in the flights that go to San Jose from Los Angeles and there are no direct flights anymore.  Most flights will take us anywhere from 10 to 14 hours with the addition of layovers.  That wouldn't be a deal breaker except that from San Jose it is another 5 hours by car to the Caribbean side of the country.  When you add that time on to the flight time...well, it seems so less appealing when we are only going to be on vacation for about a week.


This is why this bums me out...

Costa Rica is beautiful.

If no Costa Rica then these are the main things I have to consider when trying to figure out another place to visit:
1. Travel time.  We don't want to travel for longer than half a day or so.
2. Beach.  There must be beautiful tropical beaches where other tourists are not swarming all over the place.
3. Safety.  I am chicken shit.  Seriously.  I am a huge pansy.
4. Low key.  Leif and I like our vacations sloooowwww.  Which is why Costa Rica is so great for us.  We can relate really well to all the sloths that live there.

Those four things don't seem like much but I am having a difficult time coming up with other options. 

• Hawaii is not going to happen since five months ago I was there for my third visit. 
• Mexico seems to be knocked out of the running by either 2 or 3 on my list.  Maybe I am incorrectly swayed by the media to think that non-touristy places in Mexico are dangerous for foreigners right now.  Please educate me if I am indeed being misled by popular media outlets.  Even though I trust the media 100% and they never, ever lie about anything.  Sarcasm, folks.
• The Florida Keys were a possibility but there is a good chance that the oil from the BP fiasco will be headed there next, which is truly heartbreaking.  
• We don't do cruises.  They freak me out.  I had a friend who used to work on a large cruise liner and she shared with me that people die all the time on cruises.  Elderly people will often just continually go on cruises until they die.  They are affectionately referred to as "white-lighters" by cruise staff.  And you know what that means?  Ghosts. 
• Canada is a nice place.  I like Canadians a lot.  But unless the geography of the world has been turned on its nose, tropical beaches aren't really to be found in our friendly northern neighbor's territories.

And so....that's it.  I'm out of ideas.  I guess my next step would be to start seeing what central/south American countries have direct flights from Los Angeles.  I am totally open to suggestions from all ten of you people out there that may be reading this.