It is all about expectations--Costa Rica is advancing nicely, and as a long-time resident and soon-to-be citizen, I know we can do better. Sure the airport looks good with new fittings and nice overpriced shops, but it desperately needs the five new gates under construction. These have been unfinished for about five years while the government and contractor argue about who's going to pay for cost overruns. But if you're a tourist don't worry, when the lines for immigration reach back to the gate where you got off, they'll come take you to the front of the line so you don't get a bad first impression.

And it takes its toll. In Panama, PTY, which looks like nothing if not an elevated tugboat pier with thin poliester carpets and scattered plastic seats, and has one restuarant (airside) with $10 hamburgers, COPA is frantically opening new routes and can because there are 20+ gates there. If somebody new wanted to do that from San Jose, forget it. TACA is protected, so we pay $400 to go to El Salvador which is about the same distance as LA-San Francisco.

Patrick

Actually, birders do get criticized for their life lists, usually by other birdwatchers who say that they don’t “appreciate” the birds. I’ve never actually met anyone like that, but the stereotype is out there. Also, now that it’s fasionable to chide other people for their carbon footprint, it can even be considered environmentally unsound to go look at birds.

How to determine how many countries one has “birded” presents similar chalenges to what you describe. Standardized competitive listing rules set geographical areas. For example, the definition of the U.S. for listing purposes does not include Puerto Rico, so does that make it a country? I was in Hong Kong before it was turned over and later went to Taiwan, but never to the PRC proper. Telling people I’ve birded 32 countries, territories, and special administrative areas is a bit unwieldy. And untrue, since I have seen birds in several countries I have not been to, such as in Brazil across the river at Iguazu Falls, out the airliner window in Frankfurt, and in the Beagle Channel. So even if that Black-browed Albatross was in Chile and I probably was too, it was too vague for comfort.

One airport not producing any dilemna was Barranquilla. It makes Lima look like an oasis. Not a bird in sight.

Sportswriters, moron blog posters, and Rangers-fan Wikipedia vandals seem to be of mixed opinion as to the need to mention that Sexson is barely over .200 and his kid is in the hospital.