We left the U.S. on the anniversary of the coup attempt, seeking the playa. One of my in-laws was taking advantage of Costa Rica’s health care system to get some essential care done that was neither insured nor affordable back home, and we decided to all tag along on our first family vacation since Covid. There’s a direct flight now two days a week from Austin to the city of Liberia in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, on the Pacific coast, and as the first magic islands came into view through the airplane window, we realized that it was now easier to get to a Central American jungle than it is to visit my parents in southern Iowa.