Pura Vida

The Costa Ricans have a saying called "Pura Vida," or roughly translated, "the good life." For the past few days, I've been living that life here in Costa Rica.

The last time I wrote, I was staying in La Fortuna near a rain forest. The weather in a rain forest consists of sporadic rain, then dryness, then more rain. It's like this all day and night. I had a difficult time sleeping at the hotel as every morning and night I could hear cows mooing and dogs barking. I think there was a farm across the river. I can't emphasis enough how much I love buffets. Luckily this trip has mainly consisted of that. We woke up in time for breakfast Friday morning and feasted on omelets, granola with yogurt, cafe con leche, guava juice, rice and beans, and assorted other breakfast items at the buffet. I noticed that in Costa Rica, the bagel doesn't exist. What a shame. I also noticed they use pineapple in omelets and tuna fish, which I surprisingly liked. One thing the Costa Ricans do is fill your cup up with half coffee and half creme. Since I love coffee with my creme, this totally works for me. The entire day was a bit rainy and humid. Later in the afternoon, we went on a rain forest hike. Our tour guide, Pedro, led us and a group of about eight into the forest. He pointed out a toucan from afar, a woodpecker, and howler monkeys playing in the trees. He told us there are over 112 volcanos in Costa but only 7 are active including the Arenal, which we would try to see later. The hike was informative but exhausting. I'm so out of shape. Afterwards, we loaded the bus and drove to a spectator point to see if we could see lava spurting out of the volcano. It was dark and cloudy, so we couldn't see much except for a blurry outline of the volcano. Our next stop was the Baldi hot springs. This resort has over 15 pools of various degrees of hot pools you can swim in. The hottest pool was about 152 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course the boyfriend felt the need to take a dip in it. Of course he only latest for about 10 seconds before running out. They had pools with water slides, so I went down one of them. After the hot springs, the tour guide drove us back to the hotel. All in all, it was a successful day of adventure. I watched some movies on tv which are mostly in English with Spanish subtitles. This has been a good method for me to re-learn Spanish, especially curse words. I can now say sonofabitch, shit and sex in Spanish.

On Saturday morning, we woke up really early (7am). We indulged in a breakfast spread and then headed for the trees. The boyfriend talked me into doing the canopy/Ecoglide tour with him. The tour consisted of us, a Russian couple and four trained tour guides. I was totally petrified the entire time. We climbed high in the forest and did a series of glide obstacles. The tour guides strap you into two cables and harnasses, then you simply let go and slide down the cables to the other side. At one point the tour guide asked me what I was afraid of and I responded with, "muerte," which means death. He laughed and said I was being silly. Even though I was nervous about falling, I also had a lot of fun hanging from the trees. One course was about 430 meters long. I couldn't even see the end until I was almost to the other side. They also had a Tarzan swing within the course. This consisted of being strapped into ropes and literally stepping off a platform and swinging pendulum style through the forest. I almost chickened out, but I'm glad I did it anyway. The freefall only lasted for a second. After the journey was over, we were rewarded with a free beer to relax.

After our morning of adventure, we checked out of the hotel and drove to our resort in Puntarenas. I was so happy that our adventure portion was over and our beach days were upon us. The drive took over three hours and was quite scenic. We drove through the hills and saw the Costa Ricans in their natural habitat. I wish I would've had more time to spend with the indigenous people. Everything I experienced on this trip was seen through a bubble of hotels, tourists, and tour guides. I would've liked to have spent a day eating at places the locals do. Driving through these towns, I noticed most Costa Ricans don't have much. Their houses are small, they leave their laundry on a clothes line to dry, their doors are always open suggesting they don't have A/C, etc. They don't have sidewalks in Costa Rica, so many people are seen walking along the road trying to catch a bus. I wondered what it must be like to live like this.

Early in the afternoon, we arrived to the Double Tree Hilton resort. Whereas the rain forest was steamy, this part of the country has a dry heat. For a recession, the place was packed. There were a lot of families and elderly people staying there, both Spanish and American. The resort reminds me a lot of a cruise ship except stationary. Everywhere you turn at any time of day, there's ample food and drink. It just one gigantic smorgasbord and open bar. My life for the past couple of days has entailed waking up in the morning, eating, drinking fruity drinks and beer, swimming, going to the beach, eating and drinking some more, sleeping, then getting up and doing it all over again. Basically, I've become a glutton. The resort has pool bars where you literally swim up and order a drink and imbibe it in the pool. There's the Sunset Bar which is a bar stationed on the pier and is only open during sunset. This has been the boyfriend's fave as he can enjoy a cocktail while watching the sun dip behind the Pacific. At night, a live band usually plays cheesy Spanish music. They've played a lot of radio station music from 10-20 years ago that was sucky even back then. I don't understand why they can't play more recent music. There's even a casino here. Last night, I played the slots. The boyfriend informed me this was his first time ever in a casino. I was stunned. I mean, how could you possibly go your entire life without stepping into a casino? I went to my first casino when I was like 20. I also spent a week in Vegas. My parents took me gambling a bunch of times, too. I guess you can say I popped his casino cherry the same way he popped my leaving North America cherry. There are two fairly nice restaurants at the resort that you can eat at: a Latin one and a seafood one. Last night we ate at the former and tonight we'll dine at the later. The food and wine are much better at these restaurants. They serve wine out of a bottle, not a carton, like they do at the other bars.

For all the access we have to "free" booze, I must say I haven't been drunk yet. It could be because the drinks don't have much alcohol in them and also because I've been pacing myself. I've been living on pina coladas, nachos and papas fritas. You can basically wake up at 10am and drink until 1am. Unbelievable. I'm disappointed the resort doesn't serve Bloody Marys, that there isn't a hot tub, and that the pools close at sunset. I also imagined the resort being more like a Spring break free for all with drunk people drowning in the pool, but it's pretty tame. I think it's because this resort is more family orientated.

As I write this, I'm lounging in a beach chair shrouded by palm trees and staring out into the shimmering sea. It's very windy but it's helping to make the almost 100 degree temps seem less. I have seen a total of four iguanas walking around the resort. Ick. Today the resort is emptier than it was over the weekend. I guess a lot of people went home. I'm sad that we have to leave tomorrow, but I don't think I could keep this Corona commercial lifestyle up indefinitely. Yes, it's been great to have fun all day, but after a couple of weeks, I think I would get bored just chillin' all day. At the same time, I wish I could take a month off and just travel, then come back to real life, then disappear off the grid again. I think this might be the only way I'll be able to sanely function in Chicago. It's been nice not having cell phone usage or being chained to the computer all the time. I'm also seriously considering taking some sort of Spanish refresher course or re-teaching myself. I really would like to be able to speak and write complete sentences in Spanish instead of tossing around random words here and there. I would like to be more fluent then take a trip to somewhere like Spain where everyone doesn't speak broken English. I should also mention I'm pretty sunburn right now. I guess I underestimated sunbathing near the Equator. I also think something bit my foot because it's slightly swollen. And I have sand embedded in my hair and various other orifices. And I guarantee I'll be the only Chicagoan peeling in the middle of winter. Ah, the joys of foreign travel.

I feel really lucky that I had to chance to visit Costa Rica. It's such a beautiful country. It reminds me of California in a lot of ways with the Pacific, the palm trees swaying in the breeze, the hills, the Spanish speakers, the warm temps, etc. I would like to come back someday and explore Manual Antonio and Monteverde. I was also expecting clear, blue waters here but that's only on the Caribbean side. That'll be my next destination, well, that and overseas. I'm hoping this is just the beginning of my world travels. I need to keep the momentum up and experience life in other countries. I think my ultimate job would be as a travel writer, but I have a feeling most publications probably wouldn't be able to afford to send me out. I'm not looking forward to returning to the cold and my routine in Chicago, but at least I'll have the memories and photos to keep me warm, or something like that.