In search of pura vida...
I am not a morning person. One of the only things that can get me out of bed before lunchtime is travel. Hence, the reason why I awoke at 3AM in order to catch my 6AM flight from JFK. After taking my grueling Chinese Medicine comprehensive exams and going through the awful mess with my passport (see my passportsandvisas.com review to get the whole story), I desperately needed a vacation. Nothing could be more enticing than “pura vida,” or the pure life, which I was told could easily be found in 
The movie that was shown was “Happy Feet.” For those of you who have yet to see this film, I suggest you stop reading this blog and go rent it now. It was fantastic! I have to admit though, I did get a little teary eyed in the end, as it touched my eco-friendly vegetarian heart (as well as make me want to start planning a trip to 
As we were landing I was fortunate to have a birds-eye view of
At the airport I had arranged to be picked up by someone from the place I was staying at for the night. In a sea of Costa Rican's it was easy to spot my driver, as he was a fellow New Yorker. This charming man's name was Michael. The place he was taking me to was on a coffee plantation 20 minutes outside the city.
On the drive Michael and I had begun a conversation that we both did not want to end, so we chose to have lunch together, which was prepared by the lovely Sonia. This is the best part about traveling for me--meeting the people. Each person I encounter along the way changes my life in incalculable ways and when I reflect on trips it is usually the people I met, rather than the places I visited, that leave memories on my heart forever. And I am eternally grateful to those I have met on my journey around the world who have enriched my life and taught me how to be a better person and a more thoughtful traveler.
My friend, Sarah ("sarahvioland" on here), did not arrive until later in the evening, so I decided to indulge in El Cafetal's signature "coffee massage" to pass the time. Here is the description of the massage from their website: a massage and coffee scrub from our own coffee plantation blend with aromatic oil. This procedure leaves the skin soft and slightly tanned. My massage therapist gave me the opportunity to decide where I wanted my massage. I picked beside the pool underneath a canopy, since no one would be around to disturb us. While I was receiving the massage it started to rain and nature's creatures began to sing. What bliss! And the massage truly did leave my skin glowing and feeling like silk.
After a quick shower to rinse off the fragrant coffee grinds, I said goodbye to Michael (but only for that moment, since Michael and I will definitely be meeting again in the future) and took a taxi into downtown San Jose. The traffic was terrible and it took me over an hour to get there. It also started to pour. Unfortunately, I was left with little time to explore and I had to do so with my umbrella. I am not a big fan of complaining about ascetics, because I strongly believe that beauty can be found in anything, however, I do have to agree with most people who have been to San Jose before in that it is not the nicest city. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed my time there and before leaving for the airport to pick up Sarah I stopped for some dessert and coffee at a cafe inside the famed Teatro Nacional.
Once I had Sarah, we went together to get our rental car. Somehow there was a mix up and they gave us a car with a stickshift and neither of us knew how to drive it. We began to panic, but then they told us that their sister store happened to have one car left that was an automatic. It took us over an hour to get all of the paperwork signed. This was our first encounter with how slowly things run in Costa Rica. It can be very frustrating if you have little patience. Luckily being a healthcare professional has enabled me to develop my patience over the years. And besides, so what if we wasted some time signing things? We were in Costa Rica!
We carefully navigated our way along some windy roads through the dark and rain back to our Inn, only to realize that we were both famished.
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
