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, 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 airline I flew was new to me; it was called TACA and was by far one of the best airlines I have ever flown. The brand new airplane seats had lots of legroom, the food was more than edible, and there was a free movie. 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
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. Thinking about my time with Michael will always bring a smile to my face.
My friend, Sarah, 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
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
We carefully navigated our way along some windy roads through the dark and rain back to our
Then it occurred to me that I had seen an outdoor kitchen near the pool while I was getting a massage. Using our cell phones as flashlights we made our way to the kitchen and found some watermelons. We spent a significant amount of time trying to find the perfect place to dispose of the large rinds (eventually we just threw them in the woods), since technically we had stolen the fruit and did not want to get caught. On our way back to our room it occurred to us that the watermelons might want to be used for breakfast in the morning. Oh well, we would deal with it then!
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