...and away we go.
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2006
1
6
Trip End
Dec 09, 2006
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Liberia, Costa Rica
Saturday, December 9, 2006
Dani & Shaun, from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, have joined us for the ride up. The surfboards cling tightly to the roof as we plow forward. We met the Canadians at the Enchanted Forest the very first night we arrived, but didn't start chatting until the third day. They've just begun a 3-month holiday in Costa Rica & Nicaragua, and now that
they've bought surfboards, it has become a surf trip for them.
We stop for breakfast at a little Soda in Nicoya. Four healthy portions of gallo pinto are brought out (mine has a pork chop in tow) and the milkshakes come in TWO glasses. I savor my final Costa Rican meal with friends (for now at least). I think back about the pattern of the last week & how much its simple structure nurtured my spirits.
The day usually began between 5am & 6am with a cup of coffee & something sweet. (On one occasion, Nick made it to the water while it was still dark outside!) As the moon slowly started to fade, we'd walk, surfboards in hands, for 5 minutes to the beach. We'd stretch out a bit and paddle out as the sun lifted from the trees behind us. I felt fairly knackered from all the paddling, so my session would last about, oh, and hour or so. Then we'd head back for breakfast. Nick would play guitar, I'd do something else. We'd have lunch, then a nap, maybe. Coffee. I like the 3pm coffee before heading back out to the beach. We always stayed for sunset. The last night out, I shot a handful of pics. I found a neat looking cemetery that'd be a great location to shoot some sort of Gothic-girl-lead-Singer video. (You know, the kind where she straddles the headstones.) But I digress...I can't say I ever felt totally disconnected & relaxed & light at any point of the trip. I had more moments of present-ness. I think that's good for me now. It can be challenging to be present for a Type-A Leo, such as myself. Nick & I agreed that time lost most of its value when we were surfing. Our two hour sessions felt like half a day, or month. There's something to be said for finding somewhere to lose time. I guess that's what Vacation is for. It seemed so strange to be going for ONLY 10 days! But 10 days proved to be a healthy charge for my sanity battery. 10 more days would have been the icing on the entemans brownie. Nick felt homesick & was ready to get back to Alaska.
We found a hotel for our Canadian friends, and a guitar case for Nick's guitar. (Delta forced him to check it in a soft case on the flights down. Miraculously, it survived.) A few spins of the wheel, & I found myself in a market. Coffee. The gift that keeps on giving. Did I mention that I only had 1 bad cup the whole time? The car is returned, & we wait outside the terminal. Package tourists, fat, pink & happy, waddle out of tourist vans. Nick pulls out his guitar and plays while we wait. I shift about restlessly. Then it's time to go. The plane turns the final hairpin at the airport's only runway. The engines come alive; out to my left a rainbow fills the gap between some clouds & two peaks. "What the hell is that suppose to mean?" I think to myself as the ground drops beneath me, the coastline teases the periphery of my gaze and the nose of this bird points home.
