The CR Post

Ah, the dreaded Costa Rica post. I was hoping Lauren would bite the bullet and be the one to do this, but she's at her artist residency in Nebraska with spotty internet, so I'm going to have to buck up.

It's not that I don't want to write about the trip, I've just been dreading finding a way to cram a week's worth of stuff into one post. So I've decided the best way to do that is in a list format.

Thoughts on CR, in brief:

1. We spent a very strange morning in the town of Barva (rhymes with larva) waiting for the 6th member of our party to arrive. I think the town is nice, but it's hard to say since we were in a jet lagged fog while we were there. They did have a rather nice church.

2. Apparently the rainy season in Costa Rica applies to the whole of the country except the Caribbean coast, which is where we were. It was gorgeous and sunny pretty much every day. Thank you, gods of weather.

3. The little house we rented was pretty...rustic. There may or may not have been bed bugs. And some Central American robbers definitely broke down one of the walls with a sledgehammer to steal a cell phone and an ipod. That aside, the location was unbelievable. We had our own private beach that looked like this:

Hard to beat.

Y la casa:

4. The food was incredible. It was the best six meals I've ever had in a row. The curry was out of this world, the Italian food was unbelievable, and of course the sea food was to die for. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Also, the presentation factor of their alcoholic beverages was pretty stellar.

5. We participated in a wide range of activities, from river rafting to snorkeling, but still found plenty of time to sit on the beach and do nothing.

6. Costa Ricans need to figure out a new solution for their garbage. I don't know if the garbage collectors are government run, or whether it costs money or what, but all their trash cans are full to the brim and trash is spilling over everywhere. And by garbage, I mean crarbeach.

7. I missed Roux dog a lot. So I took solace in other dogs, of which there were plenty.

And I didn't descriminate against cats, either.

8. I was really, really glad I cut my hair before I went. Short hair is just so gosh darn easy.

9. We left Costa Rica with a wide range of physical problems from mass amounts of bug bites (for a while there we thought we had fleas and Lauren was terrified nobody would like her in Nebraska because she'd be forever tagged as "that girl with fleas"), bruises from river rafting, huge patches of missing skin from horseback riding in athletic shorts, sand burns from surf lessons and gastro intestinal diseases. It was all well worth it. There is something so unbelievably liberating about travelling. It frees you from the confines of your narrow world and forces you to see things differently - even if it is a beach vacation. It destroys your comfort zone as you know it, shows you a miniscule amount of the culture in which you find yourself surrounded, and forces you to do a little math while you try to convert currencies. Travelling is in my blood and it's something I'll always love.

I did some thinking on the plane ride back (influenced in part by Eckhart Tolle's 'A New Earth') and I really think my daily life right now is unhealthy in a lot of ways. I think sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen for nine hours a day is just downright BAD for you. My neck felt better on our trip than it has in years, and I think it's because my body was in perpetual motion.

I think also the way we eat in our country is just unbelievably unhealthy. One of the local tour guides we met was telling us about how the pesticides used in the production of pineapples in Costa Rica (they're one of the biggest producers of pineapples in the US). He said the farmers living within the vicinity of the pineapple orchards can't even drink their water anymore because of the pesticides. How can it be a good thing for us to eat those pineapples? I know the organic craze seems like it's going overboard all the time and I don't want to be totally crazy about it - after all balance is everything - but there is something to be said for trying to negotiate your way to a healthier life. I'm going to give it a little more effort, anyway.

So that's the list, followed by a mini diatribe.

I'm a little depressed to be back at work, but I realized that other than that, I really do love my life. I missed my home while I was on vacation, so I think that's a good sign for how happy I am.

Now all I have to do is get through the last two months of work and I'll be really joyous.