May 2012
4 posts
“Pura Vida.”
– Costa Rican philosophy
Well this is it- our final day in Central America. Tomorrow before the sun rises we will turn right one more time and traverse the dusty roads to Montezuma and beyond. We spent the weekend packing our stuff into its designated containers and preparing our animals for the journey back to civilization. Luckily, we still managed to set aside some time to hike through Cabo Blanco (Costa Rica’s oldest...
“Promise me you will never forget me because if I thought you would I would never...”
– Winnie the Pooh
Only one week left in Costa Rica and as we pack and prepare for our triumphant return home our moods are polarized by extremes of excitement and sadness. We will be using this final week to spend as much time as possible playing with our new f-animal-y (pictured above) and staring at the ocean, aware of how much we will miss their presence once we are gone. Last week was spent bidding our...
April 2012
6 posts
“There are many intelligent species in the universe. They are all owned by cats.”
– Anonymous
Neighbor’s kitten, Jasper, is rapidly turning into a fierce Tico gato. He is pictured above moonlighting as an adorable, snuggly guy; in actuality, he is a little punk. He terrorizes Marley, climbing into the canine’s food bowl and munching away bravely, as his snarling observer’s attack-mohawk grows. He interrupts Luna and Barro mid-wrestle, swatting at their tails and their snouts, evidently...
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it....”
– Native American, Chief Seattle
Sorry I disapparated, I discovered Pottermore…
The seasons are changing here in Costa Rica. Along with the first rains came the refreshing scent of a well-drenched Earth, and consequently, the harvest of the mangos. I have never had a mango before, and I can truly say that it was love at first bite. A few weeks ago, after having finally tried one, we arrived at Granjero’s farm in hopes of...
“its been awhile but i’m back and i’m ready to know
how best to get...”
– Jon Walker
This is my husband Jon Walker (he is the larger of the two adorable creatures pictured above, the other is Neighbor’s new kitten, Jasper). Jon is a musician and has been writing and playing in bands since before I met him over a decade ago. He came to Costa Rica with the intention of working on songs, and has since written enough to fill an album and then some. He continues to create, jotting...
March 2012
10 posts
“In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In...”
– Lao Tzu
Last week my parents were in Costa Rica (hence the lack of blogging), and I must say, they took to jungle life most excellently. From the moment they landed in the 12-passenger plane, in the parking lot of a golf course, they immediately understood the pura vida philosophy, casting aside their watches and expectations to fully enjoy their first vacation together outside of the U.S.A. We drank...
“Three diseases without shame: Love, Itch and Thirst.”
– Irish Saying
Marley has been sporting red scratches around his neck and chin for a while now. We assumed they were from a fight with a neighboring Alpha, but as the days pass fight-free and the scratches remain, we have lost confidence in our diagnosis. We turned to “trusty” Google, trying to locate descriptions that reminded us of his affliction, but were unsuccessful and grew weary of the gruesome images...
“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness...”
– C.S. Lewis
This is Barro. About a year ago he showed up at Neighbor’s doorstep, clearly abused, frightened, and hungry, so she fed him and removed his tattered collar effectively “borrowing” him for the rest of his days. She tweaked the spelling because in Spanish Barro translates to Mud and he certainly lives up to that namesake, romping in the dirt until his crevices are solidly caked in a...
“Happy Birthday Momma!”
– The Jungle Walkers
(Momma & Me circa 2006)
There have been exactly three times when my mother’s birthday, a traditionally epic family holiday, has come and gone with virtually no celebration on my part. The latest infraction is today: we are here in sunny Costa Rica and she is tucked far away in wintery suburbia, warmed I am sure by a cloak of loved ones that I wish I could hug as well. However, all is not...
“When asked what gift he wanted for his birthday, the yogi replied: “I...”
– Author Unknown
Bored, lonely, and too uninspired to write, I wandered over to meet our Neighbor. All I knew about her was that she spoke English and taught Yoga but that was more common ground than I could have hoped for, so I passed through the arch of trees that separates our properties and hollered hola loud enough to warn her of my approach.
She sat, staring at her computer, a long braid hanging over her...
February 2012
7 posts
“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples...”
– Maya Angelou
We woke up 10 minutes before our 5am alarm, silently dressing in the dark and hoisting heavy, tightly packed bags onto our shoulders. After 90 days in Costa Rica it was time to leave the country in order to renew our travel visas, so we were heading north to Nicaragua for at least 72 hours. The animals were staying at the Beach House, guarded over by Granjero, and we pouted as we gave them each...
“Searching for the truth among the lying
And answered when you’ve learned the...”
– George Harrison
According to our tide calendar, this morning around 11:30 was to be the lowest tide of the month. We have been waiting for a low, low tide so that we can walk across the exposed ocean floor to Cemetery Island: the beautiful tuft of trees floating on the horizon where the local Ticos are laid to rest (pictured below at high tide).
Both of us felt like we had stepped into an apocalyptic movie. The...
“I need to laugh, and when the sun is out I’ve got something I can laugh...”
– The Beatles
We have been waking up at sunrise. Every morning at 6:00 sharp, a reflected sunbeam bounces off of the ocean and directly into our bedroom. Sometimes we awake to a red sun gently bathing the whole atmosphere in a warm, orange glow, but usually it is a jarring streak of blinding, white light that pierces through our sleepy eyelids and sets our days into motion.
This early morning photo was...
January 2012
14 posts
“It is by chance that we met, by choice that we became friends.”
– Unknown
Meet Luna, the full-figured, sweet-faced canine who lives at the Beach House regardless of who is paying the rent. She has no master, but manages to stay well fed by locals and tourists alike by batting her honey eyes and swinging her flirtatious tail. To the locals, she is known as Luna Llena (Full Moon), a funny pun explaining her orb like mid-section, but to us she is known as Marley’s...
“This mess is a place!”
– Unknown
We looked at each other and smiled, this was it. No more packing and no more moving until we went back to Chicago. The Beach House was our home for the remainder of our Costa Rica adventure, and a chorus of birds was intent on welcoming us, accompanied by the percussive waves in their spectacular and victorious symphony.
We took a deep breath and prepared to separate our stuff into its...
“Beware the bareness of a busy life.”
– Socrates
The days pass lazily at The Farmhouse (the blaring sun may invigorate the banaño trees but it wilts the mammalian inhabitants). I will admit, however, that Jon and I have adapted pretty well to the leisurely pace of life here. When I am not curled up in the hammock with Tom Sawyer, I am feeding papaya skins to the horses, watering the zucchinis, or sweeping the floors to revel in the shine of the...
“Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that...”
– Unknown
The car came to get us and we piled everything in-Clover on my lap, Marley on Jon’s, Dylan somehow with a seat all to himself-and headed down the dusty Road to Montezuma. The Farmhouse is invisible from the road, but we remembered where to turn, and then pointed to a small sign, hand-painted with the word perros, nailed to a gate. We started up the path, two lines of grass worn by the occasional...
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that...”
– Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
Everything we have done so far has required us to turn right out of our cabina: Café el Coyote, the grocery store, the river, the ocean, Montezuma, even Granjero’s farm, all are a la derecha. We are leaving the cabina soon, and agreed that we should see what lies to the left before we go, so we awoke early on a Monday morning excited to make a ton of terrible Zoolander jokes about spending our...
“Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is...”
– Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
We sat in Café el Coyote with two Ticos from Cabuya, two Gringos from San Francisco and two bottles of red wine. Our liquid courage soon turned the conversation towards politics, and luckily, in Latin culture, the passionate presentation of my line of reasoning is not as easily confused for anger as it often is back home. I am definitely an idealist, and I don’t believe that the meaning of life...
“Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new...”
– Benjamin Franklin
It was New Year’s Eve and our plan was to go to Montezuma (pictured above) with Granjero and his daughters. Jon put on his blue, button-down “date shirt” and I shimmied in to the tiniest dress I had packed, artfully embellishing my eyebrows and unwinding my hair from its perpetual braid before adding a coat of pink gloss to my lips (which were twitching with effort as I mentally practiced...
December 2011
18 posts
“Whatever you are doing at any time you are physically modifying your brain to...”
– Athene’s Theory of Everything
We are only a few weeks in and we have officially established a routine. The day begins with our iguana, Roofie (as we have accurately named him), waking up to run circles in the ceiling above our bed. This flurry of activity is quickly followed by loud, wailing cries from both of the cats, who have been up since dawn, pacing in front of the door, waiting to get outside. Marley is the first one...
“Feliz Navidad de los Caminantes las Selva!”
– Merry Christmas from the Jungle Walkers!
Here in Costa Rica Christmas is celebrated today, December 24th, and the atmosphere is filled with a tingle of excitement and the wafting fumes of authentic culinary wonders. The Tico families all gather to feast and toast, but since we have no family here to feast or toast with, we planned our own little celebration. Jon is currently cooking up some delicious smelling Italian food that we plan...
“Edible, adj.: Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad...”
– Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
We awoke early and abruptly to Marley barking like a maniac. Shaking off his sleepy fog, Jon momentarily wrestled with the bolts on the porch door before throwing it open and following our rowdy dog onto the balcony to identify the cause of the ruckus. There, standing in our front yard, was our soon-to-be-landlord (I will call him Granjero) accompanied by his three dogs....
“He was a wise man who invented beer.”
– Plato
We approached the bar, our steps becoming subconsciously slower as we recognized the droning beat of techno music. Turning the corner, we saw the bar exploding with neon lights and the kind of dance beats we had grown to know and hate back in the States. A motorcycle zoomed past, uprooting a cloud of dust that shadowed the tight circles of people laughing and drinking in the street. We peeked...
“The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea.”
– Isak Dinesen