34. White Easter in Denver

The flight to Denver was uneventful except being struck once again by the extensive wide open flat spaces there seems to be in the States.  I noticed this first in my business trip yes I did work once!) to Orlando in March last year.  I had been invited to stay with one of the cool sistahs I met at the "Awaken the Wild Woman Within" retreat I did in Dominical in Costa Rica, Lyndsey.  She is one of those fun people, full of great energy, that is just fun to be around.  I was even luckier in that she had moved into the mountains with a friend about a month before I came to stay.   I had to wait for Lyndsey to finish work before she could come and pick me up from the airport which was fine, by the time I had something to eat and did some people watching it was time to find the pick up area.   I was surprised that she was working as it was Good Friday as we know it, but apparently Easter is not a special holiday in the States.  They just get the weekend as usual!  

Lyndsey, as a great hostess would, gave me the option of hanging out in Denver or heading to Evergreen where she was now living.  It just felt right to buy some wine and food and head to her house for the weekend.  It was certainly cooler than Costa Rica during the day but the sun was shining as we drove up there late afternoon.  The air had a beautiful crispness to it and  I didnt feel uncomfortable in my thongs (flip flops).  I was, however, the only one wearing them while shopping at the local supermarket.  I was still using my limited Spanish to speak people which was quite difficult to stop.  I guess I had been trying hard to use it for the last 4 months.  Strangely (terminology wise) the man at the bottle shop asked me if Lyndsey belonged to me.  We just looked at one another and said something glib.    I think he was referring to a mother daughter thing as I am quite a bit older than Lyndsey.

So fully stocked we headed to the house that Lyndsey and her daughter Camilla share with Mira and her two kids Zia and Cooper. As we drive up to the house Lyndsey points out where the elk usually are in the fields that fill the spaces between houses up here.  It is beautiful, thats for sure.  The house was a two story timber place with a back deck,  barbeque AND a hot tub outside on the back balcony!  I went outside for a while on the back balcony with my cuppa, sat in the sun, felt the chilled, crisp air and watched the elk that had appeared in the fields below the house.  

The kids were at respective fathers on Friday night.  The warmth in the house was both physical and emotional.  Lisa was there also, another friend of the girls, and Chris also another friend of Mira's.  All are welcome and made to feel very comfortable here.  After a great meal, some wine and great company we call it a night.  I am sleeping in Zia's room which is downstairs looking out across the fields from under the balcony.  I woke up about 6am and looked outside to see it had been snowing overnight and the fields were covered in white.  I grabbed the camera and raced upstairs to the balcony to take my traditional foot shot of the places I have stood.  Mostly these have been on sand or somewhere warm, so this was definitely a novelty, er um and cold

It snowed all weekend.  It was so beautiful I couldnt believe it.  I have been to the snow a couple of times before, even tried skiing.  For some reason it was like my first time.  I was like a little kid, much to Lyndsey's amusement.  I spent ages in the hot tub catching snowflakes in my mouth as it snowed!  Hot tub rules are nudie booty.....who am I to argue, Im a guest after all.  The weekend was spent relaxing, watching it snow, watching movies, watching it snow, hunting for easter eggs....spending happy time together.  It was great.

On Monday I decided to leave early with Lyndsey to spend more time (about an hour) with her on the drive to her school where she is an Art Teacher.  From there I caught a cab to the airport.   I had quite a while till my flight but managed to fill it in with eating and checking out the shops and walking around as I will be sitting for quite a while on my way home...!  I am so grateful to have spent this time with Lyndsey in this beautiful place.  I had always thought it was not worth going to the snow as I cant really ski that well, but now I think I would be content to rent a cabin in the snow for the weekend just to watch it snow.....wow!

This is the last post in this blog.  I have started two others, one covering the time I spent back in Australia (Australian Interlude) and one for my time in Bali (Balinese Beach Break).  Of course neither are up to date but I am trying to rectify this...!

33. Final Days in Costa Rica

As often happens when you are in a place for a long time, the departure date appears suddenly on the horizon and all those things you meant to do are now unlikely.  I have been lucky though as I had ticked off most of my list.  Ziplining, Drake Bay, The Galapagos, another yoga retreat and plenty of yoga classes, personal training, plenty of reading.  I probably hadnt done enough study as I would have liked (or more like should have).  All that I really wanted to do was have another sunset happy hour and tapas at Gaia.  In particular the Gaia special martini had to be tried.   This is a beautiful hotel with a carpark at the bottom from which you are zoomed up the steep driveway to the restaurant in a golf buggy.  Quite the ride back down after a couple of the cocktails!  Another sunset opportunity was at Ronnies, another popular viewing spot reknown for its jugs of margharitas, oh and the spectacular view of course!   I also wanted to do the sunset sail one more time.  As I had been out of action for 10 days I also wanted to do some personal training and make sure I spent plenty of time down at the beach.  And I wanted to visit my friend Chris in Jaco.

Sunset at Ronnies

I was lucky to have gotten all these things done!  I booked in for 7 personal training sessions in 8 days.  Happy hour at Gaia was shared with Holly and Silvia.  The Gaia special martini was delicious, along with the seared tuna tapas...yum!  I had dinner at Ronnies with my personal trainer and yoga mentor Lorraine.  As usual the sunset was spectacular and the food very good.  As Lorraine doesnt drink alcohol, I didnt attempt a jug of margharita by myself.  Some may find that surprising but I had been sick recently remember!!  I visited Chris and met his new girlfriend Yamit.  We had lunch.  He is so happy, it is really cute!The only bummer of the day was me leaving my favorite sarong on the bus...sitting on it so I didnt stick to the vinyl seat and just left it behind...doh!  Holly, Silvia and I watched the weather and picked a fantastic day for our last Sunset Sail.  

During the week before, while I was still recovering, we had the first real rain that I had experienced in Costa Rica.  And boy, does it rain.  I could not hear the TV or music no matter how loud I put the volume.  Holly had some sand delivered for her garden which was sitting in the driveway.  The rain was so heavy I was worried the pool was going to flood, then I noticed the water coming in the back balcony.  On investigation I noticed that the sand was blocking the drain in the driveway causing the water to flow into the balcony.  It didnt look like the rain would stop and it was quickly heading for the french doors into the house...eek!  So I was going to get a chance to try the new raincoat that I had lugged over to Costa Rica.  So in shorts and raincoat I headed outside into the warm rain and cleared the drain which fixed the problem.  It didnt take long but I was completely soaked.  Probably would have been better in a pair of bathers but the raincoat does work!   I was still worried about the pool overflowing and I had no idea what to do about that but somehow it rose to the top but didnt overflow.

All too soon Thursday came around and I had to be packed and ready to catch a flight to San Jose for the night then an early flight the next day to Denver.  Holly and I had lunch at El Avion, a restaurant that is constructed around an old Fairchild C-123 aircraft supposedly purchased from profits from Regan's Contras scandal in the 1980s.  It had always intrigued me and looked a little corny so I think it was the perfect place to have my final lunch there.  

Sadly I said goodbye to Holly and took my last small aircraft flight over Costa Rica.  I stayed at my usual hotel at the airport, but sadly, no offers of wine this time! I felt earlier that I would probably never be back to Costa Rica, but as I spent time reflecting on my experiences there and the lifestyle on the beach, there is a chance I may return...who knows what the future holds.

The next morning I caught my flight to Denver where I had arranged to stop for the weekend and visit a friend I had met at the Awaken the Wild Woman retreat in Dominical.

32. Recovery from Panama!

Somehow on Sunday morning I awoke, drained (literally) but feeling like everything was under control.  Of course it seemed to be too much for the hotel to book me a cab so I had to walk up the road and try to find one.  They were scarce even in the main street as there was a funeral on that day of another taxi driver.  So I was feeling really happy about the prospect of having to lug my bag to the airport in 32C heat after the day Id had yesterday.  Luckily I managed to find one.  He took me back to the hotel to pick up my bag and then off we went to the airport.  I was so tentative about what could possibly happen as I sat and waited for my flight.  Somehow I got through the wait and the flight.  As always, Holly was there to meet me at the airport.  On this return, instead of hitting a bar, it was straight home to the recliner!  

The next couple of days I spent feeling very ordinary and eating every dry cracker I could find in the house.  On Tuesday morning I woke up considerably better.  I said to Holly I feel like guacamole and some corn chips...so we headed out for lunch. Wise?  Probably not but I never said I was wise.  My appetite grew as we arrived at this restaurant Holly wanted to try.  No guacamole in sight, only a tequila tasting...as you would expect.  For some reason I decided a hamburger was an appropriate substitute for guacamole.  And I managed to eat most of it.   I refrained though from having any tequila...so as you can see, I was still unwell!

Funnily enough I started to deteriorate quite quickly after the hamburger and woke up the next day thinking this was never going away.  My stomach was so unsettled, I was sure you could hear it rumbling just from walking along beside me!!  I asked Holly to take me to the local clinic.  This clinic, Linea Vital De CR, was very good.  The doctor listened to my stomach, I suggested he didnt need his stethoscope.  I spent the next 45mins on the drip having a variety of things put into it.  Whatever it was calmed my stomach virtually immediately.  Armed with a shopping list for the pharmacy, we headed into town, picked up all I needed and headed home.  Back into the recliner, I spent the next 4-5 days watching movies, reading books and not doing much else.  It took until the following Monday until I felt well enough to venture out. 

I headed out and felt so good to be in the fresh air and on the beach again.  I was catching the bus though and not walking home up heartbreak hill at this stage, but feeling considerably better and ready to make the most of my last week and a half in Costa Rica :(!

Due to the topic of this post there are naturally no related photos so I have included a couple more of Bocas del Torro.