Costa Rica – To start…

Three taxis and two plane trips later, we have finally arrived in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica!

I really am such a drag to travel with–at least the getting there part. I was feeling fine until we landed in San Jose and boarded this little plane for our 25 minute flight into Tambor. Look – darling little thing, isn’t it?

Fortunately, I made it off the plane without vomiting, but all that caught up with me on our one-hour drive through the winding, bumpy, dirt-roads that led to our final destination. Luiz, our taxi driver, was very lovely about the whole thing…probably just thankful that I didn’t puke in his car. After I stumbled out of the bushes, I was struck by the amazing smell; the air tasted warm and lush and maybe a bit like weed, but it wasn’t.

By morning, I was feeling much better! Our hotel is fantastic and spacious–it’s probably about the size of our apartment in Toronto. The hotel has a breakfast/lunch restaurant called Olam that offers raw and organic foods. I had a delicious breakfast of fresh fruits and Alistair had scrambled eggs and a smoothie. So filling and good.

We spent most of today lounging on the beach. It’s full of 19 year olds with great tans, wearing thongs. I actually felt like I was old and very pale in comparison. It has a Wasaga beach feel to it–for those of you from Ontario…and by that I mean it looks like it’s spring break.

Santa Teresa is known as the best spot for surfing in all of Costa Rica as there are waves breaking on the beach at all hours of the day. This suits Alistair well as he’s dreamed of surfing all his life. Not me. There is nothing about surfing that appeals to me–it just looks terrifying. A placid, crystal clear ocean is more the type for me. However,  I ventured into the ocean and was rewarded by being thrown into a beastly rock by a wave.

Sigh…so much for sexy beach legs. It’s not like I even have a cool story–like surfing, or racing through the jungle–just a rock. Alistair says it makes me look tough, so we’ll stick with that.

This morning I woke up at 8:30am and by 9am I was at yoga — which is literally 50ft from our front door. I plan to go once a day so I can look like the fit 19-year olds.

We were walking back from dinner on the long road that essentially encompasses all of Santa Teresa and suddenly all the power cut out — it seems to be a common enough occurrence — and suddenly it was pitch-black. No street lights or lit store fronts, just total darkness. It’s not something city-dwellers experience often, if at all. The locals lining the streets and the tourists sitting in front of their hostels started hollering and laughing the way an auditorium full of high school students might, and then pulled out their cell phones which provided tiny pockets of light along the dirt road. It wasn’t until that moment that I really felt like I was somewhere far from home. Surrounded by darkness, I looked up to the sky and saw nothing but stars. Who knew there were so many?