Living the Pura Vida

Again I am faced with the challenge of summing up an incredible, and full, week of vacation in a way that doesn't bore you to tears and yet captures the essence of our experiences.  Costa Rica was wild, amazing, beautiful, and adventurous.  Our group of six had an amazing time.  This entry will be long.  I can feel it already and I warn you of it now.  Here goes nothing.

The Players:

Felicia Baker

An American woman of loose morals who professes her love to strangers on the beach.

Heather Birky

An American woman of loose morals who kept trying to sell herself on the street corner.

Dan Buell

An American man who wrangles Costa Rican wild life and enjoys singing Lady Gaga in the shower.

Colin Shafer

An American man who enjoys long walks on the beach - without telling his companions where he's going.

Brian Showalter

An American man who holds on to his rafting oar in any circumstances.

Lisa Showalter

An American woman of loose morals who clearly looks like a pot-head as she was offered a toke from a hippie joint.

Day 1:  (a.k.a. The Never Ending Day, Take 1)

The trip begins at 12:00 AM on Sunday as we head to Chicago for our early flight to Costa Rica.  Many of us did not sleep due to excitement, even though we knew this would haunt us later.  Our flights go off without a hitch (except that Felicia's luggage is lost), we pick up our car, pack in like sardines and begin our 138 mile, five-hour car ride to Manzanillo, Costa Rica.  Exhausted and travel-weary, we had no idea what was in store for us. 

Manzanillo is literally at the end of the road on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica.  To the south of town is a wildlife refuge and then it's Panama.  Brian had to adjust to Costa Rican driving (and all of us had to adjust to riding with his adjustments), which involved:

• barely dodging bikers with no reflectors and pedestrians loitering on the streets dressed in dark colors who seemed to dart out in to the black night without warning
• passing slow moving vehicles in no-passing zones
• maneuvering roads that seemed to be more pot hole than road
• being sent airborne - time seemed to stand still as everyone soared through the air at one point, hitting their heads on various vehicle parts. 
• the Garmin singing "bing-bing" to warn us of dangerous bridges - bridges that are only one lane and sometimes impossible to see if anyone is coming from the other direction. 

We finally arrived at Cabinas Faya Lobi at 8:30 PM, unfolded ourselves from the vehicle, and began claiming rooms like we were on Big Brother.  We also discovered that the Cabina is the "Cabina of No Secrets."  The open roof allows us to have conversations with people while they shower.  There would be no vaulting of any secrets during the week.

Day 2:

The idyllic beach day.  The howler monkeys wake us up at 5:30 AM.  Dan discovers a sloth in our front tree.  Colin goes missing in the morning for a three hour walk down the beach.  The rest of us check out the little town of Manzanillo in the daylight.  (We spot Colin riding around on a bike later, safe and sound.)  The afternoon is spent on the beach where a massive sand-ball fight goes down (which is a rather painful game) and Dan and Brian engage in an endless game of coconut ball.  (This is a complex game involving a stick, coconuts, and the ability to dodge shards of exploding coconuts.)  Felicia, luggage-less, with the typical loose morals of an American woman, ran down the beach with me topless.  (She did have a towel wrapped around her.)

We enjoy a lovely dinner in town and then the gaming begins.  Lively games of Catchphrase were enjoyed many a night in our cabina (boys against girls) along with the occasional bout of euchre, rummy, and others.  We discover we have a fridge toad.  Some try to evict it.  Dan believes this is cruel and carries a urinating toad back to the fridge where it belongs.

It rained in the evening.  We at rice and beans.

Day 3:

Our zip lining adventure began with a bumpy ride in a bus and then a bumpier ride in the back of a pick-up truck.  Some of us were frightened, some of us were not.  23 zip lines, a LOT of uphill hiking, and one Tarzan swing, comprised our morning.  I have come to the conclusion that all the guides on these adventure excursions feed off of our fear.  They seem to be sort of sick individuals.  I wish that I could say that we all kept our language clean for the video that was made, but extreme fear will lead to salty sailor talk.  I loved it!  In general I think we all enjoyed it to some extent and were glad we did it.  However, I don't think everyone will be booking this on their next vacation.  When we arrived home Felicia's luggage had arrived!  No more topless beach jogging for her!

We discovered at lunch, after struggling with our Spanish all week, that Colin is apparently nearly fluent in Spanish and had been holding out on us.  He defended himself saying, "well you guys seemed to be struggling along alright."  Seriously?

In the evening we fed a leaf bug to our fridge toad (who we discovered had a wife under there with him). 

It rained.  We ate rice and beans.

Day 4:

We explored Puerto Viejo and did a little shopping.  At lunch Colin discovered his wallet was missing.  Here's where things get loopy.  We immediately send Colin to search for it while we settle up the bill with the insufferable American ex-pat who owned the place.  He thought he may have lost it at a bench we sat on earlier in the morning.  The whole gang splits up.  (Heather and I begin to worry about our teamwork for the next day's rafting adventure based on our disorganization.)  Our group canvasses the little town on a mission for the wallet.  I start worrying about how we're going to cancel his credit cards.  Heather starts trying to sell herself on the street corner to raise money for the rest of Colin's vacation.  Brian finds the wallet in our truck.  (Okay, Heather was just trying to signal Dan down the street, but it didn't look good.)  Meanwhile, Colin had discovered the wallet was in the truck and started looking for us.  He went into a pharmacy and liquor store to see if we were in there.  How much do I love that he thought that we would be so unconcerned with our traveling mate losing his wallet in a foreign country that we would just decide to buy some booze and take a load off while he searches. 

That night we grilled in.  Literally, we grilled in our living room. 

It rained.  We ate rice and beans.

Day 5:

Rafting the Pacuare River was on the agenda for this day.  I had very little trouble zip lining but am terrified of white water rafting.  I may be the only person on earth who has been white water rafting four times despite not really enjoying it.  Oh but the scenery on this river was amazing, something right out of Jurassic Park.  The Pacuare River is ranked as one of the top five in the world to raft.  So yeah, pretty neat. 

The river was very high from all the rain but we were tackling those rapids like pros, getting down in the boat when in danger, paddling forward and back when called upon.  Just as I was coming to terms with rafting, even sort of enjoying myself, disaster struck.  It was the last class IV rapid of the day, Dos Montanas, where it went down. 

All I remember is paddling air because I was too high up to reach water.  I fell down into the boat...and watched as one by one all my comrades fell into the raging rapid.  It was horrifying watching Brian slip out of the boat.  I thought the whole thing was going to flip.  I braced myself...but miraculously we didn't flip.  Bernie (our guide) and I remained in the boat.  But there I was, watching all of my friends struggling against the rapids.  I was pacing around in the raft wondering how to save them, counting heads, which was difficult because they kept bobbing down and coming up in different places, and watching them heading towards a sheer cliff wall.  I kept waiting on instructions from Bernie as I watched the terror in the faces of my friends but he was giving me nothing. (Okay, a few faces showed only exertion, the other two - pure terror.)  But in no time, everyone was rescued and put back in the boat.  I figured they would all dislike rafting as much as me now.  But no.  They all seemed to come alive from it.  Jerks.

We finished out the day successfully.  I might as well tell you that somehow this whole story has been turned on me.  While clearly, having stayed in the boat, I am the most skilled rafter in our group, some think otherwise.  And in fact have come up with a ridiculous conspiracy theory which involves me and Bernie plotting to get Brian's life insurance money and my leg giving Brian a swift kick out of the boat.  I'm sorry that they feel such shame that they have to fabricate stories. 

Also, on the ride back to our cabina we were reading the Costa Rica guide book and discovered that many Costa Rican men believe that American women have loose morals.  Hmmmm....

It rained.  We ate rice and beans...three times.

Day 6:

In the morning the men headed off with a local fisherman to catch us some dinner.  Us women tried to take in yoga but they didn't have a class going that morning so instead we ate pastries, chased a blue butterfly in our truck trying to get a picture of it, were offered marijuana and a jungle night-hike from hippies, and may or may not have married off Felicia to a Costa Rican life guard. 

Heather, Felicia, and I went to Playa Cocles to watch the surfers.  It was delightful...until Felicia decided to say "hola" to the life guard passing by.  He immediately came up and crouched down beside us.  Except, he didn't really speak English and we didn't really speak Spanish.  Felicia tried her best.  She really did.  He wouldn't go away.  It was getting awkward.  She kept trying though.  Eventually she said, "the only thing I really know how to say is 'te amo.'"  But you know that all he heard was probably "te amo."  So basically, she professed her love to Donny the lifeguard.  And when it appeared he was not going anywhere (what with his new-found love and all) we made an excuse that we were hungry and skedaddled. 

What awaited us upon our arrival back at the cabina was like a scene from the Jonestown Massacre.   Three lifeless, and sick men were lying around in various locations like beached whales throughout the cabina. Evidently the ocean didn't so much agree with them.  And it took A LONG time for those men to recover!  But they had caught us some fish and secured a cook from the local restaurant (who had gone fishing with them) to come and cook the fish. 

After our delicious supper the men went to a local poker game (that the owner of our cabina invited them to) at the home of a man who evidently has a $35,000 hit out on his family.  It sounds like there were other notorious characters there along with illicit substances.  I was glad they made it back home alive.  

It rained.  We ate rice and beans. 

Day 7:

The howler monkeys awoke us at 5:00 AM only for us to discover that we had lost power.  Heather feared that the jungle was working a hostile takeover of our property.  When we woke up for real, we headed out to the Jaguar rescue center where all of Brian's wildest dreams came true.

How do I begin to tell you about a man and his love for monkeys?  It would be impossible for me to describe.  All you need to know about the Jaguar Rescue Center is that there is a room that houses baby howler monkeys, AND THEY LET YOU GO IN AND PLAY WITH THEM.  It was unreal.  They jumped on your head and pulled you hair and cuddled up in your arms and sat on your shoulder.  It is nothing but pure joy.  And for my dear husband, having his head groomed by a monkey was more joy than his body knew how to handle.  He and Dan even snuck in for a second turn with the monkeys.  We also were able to hold the sweetest baby sloth.  I have fallen in love with the gentle sloth.  And for a real treat, we were able to see a defecating sloth.  (They only defecate once a week.)

We played around on the beach the rest of the afternoon.  Over dinner that night at Malbec's Argentinian Steak House (which was by far the best of our vacation) we shared our favorite moment of the trip.  For many of us it was rafting, for me it was time on the beach, while Brian - a bit chagrined - admitted it was the quality time he spent with the monkeys.  He declared that our guest room would be turned into a monkey room upon our return from vacation. 

I don't remember if it rained.  Surely it did.  However, we did not eat rice and beans on this day.

Day 8: (a.k.a. The Never Ending Day, Take II)

Always the hardest day, leaving paradise and heading back to the daily grind.  We were up at 5:00 AM and because of snow and wind at home, flights were delayed and we didn't walk in our front door until 8:30 AM the next day. There were calamity and shenanigans the entire time - and then utter exhaustion.  

As Brian and I headed up to Goshen for church this morning, we pondered how we could make a move to Costa Rica.  We both long for a simpler life, one that just doesn't seem attainable here and one that seems impossible NOT to embody there, and we lack the courage to make it happen.  We discussed selling all of our belongings.  I still didn't think we'd have enough cash to get started.  (And frankly I don't think the humidity of the rain forest is great for pianos so I doubt I'd find many piano students.)  Brian suggested we turn in the family that has the $35,000 hit on them.  If only we knew who to contact!

Pura Vida is a Costa Rican expression meaning "pure life."  How lucky the six of us were to experience it - at least for those seven days.