Top Ten Things You Should Know About My Trip to Costa Rica

1.  I barely even noticed turning 30.  I think I exorcised all of my angst ahead of time.  Everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

2.  Apparently, I don't mind being hot if I can just sit on the beach, in the shade of a coco palm, to cool off whenever I want. 

3.  I really really want a motor scooter to use in DC.  Like, really, really, really.  I'm so good at riding one.  Yet another unmarketable skill.

4.  I am impervious to bacteria, because I ate and drank everything I wanted, including unwashed fruit, ice, water, and some sort of porridge served from a pot balanced on the back of some dude's bike.  It was good. 

5.  I saw white-faced monkeys, howler monkeys, toucans, sloths, giant iguanas, Jesus lizards, and more without even trying that hard.

6.  I climbed through the jungle to sit underneath a waterfall, and on the way back I ate guava and manzanas de agua that had been picked less than one minute earlier.

7.  I went to the most beautiful beach in the world, and from there, kayaked down a river through the jungle.  Leatherback turtles bigger than dinner plates swam up under my kayak, and monkeys ran down the banks to peer at us through the foliage.

8.  There are places in this world that are so beautiful and astounding that you can't believe they're real, even as you're standing there.

9.  I can be happy living on a diet of rice and beans and fruit, with some vegetables and grilled meat thrown in for variety.  My mother cannot.

10.  I wish, profoundly, that we could sell this house and I could go live in Costa Rica for a year or two. 

(Pictures and more to come)

Comments

[Kevin]

Welcome home!! I'm glad you had a great trip. Sorry I was a lame guest blogger, but I froze up; everytme I thought I had something to say it amounted to three sentences. So I, as well as many others (I'm sure) are happy you can regale us with tales from Costa Rica. Welcome home!!!!

[Robert]

Welcome back! Hooray!

My god it looks and sounds like paradise.

And welcome to the thirties. It's not so bad, I promise. All the new wrinkles, grey hairs, aching joints, memory loss and sagging body parts are a small price to pay for the profound wisdom you will glean from your fourth decade.

:)