La Pura Vida, Day 4 (Wednesday)
Time is flying by. Woke up semi early this morning, not much of a sunrise. Thomas was still asleep so I took some time to meditate out by the pool. I’m trying to spend more time meditating to improve my self-awareness and stress level. It’s not working very well- it takes me about 2 minutes before I even realize my mind is drifting. I’ve tried a couple of different techniques but I think I just need practice.
Breakfast was ready soon after. It was a repeat of Monday’s pancakes. The van came at 9:30 to pick us up for our beach tour. The drive was short – about 10 minutes this time – and the bus was able to pull right onto the beach. We jumped in the boat and headed to the monkey beach.
The monkey beach was not particularly exciting. When we got off the boat we hiked a short way through a mango farm. There were several howler monkeys in the trees, including a mother with a small baby holding on to her belly. We could have snorkeled but chose to wait till the next beach.
The next beach was “Shell Beach”. On the way there our guide stopped the boat to point out a sea turtle floating at the surface. I’m a sucker for wildlife – so cool! When we got there the visibility was incredible. The boat was about 100ft from the shore and the water was only about 5 feet deep. I had only been snorkeling once before and it was not very successful (strong waves, deep water) but this experience was so incredible I wish I could go again tomorrow.
I started to list all the things I saw then realized that mostly it was different kinds of fish I can’t identify, but I also saw crabs, puffer fish, a clown fish, and an eel. It was incredible and I loved every second of it.
After the shell beach we went to the “Egg Beach” which had caves and, more importantly, was our lunch destination. On the way there we saw dozens of sting rays jumping several feet out of the water. Our guide explained that they were hunting sardines. It was really, really fun to watch. As they came out they would flip several times and would flap their wings(?) as they went back in. There were also pelicans and other large sea birds sitting on the rocks nearby.
The caves on the beach were open to the ocean on the other side of the cliff and the waves came crashing through while Courtney and Thomas were taking pictures. So far this trip has hit on all my major phobias: big spiders (at the villa), heights (zip line), deep water, and caves. Nothing like a vacation with the Fitzgeralds to push your comfort zones.
Lunch was quesadillas with fresh salsa and sour cream. Yum. We sat on the beach and watched the waves while we ate. I loved watching the patterns that the black sand made when it mixed with the lighter sand from the land above.
The boat ride back home was wonderful – you could feel the power of the water and the wind and see the giant cliffs all around. I felt very small and very in tune with the elements at the same time. I wished just a little that we had decided to go to the volcano (3.5 hrs away) just so I could have an awe inspiring moment with fire too…then my elements would be well rounded.
When we got back I took a nap until dinner, everyone else read while a light shower sprinkled outside. Very peaceful.
Dinner was the tenderest pork chop I have ever had, potato salad, roasted vegetables (rice and beans). Dessert was tres leches cake with meringue frosting. Mama and Thomas got into a heated discussion of Georgia health care policy over the cake and I escaped to come finish this post. We may play board games later, but I think tonight will continue the early to bed, late to rise trend.
Buenas noches!
La Pura Vida, Day 3 (Tuesday)
Now I’m up to today! Missed the sunrise this morning – oh well. When I did finally wake up it was 7:50 and I had to scramble to get a shower before breakfast. Breakfast was the same as yesterday’s except that french toast was substituted for pancakes. I did forget to mention in the post for Day 2 that we also had the best hash browns ever (and again today). They were large chunked potates with lots of butter/oil and a combination of spices that made them taste almost Indian – cumin perhaps? Yum-o.
After breakfast we piled into a van for the 45 minute drive to the zip line. Everyone assured me that one does not zip down a zip line, but I was still apprehensive. The drive was full of things to see including several local schools, markets, farms, etc. It stood out to me that (at least in the poorer areas) you don’t see the landscape being changed to suit people. Houses are built were it makes sense rather than creating an ideal location, roads go around natural elements, etc. I think it contributes to the overall sense of primitiveness – which I do not mean in a derogatory way, things here are simply done in a way that “progress” has replaced in the States.
The zip line was fun, but not my cup of tea. We did get to see some monkeys, but little other wildlife. Also, I learned that despite the reasonable speed of the zipping the sole fact of being 70 feet in the air made it hard to appreciate the scenery. I was laser focused on the platform ahead while I was on the line, and too busy hugging the most solid looking thing I could find when I wasn’t. All together there were about 10 lines. Courtney did one upside down (on purpose) and we got some great pictures.
We got back around noon and had a lunch of nachos and tuna pasta salad (and mango daquiris – wow). After that everyone hung around the pool with a book until it was time for another round of massages (not kidding). It was spectacular and I’m feeling very pleasantly noodle like.
Dinner was chicken soup followed by fresh mahi mahi, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes and, of course, rice and beans. After dinner I was feeling a little sunburned and very stuffed so after a quick shower it was time for bed.
La Pura Vida, Day 2 (Monday)
Despite going to bed early I slept poorly and the gorgeous sunrise coming through our picture window (at about 6am) was not as welcome as it might otherwise have been. I watched it for a bit then rolled over and fell back to sleep.
Breakfast was pancakes, fruit (fresh mango, papaya and pineapple), huevos rancheros, bacon and toast. After breakfast we met with Alan to hear about the tours that are available and decided on the zip-line for Tuesday and widlife park river float for Friday. (Sunday we met with Antonio who is in charge of boat activities and booked a beach tour for Wednesday morning. We’ll be going to three beaches – a monkey beach, a shell beach and a snorkeling beach.)
After meeting with Alan, the four of us (still sans Courtney) walked down the mountain to the beach. The sand on the beach was black rather than white because it came predominately from the volcanic rock of the area – very cool. It was low tide, so rather than play in the water, we walked around the bay to a large rocky area and explored the tidal pools. At first all we saw were barnacles and crabs, but after looking closer we found some anemones, sea urchin, little fish and – SEA SLUGS. The sea slugs have been the highlight of the trip so far.
After trekking back up the mountain we had just enough time for lunch (tacos, chicken salad and strawberry daquiris) before our massages. Towards the end of the massages, Courtney arrived! Then we all had drinks (some of us had a lot of them) and Mama taught us the “Buck Dance” which resembles an impromptu Irish step-dance with more liquor.
Dinner was chicken parm, salad, spaghetti and (there’s a pattern to meals here) rice and beans. Dessert was yellow cake with chocolate frosting.
I stayed up to read for a while, everyone else fell asleep. I had a minor panic attack around 8pm when the neighbors started shooting off fireworks. After I realized that it was not, in fact, Nicaraguans storming the beaches I decided it was bed time fopr me too.
La Pura Vida, Day 1 (Sunday)
I’m going to make a separate post for each day, but since it’s now day 3 the first ones will be in quick succession.
Day 1:
We drove to Carrollton on Saturday night so that we would be ready to drive to Atlanta early Sunday morning to catch our flight. Just before 10am we were boarding the flight to Liberia, Costa Rica. A series of unfortunate events led to Courtney missing the flight. We were all very disappointed – not an emotion that helps you endure a 4 hour flight well.
It’s been almost 10 years since I was on an international flight – in seat TVs with individual music and movies did a lot for my flight anxiety. There was one episode of Glee available – Dream On. I’m pretty sure I told Thomas my life had peaked.
We arrived in Liberia shortly after 1pm local time. The airport was open air, so we were sweaty but very happy while we waited in line for Immigration. We grabbed our bags out of the chaotic corner that served as baggage claim then swam through the crowd of taxi drivers and chauffeurs. I felt a bit like a celebrity walking through the paparazzi.
We are staying in the Villa Mariposa, in the resort community of Ocotal. The view is spectacular and we have the house to ourselves – 3 bedrooms, pool, hot tub, etc. The stay includes a cook (Anabel), bartender (Oscar), and housekeeper (Mariel) – I feel a little guilty about being so spoiled, but I like the bottomless pina coladas…
When we arrived, Oscar had drinks, salsa and guacamole waiting for us- yum! We hung around by the pool for a while, everyone was still a bit bummed about Courtney not being about to come till the next day. Dinner was delicious fresh caught red snapper, slaw and roasted vegetables (dessert was flan with coconut).
Before dinner we tried to snoop around the other villa close by, but there were guests there too. We did run into the spa ladies though, and set up after lunch massages for Monday. Yessss.
We watched the sunset, checked out the stars for a while then went to bed around 7. (Hey, it’s vacation – we can if we want to.)
A Yankee Belle Gets Married
For those of you who haven’t heard yet…
I’m getting married!
For general information search my name at theknot.com
For a detailed account of the long distance wedding planning visit yankeebellewedding.tumblr.com
Pdf my life…
Class may have been canceled this morning, but that’s a small comfort when you have 14 pdfs of research articles on your desktop (to read for tomorrow of course).
Did I mention a 3-page paper and a few hours of coding need to get done too?
No NCIS tonight I guess.
Why’s the rum gone?
This week has been a welcome respite from several days of a 100° plus heat index. Thomas got in last night around 9:30, and both of us were up bright and early to take Bonnie for a walk. Imagine my delight when the thermometer read a mere 68° at 8:30 AM. We walked along the edge of the zoo, but the gibbons were quiet today. Altogether, it was an uneventful outing until Bonnie saw one of our resident foxes in the backyard and wanted to play. Thomas has some great pictures of the whole fox family (2 parents, 3 babies) playing in the shade, and I’ll try to get them up soon.
The garden is looking great, our Gypsy peppers being the only exception. The tomatoes, basil and melons all look fabulous!
In other news, I’ve been cooped up inside despite the nice weather as I struggle to get all of my coding done for my second job. The whole project is much more difficult than I anticipated. Fortunately, class starts on Monday and I will be able to hang out in the Peabody library to work. (Much easier than trying to get a couple hours in after a full day at the child care center.)
The suite 703 alums are headed to Cabana tonight for girls night. Too bad more coding to do = no rum punch for Laura. If anyone has a recipe for rum punch they want to share…send it along!
Bonnie
I mentioned Bonnie last week without explaining that she is Thomas’ almost 2 year old doggie. (Although that was probably obvious when I talked about her shredding my shoes.) We’ve been having a rough time this week because she is so shaggy and the heat index has been in the 100′s. We know that she is part Blue Heeler (a.k.a. Australian Cattle Dog) but I had been a little confused about the difference between Australian Cattle Dogs and Australian Shepherds. I figured they both have “Australian” in the name, so they must be the same. Wrong. Australian Shepherds are actually not Australian, and the two look completely different! Below are links to the AKC pages for each, and a picture of Bonnie (who is part Blue Heeler, possibly part Australian Shepherd).
Blue Heeler/Australian Cattle Dog
It’s fun to look at pictures of all the Blue Heeler mixes on Google Images because they all look like the shape of the other part of the mix, with the coloring of a blue heeler. I’m still a little fuzzy (no pun intended) on whether Bonnie might be part Australian Shepherd because she has a long coat, but I think she may just be part Border Collie.
If anyone is an expert on Blue Heeler mixes, let me know what you think!
Whatever her pedigree is, it has been hard work keeping her occupied this week. After she chomped her way through my Delta Gamma flip flops (which I have been tempted to wear anyway) and a pair of Laura M.’s ballet flats I decided I needed to keep her busier. So, off we went to Movies in the Park on Wednesday. They were playing the 1989 Batman, and it was really crowded. Katy and Christine were there early to save a spot, but it was right in the middle of the crowd. We managed to work our way in, after much curtailing of friendly overtures in the form of slobbering. People kept asking what breed she was and saying how pretty she was. After we took a short run to burn off some energy this little boy who had asked to pet her (then been too afraid to) came over and rubbed her belly for a long time. The whole while she just lay next to my feet with people, dogs and food all over the place! When we got to our spot (after getting attacked by a really mean big dog) she lay down right in the middle of everyone and stayed there.
We’ve also been to the Centennial Dog Park, the Williamson County Dog Park in Franklin (also called Maggie’s Bark Park) and for several walks around the area South of the zoo. We met a doggie named Chloe at the park in Franklin who showed Bonnie how wonderful baby pools are for hot sweaty dogs, but she still doesn’t seem to care for the one in her dog run.
It’s going to be another long week for her while I’m at work, but at least Laura M. is here and Thomas will be back on Thursday night for a visit!
What I should be doing…
This afternoon I will be spending some time in the Peabody Library. It’s not much of a surprise that, just like when I’m in school, I have trouble getting independent work done any other way. Case and point: Yesterday I worked for an hour, took the dog to the park, futzed around in Wal-Mart for a while, watched some NCIS, some Wimbledon and so on, all the while telling myself I would do some more before bed. Now, today, I will be holing myself up in the Fireside Reading Room and working until they kick me out. More than likely, I will have to do the same thing again on Thursday.
Wish me luck.
(As a side note, I now have two posts on my blog Majoring in Mommy. Check it out using the link over there——->)
Settling In
Tonight is the beginning of my third week at the new place. Thomas has been here on and off, and Ellen and Christine have both dropped in to say hello. On his most recent visit, Thomas also brought Bonnie, who made a point of acquainting herself intimately with my favorite pair of leather flats. Ultimately, a very harsh reminder that there’s now a dog in the house, but a lesson very,very well learned.
So far, the most difficult part of this new life stage has been adjusting to the various stages of being alone. For the first night it was just Thomas and I, sleeping on an air mattress that had to be re-inflated every three hours, with no furniture and only a handful of cups, bowls, etc. After driving/flying all afternoon, we had to kill some time before the landlord could meet us and decided to see Up, which was precious. There was also much talk of gardening. More on that later. Laura M. came in the next day to scope out the place and interview for a job, and we made a lot of progress. (Read: Picked out a paint color, Glidden’s Seahawk Blue, and had a delicious dinner at Meredith’s.) Earlier that morning Thomas and I woke up early to buy a daybed we found on Craigslist. Said daybed is currently doubling as bed/couch in the living room. Quoth the Comcast cable guy, “I ain’t never seen anybody with a bed in the living room before.”
After Laura left Thomas and I got the kitchen prepped and painted. I retract all prior statements about edging tools being gimicky. Taping sucks. Touching up the abundant mishaps is still on my list of things to do. Didn’t get much else done before Thomas left, but I did oversee the cable installation. Other lessons learned included how difficult it is to eat without a can opener or a microwave, and that you can heat Lean Cuisine in the oven. (Thanks Thomas.)
I’ve been working a lot at both the Child Care Center and on a coding project for one of my professors. It was easier to get everything done before I got the cable hooked up.
Ellen came for a visit, during which I did not see enough of her and cried on her shoulder about the aforementioned shoes/chew toys. Hopefully next time she visits we’ll have real furniture and I’ll be settled in a lot better.
Thomas left yesterday after staying for a little over a week and we made more progress on the house. All common area floors have been mopped, and the garden has a fresh installment of tomatoes, peppers, basil and melons. (Thanks to Thomas the Roto-till master.) Several varieties of seeds are germinating in Solo cups on the counter. Solo cups = very versatile.
Tried to give Bonnie a puppy clip today (she looks so shaggy and hot compared to the dogs at the dog park!) and made the unsurprising discovery that I have to sit on top of her to keep her from running away the second I turn the clippers on. I was a little disappointed with the clippers themselves (another Craigslist find), but think a bath and a thorough brushing will help a lot. (The guard just gets snared because she’s not quite shed out yet.) I need to figure it out soon though, because she’s been lying around the house on her back with her legs apart for some airflow. (Plus, the hair I clip can go in the garden to deter whatever has been pulling up our transplants.)
I’ll be updating and posting some pictures soon!
