Dulce Vida

Absolutely nothing could have dragged me out of bed. My first day of freedom from responsibilities….I blissfully slept for 12 hours. Vaguely aware of the banging on the door, someone trying to remind me of my surf lesson, then the maid coming by 3 times to try and clean my room, and then a voice outside my door telling me to either shut my window or turn off the AC in my room, and barely noticing the frog that was sitting at the foot of my bed staring at me….as i drifted back off to sleep. Add this to the fact that all I currently have in my possession is a pair of long jeans (which Id cut into shorts by the time my luggage arrived 2 days later), running shoes, a tank top, and a sweatshirt, and its probably 100 degrees outside with humidity…I have no desire to leave my cold room and the comfort of a bed.

9:40pm and my flight begins its descent into Liberia airport, Costa Rica. For the first time in my life, I find myself wishing a plane ride was actually longer. Fear and self doubt set in, along with a sense of vulnerability…. im in a foreign country, no knowledge of the local language, no structured itinerary or plan (no excel sheets of to-do lists which had become my life back home), no direct deposit checks appearing into my bank account bi weekly, and 4 months worth of all my possessions stuffed into a backpack. A backpack I quickly learn, as the luggage carousal comes to a halt, has not made it with me to Costa Rica. Approaching the young gal at the “service desk” to tell her of my predicament, smiling, she proceeds to hand me a 2 page form, entirely in spanish. In broken english, she instructs me to fill it out, and “es posible” my luggage will turn up in “dos o tres dias”. With the help of my diccionario espanol, and the gals genuine attempt at helping me translate it, I complete the form. As I walk away, a highly pierced and full body tattoed guy standing nearby, who’d overheard my exchange with the gal, approaches to tell me he owns several properties just 45 minutes north of LIberia, and there are many women staying there who would be able to lend me some clothes if id like. Kindly refusing, I shuffle off to find my shuttle.