Check on the to-do list
Trip Start
Jun 26, 2006
1
47
50
Trip End
Aug 14, 2008
Here,
Costa Rica
Thursday, March 13, 2008
More random acts of spontenaity: One Friday, as I lay in bed, I pondered over the fact that I'd spent most of the week at home, not many things were going on as school hadn't started yet and everyone was still in vacation mode. I was staring at a long weekend of the same. Very depressing, as things are rather dull on the weekends if there's nothing going on. I lay pondering my seemingly dull and immediate future. Then I decided enough moping around! I was going to DO something! Something exciting! Something fun! Something spontaneous!
I pulled out my Costa Rica travel guide book and started feverishly flipping pages. The beach! Beach always=fun and exciting, and in this case, it definitely counted as spontaneous! But which beach? I decided upon Tamarindo. Since I arrived here, I've wanted to go. At the welcome retreat, way back when I was naive and optimistic, way back before gallo pinto (rice, beans and Salsa Lizano) and way back before a permanent tan, a volunteer was regalling us noobs (newbies) with tales of exotic beaches and wild jungles, more specifically about Tamarindo. I thought wow, it must be a cool beach, I've gotta go there! Getting recommended by a real live PCV is the height of coolness.
It was a year and change since that fateful day. I was now expereinced and realistic, up to here with gallo pinto and a certified piece of toast. But the recommendation still stands. A country's PCVs' collective knowledge of the where-to and how-to of travelling within the country is topped by none. And an item on your to-do list that's a year and a half old definitely needs crossing off before the two year mark.
I was going! I packed my bag that night to avoid repentance the next morning.
Saturday, I beat down the birds of negativity and made reservations at a hostel. It was official. I even roped a friend into coming with me. My powers of persuasion worked along the lines of: "Good morning! What are you
doing this weekend? Nothing? Good! We're going to the beach!" Lucky for me, I'm amazingly persuasive and she agreed to come with me.
We met in San Jose and were on our way by 3pm. The whole thing was what we call una locura. A craziness. And it was. But it was fun and relaxing and if I was already a piece of toast, I returned a slightly charred piece of toast, despite my inability to bask like an iguana in the sun like other members of the female sex. For me, the beach is a place to frolic in the waves and so forth. If I wanted to sunbathe, I could do that on my roof at home.
We returned home within 36 hours, and spent the majority of those 36 in transit. We weren't in Tamarindo even 24 hours and by bus, it's apx 6 hours away, not including wait time and transfers. But it was totally worth it. I returned home refreshed and ready to tackle another week.
