What Better Time than Now

Whew.

I can honestly say that the last few months have been like a dream. Traveling has a way of doing that to you if you can do it right. Time becomes seamless and categories such as dates, days of the week, hours, and minutes, become increasingly abstract and inapplicable concepts. Everything is going according to the plan - as the name of my blog suggests. Every day is a new adventure, in it's own unique way. I am not quite sure how to sum it up, not sure if there are even words, and that is why I chose to post the pictures first. Upon looking at them, you will definitely understand the extent of my speechlessness and awe.

I finished my Spanish classes in mid-December and was definitely looking to get as far away from San Jose's constant traffic and lousy weather. The opportunity presented itself to travel with two new friends - Hector (from Costa Rica) and David (from North Carolina in route to Argentina) to spend the holidays with Hector's family in Guanacaste, in the Nicoya Penisula. As Hector is from Costa Rica, we had the inside scoop to everything and were able to spend most of our time with Ticos, off the beaten tourist path. We headed to hot springs, hiked a Volcán Arenal, did a zip-line Rainforest Canopy tour, BBQ'd at the beach, went camping, sang and played a lot of music (both Hector and David are incredible musicians), and laughed, laughed, laughed. It was so refreshing to have the opportunity to travel with two guys who like to list off five things they are grateful for every night before they to bed! Around the 3rd of January, we headed back to San Jose so Hector could work for a few days, and then we took off again, to Panama!

Little did we know that the very day we left, an hour after we crossed the CR-Panama border a major earthquake would hit Costa Rica. In fact, I didn't check my email for five or six days and was so surprised to log on and quite a few messages from friends and family wondering if I was O.K! We were oblivious, getting off the bus and heading to Bocas del Torro, where we stayed for a week - snorkeling, kayaking, bathing in the sun, and doing at least one thing every day that scared us. Scary thing Day one for me was doing my very first back flip off the diving board at the hostel that was about 10 feet high. From there we got a recommendation for a tour in the San Blas islands - a group of 300+ islands in the Caribbean. Many of the islands are inhabited by an indigenous Indian tribe, the Kuna. The San Blas province actually has it's own government, autonomous from Panama, and each island is ruled by a chief. You have to get special permission from the chief to enter into the province, and electricity and running water are not found on most of the islands. Our island was an hour boat ride off the coast, with 15 small cabanas. It was like stepping into a postcard, or as my friend Forest commented on one of my photos, a motivational poster that you find at the mall. Crystal blue water, white sand, coral reefs, loads of fresh coconuts to crack open with a machete, beautiful sunsets, and starry nights. We originally bought a tour for four days/three nights, but just kept..well...staying one more night until more than a week had gone by. After a week in paradise, we headed back to the real world, as my days for traveling were becoming limited. Panama City is infinitely better than San Jose, and I would like to return when I don't have fractured toes (soccer accident on the island) so I can visit some of the swanky Salsa clubs in the city. After a few days, it was back on the bus for me while David stayed in Panama to continue south in his journey to Argentina. It was a tough goodbye, as it is always sad to separate from a travel partner and a friend. When you spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week with someone - two months becomes an eternity, and I admit, on the bus I pulled the bill of my hat down and shed a tear or two during the 21 hour lonely bus ride back to San Jose.

I arrived at my apartment Saturday night at around 6 p.m. and headed straight to the hospital to get an X-ray of my poor foot, which verified that it was indeed fractured. Nonetheless, I went home, switched out the clothes in my backpack, got four hours sleep, and headed to the bus stop for yet another adventure, an inner adventure at the 10 day silent meditation retreat in Puntareñas. This time I was serving the course, which meant that I would be rising and shining at 4:30 a.m. to cook and clean for a group of 40 meditators, while having 3 to five hours a day to meditate myself. The site was breathtakingly beautiful - view of the ocean, fabulous sunsets, amazing food (I learned a ton of new recipes!), and again, time slowly dissipated until the sound of the gong was the only indication that it was indeed time to change activities. It was a wonderful bridge, to wind down from a free spirited wanderer and gather my intellectual and emotional strength for graduate school. On day 10 of the course, when the participants can indeed talk, I was able to connect with a few amazing men and women who live close to me in Heredia and are interested in getting together to meditate and practice yoga!

I arrived at my apartment at about 6 p.m. I couldn't believe that in the last two months I had spent only four nights in this place. I also couldn't believe that I was starting my classes the following day. The very next evening I was sitting in a class of 40 students, desperately trying to follow the professor's Spanish as she flew through the syllabus. Suddenly, the sandy beaches and crystal clear waters seemed like ages ago, another lifetime. Another chapter of my life has started, the chapter that brought me here to this beautiful country. It is going to be an intense program, but after attending my first two classes, I am humbled by the quality of education that I will receive at the university, as all of my professors are published authors and well known voices in all of Latin America on the subject of Gender and Women's studies. My time will now be spent laboring over long, theoretical texts and painstakingly writing reflections over readings and planning presentations, as well as settling into my apartment, my new routine, and this new time in my life which is slowly unfolding with each passing day, each passing moment. With each inhale and exhale comes the next grand adventure.

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this.” - Henry David Thoreau