Sorry for not writing in a while...I have no real excuse, just the normal distractions of life. And by distractions I mean I intentionally keep my days really full because there's so much I want to do while I'm here. I'll start with the most recent exciting events and then get into my everyday life (just in case you don't make it through the whole post).
Since I'm living here on a tourist visa, I have to leave the country for 72 hours every 3 months (it's basically a mandatory vacation). I'm not sure how 3 months have gone by already, but they have and last weekend I went to Panama with 7 other teachers. We went to this place called Bocas del Toro, which is a group of islands on the Caribbean side, really close to the Costa Rican border. I think one of the islands there was used to film one of the Survivor seasons. Anyway, Bocas is basically a collection of beautiful semi-deserted beaches that belong on postcards.
It took us about 6 hours to get to the border, where we got off one bus, filled out some forms, walked across this rickety old bridge into Panama, filled out some more forms and got in a van that took us to the ocean where we took a boat taxi to the main island, Isla Colon (everything over here is named after Christopher Columbus, despite his less than reputable actions in the Americas). We got to our hostel around 4 and Denise made us all a delicious pasta dinner. Our hostel was right on the water and after dinner I laid down in a hammock on the hostel dock overlooking the water and the other islands and took a nice peaceful nap. If I haven't made you jealous yet, then I'm not telling it right.
On Saturday we went to Starfish beach, so named for all of the giant starfish in the water. We spent a relaxing day at the beach, talking, swimming, reading, trying not to get sunburned (some of us were more successful than others) and just enjoying the natural beauty around us.
On Sunday we all split up. Denise and I went back to Costa Rica to Puerto Viejo to spend a day/night there. I'm going to try and explain Puerto Viejo, but I know I'm going to fail. It's one of those places you just have to experience for yourself. The culture there is like Reggae meets hippie meets the Costa Rican Pura Vida. It's basically the most chilled out place I've ever been and it's right on the Caribbean coast with a beach that looks different every 100 meters. We spent our day on Playa Negro, where the sand was completely black. Our hostel in Puerto Viejo was also a unique and almost indescribable place. It's right on the beach, the whole place is made up of colorful tile mosaics, there are hammocks and tents everywhere and the place is full of the kind of people you would expect to see sleeping in hammocks in a Costa Rican beach town. It was awesome for a night. I might not want to stay there for a long period of time, but for a night it was an awesome experience.
We met up with a couple other teachers who were on their way to Panama and we went out for a nice dinner. None of us really eat out in restaurants a lot, so it was a nice treat. We each ordered one of the specials, had the 2 for 1 cocktails and Denise and I ordered some desserts, pecan pie and a brownie sundae. Delicious.
We took the bus back to Heredia on Monday morning and I've been working ever since. I'm at about 25 hours of class time a week, plus meetings and planning time I end up at work at least 40 hours a week. I've also started getting more serious about my triathlon training. I do yoga every morning, run 3-4 times a week, do 3 strength training workouts and I swim 2-3 times a week at this great outdoor Olympic sized pool that's really close to my work. I also found people to play Ultimate Frisbee with every Sunday, which has been awesome! And tomorrow I'm actually running a 10k due to the insistence of one of my students. Her school is hosting the race and she knows I've been training and pretty much told me she was signing me up for it and didn't really give me much of a choice.
Other than that I've been hanging out with people, you know, trying to be more social. I just finished the first book in the Game of Thrones series and I'm now rereading the Fountainhead. Oh, one of my students who loves reading English books told me about a used bookstore so I went and found a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in Spanish for super cheap. I got a little tired of memorizing verb tenses so this is my new Spanish learning project.
So yeah, the reason I called this post Pura Vida is because I can feel this place having quite the effect on me. Pura Vida translates to pure life, but I really don't think it's something that can be understood through a translation. I had read the phrase in Lonely Planet before I got here, but it's taken me a few months to fully grasp its meaning. It's really a lifestyle and it's a lifestyle that's so incredibly different from the culture in the U.S. I don't think I'll ever be able to reach Tico levels of Pura Vida, but everyday I can feel it become more and more a part of who I am. I wish I could explain it, but I've already written too much. I'll try to put it in words at some point in the future, just know that I feel more and more relaxed everyday and life is just more beautiful.
Pictures coming soon.
