COSTA RICA – THE MANGROVES

 

“So, you’re going to the MAN-grove today?” says Scott with the faintest hint of a smirk.

I laugh, feeling permanently ruined by the way he says mangrove, with the emphasis on MAN, as though we are going to some sleazy jungle night club and not the mangrove kayaking tour some of us have decided upon. 

COSTA RICA – CLARO QUE SI, UNTIL NEXT TIME

 

Today is my last full day in paradise.  I am beside myself with a mixture of emotions, the primary I think being sadness and resistance to my time ending here.  It has gone far too quickly. 

Last night I had to say “farewell, until next time” to some lovely friends who are leaving today.  I already miss them and, while I am grateful for the time we had together, I feel greedy like I want more and it will never be enough. 

I hate good-byes.  I am terrible at them.  My friends all say the same thing – it isn’t good-bye, it is until next time. 

The thing is, we never know for sure.  There is no permanence in life.  There is no such thing as a “sure thing”.  It is the reason I do not make promises anymore. 

Quincy And The Queens Of Quepos

Quincy is a well-known man in this area of Costa Rica, and if you come here and haven’t met him around town, you may have seen his pot brownies for sale at la feria in Quepos. 

My introduction to Quincy was some years ago in a bar while with friends.  He was telling us these bizarre stories and talking about strange things finally accumulating in him asking me, “If I were a dog, what would you name me?”

Caught off guard, my reply was something inane while the responses to my Facebook post were more amusing.  My favorite contribution was, “I would name you spot, and then get some spot remover and make you go away.”

COSTA RICA EARTHQUAKE

Yesterday I went to la playa for some much needed sol and had some fun drinking cerveza while writing my last blog post, which was truthful yet poking fun at myself and my inability to pursue travel hardships of any kind.  I was laughing to myself out loud alone on the beach, even occasionally snorting, which just made me giggle harder, and was drinking my 2nd cerveza when I suddenly feel the ground moving. 

EARTHQUAKE!

It didn't last too long but my body went on high alert.  I looked around and nobody was stopped in their tracks looking about or acting as if they felt anything.  I've never been on the beach just meters away from the water during an earthquake before.  Am I being a stupid girl for just sitting here dumbfounded?  Is there even a remote possibility of even a mild tsunami? 

BURY ME SUNBATHING

The overcast sky is a scrim, masking the unrelenting, impervious sun overhead.  In spite of my poor water drinking habits, sweat pools on my upper lip and drips down my face, my arms, my legs. An insect lands on me and I slap it away.  Already a man has noticed and impolitely pointed out the small bruises on my legs - one of the allergic reactions I get to mosquitos, sand fleas, and other critters that bite me. 

COSTA RICA: Circadian Rhythms, Café Con Leche, and “Wild”

 

One of the nice things about staying at a bed and breakfast is that you get breakfast, except of course when you sleep through breakfast hours.  It was understandable on that first day, because I had slept very little and was exhausted by my travels.  The second day it was more of a bummer and I felt disappointed.  When I finally went to breakfast on the third day, I was filled with appreciation, not just for the juice, food, and café con leche, and the glorious view, but the conversation.  It is a great way to meet other travelers.  Sharing a table with strangers over food breaks down a barrier, I suppose in the same way that sharing an airplane seat with the arm rest up lifts a kind of mental barrier.  People are more apt to talk when what is mostly a mental line of separation disappears.

COSTA RICA - DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL

DEPARTURE

There is a man exerting great effort in some bizarre version of a power-walk up the hill of the residential area in San Bruno, California where I have parked my car at my cousin’s house in preparation to leave for Costa Rica.  The man might actually be running in slow motion. He has a rope tied about his waist.  My mind can’t make sense of it all for a minute as my eyes follow along the taut length of the rope and see it is dragging a tire along the cement.  Across the street, I exhale a plume of smoke out my car window and fumble for my camera to capture what my mind can barely make sense of and what is in direct opposition to my current desires; to rest my body, soul, mind, and heart on my favourite beach in Costa Rica and do nada. 

A part of me detests this man because he is a reflection of myself on a daily basis, trudging up the insurmountable mountain of life, dragging a metaphorical tire along the way, using every ounce of energy, and having something which is already difficult be much more challenging.  It is not of my own volition; I am not training for something for fun or glory or simply to get in shape.

COLOMBIA ARTICLE ON WE SAID GO TRAVEL

Bogota, Colombia

 

Thank you to We Said Go Travel for publishing my article, "Captivated In Bogota, Colombia" on their website!

Travelling to Colombia was a great experience and I am happy I went by myself, although next time I would like to go longer than 5 days and see more areas.  There was one moment in particular that resonated deep in my soul and where I realized that Bogota was after my heart.  I did my best to convey this moment and feeling in my article even though a part of me felt it was indescribable.  Click on the below link to one of the videos I took trying to capture at least the visual portion, and I hope you also have a moment to read my article.

Video of Bogota, Colombia

By Naomi Fino

"One of the byproducts of not planning a trip is that expectations drop to ambiguous media tidbits and scattered commentary from friends or fellow travelers, as was the case of Bogota, Colombia.  It was the last stop of 3 months of travels through Central and South America, and was a close contender with Peru, Chile and Ecuador.  After much vacillating, Colombia won out, partially due to its dangerous reputation that appealed to my illogical sense of adventure despite concerns of being a woman travelling alone.

The US embassy websites did nothing to assuage my concerns but further piqued my interest. While securing travelers insurance in the U.S., a kind woman on the phone explained my benefits should there be an emergency abroad. I perversely, and nervously, wanted to know, 'Does it cover kidnappings in Colombia?'"

 

To read the full article, click on the link below.

We Said Go Travel - "Captivated In Bogota, Colombia"

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! - 2014

 

 

Happy New Year, Everyone!

This is a mostly a travel blog, but I veer from that occasionally if something even remotely fits in the “adventura” category and sometimes just because I can.  My recent posts have been me catching up over the past few months, and while I still have much more travel writing to catch up on from my excursion to Central and South America, this post at least brings things a bit more to the current date and provides some highlights.

2013 was a challenging year for me and some parts were devastatingly difficult on a deeply personal level.  However, I traveled more than I ever have before in my life and experienced things that I wouldn’t trade even to make those devastating things go buh-bye, which says a lot for how highly I regard some of my experiences.  That might be an overstatement of sorts but I’m going with it.

So where did I go in 2013?

Everything But The Turkey

 

Thanksgiving comes around and suddenly everyone is grateful for one thing or another.  The list usually entails friends, sometimes family, and occasionally health.  Yes, I have much to say on that particular ordering of things people are generally grateful for. Half of me is annoyed by the sudden surge of grateful posts on Facebook feeling like so much of it is perfunctory BS and the other half of me is genuinely touched.

Years ago, while living in San Francisco, I was listening to my car radio on my way home and the theme on the talk show I happened to be listening to was, “The Worst Thanksgiving You Ever Had.”  Bitter and alone, go ahead caller!  One guy called in and won hands down with the poignant summary that his worst Thanksgiving was working the night shift by himself at a mortuary eating cold cheeseburgers with cadavers. 

ROARING THROUGH MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN

I hate waiting.  Inigo Montoyo and I lack the same patience gene. I will avoid waiting at all costs with an unparalleled passion.  I have more important things to work on with myself in this lifetime than to spend enormous amounts of energy focused on being more patient just to yield pitiful results that will still put me far below average with the entire human race.  Why bother?  I’d rather stand at the top of the cliffs of insanity and swear up and down on anything that means everything to me just to hear the waiting is over from the mouth of my mysteriously masked, sword-fighting foe with, “Throw me the rope.”

An exception to this is waiting for airplanes.  I don’t mind arriving an hour or even two earlier than I should at an airport, partially because there is plenty of people-watching I can amuse myself with and partially because I love flying and anything that has to do with airplanes, airports, and travel.  There is also that small caveat worth mentioning where missing my plane sounds like a little nightmare.    

Isn’t missing your flight something every traveler fears? Okay, well maybe at least those who are on a schedule or budget, which I was.  I was headed last minute to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for my friends’ commitment ceremony in October.