Costa Rica: Day 1.
I came out here to read; that was the plan. I'd brought "A Circle of Quiet," a Madelaine L'Engle book I'd chosen for my students because I love it. But who can focus when there are billions of scurrying ants (not biting, just scurrying), tiny flitting birds, monkeys screeching in the forest, sight unseen? There's a six-inch lizard on one of the bushes, much bigger than the tiny one in our room.
We're staying at a beautiful place called Costa Verde -- there are four wood-and-leather rocking chairs on the balcony. Not really a balcony exactly, because it's on the first floor. The floors are marble tile, we have hand-carved tables and a relatively well-equipped kitchen here, along with a very lovely bathroom. I'm very happy we chose this place.
There's the ocean, too. It's so lovely this morning (it's perhaps 6:30 now?) and I'd say it's a peaceful, quiet morning, but really, the birds and monkeys are making a hell of a racket.
The others won't be up for a few more hours, I suspect. They're not morning people, and they haven't been on vacation for a week already, like I have. Lisa and Jeremy have been working, Jason's been in Europe for two weeks. That's vacation, technically, but it's also intense travel, and there's an eight-hour time difference from Amsterdam to San Jose.
Yesterday was a tough travel day, too. Our plane was broken, so we were delayed by 3 1/2 hours, and got to our hotel at 7:30 instead of 3:30. AA arranged for a taxi to take us all the way to our door, which was great, since our NatureAir flight would have just brought us to Quepos, and we would have had to take a taxi from there anyway.
It's hard to dwell, though, when everything is so amazing. The weather is lovely -- very humid but not too warm, and there are fans everywhere. It's really, truly amazing. I'm just enchanted by everything.
We're staying at a beautiful place called Costa Verde -- there are four wood-and-leather rocking chairs on the balcony. Not really a balcony exactly, because it's on the first floor. The floors are marble tile, we have hand-carved tables and a relatively well-equipped kitchen here, along with a very lovely bathroom. I'm very happy we chose this place.
There's the ocean, too. It's so lovely this morning (it's perhaps 6:30 now?) and I'd say it's a peaceful, quiet morning, but really, the birds and monkeys are making a hell of a racket.
The others won't be up for a few more hours, I suspect. They're not morning people, and they haven't been on vacation for a week already, like I have. Lisa and Jeremy have been working, Jason's been in Europe for two weeks. That's vacation, technically, but it's also intense travel, and there's an eight-hour time difference from Amsterdam to San Jose.
Yesterday was a tough travel day, too. Our plane was broken, so we were delayed by 3 1/2 hours, and got to our hotel at 7:30 instead of 3:30. AA arranged for a taxi to take us all the way to our door, which was great, since our NatureAir flight would have just brought us to Quepos, and we would have had to take a taxi from there anyway.
It's hard to dwell, though, when everything is so amazing. The weather is lovely -- very humid but not too warm, and there are fans everywhere. It's really, truly amazing. I'm just enchanted by everything.