Back to the Beach

Its amazing that when you’re not supposed to be somewhere, for some reason, you can find the way out pretty easily. That’s what happened to us– we woke up yesterday morning, ready to get out of Santa Teresa because for some reason we just weren’t supposed to stick around. I guess we’ve traveled enough to know to follow your gut when something just isn’t.. right. So we got coffee, caught up on work, and then went back to the house to make breakfast. We ate, packed, and went across the street to this great organic food store to ask if they could call us a taxi.

The sweet girl who’d been talking with us the last couple days called the taxi for us and within [literally] a minute, he arrived. We hopped in and were on our way! We could have saved at least $25 by taking the bus, but at this point we had put so much energy into making things “right” the last two days that we basically said “screw it” and forked over the cash for a cab.

The driver swerved around potholes, drove through a water-filled trench, and steered the SUV down the dirt road like it was.. well, like it was his job. I envied his precision and knowledge of these paths– a sage of the open road. He didn’t speak to us, except when we asked to use his phone to call the caretaker of the next property we were heading towards. And I was thankful for that– Jason & I were both tense and ready for a change after sending email after email back and forth with the old and new property managers as we tried to create a plan for the place we’d spend the next 8 days of our trip, and I just needed to reorganize my thoughts.

Thirty minutes later we arrived in Montezuma, a small beach town on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. I was so happy to finally be in a town we were going to stay for just over a week that I could have kissed the driver. I was so tired of traveling. Over the last 5 days we had traveled Bocas -> Puerto Viejo -> San Jose -> Santa Teresa -> Montezuma. We paid the guy, then almost immediately ran into Jerry, the caretaker of the property we were going to stay on in Montezuma. We found out shortly after that he’s from a small mountain town in Colorado and has a wife with the sweetest little voice. We were in good hands.

We dropped our things at our new place and I could have jumped for joy– a full kitchen to cook meals and bake in, a large yurt-like living space that opened up to the sound of thunderous waves and palm trees, and, get this– a WASHING MACHINE! The washing machine alone would help us make up for the extra money spent on a taxi– Jason & I were both thrilled.

View from our cabin– straight down to the water!

So we spent the rest of the day unwinding on the lounge chairs in front of our cabin, reading our books with smiles on our relaxed faces. We grabbed a few groceries and splurged on a cocktail in town. Later on it rained and rained and the waves sounded like they came up to our front door as we fell asleep.

We woke up today, refreshed and ready for a new day. We spent a little time at the beach right after waking, feeling thankful for this trip– both the challenges & triumphs. We ate a little papaya & banana for breakfast, grabbed a coffee at The Bakery Cafe down the street, and later spent some time reading on the beach and playing in the waves.

Despite it being the rainy season, today turned out to be so beautiful. I felt a little homesick this morning, but then almost immediately that feeling was replaced with a gratefulness that overpowered it. We’ve become used to the lifestyle here and the foreign language we can decipher a little bit more than when we first arrived. But the beauty of this country.. that’s something I don’t think I’ll ever get used to!