Detours, The Spice Of Life

While driving through Death Valley, Katie was sprawled out across the back seat trying to get something out of the cooler when her phone rang. She was needed in Costa Rica. Phone call after phone call making arrangements, our flight was booked and taking off on the 12th. A much unexpected detour, but not such a hardship, after all, it is Costa Rica. We were leaving out of Las Vegas so we had a week to kill before our flight left. Not wanting to spend an entire week in Vegas we spent the week doing a few things in Arizona that we wanted. If you read the last post you know all about it.

Saturday morning, bright and early for our flight to Houston, Michelle and Rob dropped us off at the airport with a saddle to drop off for them. I had not had any sleep the night before, I was sick. All stuffed up, actually it wasn’t stuffed; it was dripping out faster than I could find tissues. A perfect way to get on an airplane, woohoo! We finally landed in Houston, and my head was clogged, snot was running out of my nose and I was running a high fever. An even more perfect was to leave the country.

Back on the plane, Costa Rica, here we come! As I am coughing up my lungs on the plane, they make the announcement that there was a new form that needed to be filled out for entry into the country. It was a health assessment form. Questions such as, have you recently had a fever, cough, runny nose, ect… I never had to lie so much on one form in my life. As the flight was descending, I loaded up of cough drops and Tylenol so I can try to pull off being healthy for immigration. As we were standing in line, I got hit smack in the face with a grasshopper that was on steroids.

Finally cleared customs and Katie’s brothers, Nick and Gene were waiting for us on the other side. It was a fantastic welcoming. Hugs and kisses all around. They took our bags and we were in the car headed to the house.

Instead of going to the house, we stopped at the Shack for a quick bite to eat. They had one bagel and one sushi roll left, so we all split that. It turned out that there was way more to drink than to eat. Rasta was the bartender working that night. I met him last year while I was in Costa Rica. He is a super nice guy with long long dreads. He looks just as you would expect someone with the name Rasta to look like.

The Shack was closing so we moved the party down the road to the Monte Carlo. More drinks. It is an amazingly pleasant atmosphere. It was right on the beach and we could hear the waves crashing and smell the ocean. Well, at least I think that we could. At this point Nick and I were having a drinking war with rum and cokes. Of course I was in the lead. There could not be a better way to nurse a cold. You are supposed to drink plenty of fluids, right?

Needless to say, I was in bed with a high fever, swine flu and a hangover for almost two days. No, I do not think that it was actually swine flu, but it makes for a better story…

We received a phone call early one morning advising us to get to the beach ASAP. We threw on our suits and headed over. There was a whale off shore giving birth. It is not every day that you get to see that happening. Not wanting to scare her, we did not get too close.

After a tough morning swimming in the pacific that was crystal clear, witnessing a miracle and sunning ourselves, we headed over to Mark’s beach house for a dip in the pool and a little shade. Nick looked up and noticed that the coconuts were just perfect for the picking; he took a stick and got a few down for us. Mark took his machete and opened holes for us to drink out of. The sweetness of the coconut was just perfect after the salt water in the face.

After a tough day at the beach we headed home to shower for dinner with our friend Jen. All cleaned up we jumped in the golf cart and headed over. There were drinks and great conversation. We had a homemade Thai pizza for dinner which was out of this world. I am going to attempt to make one when we get home. If it turns out ok, I will post a recipe.

Another tough day at the beach was in store for us the following day. Except this time, they all got the crazy idea that it would be fun to jump off of the cliff. Me, not so much. Don’t jump too far in either direction because there were rocks and you did not want to land on one of those. I have faced a lot of fears this trip, but this one I was not ready to conquer. I am not done with the living quite yet to jump off of a cliff and have a freak accident because the wind blew funny while I was in mid jump. Although, I have to admit that it did look like fun. Chances are good that next time I am there, I will jump.

After a full day of surfing, sunning and jumping we headed to Ben’s house for a jam session with the boys. This house was out of this world! It was all mostly open air, with a palm roof, an infinity pool, and a view anyone would kill for. It overlooks the marina and out into the ocean. It was a perfect night with an amazing sunset. Good food, good music, good friends, good view. There is not much better in my book.

The rest of the week was mostly the same, reading, beaching, swimming, surfing, relaxing. It was wonderful to catch up with people that I have not seen in a while. Good times, even though, I am still deathly ill at this time.

Our last night there Katie, her dad, two brothers and I all went out to have a farewell dinner. We attempted to go to the Shack and all they had was a couple bagels and sushi rolls. We ordered what they had for an appetizer. This is after all the rainy season and not much goes on in Costa during this time. After a couple drinks we decided to try the new Italian restaurant across the street. We walked up three flights of stairs to get to the open air café and it was nothing but a glorified pizza joint with bad atmosphere. None of us wanted to eat there once we saw the inside. So, we ordered some drinks, talked a bit and then headed to the Bahia. It is located right on the beach, awesome atmosphere, fantastic food and great conversation. What more could you ask for on your last night in tropical paradise?

There were many more things that went on while we were there, but these are the items that I can write about and not be incriminating myself or others. If you want the full story, it’ll cost ya…

Always remember to take time to refuel your tank with love…