Cahuitaaahhh!

The weekend before last, Cameron and I took our final trip out of the city to the coast. We decided to try the Caribbean coast again (we've only been once, as all of our other trips have been to the pacific side), but we didn't want a party town (I'm lookin' at you, Puerto Viejo), so we decided on Cahuita. Boy am I glad we did! Cahuita has a Creole/Rasta influence and its laid back, welcoming vibe is just what we needed. We had the most relaxing and enjoyable beach weekend that we've had in Costa Rica and we liked this low-key, small town the best out of all the beach towns we've been to.

We got on a 6am bus on Saturday morning and rolled into town a little before 10 am. We found a cheap hotel ($25 for a double), dropped off our stuff and headed to the Cahuita National Park. The beach was gorgeous, the water was calm and blue and we were surrounded by dozens of sand dollars. We left the beach around 4:30pm, went out, had dinner and drinks and were promptly asleep by 9pm.

I know you're on the edge of your seat; we're really exciting girls.

We spent the entire next day at the beach too and now, thanks to that golden Caribbean sun, I am as brown as I've been in years.

All we wanted to do was lay on the beach, read, sleep and enjoy the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. And for once, we made good on our plans. What a way to leave the Rich Coast. I know I will be to Cahuita again. Maybe for a quit jaunt when I need to get away from life back in the States one day. I can turn to a cute guy and say, "Hey, I know this little town on the Caribbean in Costa Rica...wanna go?"

Yeah. I like that idea.

((Click HERE to check out pics from this trip in this month's album))

Pablo Neruda, Pablo Neruda...

At this very moment, I'm singing "Pablo Neruda" over and over in my head to the tune of "Hava Negillah".

I guess Pablo has that effect on me.

I'm on a big "Latin American Literature" kick right now. I just finished One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Pearl (both very good) and now I'm about to jump into The House of Spirits, while eagerly awaiting Born in Blood and Fire (non-fiction). In the in-between, I've been indulging in some Neruda. I say "indulging" because his poetry is so rich, so thick with decadent goodness, that to read him feels like a delicious indulgence.

But that's my opinion. What's yours?

Enjoy...

Ode To Broken Things

Things get broken at home like they were pushed by an invisible, deliberate smasher. It's not my hands or yours It wasn't the girls with their hard fingernails or the motion of the planet. It wasn't anything or anybody It wasn't the wind It wasn't the orange-colored noontime Or night over the earth It wasn't even the nose or the elbow Or the hips getting bigger or the ankle or the air. The plate broke, the lamp fell All the flower pots tumbled over one by one. That pot which overflowed with scarlet in the middle of October, it got tired from all the violets and another empty one rolled round and round and round all through winter until it was only the powder of a flowerpot, a broken memory, shining dust. And that clock whose sound was the voice of our lives, the secret thread of our weeks, which released one by one, so many hours for honey and silence for so many births and jobs, that clock also fell and its delicate blue guts vibrated among the broken glass its wide heart unsprung. Life goes on grinding up glass, wearing out clothes making fragments breaking down forms and what lasts through time is like an island on a ship in the sea, perishable surrounded by dangerous fragility by merciless waters and threats. Let's put all our treasures together -- the clocks, plates, cups cracked by the cold -- into a sack and carry them to the sea and let our possessions sink into one alarming breaker that sounds like a river. May whatever breaks be reconstructed by the sea with the long labor of its tides. So many useless things which nobody broke but which got broken anyway

Montevideos!

Here are some videos I made during our Monteverde trip. They're not entirely informative or entertaining, but humor me and enjoy my incredibly cheesy commentary. Oh, and Cameron and I are going to try to take more trips with other people in order to put more characters in these videos (besides her).

Here's Cameron making candy at the coffee/sugar cane plantation:

Gringas waiting for the longest zip-line:

Here's Cameron doing the "Tarzan swing" in the cloud forest:

(Clearly I didn't know when she was actually going to drop)

Monteverde y Cartago!

As of today, Cameron and I have 19 days left in Costa Rica until we are nestled between the mountains in Cusco, Peru, so we are trying to soak it up as much as we can before we leave the Rich Coast!

Last weekend, we took a trip to Monteverde, a rain forest northwest of San Jose. The sun didn't make much of an appearance, but the lush green around us was still beautiful. The first day of our two day trip we visited a coffee/sugar cane plantation, owned by a local family. It was beautiful and charming. We even got to make our own candy and at the end of the tour, the mother fed us, gave us lemonade and of course, coffee. We can now check a Costa Rican "must do" off our list, as coffee is Costa Rica's biggest and most popular export.

Another Costa Rican "must do" is zip-lining, and that's what we did on Sunday morning...

Zip-lining is the coolest thing I have ever done in my life. Maybe I'll regret saying that when I remember something cooler, but as of right now, I can't really compare it to much of anything else. I'll never bungee jump (I hate sudden drops) and it's doubtful that I'll sky dive (though I wouldn't completely rule that out just yet...), so yeah, this is pretty much the most intense "up high" thing I've done yet. A lot of people zip-line and because of that, in my opinion, it seemed like it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Well, it was. We hiked through the cloud forest from location to location and that was a TOTAL butt-buster. I loved it (and needed it!). The hikes were sometimes so intense that by the time I got to the zip-line, I looked forward to just relaxing a bit on the line. I can't really put into words how exhilarating it is to shoot out at a high speed, hundreds of feet in the air, surrounded by lush, green hills. During the first long zip I had to say out loud to myself, "Oh. My. God. This is the coolest thing ever." I couldn't believe my eyes. Sure, it was scary, but it was also spectacular and fun and wonderful. And I have to admit, I was proud of myself, because sometimes I'm kind of a tight-ass. I'm already looking forward to doing it again. I'm scheduled to pay a visit to Australia next spring and I'm going to try it out there too. If you have ANY interest in doing this, I highly recommend it! And if you want, I'll do it with you. Let's set a date!

After that, we were famished and exhausted, so we grabbed lunch and hopped on the bus back to San Jose (a four hour trip that's not bad because the views for most of it are gorgeous). We collapsed into our beds for the night and woke up the next morning at 7:30 am to do the Peregrinación a Cartago (Pilgrimage to Cartago), a 15 mile walk from San Jose to the Basilica de los Angeles in honor of the Virgin of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. (See my most recent album for more details!) This is a tradition in this part of the country and

Cameron and I figured, "When in Rome..." and plus, we both welcomed the challenge to walk 15 miles! It was a beautiful walk to a lovely mountain town. It's always a good feeling to work (or in this case, walk) towards a goal with a large group of people. It's unifying and gratifying. I'm glad we did it.

SO, that was about the most active weekend I've had maybe ever. My body is still thanking me for it and asking for more! This weekend we've stayed in town and hung out with some local friends. Next weekend we are planning our last trip to the coast. I can't believe my time here is already drawing to a close, but my sadness is dwarfed by my overwhelming excitement to discover a new place, rich in history and culture!

((View my pictures from Monteverde and Cartago HERE))