Transformation

Finally, I just sat upright in bed and cried: “Seriously? Just f**k me already!” 

It was only our second night in Costa Rica and I had been awakened for the umpteenth time by barking and howling. And by now the full moon had risen high overhead, and was pulling canine strings, orchestrating a cacophony from our camp hosts’ three dogs, the neighbors’ dogs surrounding us, and all of the many stray dogs in the local area. Ten dogs, maybe twenty? Thirty? Barking, baying and howling for seemingly hours on end. 

This was definitely not in the brochure.

In despair I had lost my cool and was ruminating, “How did we end up here?” and “How am I going to survive four more weeks of this?”

And then I realized I had awakened Shannon so I heaved a huge sigh and said “It’s ok babe. I’m sorry. Go back to sleep. I’ll be OK.” I gently rubbed her back, “I’ll be OK.” 

I’ll be OK

I said that last bit as much for myself as for her, willing myself to find the strength to somehow make it OK. Eventually, the ocean waves crashing on the beach 200 meters away lulled me back to sleep and before long morning finally arrived. 

And with morning came coffee and breakfast, both of which helped me push away my demons from the sleepless night and welcome a day of sunshine, sand and surf. And maybe a bit of growth as well. 

Our AirBnB “home” for these four weeks was a “jungle treehouse.” It wasn’t really built in a tree, but it was up off the ground and it had no walls. Just open air construction with roll-up straw blinds and mosquito netting the only things between us and the roar of the ocean.

And the many dogs everywhere. 

That’s Shannon in the “tree house”

And so it went for the next week or so, incredibly warm sun filled days, swimming in the ocean to cool off, simple meals of fresh, local, non-processed foods, and struggling to sleep at night with the waning full moon stoking my demons through the barking of dogs. 

Not feeling it

We had a chance meeting with a woman from Chicago one night at a restaurant. We invited her to sit with us at our table rather than at the bar where it appeared that the men next her were crowding her out. As we chatted, one of the things she mentioned was that Costa Rica enchanted her so much right from her first visit that she bought property and now lives here for half the year. As Shannon and I walked back to our treehouse, we both agreed, “Yeah - not feeling it.” Cost Rica was kind of OK but neither of us felt the enchantment. 

And then something unexpected happened.  Over the past year I’ve been trying to lower my blood pressure. It’s not been extremely high, but definitely at a point where Shannon, with her 35 years of nursing experience, impressed upon me that my daily blood pressure readings were a warning I should not ignore. Time to make some lifestyle changes because even with medication, it hadn’t been turning around.

But now somehow, my daily BP readings were in the green. Again and again. Day after day. 

Lifestyle 

Could be simply because we’re on vacation with less stress in our lives. Or maybe it’s because we’re living “Pura Vida” in one of the world’s five major blue zones. We have a closer connection to the natural world. We’re walking barefoot on the beach every day. We’re creating community with other campers at our BnB who are from all over the world - France, Norway, Germany, Argentina. We’re eating food that makes you feel nourished rather than assaulted. (I’m thinking of my typical breakfast when we go out to eat back home of eggs, hash browns and link sausage.)

Exercise

Or maybe it’s all the exercise. We’ve been walking everywhere we go. I’ve long had a daily goal of 7,000 steps which I recently upped to 7,500 - but we’ve practically walked twice that every day since we arrived.

And well… surfing. 

Playa Guiones, about a 30 minute walk from our place.

The whole reason we even came to Costa Rica in the first place was to get better at surfing. And in addition to being lots of fun, it’s also a great full body workout which we’ve been doing two hours of pretty much every other day. That, and walking to the surfing beach with our boards, 30 minutes there. 30 minutes back. 

The Two of Us

And then there’s Shannon and me. Like any couple, our lives aren’t perfect. We have things we struggle over. But something feels different now. We’re finding more of a connection and harmony with one another. Like we’re closer to each other than we’ve been in a long time. And it just feels good.

Fast forward nearly four weeks, and we are now down to our last few days here.

In a primitive camp with no walls.

With an outdoor kitchen.

With ants.

And a bathroom & shower we’ve shared with other campers for nearly a month.

Where the water service occasionally fails.

And the electricity sometimes shuts off unexpectedly.

And the WiFi is spotty.

Where dogs yip and howl through the night at a moon that’s waxing toward full again. 

And yet somehow, we’re not quite ready to leave…