Seize The Day

Ummm....yea. Clearly didn't make it back in time to blog. Struck up a fancy of an eve with some hookers, Guiness and dirty gringos. ha ha. Ok well there's this expat bar next door to our hostel and they serve Guiness. Don't ask me why I'm compelled to make friends with hookers but I basically paid a hooker to stay at the bar with us instead of wandering off with this completely wasted guy for a quick buck. Good guy sober but ridiculous when drunk. Meet Manju.

ANYWAY...I don't have much time before our bus to Tilaran arrives so I'm trying to condense as much as possible into an hour. A theme throughout my trip has been recurring....live for today and live it to its fullest. Chase your wildest dreams. Whew. Yea, so I am gonna jump around the sequence of my days....which you could care less cuz it's all the same to you. So we arrived back in San Jose from our AMAZING trip to the Caribbean. There's WAY too much to say about it so I'm going to have to take some time while in Tilaran to even begin to talk about that. Same general theme though, life is too short, follow your dreams and live for today and to its fullest. Like a broken record here I swear...and not just from Tico's. Anyway...I've never been happier though to rent a private room and be in the comforts of a city. It's not so much rural that was the source of relief at being back in the city. More like privacy. I had been sleeping in rooms with at least two other people if not more...and living two days here and two days there. I like to remain located in one spot. And this hostel in San Jose is a sort of familiarity for me at this point. So we get to San Jose, settle in, Dave naps, I take care of some business (like getting a new bank card cuz I have no idea where mine is....great right?) We decide to throw down some Guiness around 6 p.m. and it turns into dinner a couple shots of Caseice (? Costa Rican national drink), Jameson with a few Imperials thrown into the mix of about 6 Guiness. Good times. So the same guy who was plastered and meowing like a cat is actually a good guy and has a very fascinating story. He escaped Sri Lanka because the conditions for living are terrible due to internal conflict in the country. He made it to France and they told him he was Colombian and that they were deporting him back to Colombia. He got to Colombia and they said, you're not Colombian you're Costa Rican and then sent him to Costa Rica. Costa Rica said, you're not Costa Rican, you're Cuban and then told him he was going to have to pay for a ticket to Cuba. He said he had no money and so they said ok, you stay in Costa Rica. Serioiusly this dude had some fucked up shit in his life and he was like the happiest guy in the world. He said over and over and over (and over...typical of a drunk person) how happy he was and how each day is a gift and that friends and family are so important. So yea, but one incident in which this theme was right in my face. Good stuff.

Not so excited about the expats and Americans I met in the bar. I think I feel more at home with the Tico's than these .....dirty old bastards (best description I can muster right now). I'm trying really hard not to be judgemental because this is somethinhg I've learned from the Tico's. A lot of them don't really care what you're into or what you like or dislike so long as you're not hurting anyone. And I've realized I'm slightly judgmental when it comes to certain things. Like coming to Costa Rica to buy cheap hookers and some self esteem. To each his own right? If I can befriend a hooker why is it so hard for me to accept the fat dirty white guy.

I've also noticed that everyone in life has a different level of awareness. I'm not saying this because I think I'm better, by all means, I've got my idiosyncrasies that drive people nuts, but I'm pretty sure my level of awareness of self and of others operates at a level higher than most. Even people I've met who are incredible people, never ceasing to amaze me at what they are accomplishing in life and the things they are aware of...will surprise me again with a lack of awareness in another arena. It's I who have to recognize this and not think differently of them for it. Yea, I think too much about thinking but I can't help it. It's the way I was born. Sometimes I get frustrated when someone doesn't pick up on something or remember something or recognize when they are doing something that causes someone else discomfort but I have to remember that not everyone thinks the way I do.

hmmmm what else happened in the last 6 days? As you can see from my facebook pics I went to a fruit farm where this guy is building a house of bamboo. I was a bit freaked at first after he made sure to show us photos of the poisonous snakes we might encounter and telling us if we did get into a situation to hack it in half with the machete. GREAT. The whole walk over there I was thinking how my mother would NOT approve of this. lol. I loved walking down the road seeing everyone staring at me because I was the only white person for miles. lol. On the flipside, and more serious....people are really poor. It's true, there is a lot of crime against gringos but the truth of the matter is nobody wants to hurt a person and that is not their intent. Most of the time a house is scouted out and then when they know nobody is home they break in to steal valuables to sell and then feed their family. You have to also understand that an influx of foreigners, most of whom have ridiculous amounts of money, move to tropical paradise to live the dream, have flooded Costa Rica over the last twenty years. To make matters worse, they could care less about the Tico's except to hire them to clean their house or take care of their lawn. So the perception of the gringos by the Tico's is a bit askew as well. We had a couple incidents staying with our friend. He is not the typical gringo with money, in fact, he lives closer to the Tico lifestyle....but I'm sure the village inhabitants had seen me and Dave and the two American girls walking back and forth over the course of a few days and word got around. We saw a car sitting idle by the house and came back from the beach. When we got to the house, the car sped off. Another time we saw the same car, at night, parked on the road again and the three guys went outside with machetes....someone got out of the car and apparently saw the guys and got right back int he car and drove off. So it's possible and you really have to be on guard and watch yourself and lookout for your neighbors but all in all there are no brutal crimes against humanity. Just poor people trying to stay alive. Anyway....sorry if I scared any of you, don't worry I'm in REALLY good hands everywhere I've been.

Love you all and I'm off for another adventure. The directions say "when you get off the bus, the dirt road on the opposite side of the church is what you want to walk down. It describes the house and says be flexible as far as your arrival expectations" I'm preparing myself to sleep on the ground outside tonight or ask a random stranger if I can sleep in their house. ha ha. I'm kidding, well sort of. I'm sure we will find what we are looking for, I always do. but just in case, preparing myself mentally for another great adventure. Voy con las estrellas.