Welcome to my blog! This is my first post. I have been in Costa Rica about a week and haven't had time to begin my blog until now...so I will try to back track as much as I can so you can get a feel for the whole experience.
Here is the plan for our trip to Costa Rica in case you don’t know: we are working at a Costa Rica Hot Springs Lodge in the mountains 30 hours a week in exchange for meals and a room. We will be there for 6 weeks total, the first 2.5 weeks the owners are teaching us the ways of the lodge and then the last three weeks they will be headed back to the states to see family while we run the lodge! I'm excited and nervous, it’s a really cool crazy adventure we are about to go on! But I am struggling with leaving behind the comforts of home including my two wonderful pets who I love more than anything in this world, Murphy and Sox. I am also worried about food options in Costa Rica, hot showers, safety, getting electronics or important documents stolen, being bite by a snake, etc. but I will blog more about how I handle the worries and stress and what it is actually like in Costa Rica. Oh and we are doing this with just hiking backpacks...yes, I fit my life for the next three months in one small bag! (I will post later on what I packed). Day 1: We had to be at the Detroit airport at 4am; we made it through the airport with some hiccups (long long lines) but got on our flight and made all our connections. We arrived in San Jose from Detroit (flew with Southwest Airlines) around noon and navigated our way around the San Jose airport. We found a stand where we could get a phone sim card with refillable money and a local number, we bought $10 of talk time each in case we need to call each other or make local calls; and then officially put our Verizon contract on hold until we are home in June (so we are not reachable at our American numbers!). Then we exchanged some US dollars for Costa Rican money, at the AIRPORT, big mistake...paid a lot in fees. (We later found out the US dollar is easily accepted most places). Security and customs were pretty easy and they didn't say anything about my large bag of granola bars, which I packed in case I have trouble with meals here. Anyway, we sat down and got our first meal right outside the airport...Steve decided to get a very Tico meal with just rice and some sauce....while I got a burger; wasn't ready to leave American food behind yet. I even got a coke with my burger, but it tasted different and I didn't like it....that will help break the addiction fast! Then we tried to find a taxi that was willing to take us to the Hot Spring Lodge, two hours away...prices started at about $200 but we kept saying no until we got a taxi who was willing to drive us for $120! Our taxi driver was fun, young and spoke some English...he pointed out things for us to look at during the drive while Steve and I both tried our hardest to stay awake. We were exhausted from flying, carrying heavy bags and being in the heat. Then we arrived at the lodge. First impression: beautiful. Located in the middle of no where, but beautiful. Exactly what we were hoping for. We met our hosts for the next 2 months, the lodge owners, who were both welcoming and nice and they showed us right to our room. They knew we had a long day of travel and told us to take a night to adapt and take it easy. They let us know they were going out to dinner and there were leftovers for us in the fridge for dinner. We were on our own for the night. We took a look around, set our stuff down, investigated the wifi availability, and then finally when the sun went down everything cooled down to perfect sleeping temperatures (the mountains are not hot at night and it’s amazing!) and we slept great. Oh I was very excited to find out the lodge has a dog and a cat)! They are both extemely lovable and enjoable animals...haven't decided if that makes leaving Murphy and Sox behind easier or harder.... Exhausted tonight but I'll post about day 2 and on tomorrow. Update on day 1: Here were some feelings I found that I wrote down the first night here, I may have been exhausted from the plane ride and driving but it’s good to share how I honestly felt: I miss home. I am a homebody. Home is where the heart is and my heart just isn’t here yet. Maybe it’s the idea of being here7 weeks or maybe it’s that I am here on someone else’s schedule, eating limited unfamiliar foods and dealing with high humidity and heat. I love the idea of this place as a vacation…truly, it’s beautiful. But right now the idea of being here for 7 weeks working for someone else feels useless. I don’t get to enjoy things in the same way; I feel like I am constantly under watch and need to make myself useful. Not only does it feel like starting a new job, where everything is unfamiliar but needs to be completed in a specific way but its in a new country where English is not the first language. A few things were unsure about so far: the food situation (we thought they were taking us out to dinner, but actually they were just going out on our first night there…it was a bit strange) and we still weren’t sure what we were allowed to eat in the kitchen nor did we know what to do with half the food items in the kitchen! Xo, Kelsey
3 Comments
Jan A
27/3/2015 04:13:07 pm
Proud of you for taking a leap of faith.....what an incredible adventure! Have a fabulous time!
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Dad
28/3/2015 10:25:15 pm
Love the blog and details of our first week - the more challenging the adventure the deeper the experience...
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Gram McEndarffer
6/4/2015 05:05:30 am
Loved your thoughts, descriptions of things, living in a foreign place with foreign foods people etc., etc. The place sounds absolute lovely - enjoy., Looking forward to your next blog etc. Love Gram
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