Costa Rica Gets Real: Time to Breathe.
The sky was not the only thing weeping yesterday. Just getting somewhat lost took me out of any kind of positivity. I couldn't take going back to a place we found comfort in combined with the difficulty of getting back there. How are we going to make this work? We have failed to find places to stay and everyone we meet has a surprised reaction to learn of our plans to stick in Costa Rica for 90 days. This could be due to our limited understanding of Spanish and/or our lack of plans. Then we are told of the dangers that lurk at night in areas less traveled. It seems almost everyone has had their own experience or knows someone who has been robbed.
We're feeling the pressure of walking the fine line between comfort/safety and adventure of the unknown. We didn't come into this as naive gringos, thinking we would be in a tropical paradise and treated as royalty. We didn't just think about losing everything, but have actually discussed a few scenarios and the actions we would take in such a case. Yes, we are carrying things worth enough to feed a family for months, but we had already let go of so much of our stuff, that it seemed illogical to worry about "stuff". Here, we have been faced with real scenarios: We talked to a French couple who were taken hostage for three hours and stripped of the electronics, jewels and credit cards. With knifes to their throats and wrists, they were forced to give up their credit card PIN numbers. They had lost the majority of their valuables, but came out of it alive and quite shaken up. We also stayed with a local Tico who was mugged at 9:00AM while riding bikes with two friends. The bikes were taken, but they were left relatively unharmed.
Things like these bring our minds to reality and we are faced with constant decisions about our travel methods. Do we take time to plan out our travel and only go where we can find shelter or do we take our chances and move where the flow takes us. There is a large chance that we could become victims either way and find ourselves retreating to the place we found comfort in. It is apparent that we still have some material attachments to face. Even just being limited on internet and cellular use opens up our dependency issues. How do we survive without them and become free of living a technological lifestyle? I don't want to shy away from every kind of modernization, but I don't want to be lost in a binary-electric-fuel consuming dependency. Letting go will be the most difficult part and maybe breaking away from the progressive "norm" will prove to have many challenges. But wouldn't it be harder to unwillingly have to step back? The Earth has its own ways and doesn't care how futuristic and adapted anything is. It moves as it needs without a schedule.
We have a lot to think about and only a short time to implement. Maybe that is the problem, too much thought and too little action. We need to make swift and decisive actions as the flow of life moves and changes in the blink of an eye. I am ready to let go, but fear my capabilities. Can I trust my judgements or actually make a decision? Then again there are two of us... can we find ourselves feeling the same rhythm? I guess as the saying goes, only time will tell. I just need to remember to breathe.
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Breathe guys, breathe….
It is challenging to travel outside your ´home´country for the first time. Adjustments can take time. Costa Rica has its good as well as bad places, perhaps the area where you are visiting right now hasn´t provided you with the kinds of opportunities you would like.
Around the San Isidro de el General (Perez Zeledon) area there are many organic style farms that enjoy having volunteer visitors. Costa Rica wwoof farms rules are a bit different than other countries if you are into that style of travel. (I lived in CR for 7 yrs). Look up Robert Beatham´s Paradise Tropical Garden for a good experience, he could use a little extra hand picking mamonchinos right now…as I understand it they pick and work for 2 hours in the mornings and have the days off with full room and board. He´s an old timer kind of guy in his 70s who moved to CR with the banana company in the late 50´s or early 60´s…. its worth a visit if nothing else.
I hope your trip improves as does your tolerance level for things like internet and cell service. It does work. CR and central america do have services try to see the possitives and a hint, get online in the early morning I always could get skype to work early.
I´ll be thinking of you — btw if you read my blog, my son couldnt handle Nicaragua so he went back to CR yesterday…you never know until you try.
Thanks for the well-thought comment 🙂 You’re not strange… that’s exactly the idea we had when we posted this.
Great advice about the laptop. We’re currently using 3 different 50GB accounts through box.net to back up our massive amounts of photo and video and have other various backup methods for the important docs. We also have remote wipe enabled, so all our data will be cleared from any stolen iDevice (MacBook included) as soon as it’s connected to the internet. But we’re definitely going to have to look into 1Password and LoJack.
I was just thinking of you and your adventures and your excellent website. Perhaps I’m strange, but I was glad to read this. I was glad to see you being pragmatic. If your not walking a line, your just on an extended vacation. Some of life’s greatest treasures are out of reach of the couch. Above all be safe but keep pressing, the world belongs to the bold. I hope all is good in your merry band.
I lost a laptop recently, and it was almost painless. I recommend using dropbox.com to keep the essentials backed up and readily available even if you loose your hardware. Turn on filevault, and use 1Password (which can sync with dropbox.com). I don’t know how well lo-Jack for Mac works in other countries, but I recommend it, even if you can’t recover your goodies they will give you money.
Well, I don’t feel better after reading your explanation of the previous blog. I hope you are both safe while having your adventures. I would feel better if our “chats” were somewhat regular and not so random. Please connect home as soon as you are able. We love and care about you both.
After some of the emails and comments we’ve received, perhaps this post came across in a more intense way than intended. It was not intended to scare anyone & the stories we heard were nothing new, just more real when heard in person. We simply wanted to share what goes through the minds of first-time international travelers when in a “scary” foreign country. It was also acknowledgement that even though we’ve shed so many possessions, we still have some material attachment issues to work on. Thank you all for your caring words and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.
This makes me a bit uneasy guys. I know you will be as careful as you can. Please post each chance you get.
Don’t think that post made me feel any better. I know you two have good heads on your shoulders, but I still pray every day (multiple times) for your safety.