In order to live here in Costa Rica for an extended period of time you must either: A. apply for residency (as is the case with Krysta) or B. leave the country every 90 days for at least 72 hours so as to renew your visa (as is the case with Cailah and I).

About a week ago our time was up, so Cailah and I decided to make the trek down to Panama. The unfortunate truth of the situation is that I was not exactly looking forward to this trip. I didn't want to spend the money, I didn't want to miss school and I knew basically nothing about our destination, Bocas Del Toro. It felt more like an obligation rather than an adventure. And traveling should be an adventure.

Thankfully, a week later I am now able to report that this trip took me by complete surprise. It abducted my horrible attitude and spit me out rejuvinated, recharged and feeling grateful. Four days in the archipelago of Bocas Del Toro proved to be a bit of a tropical fantasy. For a little insight into our days, here are some pictures:

This is the view from the little cafe where we purchased our coffee each morning. We sipped and lingered in these seats. The pace on this island is quite slow, incredibly and beautifully slow.

This is the beach where we spent our Saturday. It's called the Red Frog Beach. I missed the only visible Red Frog. Cailah was shown one of these miniscule and bright red spotted creatures by a young boy who had captured it in a leaf. I was on a walk and missed the celebrated amphibian. Dang. This beach is found on the island of Bastimentos, and we were staying on Colon, which means we got to take a tiny motor boat in the Caribbean Sea. I was essentially breathless. The trip there was beautiful. I was also breathless on the trip back that evening, but for different reasons. I couldn't breathe for the laughter Cailah and I were suffering from as we sped across the water in a downpour of rain. We were being painfully pelted with drops that soaked us through completely. It was quite funny.

Sunday we decided to rent bikes and explore the island. I spent an extra $5 for that basket in front to hold my bag. It's the small luxuries that make a difference.

Once on our bikes we simply began to ride straight. Following signs that pointed us to the water. We ended up riding all day with the ocean on one side and a changing scenery on the other. From forests of trees, to small and simple communities, to the massive homes of vacationing foreigners - this island has a bit of each.

When it was hot, or something was extremely beautiful, or we simply got the urge, we would park our bikes and take a break. To collect shells, stare at the sea or play in the waves.

Eventually this is where we set up camp. I am 96% sure it was a private beach. And I am 96% sure we didn't care. We sat ourselves down on the stretch of sand between a fancy hotel and a mansion on the water. We swam and read and, as I discovered later, I apparently got eaten alive by bugs. Once back home in Costa Rica the bites began to reveal themselves. Putting on some no itch cream I counted roughly 90 red irritated itchy spots. Those annoying little pests. I am still suffering from the consequences.

A video. So you can get a glimpse of the scenery, the incredible speed at which we rode, and my impressive filming skills. Beware of motion sickness.

Here is Cailah. Drinking a bright green mai tai. We spent our evenings exploring the little restaurants scattered about the island. We would sit and chat and eat good food and stare out over the water. It was nice. And so is she.

So that was Bocas Del Toro - Panama. Only 6 hours on a bus, a walk across a bridge that is the border, 1 hour in a taxi, and 40 minutes in a small boat. Totally entirely worth it.

on being present...

i like the old man i walk past nearly every morning. i'm on my way to school, he's on his way to mass. we greet each other and make a solid attempt at exchanging pleasantries. this interchange generally ends up looking like this: my face squinting in confusion as i concentrate on interpreting all those foreign words, and his hand patting my shoulder while a reassuring and hearty laugh fills the air. this has become somewhat of a morning ritual.

lately (read: the past couple of months) we've been doing a long list of fun things - outings and activities and adventures and such. and i've been horrible at recording them. so as summary, here are about a million of the captured highlights.

girls night out in san jose. dinner at an adorable restaurant followed by coffee and treats at a swanky hotel downtown. (girls: krysta, cailah, aiylah and me)

i went to see this volcano, poas, with some kids from my language school. that bluish green lake down there? ya, that's lava.

we made a pit stop one day while in downtown san jose and played in a park/on a collection of exercise equipment.

we saw a british production of romeo and juliet in the national theater. it was in english, but i still had krysta explain several scenes as i found myself to be, shamefully, a bit confused.

and then it was the josh's-birthday-weekend extravaganza. josh is a friend from home who is doing peace corps and got placed in costa rica a relatively short distance from desamparados (where we live). this is pretty great.

so he stayed with us for the weekend and we celebrated his birth by eating lots of good food and basically having as much fun as possible.

oh and cailah's brother isaac surprised us one day by just showing up at our gate. literally. cailah hears a clanking, goes to the door, sees her brother who lives in california...now cue mouth dropping and overwhelming excitement. he stayed with us for about a week and it was so nice to have him. this is a blatant hint to my brothers: i like this. you should do it.

we went to a soccer game: saprissa vs la liga. these are both teams from the san jose area, essentially the rivalry is pretty serious. it was at the la liga stadium and we ended up in the small and heavily guarded saprissa cheering section. and now when i say heavily guarded, i mean all sides surrounded by a police force worthy of the swat team. i'm talking equipped with gas masks and everything. but don't worry, we were safe, with only a few moments where i nervously anticipated the breakout of a riot.

but at least we weren't on the side that was on fire. open flames to support their team?

it was fun. and that is isaac.

and then the next day it was off to the park to participate in a common recreational activity: sliding down this hill on pieces of cardboard. ya, sure, it is mostly common for small children, by why not join in huh?

here is to each of our personal styles:

krysta was, i must say, a bit wild. she went down that hill with abandon, and it was amazing.

isaac skated.

josh belly slid.
cailah and i attempted to go doubles. this whole side-by-side thing didn't work out so well. we rearranged ourselves and tried again with success.

i'm pretty sure aiylah is not moving. at all.

here it seems josh is giving us some sort of lecture on the most efficient and effective way to slide down a hill. we apparently are listening captively.

and we're off...

and now here we decide it is important that all of us climb atop this rock. why? who knows. but it was hilarious. here i am begging isaac to pull me up while josh climbs the other side.

and now i attempt to help krysta while aiylah does her best solo.

and then we all gave a hand in assisting cailah. we were successful... eventually.

this ridiculousness was followed by ice cream cones. it was a very happy day for all of us.

and then a couple of weeks ago us girls went on a weekend trip. we went to see the volcano arenal and the la paz waterfall gardens. it was a road trip, beautiful scenery, relaxation and fun all rolled into one. i was pleased.

here are some shots from the waterfall gardens:

pink bananas...what?

the free.

and the captive.

aiylah loved the toucans. i know it may not look that way. but she did. this is a love bite.

there was a butterfly sanctuary. it was kinda crazy slash amazing. never seen so many butterflies in my life.

these bulls pulled us around in this cart. and we laughed a lot.

it was quite beautiful.

on the way to our hotel/hostel/slice of heaven we drove through a town called la fortuna. as we drove we saw the streets lined with people and a sort of procession marching through. so of course we stopped and got out to enjoy the festivities. it was a competition between school marching bands. but not the sort of marching bands you're thinking of, not the semi-dorky ones that my semi-dorky brother played the tuba in in high school. (love you bubby). these kids were serious, and absolutely amazing. i've never seen drummers with such dedication. or so much sweat. they were basically rocking out, and we basically loved it.

and then this is the road that we traveled to get up to our place of lodging, in the dark, in our little purple car. it was quite an ordeal. and we almost didn't make it. at one point three of us got out while cailah instructed krysta on the best strategy to get the car moving again. it was stuck, the wheels spinning angrily in their place. but eventually, thanks to cailah's tips and krysta's superb driving, we made it. but i'm telling you, it was close.

here's the front of the place we stayed in, it's called leaves and lizards, and there was a hammock for each us.

and here's the back porch and view.

and here's krysta stealing dirt from the property. "they have excess, and it's good dirt!" was her rational. she would. she would.

and then it was aiylah's birthday. which entailed a series of super fun events. one being taking the drive to san pedro and eating these monster slices of pizza.

and another being the occurrence of an improptu dance rave party in our living room. it was actually quite hilarious.

in other exciting news...krysta's residency finally went through! she is now officially a resident of costa rica. yippee!

so i'm pretty sure you are now officially up to date. probably more so than you ever hoped to be. i am nothing if not thorough. i'll try to be more regular in my picture posting in the future so as to avoid an onslaught such as this.

on being present...

i like that i can, and am expected to, put on some massive hoop earrings just to walk down the street, or go to the grocery store, or even to accessorize during a workout. i am actively embracing this.

Somewhere along the way to this place I got lost, I mean, more lost than before.

Somewhere along the way my head turned slightly and my course was shifted.

I’ve been following my clumsy feet for months now, unaware of their drifting direction.

It was just yesterday when I felt a collection of hands gently tilt my face upward: letters, conversations, memories, lectures and friends: these fingers broke my concentrated downward stare. As my eyes were lifted, no longer absorbed in the ground underneath, they slowly began to focus. The blurred shadows turned to concrete shapes and for the first time in many weeks I took stock of my surroundings. And it is here that I realized

Somewhere along the way to this place I got lost, I mean, more lost than before.

Somewhere along the way my head turned slightly and my course was shifted.

This place that I speak of, this place that I now find myself, seems to be a landscape formed of mostly ugly and raw self-interest. And it is in this hard soil that dissatisfaction and loneliness have firmly taken root. These stems thrive in their new surroundings, while it appears joy, passion and purpose are in the process of being slowly strangled. Their leaves look withered and their bodies feel limp to the touch. As I continue to survey this foreign land, I am left mumbling quietly to my self, over and over again, “how did I get here?"

And although I don’t have an exact answer, only some vague ideas, this is unimportant. What matters now is to find my way back. Back to passion, to love, to others, Back to purpose, to service, and hopefully, to joy. As is most often the case: I am trying. I am trying.

So I finally got my act together and took some pictures of the place I currently call home.  Here is the grand tour:

The kitchen/dining room with Krysta cooking something delicious.  You can also peek into the laundry room from this angle, the laundry room that now, thanks to our sweet neighbor friend, holds a fully functioning dryer.

Do an about face and you are looking through our walkway/office into the living room.

Up the stairs now.  Here is Cailah's lovely room, well part of it anyway.

And over to Krysta's room.  Please take note of all the various shades of lavender.

Here is a portion of the view from the aforementioned perch outside of Krysta's window.

And this is my room.  Please notice the cheery wall color and the ridiculous lamp I purchased for $3.  

And try to ignore the makeshift vanity table, I am improvising with these beautiful bins until something better and yet affordable comes along.

This here is my version of the Bird's wall o' bits.  If you look closely you're likely to see your face up there, or something you wrote me, or made me, or gave me.  And if you don't, well then take a picture of yourself, write me something, make something, just send me anything so that I can add it to my wall and think of you daily.

I would also like to note that in addition to our dryer being operational two other exciting changes have occurred around this house in the past couple of weeks.  1.)  Thanks to Mr. Jeff Dixon our upstairs toilet now flushes and fills all on its own.  2.)  And once again as a result of our potbellied, retired and oh so kind neighbor, we can not only shower with hot water, but we can do so while the fridge is still plugged in.  Amazing.  Also amazing, how this neighbor man laughs at my inability to speak or comprehend the Spanish language.  How he laughs heartily and cups my chubby cheeks, just as if I were his 2 year old granddaughter first learning to speak.