I hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving. I loved knowing that all of you were doing variations of the same thing on Thursday — like you were paused in the frame of this shared day. It made it easy to feel connected from far away. Here in Santa Teresa, Laura and I made mac and cheese and played cards and ate pie that the Italian girl at out hostel brought back.
Our hostel here in Santa Teresa, Salty Enthusiasts, is run by two childhood friends from Argentina, Tule and Uki. Tule moved from his “Ghettish” town in Southern Patagonia to Uki’s city in the middle of the country when they were 14. Tule said that Uki made him a little less “Ghettish” and Tule made Uki a little more cool, and they’ve been pretty inseparable ever since. They even both talk at the same incredibly high decibel, like they’ve spent so long together trying to talk louder than the other, their voices are now tuck at that level. They moved to Costa Rica 13 years ago for surfing and opened Salty in 2018, with the hope of making a hostel that feels safe for female travelers— so they made a rule that they would never have flings with any travelers or volunteers (after apparently Uki had one too many). But, two years ago, Tule fell in love with the workaway-er volunteer, Elisa, from Finland, and last year they got married. To hear Elisa tell the story, her voice still pitched with giddiness remembering her crush, she knew something was going to happen between them even before arriving at Salty, just from hearing his voice on the phone. Three weeks into her stay at the hostel, Tule had a horrible motorcycle crash, and nearly died. Elisa changed her plans indefinitely to help nurse him back to health, and they’ve been in love ever since. It’s quite an amazing love story, one I’ve patch-worked through conversations with Elisa, Tule and Uki. (Side note: Lauri speaks Finnish and it was so exciting to watch them talk and see how gleeful Elisa was to be speaking Finnish).
Saturday, on the beach outside Valentina’s hostel, we met a woman from Israel. She’s 24 and is in the first month of a 6 month trip around the world. Like most citizens of Israel, she served in the army for two years, from the ages of 20-22. She worked as a commander, training non-Israeli’s (non-citizens that is) who were choosing to join the Israeli army of their own volition. Some, she said, were looking to be a part of something bigger, like a Jewish man from Romania who joined for two years and then returned home. Some were just looking for an escape and a new start, like the American man who had been charged with kidnapping a girl when he was 17, and upon release, wanted to leave behind his past. She said the hardest part of her job was instilling within this myriad group of people from all different places the “Israeli mindset”, the “hardness” as she said, that comes from being born there. It was fascinating to listen to her explain her world and work, and at the end she said she was really grateful that we had wanted to hear about it.
Luigi is an Italian man who is living at Salty. A few times Laura and I have watched the sunset with him, and struggle through conversations in slow English and Spanish, trying to find common words between us. He used to be a PE teacher but starting in the pandemic realized he didn’t want to live in a city anymore, so now he works as a life guard in his parent’s hometown and travels for the rest of the year. Today he and his friend went fishing and caught ginormous Dorados and they were excited to show us the pictures. I’m always impressed at his willingness to continue the slow conversations with us. He seems a little lonely.
Erin and Solomon are a British couple who were working as volunteers here for our first few weeks. Erin quit her job as a mental health nurse in London after COVID, and she and Solomon have been traveling for the past 6 months. Solomon is starting a fundraising platform for artists and they both hope to settle down one day on a farm in Portugal. Before they left the hostel last week for Mexico, they were a little like the bickering mother and father of the place. You could often find them cooking copious amounts of garlic in the kitchen and welcoming us back with huge smiles. Laura and I loved discussing the dynamics of their relationship—it became a bit of a weird game— but have missed them since they’ve left.
I recently made myself sit down to reflect on all the people we’ve met while being here, and realized I’m witnessing many different ways to live a life and be a human, all from genuinely friendly people who are eager to share. That’s pretty cool and one of the things I had hoped for starting out.
Montezuma Trip:
I drove my first ATV last week, and ooo did it make me feel kick ass. Last Wednesday morning, Laura and I walked down the street to rent our ATV from the place down the road. After the briefest of lessons around the block we were free to go.
All the button clicking to shift gears and lever squeezing to slow down immediately reminded me of that driving arcade game I loved when I was little. We made our way out into open country road and zig zagged our way to Montezuma, a smaller, quieter town out at the very end of the Nicoya peninsula. We drove past small villages and through fields of long faced cows, with warm grass smell and dust swirling all around — I happily felt like I was driving through Vermont in the summer with all the windows down.
Our first stop in Montezuma was the waterfall hike at the entrance to town. We parked our ATV and walked the slightly treacherous path to reach this beautiful spot :
(Montezuma Waterfall). Not included: ATV pictures—keeping the safety precautions shrouded in a level mystery for potentially angry parental figures.
We dunked in the green pool and sat on the rocks. Amidst this lovely time, we received some interesting news: our December Workaway plan in Uvita cancelled on us because the current volunteers wanted to stay on for longer, so we suddenly found ourselves in a lurch. Laura and I have become quite good at getting ourselves out of plan lurches though, so we didn’t panic just yet.
After the hike, we got a typical lunch at a Soda on a hillside overlooking the ocean. We were accompanied by some monkeys on the roof who kept peering over the edge to see if we had anything to share.
(peckish monkey)
After lunch and lying on the beach, Laura drove us back to Santa Teresa, speedy fas. The sun was setting in front of us, making the jungle turn orange and light. We crested a hill and saw all of the ocean laid out in front of us.
Some other moments:
We learned a fun, fast, puzzle-y card game called Cambio last week from these two sweet Italian siblings. Can’t wait to teach people and play when I get back.
(Valentina and Laura at Cambio night)
I love to watch the dogs chase each other on the beach at sunset, backlit in red. If I were a dog, I’d choose to live here, in Santa Teresa, with miles of beaches and millions of friends to go around. But my favorites are the pot bellied pelicans as they coast along the surface of the water. They fly like aviator pilots, all in a line, and look so powerful.
Laura and I leveled up to progressively smaller surf boards throughout the past two weeks— we are now three sizes down from when we started. When I think about slowly learning a new sport like this, I feel proud. We also managed to make a large hole in a surfboard one day and had to pay for damage repair, but two steps forward one step back ya know?
(Coconuts on the beach)
I got a cold. I recovered from said cold. Miraculously, Laura didn’t get the cold.
We did a yoga class this weekend that included an unexpected Reiki healing session in the end from the teacher, Dolly (think similar but slightly less witch-y vibes than Luisiana). At the end of each healing moment, she whispered in our ears the animal spirit that she was gifting to us as our guides. I got an eagle, and apparently in the Reiki tradition an eagle means this: “If you are on the verge of embarking on a massive endeavor in life, you will benefit tremendously by calling upon the eagle symbolism first”.
I signed a lease for a Brooklyn apartment with Dahlia! We move in January!
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(morning work setup, where I apply to jobs and lauri applies to grad school)
Laura and I figured out what we’re doing next week, starting on Tuesday, for the rest of our time— But I’ll leave that as a surprise. A Cliff Hanger, to keep you coming back. Yes, I’m sad to be leaving Santa Teresa but mainly feeling excited and ready for a new space and new routine.
Hugs,
Taylor