back home...

in alajuela, that is.
it was a glorious weekend full of many wonderful adventures. i have decided that i could easily be a beach girl. i love the water and i love the sun and waves. i love the feeling of my hair being crusty with the saltwater and my body being crusty with sand. i love the smell of the sea and suntan lotion and the way that i feel after a day at the beach. yesterday we rented bikes and boogie boards and rode a few hours down the coast to the last town before reaching panama. i went for a run friday morning and came back to clean up only to find a crab in the shower with me. (we named him arnie, and then let him go.) we had fruity drinks and fresh fruit smoothies and i ate shark with coconut milk. we met bunches of fellow travelers from all over the world.

















in search of the perfect waves.
















hammocks=bed. we slept here at rockin' j's, and i will tell you that i really liked sleeping in a hammock.























doesn't this look like tropical paradise?

i am already dreading coming home... i am dreading reality, and decisions about my future. i am dreading millions of people asking me millions of questions and wanting me to do millions of things, i am dreading the loss of this perfect freedom, this lifestyle of whims and daydreams. i get to play and explore and have adventures here in ways that i have never experienced anywhere else. in places that aren't home, even the little things are more interesting. i feel like i'm living in a fairy tale. everything is magical.
i know that this probably won't make a whole lot of sense to anyone but me, but
i just find that when i am at my happiest i am also at my saddest, or most pensive, or most sentimental or something.
maybe it's just that i'm as tired as i feel.
i know it sounds ridiculous, but i was kind of sad to come back here today. i know, sad to return to the costa rican countryside. i am so damn spoiled! but the truth is, tomorrow it's back to work. i keep forgetting that i'm here for a reason...