First full day in Central America

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I made it to Manuel Antonio. What a long day yesterday was. The plane rides were fine and non-eventful.
I had checked in two large bags and "only" had to pay $40 for the fee, so I was glad about that. I was glad that
I didn't bring my third planned bag, so the decision saved me some money.

When I arrived to San Jose, I was pleased to see that the airport was modern and very pretty. Touristy. Customs
and immigration processing was efficient, and after all of that I met up with my host, Evelina. I was so happy
to see her. We had a three hour drive back to Manuel Antonio, which gave us some time to talk and get to know
each other.

The drive back for me was fine since I would be here for a while. I would suggest to anyone visiting MA for a
much shorter time to take a commuter flight from San Jose to Quepos, which is just outside MA. The flight is
supposedly 30 minutes long.

The terrain was scenic and reminded me of my time spent in the Carribean as a little girl. Very lush vegetation
everywhere. Tons of palm trees, cows,some roosters walking around. Driving through the villages we saw
uniformed school children walking home. Saw construction workers finishing up their day.

Evelina was excited when we were about an hour from MA and she said "We are almost there!" Some signage around would
point to landmarks and say "just an hour from here . . . just 15 minutes from there". So in CR, an hour is
not a long time. Wow, note to self, learn how to chill.

Some Spanish is beginning to return to me. "Buenos" is short for hello, but in a respectful way I gather. "Lo siento"
is I'm sorry, I'll probably use that one alot. Gato is cat, perro is dog. Lots of those roam around. Casa
is house, cocina is kitchen, comida is food. Alto is stop.

So we arrived in MA and I am staying at the Spa until my room frees up at the guest house next week. Even before
I opened a suitcase, I tried to get my internet connection going. It didn't work so I'm on Evelina's computer for
now. Note to self, don't worry about it.

I finally had the chance to Skype my daughter last night after emailing a friend to call her so my daughter would
accept the Skype call. My daughter doesn't keep her cell phone on and I used email to text message to get
a hold of her. My daughter now knows to keep her phone on. I felt better once I talked to her. Just needed to
know that she was ok.

I took a shower, washed my face, shut the bedroom door and did some spiritual reading before bed. The reading is
holding me together right now, having familiar books nearby, having my ipod with my teacher's voice, all of this
is necessary for me. It's going to take some time for me to adjust. I'm used to having a lot at my reach
and used to things moving much faster. So my pace will decrease significantly, I am looking forward to watching
that happen because that will be very interesting. I thought I had calmed down lot already but, no, I have
a ways to go compared to my new friends in CR.

The roosters sang this morning and I was up. I immediately logged on so I could document some of these thoughts.
It's only 4:30am here, 6:30am at home, so I am the only one up in the neighborhood. Well, me and the roosters.

As soon as the sun rises, which will be around 6am, I plan to take a walk to see the beach, it isn't far away,
(but far in my speak may be different to the locals). So I'm going to go back to the room, turn on my ipod and
feed my mind so I can be my best today. And I will take some yoga and pilates classes today at the Spa as well.

Oh, about food, glad to know that mangoes are in season and are abundant. I may ration my nuts and stretch
them out over a few days, so I will be eating more raw vegetables and more fruit than I am used to doing normally.
The clean eating regimen will keep my emotions more even.

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