In Which I Find A Series Of Perfect Moments

First of all, the days have passed by so quickly, and my blog posts have petered out to nothing. I have been writing a bit, and experiencing much more. I wish I could take a small cross section of my experience, bottle it up gently, send it to every one of you and allow you to hear, smell, taste, feel and see all that has occurred. Alas, there is no vehicle for me to use to accomplish this. I will try and describe it over the next five days, and will write something each day

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First, a rhetorical question...How is it possible to find a community at a hostel, a hotel or at a B&B? 

It should be just of a bunch of disparate people, traveling, from many countries. Trying to find a place to sleep and eat.

At B&B Grecia, I have found even more than community. Denny and Rachelle are wonderful people, and they have opened their place and their hearts to me. I am truly grateful, for as I travel around and meet new people, and see new things, I am happy that when I need a friendly and wonderful place to stay, I can go there and be happy. And share in their lives.

So what have I been up to? I have met more amazing people. Totally amazing. Awesome, funny, intelligent, crazy people. 

After some time on the beaches in Manuel Antonio (and a reoccurrence of the wonderful insect problem that plagues me in really hot places), I am here again at Pension Santa Elena in Monteverde. The people who help run this place are wonderful and have welcomed me. The town and area is small, not a hot as the coast, and beautiful. And as you will hear over the next couple of days, it is both a place to explore, conquer and observe. It is also a great place to participate, to listen to people, to expand my consciousness and to grow as a person.

This hostel consists of those who travel and those who cater to them. A traveler is a special type of person - one that transcends any geographical border, seems to have less of a judgemental outlook and one who embraces an open and positive spirit. 

Travelers come from all walks of life, and from all countries. There are those that are on packaged and hermetically sealed tours, and this is great for them, since they have money and not much time. There are those who love to travel and have much less budget – they stay at hostels and cook food and take the bus from country to country.Then there are some like me, a mix of comfort and cheap food and camaraderie peppered with packaged tours.

A marketing piece stapled on a post by a hostel invites in those who want to explore and not be a tourist. This struck me as the truest part of what I am attempting, for as I live my days here, I do see some of the same attractions as the tourists, but I am also part of this community of explorers, those people who experience the culture, embrace the differences, taste the food, swap stories of their lives and the places they have been.

Through this process, I have changed to become even more curious about those in the world that are not like me. I have become so frustrated that I cannot speak many languages, for I am meeting wonderful people from many countries, and I want to be able to converse with them about their hopes and their dreams and their philosophies in their language, so I could understand the nuances of their beliefs and opinions. 

I may share some of their stories told to me. But first, with the photos attached – I want to tell you about a walk in the cloud forest with someone who passed into and out of my life in less than 24 hours.

I met Natalie from Montreal in the hostel yesterday afternoon. I did not really speak with her much yesterday, but did tell her that if she wanted to go to the Cloud Forest Reserve, I would happily join her for the hike. We did meet in the morning, and were shuttled off to the reserve, where we hiked and talked about life and laughed and smiled and tried to find the right word in English and in French. That is what we did when we walked.

More importantly is how I felt. I cannot speak for her, but the hike and the companionship had a profound effect on me. The reserve is filled with the most amazing trees and plants and bushes. I suppose there were many birds and animals, but we did not see them. We heard the whisper of the wind, felt the mist from the clouds as we hiked in them, touched moss growing on trees, smelled the flowering vines as we passed by and sometimes tried to find our breath high in the sky. We observed the patterns of the leaves, the dance of the vines and the profound beauty of a living canvas of life.

When you were a child, and it was Christmas morning, and the presents from Santa were under the tree, there is that moment of sheer joy and discovery as you sit to open them, family around, excitement in the air. Every time we walked around a corner during this hike, I felt like that instant when I opened that present on Christmas morning. That moment of perfection, when you have been given exactly what you wanted, when someone listened to your plea. I think Natalie felt the same. I certainly hope so for her.

The energy in this wilderness was palpable, the wind making music, the haunting theme of darkness tempered by shafts of sun and light.   The sound of birds, the glimpse of a mouse, the walk through mud and stone and wood and bridges, up hills and then up higher again. The movement of the forest, glistening droplets of collected water. It was like that perfect moment you search for, but it stretched for three hours.

I am thankful to have shared it with Natalie. When we ate lunch afterwards (after hitching a ride back with some wonderful Israeli travelers and their guide, who by the way, said we had to go to Myanmar), we did not revisit our hike, but continued to share in each others lives, and talked of transitions, and choices and sprituality. I felt that we had grown.  I believe that something was magical in that forest, walking along the paths among the clouds. I believe we both tasted heaven, and we are so much better for the experience.

Whether or not we will ever see each other again is not as important as us meeting in the hostel, and by intuition knowing that we should spend a bit of time together, and acting on our instincts to make it happen. I do know this though – we shared a unique experience. We joined together to share in something ethereal, something symbiotic and quiet and peaceful and real. Something that changed us.  Our emotions were actually somewhat overwhelming, and we didn’t know why. 

I will cherish meeting her, being with her and being in that forest. I hope that we can capture the feeling during another moment in the future.

After Natalie left, I talked with the American girls and the Slovakian doctors and Paul from Sweden and Christoph from Germany and spent time with my Monteverde friends Diego, Milan and Marissa. Paul and Christoph and I made dinner, and watched the new people coming into the hostel, and talked to everyone, and drank a bit, and laughed a lot. And shared our days. And swapped stories. One of the stories was that Paul – who is a doctor in Sweden, had become a grandfather. The celebratory Cuban cigar topped off the day.  

I am finding pure pleasure in more and more every day. I am so thankful to have been given the options and so happy to have listened to my soul.

Today was a great day.