One of the things we like best about traveling is not traveling

To unpack the backpack (ahh ha, that is where that passion fruit from three weeks ago was hiding… and smelling) and feel settled in somewhere is one of our favorite things. It seems we often go in stints- sometimes on the go a lot, and then we find a great spot to settle down for a bit. That’s where we’ve been the last few weeks, settled in Santa Rita de Florencia, Costa Rica.

Our first impressions of Costa Rica were a bit of a shock- no big fresh food markets, no street food vendors, nice buses, more expensive everything, people looking at me funny when I eat a perfectly good cheeto off the ground! Are we even in Central America still? We still enjoyed our jaunts to the touristy places of Arenal and La Fortuna, swimming in beautiful rivers in the shadow of a towering smoking volcano, but what we’ve really been enjoying is more “life in the campo.” So this has to start with a big thanks to my friend Emily, from back in Semester at Sea days. She lives in an amazing community where the people have all become her close friends, thus making it easier for other gringos such as us to come in and be welcomed with open arms. Plus Emily introduced us to our wonderful host family, who happen to be some of the most warm and caring people we’ve met in our travels. They immediately felt like real family and more than any other place really, we felt we could connect on a deeper level with them (even with our still somewhat broken Spanish).

We’ve had the chance to hold many charlas (special teaching sessions) with the kids from the local school, as well as with the Women’s Group and individual things like going to someone’s house to show them how to make their own fresh yogurt. Being in a place with lots of cows, and living with a family that has a dairy farm, we haven’t been lacking for fresh milk and so made cheese, cream, butter, ice cream… it's been great for keeping in line with our love of creating in the kitchen. When we haven’t been concocting things for our family, we’ve been eating their delicious cooking, though sadly it’s mostly so delicious because it’s all fried, and since our intestinal bugs have finally left us, our clothes are starting to fit again, for better or for worse!

Nights of playing their form of checkers, being challenged to arm wrestling, helping cement in a new sugar cane press in the back, get fish from the tilapia pond, teaching English classes… we have not been lacking things to do. We are thankful to have seen the real side of Costa Rica, the way the people live their day to day lives and to get to be a part of that.

So there’s something to be said for going slow (as you can see we’re only in CR after nearly 11 months of travel) and unpacking the backpack. We’re hitting the road again but are going to check out some more places that sound great, like two other fincas in southern Costa Rica- maybe we’ll fall in love with those too and unpack for a little while there…