Turbulent Flow

I still want to do a Costa Rica wrap up, but Fat Tuesday seems like a good time to talk about the part of my life that I'm not very thrilled with right now.

I turned 40 on Sunday and for the most part it wasn't a big deal. I had a great trip in honour of the event and there are just so many things that I love about my life right now – my daughter, healthy relationship, successful business. It seems ungrateful to rail against the inevitable march of time when the last tail end of my 30s brought so much into my life. Yes, getting divorced sucked mightily, but it also created the opportunity to build something even better. Simon and I are currently searching for a house that should become the base of operations for a future we are both excited about. After that we've got more trips, watching Portia grow and so much else coming up that I am looking forward to the upcoming years with anticipation.

However, as much as I love everything happening around me, all this excitement and change has led me to slack off pretty spectacularly in the healthy eating department. Despite a closet stuffed with clothes I'm presently confined to a rather limited wardrobe because most of my pants don't fit. I was sorting through the Costa Rica photos and there is no denying that many of the surfing pictures made me cringe at my body rather than beam with pride at my accomplishment.

I wish it didn't matter, but the truth is that it does. My old weight watchers info kit says I should lose at least 30lbs to be healthy, so that is where I need to aim. If I'm going to live this crazy life to the fullest I'm going to need to be at the top of my game and a healthy body is part of that equation.

Tempting though it is, I'm going to try not to beat myself up over the mistakes that led me here, but starting today and starting now it is time to start fixing them.

DAY 7 - Wednesday

An 8am surf session with Nelson. He had us out past the wave break (surfing the green wave) with the 'real' surfers. Fewer rides, but I had the opportunity to experience surfing on the very top of a wave just as it was starting to break. It was stunning to find myself up so high - as if the board was about to start flying. Even frightening to see the front half of the board over nothing but air. From this kind of start, the board will then drop down into the curl and I could ride the white water part of the wave into shore. So weird that sensation of falling, but without a sudden stop when it is over. Very similar to an amusement park ride.

Sadly, I didn't have the endurance to last the full 2hr lesson. With about 1/2hr left I was trying to get myself and the board out past the break while a seemingly neverending series of waves crashed over my head. Exhaustion combined with trying to drag/paddle/crawl through the water turned my interior monologue into a continuous stream of curse words. I felt rage in response to the friendly encouragement of my instructor - a sure sign that it was time to pack it in and head for shore. I have enough experiences in gymnastics and trampoline to know that a mindset like that is a good opportunity to get hurt. Considering that I've managed 5 days of surfing without damaging myself or anyone else, I'm spending the rest of this afternoon chilling in a hammock while Simon heads back for an afternoon session.

Accompanying me on the hammock is the official drink of the British Virgin Islands. We have successfully transplanted it to Newfoundland and now Costa Rica.

Painkiller:
1 part Coco Lopez Cream of Coconut
1 part orange juice
4 parts pineapple juice
2-4 parts rum (or screech in NFLD)
Pour over ice and grate nutmeg on top

DAY 2 - Friday

Met Simon at the airport without incident. Our rental is a manual drive 4x4 pickup truck that we quickly christened 'Buckety'. I was disappointed not to have one of the nicer vehicles we watched the other renters drive off in, but once we hit the unpaved roads into and around Nosara it became evident that we were incredibly fortunate to have something in less than pristine condition with a high clearance. Nosara is in the jungle with the nearest stretch of asphalt at least an hour away.

The sun was almost down by the time we arrived and settled into to beach house. Without a stitch of food in the house we initially thought to walk down the beach in search of the local bar. Costa Rica seems to have a minimum buffer between most development and the beach. In the dark with 50ft of jungle between us and kanywhere we might find food we aborted our foot search and braved Buckety in the dark - A true act of desperation.  Now that we have a better sense of distances and local geography there will be absolutely no more driving after sundown.

DAY 3- Saturday

Our first full day in Nosara began with finding coffee, breakfast, and a 10am surf lesson. Playada Gionnes is the surfing beach about a 20min walk from our rental house on Playada Pelada.  Our first instructor, Luigi, is a 20 something year-old local with sun bleached long black hair and clearly well steeped in surfing experience. But buckets of experience in a sport don't necessarily translate into teaching ability. Thankfully, this guy had the full package and between his instruction and the fantastic waves I was up riding the soft-top beginner board on my very first try! By the end of our 2hr lesson both Simon and I had lost track of the number of rides we'd taken - at least 10 each. The beach has a mercifully slow drop off that allowed me to walk the board out to the break which is much less exhausting than padding out every time.

After surfing we finally found the supermarket and stocked up on essentials for the house. The beach house we've rented is spectacular. Big rooms, high ceilings and cool tile everywhere. It is certainly larger and nicer than my own house in Toronto with the unfortunate exception of the plumbing.  Part of living in the jungle is the 'fragile jungle septic system' that doesn't allow you to put even toilet paper into the toilet. This seems to be common throughout the area as every public washroom we've encountered has a sign to that effect. Better to deal with smelly garbage than backed up sewage I suppose.

DAY 4, 5, 6 - Sunday to Tuesday

Morning coffee on the balcony watching the birds and listening to howler monkeys in the distance. 2 hours of surf instruction with Luigi and his equally skilled counterpart Nelson. Back to the house for a dip in the nearby pool, beer, check in with the real world via facebook and collapse into bed before 9. Rinse and repeat!

The days are starting to blur. Simon and I are enjoying complete travel symbiosis with the exception of my lesser surf endurance. It seems he could even sense my need for a few hours alone and headed out for an afternoon session without me. Monday we did the local zipling tour before our session. Today (Tuesday) we've taken a break from the lessons. Renting boards on our own I did a short morning session, but am mostly holing up in the airconditioned houseto give my body a break. Without a doubt I will return home stronger and in better shape than when I left. Surfing is hard work!

With four days of surfing under my belt, I am able to stand up on the board almost every time I can catch a wave. Nelson graduated us to real surfboards yesterday which are lighter and better to maneuver in the water, but trickier to get up on. My biggest challenge is getting the timing and paddling speed to catch the wave in the first place. Considering that my initial goal for this trip was fulfilled on pretty much the first day, I'll be happy with any small improvements that may come between now and when we leave. Because I can surf!

Looking at some of the photos from this morning I was disappointed to notice that four days of surfing has not magically transformed me from a middle aged woman with 20 extra pounds into a sleek cool surfer girl. I didn't expect some sort of metabolic miracle to happen, but the difference between my actual self and how I exist in my minds eye was jarring. When I'm standing on the board I totally feel like a surfer and logically I know that the very act of standing on a board while it is carried by a wave qualifies me for the title. Maybe it is the exhaustion speaking, but today I'm feeling self-conscious. Am I too old to be doing such a thing?... The awesome 60ish woman I saw riding her 'Surfer Girl' plated bicycle tells me the answer to that is 'No'. I'm sure a good nights rest and some more time on the board will resolve my issues. Eventually, my outside may come to match the inside. It will certainly send me home with renewed energy to get on my snowboard and skateboard!

Prologue

5 years ago I took a surf lesson in Mexico. Since the moment I got up on the board and experienced the shore zooming toward me for a very long 3 seconds or so, I've been hearing a voice in the back of my head shouting AGAIN! Next month I turn 40. What better excuse to satisfy the voices than that? So here I am on my way to a beach in Costa Rica. The general plan is to spend a week learning how to surf. Simon and I have put together a sort of do-it-yourself surf school. Rented a beach house and signed up for 5 days of surf lessons. I don't have high aspirations. As an almost 40 year old not out of shape, but not in omg 6-pack abs shaped Canadian mother living in a landlocked province I'd be kidding myself if I came here with visions of hanging 10 with any degree of impressiveness. My hope is to become a vauguely competent beginner. Getting up on the board and experiencing another 3 seconds of flying above the water will be good enough for me.

DAY 1

Sitting on an airplane to Houston and then on to Liberia, Costa Rica! Unfortunately, Simon isn't sitting beside me. We learned at check-in that Costa Rica requires a 3 month buffer on passport expiry and Simon's was short by 1 week. So while he spends the morning getting a rush passport renewal I'm travelling solo to Central America. If all goes well he should be joining me for Day 2. I'm both terrified and excited to be travelling on my own. Thankfully our plans were to stay at the airport hotel the first night so all I really have to do on my own is fly in, get through customs and take a shuttle to the hotel. Not exactly epic travel!

...

After two (late) 4 hour flights and 5 hours of wandering around the Bush International Airport arriving in Costa Rica was feeling much less like a fun adventure and much more like a dull slog. By midnight I was at the hotel searching for wifi with little on my mind beyond contacting Simon and collapsing into bed.

I'm here!

We didn't get the house. We were close (2nd out of 6 bidders), but much like getting pregnant close still means more trying. The upside is that Simon and I will be able to enjoy our upcoming vacation without the stress cloud of house prepping and moving hanging overhead. Recognizing that this process could take a while we've adjusted our gameplan. New plan is to prep and sell Simon's house now and move everyone into my place in the west end. The reason why we haven't done this sooner is that it will be an incredibly tight squeeze. Both of us need space to work from home and it will take a miracle for two adults, one toddler and three dogs to avoid tripping over one another. The upside is that financially and time wise it will put us in a great position to get what we want when the next great place comes up. Besides, the entire point of this house buying project is to get everyone under one roof so we may as well go forward with that part sooner rather than later. And for me it might even provide the kick in the pants I'm in desperate need of to get this place decluttered.

Here we go!