I've had nearly every friend, family member, follower, love interest and stranger who is just nosey, ask me, "How's Costa Rica been?"
And like.....I don't know how you want me to answer that, because in the month I've been here, I've had the biggest breakthroughs in therapy and the biggest breakdowns about my environment, and a million things in between. So... should I just be like, "It's been good and hard!" or are you looking for the full novel of the lovely chaos that has been my life?
I assume most people don't want to spend 10 mins reading what they thought was going to be a paragraph response, so I've kept it short.
BUT NOT HERE!
This is my blog and I will be fully dissecting my first month in Costa Rica. Just plan on spending some time here if you're really curious about all the happenings.
SO! To start with our adventure here, the travel time was ROUGH to say the least. Airport security was giving me a hard time about having an extra back pack (because Muffin was in her own backpack) they also gave me a hard time about asking for a private room, because I had to take her out of her carrier and hold her while they ran her back pack through the scanner. THEN on the plane (our flight departed at 1 am and landed around 7:30) she meowed THE ENTIRE flight. I wish this was an exaggeration. It's not. I had a full on breakdown in the middle of the night and put my hoodie over my head and bawled my eyes out. I felt so bad for Muffin, for the people on the plane, and for me. Next time, I'll be getting her stronger meds LOL.
Once we landed, we ubered to the hotel where our shuttle would pick us up. We got there at 9 am and our shuttle picked us up at 2:30pm. We napped on the couch and I set up Muffins litter box in the bathroom stall so she could pee.
Our shuttle was supposed to drop us off at our Air BnB around 7pm, but since they were 30 mins late picking us up, I figured 7:30-8pm. WRONG. The main road had been shut down for weeks because of a landslide. So we finally arrived at 11pm. If you've ever been to CR and driven on the back roads, you know how much that ride SUCKED. If you don't know, think a one lane road up in the woods, filled with potholes, where people pass you going 50mph around a blind corner.
I met a cool lady on the bus tho and talked to her for awhile. I got a lot of good insight and tips and tricks for navigating my new life. She was also a gay woman, and I was like YASSS I already found my people!
The next week having Riley with me was soooo nice, and I am so grateful, because I would have been so much more scared to do all the things the first time on my own.
He helped me get a bike, go to town, get groceries, find some good restaurants and go to the beach. All things that my anxiety can make very difficult in a new town.
It was also nice to have Riley here when I had a cockroach the size of my palm in my room. Muffin alerted us of this bug, at 3am mind you, by knocking the TV over and then scream crying in agony. What a cat. When we opened the door to shoe it out, she ran outside! REALLY MUFFIN?! You're so scared of a cockroach that you ran into the jungle at night?! She came back immediately though.
The bugs have been a hugeeee adjustment, but I've made a ton of progress. I went from basically having a panic attack over the cockroach, to now seeing one and just letting it be, because it's not going to hurt me or Muffin. Today I even showered right next to a spider. I just let him chill. I've captured and released quite a few bugs since being here. Definitely more than I've ever captured in my whole life. Huge win. Coming back here to add TODAY I had a medium sized cockroach (about 2-3 inches) scare the heck out of me, by chilling on my counter. I captured and released him, my first cockroach i've done that with! Progress my dudes.
Another bug problem I've had is the mosquitos and biting ants. My bites swell up so big and itch and hurt so bad. The pharmacy here gave me a super high dose of thiamine, which I guess makes your skin taste bad? I take it every day now, along with AN ALLERGY PILL?! YO!! I have been allergic to mosquitos my whole life, why have I never thought of a daily allergy pill when I know I am going to be around them? I get bit less frequently and they basically don't swell up at all any more. I do wear an all natural bug spray when I'm outside for more than 10 minutes at a time though. I don't love it, but it keeps me comfortable.
I also shaved half my hair off by myself. I have super thick hair, and I couldn't take it anymore, so I made a youtube video and shaved the underside off. Soooo much harder than you would think, not being able to see behind your head and all LOL. The video will be out soon, so you should watch it.
Weed. It's illegal here. I'm a total stoner. If you didn't know that, forgive me but it's pretty much legal everywhere now. Except here. I went the first two weeks without weed and... that was hard. But I've come to realize a big part of smoking for me is the ritual. So I found pre rolls that are lavender, lemon balm and mint! I love them because I get my oral fixation taken care of, and I don't get high. It's a game changer, so I pretty much just smoke herbs that you would brew tea out of. Though I found weed that I smoke at night to sleep, and I'm grateful for that.
So after all these struggles, I ended up getting really sick. I probably had covid because it's been going around here. That was rough because the grocery stores here don't really have much premade food. Canned soup is not a thing, frozen meals are rare to find, hot deli's don't exist. So I had to walk down the road to the restaurant by my house to eat every day. (It is a completely outdoor restaurant so I felt confident I wouldn't get people sick) There could be worse things. But also having a fever/chills in 85 degree, 85% humidity weather was NOT fun. So that was a rough week+.
More stress is that the wifi here is BAD. My download speed, on a good day is 8mbs and my upload speed is 0.5mbs. This makes working so difficult. My neighbors have been letting me use their fiber optic internet, which has download and upload of around 20mbs. LOL. But now I am getting fiber optic and I can't wait because this internet SUCKS. Also it stops working about 5 times a day, so that's annoying. Oh also also, it was out for AN ENTIRE WEEK at one pointed, that REALLY sucked.
I'm going to interject with some positivity so I don't lose you here. I live a 3 min walk from the beach which is LIT. A 3 min walk from my favorite restaurant. I just went there for dinner and got a huge pile of beef, rice and beans, cassava root, salad and a fresh coconut for $8.41 out the door. THAT'S NUTS! All the food is so fresh and yummy here. My gut health has been the best it's been in over a year. Love that for me.
I get to bike everywhere!! I honestly love that for so many reasons. It's cheap, good for my physical and mental health, and good for the planet. I just pop my headphones in and vibe through the jungle. It's so nice.
I don't know if you like 'white noise' but I can't sleep without it. Back home, every night I would say, "Hey Google, play creek sounds." and proceed to pass out. Here, the crickets are my white noise and I love it. When I'm really lucky, mama earth will give my a rumbling thunderstorm and pouring rain to put me to sleep. That's my favorite.
Another amazing thing about being here is how much free time I have, and how inspired i've been. I'm only working, doing social media management, about 2 hours each morning. I don't have any days off, but it's such easy minimal work, that I don't mind. And if I need to take time off, I can and it's not a big deal. So I have from 12-8 every day, to do whatever my little heart desires. How i've been spending that time is a lot of journaling, writing, breath work, yoga, hooping and just working on myself and my weak points. It feels so good to have time and energy to do the things I want to, as well as have time to relax. I take breaks throughout the day and watch a show, or play on my switch. My days are peaceful and lack pressure, for that i'm grateful.
My relationships have grown in ways I couldn't have expected, too! I feel closer with both Riley and Isaac, than I ever have before. Riley and I have been navigating a new LDR dynamic and i've been working through a lot of jealousy, and other issues i've been ignoring. But each time I make little steps of progress, I'm so proud of myself. It feels good to be active in your self growth. Isaac and I have been leaning on each other more, and I'm grateful for getting closer to them.
My health, despite getting sick, has been amazing! I could probably be a little bit more active, and eat a little healthier, but overall, it's great! My skin hasn't been this good in years! I also stopped washing my hair and wearing deodorant. I condition my hair about once a week, but never shampoo. For deodorant, I use rubbing alcohol with a drop of tea tree oil on a cotton swab, every other day or so. In the beginning, it was rough, not going to lie. My hair was SO greasy and my BO was SOOOO bad. Thank god I shower twice a day here. As time has gone on, my body has self regulated and im far less greasy and stinky! YAY!
To go back to my story line, so more tough things happened. I decided I wanted to start exposing muffin to the outside world one day, so I took her out on her leash and harness in my yard. The neighbor dogs ended up charging her and she, understandably so, freaked out and started trying to get out of her harness. I kept trying to pick her up, and in the process, she scratched me several times and bit me very deeply. She ran down the road, and was gone for the whole day. I was distraught. This was my worst fear was losing her, or her getting sick. My neighbors ended up spotting her, and I was able to capture her and bring her home that night. I was so grateful to have her back, and decided I won't be taking her out on the leash and harness ever again!
My hand ended up getting pretty infected from her bite. So I had to go on antibiotics. Luckily, getting the pharmaceuticals you need here, is as easy as buying a bottle of Tylenol. She bit so deeply into my thumb, that I couldn't use it for anything weight bearing for a week. I'm just lucky it didn't get infected any worse.
After that I was like, ok, no more chaos, PLEASE. I would like to have a boring week. I had a chill few days, until I found a pile of what looked like coffee grounds...termites. So I had to exterminate for that. AND THEN, I got a few bites in my sleep over the course of a few days, that weren't mosquito bites. A few days later, I found what seemed to be, a flea. My anxiety was SO BAD. But there's not a ton I can do. Muffin is treated, I clean the floors every day, and wash EVERYTHING once a week with vinegar. I have seen a few more, as this is still an ongoing issue, but luckily I've only found one inside my house, and none on muffin.
Smaller details that are frustrating to deal with are the fact that we are in a drought, so sometimes, we just don't have water. So no showers, and no dish washing. Our power also goes out pretty frequently. I've had to bike 20 minutes home in a downpour because there's no other option. Everything from your clothes to your passport WILL mold, if you don't clean things with vinegar and air things out constantly. Laundry is a whole other process, and if it's not sunny out on your one scheduled laundry day a week, good luck drying your clothes! It's truly the small things i'm most grateful for.
Despite all of this, I LOVE IT HERE! So much, that I extended my lease through February. I want to go to Envision Festival, given it happens, and then go from there. Maybe stay longer, maybe go back to LA for a bit and sell all my stuff and travel the world LOL.
I've learned so many things here, that I'm excited to expand on in my articles. The biggest one is following my intuition. It's always right.
If you read all that, you're my hero. Truly. That was basically a short novel. The craziest part is that I probably left out quite a few details. Stick around and check out my other articles, live journals and poetry. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel! Costa Ricki is the name!
Sending you hugs and all my love. To all my friends and family and partners, I miss you dearly!
PURA VIDA <3