Sit back, breathe, and enjoy the ride.
When my travel buddy and I decided to visit Costa Rica, we
decided to split our time between “mountain” and “beach”. Thankfully this lush country
offers a bit of both. The drive alone from the main city of San Jose to the
beach 40 miles away involved over 2.5 hours of windy roads through many hills
and valleys. During the first half of the trip we had a blast at the beach of
Manuel Antonio. We met several guys and even received invites to a small pool
party (we gays have a way of finding each other on the interwebs). The first
half of the trip met my requirements for a fun-filled vacation: beach, meeting
new people, sun, speedos, parties and tropical cocktails.
The second half of the trip involved traveling to the famous
Arenal volcano. We booked a nice resort with the best natural hot springs on
site. It was quite nice and most rooms came with a view of the volcano. I very
much enjoyed soaking in the hot springs and even getting some time alone to
write (hence a 7 part blog post). Our resort was nice, but definitely a slower
pace than our time at the beach, and my extroverted nature craved interaction.
I knew this would likely be the case. So, I made a point to find ways to
satisfy my extrovert tendencies.
The fun thing about being an extrovert is you don’t
necessary need to have human interaction. I enjoyed listening to music while
writing, I worked out a bit at the small resort gym, and of course there were
the occasional run-ins with my fellow extroverts who were there with their
spouse or family. We tend to find each other no matter where we are. To give
myself some much needed adventure, I made a point to try something new and face
my one of my fears. During our second day, we booked a horseback riding tour
and canopy zip-lining. I’ve always wanted to go horseback riding, but never had
a chance to do so. I’ve also heard most people say how sore you get from riding
your first time, but we had the hot springs to soak in for another day. So,
that set my mind at ease, perfect situation. Zip-lining, on the hand, brought up
a lot of fear and anxiety. I mean, you are hanging from a rope with no net
below to catch you if you fall (AH!!). Sure there are lot of things to keep you
secure, but the thought of doing it scared the bejesus out of me. Needless to
say, there were no casualties during our experience. The horseback riding was
awesome. My horse “Chinco” was mild tempered and responded well to my
direction. We even go to speed up a bit along the way. The views of the volcano
up close were beyond breath-taking. It was only partially visible, due to the
constant rolling fog surrounding it, but we stood in awe at every view point
along our tour. Zip-lining was beyond exhilarating, and definitely an Adrenalin
pumping activity. In order to prep for myself for this, I had to do a lot of
mental talk to prevent any moments of panic, and I decided to re-frame my
thinking and visualize myself as a human roller coaster. My final strategy when
we arrived on the platform, was to go first and “get it over with”. No need to
build up anymore anticipation, just enjoy the ride.
There’s no need to belabor things in this post. In short, I’m learning to be more open to the
adventures of life. Maybe it’s my background of organizing ropes courses and
team building activities, but I tend to look for deeper meanings during
everyday activities. It makes the time go by faster and I tend to get more
satisfaction out of life. By re-framing my thinking and visualizing a deeper
meaning beyond hanging from a rope, I was able to take in the views a bit more,
laugh a bit and reflect on the beauty around us every day. Despite all the
challenging we face, perspective is everything. As we enter into a new trip around the sun, here’s to taking a moment to look
around and focus on those people and experiences that make life enjoyable and worth
it.
Oh and here’s video of one of the longer rides.
Happy New Year and #Pura Vida
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