Tuesday, July 28, 2009

La Vida Loco

Life has been hectic.

As you may have noticed, my last post was in March – approximately five months ago. Just to cover my bases, I made it out of the jungles of Costa Rica mid-May and returned to the US just in time for my birthday. Summer 2009 will have a separate post dedicated to its adventures; for now, I must take a step back to post a quick synopsis of my final weeks in the beautiful country of Costa Rica.


[Written May 11, 2009]

I am currently sitting in the same hotel where I wrote my first Costa Rica entry upon my arrival in January. Funny that it was written about nostalgia because I am in a place that used to feel unfamiliar and new, yet now holds many memories and is comforting to have returned to. I feel nostalgic about this hotel as I sit here now. So it seems I have come full circle. I write this last entry from my time abroad on my final night in Costa Rica, for tomorrow I am headed to the airport for a flight to the United States.

I have been doing a variety of things and traveling many places since the last time I updated this website:

  • learning Spanish in the capital city of San Jose
  • surfing on the Nicoya Peninsula
  • hiking around the Monteverde cloud forest
  • snorkeling in the waters of Cabo Blanco on the Pacific coast
  • bushwacking around La Selva Biological Station in true rainforest
  • relaxing at Rincon de la Vieja, located at the base of a volcano

All the while I have been learning a great deal about Costa Rican culture, tropical ecology, and myself. Every place was an entirely different experience than the previous, and each time I felt a renewed sense of awe for the biodiversity of Costa Rica and the inexhaustible energy this planet has to offer.

I want to say I am “going home,” but that phrase holds little meaning to me…where is my home if I can feel comfortable any place in the world? A safari tent in Africa or a mosquito-netted bunk bed in the neotropics feels just as relaxing to me as an air-conditioned, queen-size bed in the northeastern United States. The main thing that changes is the people around me when I awake (and the various diseases being carried by the mosquitoes of the region). They say home is where the heart is, but if I have promised my heart to the world - with all its beauty and biodiversity, then aren't I home anywhere I go?

[End of post]

In regards to the above post: I hope to go into detail about the bulleted points (a.k.a. weeks of ridiculoso adventures) in upcoming posts, along with a few other topics that have been brewing in my mind for some time now. The goal of this write-up was to re-establish my semi-regular posting as my adventures of Summer 2009 come to an end and my final year as an undergrad at Cornell begins. I hope to bring this journal up to date and then continue to log my adventures beyond graduation. Yippee!