Isolated in Paradise

Staying home is good advice for all of us right now.

Three months of being isolated in paradise here in Costa Rica is not all bad. But after a while, looking out my window at the same orchids, banana trees, orange trees, coffee plants, and beautiful brightly colored flowers and birds can get old.

I haven't been down the mountain to go into town in over three weeks, but I'll probably go this coming week because I'm getting low on a few things.

It would nice to get to go somewhere

I have a friend back in the US whose husband had to have emergency surgery to remove his gallbladder over the weekend. She said, "At least, he got to go somewhere."

Getting out and going somewhere would be nice, but I don't think I'm at the point yet where I would welcome a trip to the hospital to have surgery. Of course, if this goes on much longer, I might change my mind.

Another friend said that he and his wife have finally had time to sit down and talk. He said he has learned about all the things he's done wrong over the last 30 years. I told him that he probably had not heard all the things he has done wrong yet. If he stays quarantine for another two weeks or so, I'm sure he will hear about more things he's done wrong.

In one of Mark Twain's books about Huck Finn, Aunt Sarah was reading the Bible to ole Huck. He said that she read all about the good place, and then she read all about the bad place. He spoke up and said, "I wish I were there." She got all mad and upset. He said, "I didn't mean no harm. I just wanted to go somewhere." I think we're all starting to feel that way. We want to go somewhere. We don't care where.

Staying here is not all bad

They have eased the driving restrictions here a little bit. Now instead of being allowed to go into town on one day of the week (based on the last digit on your license plate), we can now go on two different days.

I'm staying in a beautiful apartment in a huge house that has been converted to have six apartments, all with outside entrance. It's in a two and a half acre walled-in compound on the side of a mountain up at about 5,000 feet.

In the 2.5 acre yard, there are orange, banana, mango, papaya, tangerine, and coconut trees. The trees are all loaded with fruit and free for the picking (except you can't pick the coconuts, the trees are too tall, you have to wait until they fall). The yard is also full of beautiful flowers, including orchids, and many other flowers I have never seen before.

I'm getting a lot of work done on my new book. It's good not to have any interruptions. I do hike about a mile up the mountain and back every morning. I don't see anybody, but the exercise is good. I may start hiking two miles up the mountain.

The mountain is steep, and if I hike very fast, I can start to get out of breath, but two miles roundtrip is not a lot of exercise. I know I need more. Maybe I should do an afternoon hike too.

I'm making progress on learning Spanish, but I don't get to talk to anybody. Most of the time when I come to Costa Rica for three months, I go into town often and spend time talking to the locals and get to practice my Spanish, but that's not happening this year.

By the way, you can only stay here for three months before you have to leave the country. You can't even fly into the country unless you have a return ticket in hand. You can't buy a one-way ticket to get here.

I have a return ticket for May 28th. I assume the airport will be back open by then. If not, I guess they'll extend my visa, and I can stay a little longer. When you're living the RVing lifestyle, you learn to go with the flow and expect plans to change.

Not everything in a tropical paradise is wonderful

The tropical paradise I'm living in may sound like heaven on earth, but there are some downsides, first of all. I can't buy fig bars in any store. The only type of US cookie they have is Oreos, and I don't like Oreos. Even though you can see sugar cane growing everywhere that coffee is not growing, they must sell it all because they sure don't use it. Cookies and pastries here, in general, are not sweet at all (at least, not by US standards).

Another thing not to like here is that (back when the restaurants and coffee shops were open) there are no free refills on coffee. If you want more coffee, you order and pay for another cup of coffee. Coffee is cheap enough, but since coffee is grown on every mountainside, you would think coffee refills would be free like they are in the US. Not so. It's just one of the many cultural differences you have to get used to.

On the bright side, if you want a bag of coffee, you can call a local farmer, tell him what kind of coffee you want, and in a few minutes, he will show up on a motorbike to deliver your bag of fresh coffee. It's just like ordering a pizza.

What new skill are you learning?

Be sure to spend time on one or more of your projects. One project for sure should be to learn something new. Whether you're learning something from scratch or are learning to do it better, spend a few minutes each day learning. You could learn to speak a foreign language, learn to play a musical instrument, learn a new computer program. The list goes on and on. If you haven't started learning a new skill yet, it's not too late. Unfortunately, I think you still have plenty of time.

Bottom line: Since we all have to stay put a little longer, we might as well make the most of it. What new skill are you learning? Let me know in the Discussion Forum.