Pixie in Paradise

Guess what? Not everyone speaks English! We should all know this by now – even us Americans. When you’re dropped into a foreign country and a limited amount of humans speak your native language (in this case, English) it’s a real game-changer: a real “fuck-shit” moment, as Tina Fey said in the cute Netflix movie, Wine Country. You don’t realize that not only is it jarring to try and communicate with someone and you can’t find common words for you both to understand, but the signage on advertisements and street signs aren’t familiar. For example, in most large U.S. cities there is a street called Martin Luther King Jr., and there is Target™ and Walmart™ and McDonald’s™ and Starbucks™ everywhere. The point is, things look and read familiar. While I breezed through Cancun yesterday to fly down to San Jose, Costa Rica, there were a lot of U.S. businesses like The Home Depot™, Freightliner™, Walmart and the like. For the most part all signage is in a different language and they are all brands and logos my eyes don’t recognize. Combine that with the fact that we are one of the few countries that refused to adopt the metric system out of basically the entire world, so I’m doing math to figure out miles and currency conversion. It is fun though to figure out how much USD a sweet monkey on yellow paper money is worth versus a sloth on green paper money. Costa Rican currency – colones – is bright and has beautiful pictures of animals on the paper currency. It reminds me of when a group of us took a trip to Fiji ten years ago. The money is so pretty and I kept it as a souvenir but really just hoping to return one day and spend it.

Since canceling an upcoming trip to Guatemala due to recent political instability there, Anna – a British solo traveler I met in Belize – and I decided to head up through Mexico by water taxi to Chetumal, then shuttle to Cancun. From there we flew out to San Jose Costa Rica to spend a couple of days. From there we will head to the jungle so that I can see sloths and monkeys and hopefully tour a coffee farm. We will then head to another country and soak up the ocean again. But first, I need to safely explore San Jose! I am even more amazed now at the number of female solo travelers I met while writing at the cafe in Caye Caulker. These women have been traveling for years by themselves to countries all over the world. Anna has been to so many all on her own and the amount of travel knowledge she has just floors me. She’s extremely independent so while we are traveling in tandem, we veer off once in a while for some space and individual adventures based on preferences. We are very different. I listen to Burna Boy, Snoop Dogg and Romeo Santos, and she’s obsessed with Taylor Swift. I discovered I have deep dark thoughts and a sense of humor that don’t seem to be quite “England-appropriate,” or maybe just to Anna. I can’t speak for the queen. But, we’re both Type A, independent, get-things-done, ready for most anything type of gals and have some small commonalities. Thank goodness we’re both cat people! She is a nurse manager and I was a respiratory therapist so we have traded a few war stories about working in healthcare.

As I mentioned it is really jarring, to my ignorance I guess, how many people don’t speak English in Latin America – even people much younger than me. I’ve apologized to a lot of Uber drivers and store clerks for my lack of speaking skills and use Google Translate heavily. I was really under the impression my beginner Spanish fluency had progressed to intermediate but after the last 72 hours I feel dumb as shit and not even sure my English is that great.

Anna told me the night before that she was going to go on a tour of the city on her own today so I wanted to find a tour of my own since I’d never been here before. I really needed an experienced guide to show me how to get around safely. Finding a free walking tour for 9am I signed up and finally went to bed at midnight. I woke up early, anticipating the tour, got ready and toured our Airbnb apartment building which is one of the coolest places I’ve ever stayed. With the whole building designed and decorated in an Alice in Wonderland theme, this place is next level stunning and whimsical. They don’t allow social media or photography, I guess, it’s in the rule book. (However, I will post an exquisite photo below, of a view out of one of the wild shared rooms in this building. Unbelievable.)

I hopped into an Uber at 8:30am and was ready to go with a small waterproof backpack because it seems like the rain in Costa Rica is a bit more persistent than that in Belize. Three minutes before the Uber pulled up to the hotel where the walking tour was supposed to meet, I checked email from my phone. There was one from the tour company saying they had to cancel for this morning! The email was sent at 6:30am. I hadn’t checked my email because it’s Sunday and wanted to stay off electronics as much as possible. I was in disbelief that the driver was now pulling into the hotel meetup spot. I would have to get out not knowing where I am in the city, limited Spanish fluency – not apparent until two days ago – and needed to figure out if this is a safe neighborhood for me to walk in, where to go, what to see and if my cell phone internet service would kick in while away from the apartment. What many Americans may not understand is that when you’re traveling away from your own country, cell towers and signals aren’t prevalent for mobile devices. You are at the mercy of the internet service in the foreign country and the capabilities of your eSIM or SIM card, if you even have an extra one. For the record the ease of payment, installation and customer service using Airalo for eSIM is highly recommended. I think my issue is “user error.” I have an eSIM that’s been giving me an intellectual run for my money for days. I’ve never felt so inadequate with technology as I have while booking this two-week, three-country tour. I am NOT at that age where the “ageables” call you and say they can’t remember their Facebook password expecting you to know it. Or when they message you saying they think they’ve gotten cyber hacked expecting you to provide tech support (sorry Aunt Cheri!).

Anna knows how and where to book any type of transportation across every country we are visiting and the many she’s told me about from her previous adventures alone. I reluctantly got out of the Uber and with a mixture of English and Spanish, the hotel concierge tried to tell me where I should walk and what might be of interest. The instructions were muddy at best due to language barrier and the inability for my brain to relax into this imminent solo walkabout through San Jose. I mean, I had two options: get into another Uber and head straight back to the apartment too afraid to have a go at this alone and try to find another tour that was available; or, walk away from that hotel and try not to hit a dark alley or make a wrong turn. I chose option two and walked toward what I have to assume is the city center. Determined to find some cool architecture and a museum or two I first had to find coffee and breakfast. Being a coffee snob and in Costa Rica, finding unique cafes brewing the country’s finest homegrown beans was high on my list. After walking down the main street and window shopping – and then not window shopping, purchasing two shirts – I turned on my phone GPS to find a cafe I’d seen doing a random Google search, Cafe Rojo. It looked like my kind of place and it did not disappoint. In fact it exceeded my expectations and the staff were so nice. I actually had no idea that their food was Vietnamese fusion with a Costa Rican twist. I only saw that they had cappuccino and went for it. The food, coffee and service were out of this world, huge portions of food! I even had an impromptu Spanish lesson from a staff member named Dixon, while paying my tab. This lesson confirmed that I am useless at Spanish! It was fun anyway.

After lunch the rains came and I headed back home to retrieve Anna so we could split an Uber to the museums. We went to one together and then veered off to separate museums for the second. I went to the Museum of Jade and it was stunning. Four levels containing pre-Columbian artifacts including the most beautiful jade stone carvings and jewelry discovered by archeologists. I don’t spend a lot of time reading labels or gazing at paintings in museums. My eyes want to look at something for a moment and move on but there were several pieces in this museum that made me stop and stare.

Today is an easy afternoon before heading into the rainforest tomorrow for a week. Off to see some butterflies!