Pixie in Paradise

I will eventually get to a point with this story and shouldn’t have to defend myself because if you’ve been following any of my writing or been in the same room when I tell a story, you know by now that it’s never the short way to the conclusion. We typically take the long way around, but I do land that airplane (usually). I am conflicted trying to continue to write on three separate projects while trying to absorb so much about life right now as I’m traveling but much of the writing is about it. I would inevitably forget everything I want to remember or share in a few months if I didn’t try to put it into words right now. 

I always get a kick out of how the inspiration to put words to paper happens because 80% of the time it occurs when I’m being active and unable to stop and grab a laptop. Inspiration happens a lot while on a walk, with or without a dog. It happens while driving short or long distances. Let’s be honest, it frequently happens while I’m in the middle of a conversation with people too (You inspire me!). While I knew what I wanted to try and put into words about today’s adventures by midday, it wasn’t until evening time when it hit me as to what I wanted to say. And yet again I was unable to pick up any electronics to type a note in or pen and  paper to jot down a few quick words about as a reminder. This epiphany came to me while covered from head to toe in coffee and chocolate that I had a weird full circle moment. I do mean covered head to toe: face, buns, toes and everything except what’s under my bikini suit bottom area – yes, you perverts, the suits are that small since I already mentioned my buns were covered in chocolate!

Early this morning I set out on my own to walk toward my chosen tour while Anna left for hers. We had each selected different tours. Since Anna has already been to La Fortuna she had done much of what I am doing this week a few years ago so I headed to a coffee and chocolate farm tour and Anna left for a wildlife ATV tour. Everyone knows how smitten I am with coffee – good coffee – and have always dreamt of getting to visit a coffee farm in Hawaii or Latin America. A mere ½ mile from where we were staying is a small experimental coffee farm that has been family owned and run for five generations, named North Fields. This coffee/chocolate/sugar cane tour is a must – worth every penny. And, bonus, I’m so hopped up on quality coffee and cacao that I could be awake and super productive for days! (Just kidding, it’s 8:30 pm right now and I’m exhausted from all the exciting new things I discovered today).

I walked along the road this morning in a glorious climate, perfect amount of humidity and thick cloud cover with fog looking so beautiful in front of the Arenal Volcano. The streets were quiet except for a tiny elementary school just up the street from where we are staying with a group of children at recess. I walked along a windy road trying to avoid vehicles while still staring at every tree and flower. Finally making it to the motherland – the farm – I was greeted by the cutest white and gray cat that seemed to want to “speak to the manager.” Her name is Mama and she was very vocal and very thin, clearly she was protesting her breakfast being late. Eventually one of the workers opened a wrapper containing what looked like a muffin and gave Mama the entire thing which she happily tore apart slowly.

I am relatively indifferent to chocolate, not really having a sweet tooth, and when given the option I usually choose a fruit dessert rather than something made from a byproduct of the cacao tree. However, we all happily sampled different coffees and raw cacao and chocolate products. Our amazing tour guide even threw in a short stop near a sugar cane field so we could squeeze cane through some sort of extruder press and drink the sweet juice. We then got to try what the sugar cane tastes like when it’s distilled into a really concentrated alcohol – 60 proof! It was probably as strong as hillbilly moonshine yet much more refined than prison hooch – though it was so strong it definitely felt illegal going down.

That might be why I don’t remember my afternoon, with the exception of one of the best meals I’ve had in three months. Right after the coffee tour I walked into town and found a sweet little restaurant – named La Tipica – that of course had a cat for a hostess. I adore these Latin American countries that allow their chill domestic animals to just saunter in and out of the establishments whenever they please. Can you imagine this in the U.S.? I’m specifically thinking of the incident that occurred a week or two ago in Belize with Princess, the cat, bringing her yellow and black bird snack (fresh kill) through one door and out the other of my favorite cafe. Priceless! La Tipica made me a delicious casado meal with fish, then I walked back to our cabin. Feeling very tired and stiff from a lot of traveling, sitting a lot and these last two nights in the loudest Airbnb stay I’ve ever encountered, my body was stiff, muscles tight and I was worn out. Knowing we had two more nights here and then another long journey – 10-hour bus ride – from here to Panama, I decided it was worth the money to try and find a spa for a therapeutic body massage. Remembering the tour guide at North Fields say that chocolate, cocoa butter and coffee were all very good antioxidants for the skin, I tried to do an internet search for a local spa that might employ that concept, using those products for their treatments. And I did! I found the sweetest, hidden spa that is actually an extension of the owner’s house: Spa Bamboo Massages. She has created a small, lush garden partially covered by nice white fabric glamping tents to give massages in and it’s completely dreamy and magical. Not since traveling to Fiji ten years ago which involved several beachside massages, has any body work felt so completely relaxing. They have many options on their services menu but I opted for the coffee and chocolate package. This is a two-hour experience involving a total body coffee scrub exfoliation, followed by warm melted chocolate/cocoa application before they wrap you in blankets to stew for a while, as your head gets massaged. It is really weird to smell chocolate and then having it brushed all over you, all while the coffee scrub is still on. Weird but it was wonderful and the fact that it started raining while getting these treatments made the gardens that much more dreamy.

I was lying there relaxing and still in complete shock and amazement that I was all of a sudden in Costa Rica where I’ve never been before, in love with a new culture and place, getting this amazing body treatment. I thought of my mom for a couple reasons. First, I thought of her because she’d love the weather, it’s much cooler in the evenings here than in Belize where I currently live and also because she has really been enjoying my writing about these travels. I purposely hid my written musings for years from my mom – both parents, actually – because they either contained too many swear words, content not suitable for parents (mine) and/or I didn’t want her to worry. All that I write about is my truth but much of it is told from a slightly dramatic slant for entertainment value, so anything that was worrisome for me would definitely have caused her some anxiety and that would have resulted in me getting a phone call. I don’t want to explain myself much of the time so it was best if I kept it all hidden. My mom had seen some of my writing over the years or heard me tell a story and always said I was funny or talented or something of the like and I appreciated it. She loves me unconditionally and if I wasn’t a great writer she would still love me no matter what, and that’s all that really matters to me. But what means so very much now  is that she has finally been reading this travel blog! I had kept it hidden from her for months and then we were having a conversation by text one day and one of us mentioned something about writing and I told her I had created a blog site for all of the adventure stories. Long story short, mom wanted to read it but since she “doesn’t do computers” as she puts it, I sent her the link to her phone and she said that she had a friend with an iPad to read it on. I didn’t think she had that link for an hour when I got a text message from her: “Kimi I just read your latest blog post and loved it!! Keep up the good writing baby, you will be discovered!” Then she sent a reference to a Taylor Swift song, I guess to inspire me, and off she went with her day. Precious. That meant so much to me to have her support and be encouraged. She actually seemed very excited to have access to the stories and it felt like a way for us to stay connected while I’m traveling. I’m sure it has to be a little hard for her with one child left living, and that child flies off to Central America to live for a while. 

The second reason I thought of her while lying in that spa garden covered in sugar and caffeine is because she is the first person that actually made me into a chocolate bar for a play when I was a kid. When I was in 4-H around ten years old, we had to do some sort of musical presentation – I do not recall why but you can ask my mom if you really want to know. And she’ll tell ya: she will talk to anyone. BUT, she doesn’t trust everyone. She is the reason the term “stranger danger” was invented and why my Halloween candy got searched thoroughly before it was allowed in the house. She was also really concerned that my brother and I only ate healthy foods so the candy lasted from Halloween to Easter, as we could only have one piece each night after dinner.

Back to the candy coating. For this musical number we did “On the Good Ship Lollipop,” an old song made famous by Shirley Temple, an actress from the 1930’s – I think. It’s before my time. It’s a song about a ship (aircraft) that travels to candy land (sort of). All I remember is that we all had costumes of sweets and I was elected to be a Hershey bar. Kind of bummed that I wasn’t a cute little pink and purple bon bon but it didn’t ruin my day. I’m sure back then I just wanted to get it over with and get the points or credit or whatever we were earning in 4-H for participating.

My mom sewed me a homemade candy bar outfit and it even had the word “Hershey” on it. I doubt she was worried about copyright infringement or the corporation suing her for use of the name. She was just a really great mom who had to be resourceful in order to put me in a brown rectangular outfit that looked like a candy bar and not like a large walking blonde turd with blue eyes. From what I remember she was wildly successful and it even had silver trim replicating an actual silver foil inner wrapper on the candy bar. 

I laid on the massage table and thought about all of this. It is odd how memories come back to us and this is one of those rare occasions where it was a good memory and I was grateful that it came up again. On this wonderful day in a new country with beautiful people, energy and weather, I started it with coffee and chocolate and ended it the same way.