Pixie in Paradise

Finding Routine When Traveling

Some people always travel light, can adapt to any situation seamlessly, or sleep anywhere. I have friends who can sleep at loud music festivals, in military foxholes, travel with one days’ notice and only travel with a backpack – that isn’t stuffed full! I don’t get it; I admire it, but I do not understand how it is possible. While I’m envious of their ability to sleep well, go with the flow and travel light, I do better establishing a small amount of structure or routine when staying someplace longer than a weekend. I also need to arrange a pet sitter for Pesto, the sexy three-legged cat I share my life with back in the US, each time I want to leave. Believe me, I am willing and able to pick up and go, but currently that is a little less flexible since the cat needs a modicum of supervision, or he will order too many pizza deliveries if left to his own devices. 

I’ve tried to think back to the few times I’ve recently switched locations and what I did in each to feel more grounded and settled as quickly as possible. Some of these places were home for three days and some have been three months. As you know some of them were very small islands (two, to be exact). There was one large inland city and a small one in Costa Rica, and my current home of choice is a very chill beach town not too far from the Panama border. Besides the obvious top of the list which is finding the shortest route to a beautiful beach – view or physical access – food is right up there with  it.

Like most of us (some more than others), I react strongly to being hungry and/or tired. And under caffeinated, though that has taken somewhat of a backseat since I’ve been drinking more tea lately, thanks to recent rainy weather conditions and my British friend, Anna. She showed me what the electric tea kettles could do in all of our Airbnbs and I am definitely splurging to buy an electric tea kettle when I get home. It will make the hot tea and pour-over coffee processes a breeze. Turns out that coffee addiction can be controlled rather easily in a mind over matter situation, very similar to the Hulk who goes from mild mannered to severely aggressive “when subjected to emotional stress, at or against his will.” 

Extremely self-aware, I know there are things I have to do to stabilize in a semi-permanent, transient situation or I just won’t feel grounded enough to relax. Clean drinking water is most important, barely above coffee or hot beverage of choice on the list, but since I bring a water bottle with filtration capabilities on all trips that is almost always taken care of. In this part of the world, I also have to consider brushing my teeth with bottled water too. Lacking anything but tap water I actually brushed my teeth with a little white wine in Mexico once! Toothpaste and wine is not the best flavor combo, zero stars: do not recommend.

Typically arriving in the middle of the day or after dark, I get online and see where the closest and most promising looking cafe is and how early it opens. A cute hipster cafe serving oat milk cappuccinos does me no good if they don’t open until 11am for brunch. Thinking ahead for the next morning when jet lag and road weariness has kicked in or I just want a familiar drink order, the cafe has to open by 7am. It just has to. Soon after finding decent coffee, I spend a day or two locating a cafe with the right environment for writing. 

The first day or two I don’t put too much stress on buying groceries until I’ve found out where the best local produce is because I am, and will always be, under the impression that finding a fresh papaya every three to seven days while traveling in these tropical locations is the best thing I can do for my health. Papaya has insane health benefits and if that wasn’t enough the seeds have been known to prevent and kill parasites, and that is truly what I love about them. I’ve loved papaya since I went to Fiji ten years ago and discovered how much better fresh papaya flesh tastes than the ones we buy back in the US. The seeds are peppery and remind me of the horseradish I grew up on so they don’t bother me to crunch and guzzle a tablespoon at a time, to keep the bugs out of my gut! A friend even said she enjoys them on salad. I just found this recipe and with the exception of the cucumbers, all of these ingredients are currently sitting on my kitchen counter, so lunch looks promising.

Besides finding a local papaya I make it a point to buy a small jar of honey that’s local to the area. In the case of Belize, the entire country is “local.” An extremely small country with only half a million inhabitants, their honey is the best by far that I have ever tasted. Specifically, the honey that comes out of the westside, Cayo district. This honey blew my socks off with its slightly smoky, roasted flavor. It’s hard to describe the magic taste of this honey but let me just say that I went through two large bottles in three months’ time. Had I stayed on my island in Belize living on that honey I would probably catch diabetes by the new year. I have been in the southern region of Costa Rica for a week and bought a large jar of honey at the farmers market yesterday and I’m sorry to say it doesn’t hold a candle to the Belizean stuff. It was produced in the Guanacaste region west of where I am in Limon. I am still trying to be grateful, because the Costa Rican bees worked just as hard to provide that sweet nectar for me and some say eating local honey helps your immune system, along with so many other benefits. Others say that’s a myth but I need it for sweetening tea, homemade salad dressings, lemonade and oatmeal anyway. I miss my “Snoop Dogg bees,” the ones that produce Belizean smoke-flavored honey, but I’m grateful to the “Tico bees” for helping to keep me healthy during my stay here.

As if we weren’t already belaboring the conversation about honey, I also bought a very small dropper container of mariola honey a few days ago. I went in to an organic hippie health food store and explained that my sinuses felt full and I had pressure in my ears, which seems to be the norm now, and asked if there was a local herb or supplement that would help me adjust to tropical jungle life in Costa Rica, same as I had to do in Belize. SCDJ: Same Climate, Different Jungle. The man suggested either sweet orange oil very diluted and poured into the ears, or, mariola honey drops in the eyeballs. Oh boy. All of that sounds like it is gonna sting like a son of a bitch and since I’ve had really bad luck putting prescribed liquids in my ears to provide relief and not getting anything other than excruciating pain, I opted for honey in the eyes. Specifically, mariola honey, which has a multitude of uses. Mariola honey is honey on crack – the big guns, if you will – but made from tiny stingless bees. They are the pixie thugs of the bee world, eh? Reminds me of someone. I haven’t had the courage to drop the mariola in my eyes yet, as it was promised to sting, but I have taken a teaspoon each day since purchasing it. Taking it internally has to do some good somehow. Certainly not harming me, it tastes really good, almost fizzy and sweet.

Enough about honey! I also don’t get fully comfortable in a home until I make a meal and the meal of choice for months and months now is pasta. Pasta is my go to comfort food these days. This has gone to an all-time obsession level as I watch or just listen to reruns of my favorite pasta videos by Matteo Lane on YouTube. I will put Matteo on in the background while I cook anything and if pasta is what’s getting made that day, even better. I dice vegetables and boil pasta listening to him explain his brand of culture and cuisine while also being incredibly funny, since his actual profession is being a stand-up comedian. If I’m having trouble sleeping I have the bad habit lately of opening my phone to Instagram reels and watching short clips of people making pasta dishes over and over again. I never thought I’d get to a point in my life where ramen and rigatoni plays on my screens like a porn obsession.

I don’t make a lot of meat dishes at home, preferring to eat more of my proteins at restaurants. Not sure why, though there is a lot more issue with supply and demand of  products and services in Central America. Remember when the chicken shipment went to the other island north of mine and there was no chicken breast for three days at my preferred butcher shop? That was a decent source for meat in Caye Caulker but I still preferred to make vegetarian meals at home and buy prepared meals containing meat. Of all the things I’d love to analyze about my behavior right now, that isn’t one of them, so be it.

True to form I’ve finished my coffee and am getting hungry while typing so it’s time to go hunt something down, and by hunt I mean stroll into one of the numerous oceanfront restaurants serving up delicious food in this town. It doesn’t suck.