Pixie in Paradise

Lately, life has been relatively tranquilo, cooking most of my meals in the cute new space, yoga on the beach and taking loads of photos and videos of wildlife that show up right outside my door. I now also have an obsession with birds, not birdwatching per se, but listening to them. And since I’m not the best listener, maybe this will be a healthy new hobby. It sure is an easy one here in rural Costa Rica, where tropical birds sing at least 12 hours each day. I installed an app on my iPhone that recognizes bird calls, identifying which bird species it picks up and what sounds they make. All I do is sit in the kitchen or right outside the door, turn on the app and it picks up the sounds of unique and colorful birds like parrots, toucans, hummingbirds and numerous flycatcher species.

Don’t forget I’m also a surrogate cat mother to Mo, the stray, who takes up a considerable amount of my time. He gets two meals a day, and a little saucer of oat milk afterwards. Mo loves oat milk so I guess this week I’ll buy two containers instead of one. I would estimate that Mo spends 60-70% of his day with me. In the house! This is partly because most days I spend much of my time writing, cooking and relaxing in my sweet space on this gorgeous property. I only leave each day for beach time and some exercise. Saturdays I head to town for errands, extra groceries and the farmers market.

While there were an abundance of shops and grocery stores near the old rental house, there is something to be said for the quiet I now have just under two miles away from there. In Puerto Viejo it was a three-minute walk to dancing, yoga and Zumba fitness classes, numerous shops and great restaurants, but now if I want to visit those I have to either buy a bike or hire a tuk tuk driver. They’re still relatively close, only a thirty-minute walk. Renting a bike is way more expensive than buying one for the amount of time I am here but biking along the busy, winding road between my current house and town seems like playing Russian Roulette with my life. Tuk tuks are expensive: $8 USD each time you get into one to only travel a couple of miles. 

Similar to driving on mainland Belize, Costa Rican traffic is a sight to behold. It’s fast, chaotic, not always moving the direction you think it should, despite signs indicating where the nose of the vehicle should be pointing, and no one has time for seatbelts. Then, there’s the quick emergency braking for a cute animal in the middle of the road. To their credit, everyone does stop for animals, helping them cross to one side or the other, no matter whether it’s a horse or a sloth.

For a town as small as Puerto Viejo, teeming with tourists on foot, bicycle riders and ill-equipped rental scooter drivers, the vehicle traffic still rolls through town a little faster than I think it should. Just past that busy road, however, are miles of beautiful beach worthy of sun seekers and surfers. Playa Chiquita and Chino Beach are two small stretches of sand on the side of town facing the Caribbean Sea. They are beautiful – but they’re not Playa Negra.

Playa Negra’s sand is very black – obviously, given its name – somewhere between the color of graphite and hematite with golden flecks that shine through making it brilliant when the sun is shining. This black sand and strong riptide swirls the clear water making it look like my favorite crystal stone, labradorite. I’ve adored this gem for at least 20 years, so maybe that’s part of what is so alluring to me about the environment here. The water’s appearance is extremely calming, sometimes flashing blue, green or purple, inside the dark base color, just like labradorite. On Playa Negra to one side of you is dark but crystalline water, lapping onto the black soft sand. Oddly, it reminds me of the lead in old #2 pencils and is the softest, finest sand. I’ve never seen a beach like it. In photographs and real life I’ve seen most other colors: tan, white, pink, but never black, sand. 

After the edge of the waves and beyond that powerful, grounding, soft, volcanic earth is a jungle, complete with all its inhabitants. I’ve come down here every day for a stroll or some sun and occasionally see a sloth! And, have had full, one-sided – I’m not crazy – conversations with the sweet slow creature as they try to find a suitable tree-hugging position. Yesterday I told the three-toed sloth within view not to make me come up and rescue him. See, he was dangling in what I thought looked like a precarious manner by his two arms, but it’s probably what he just calls, a regular Thursday afternoon. He was also over 50 feet up so the likelihood that I was getting on a ladder to assist was slim to none.

It’s a completely different landscape to the eyes compared to others, I had no idea, and the different textures and tones of greens beyond the sand in the jungle cast magical spells. It’s hard to process the exquisite beauty. I’m not overselling the magic of this place. It seems that I am, but seriously, no. Meaning, I would love for you all to visit – for a couple of days – so we can hug and you can see this magnificent natural wonder, then please return home. 

In most seemingly polite conversations this is where we’d interject, “no offense” to the other person though we just did or are clearly about to, do or say something offensive. But I won’t: and really, don’t stay. I would love to selfishly keep this location all to myself. Playa Negra is very quiet, no trash, not overpopulated with people or loud music (or children) and if there are extraneous noises, the powerful sound of the waves drown most everything out. Plus, there is a small resort on part of this beach with a restaurant and bar serving pretty good food and drinks – (despite the veggie wrap lunch I describe below)!

I knew nothing about the area around Playa Negra when I came through for the first time in October. That was when my travel companion, Anna, and I were on a six-hour shuttle headed for Bocas del Toro, Panama. Remember our pal, Kevin, the shuttle coordinator? That shuttle stops at a resort on Playa Negra when it heads both north and south, because it’s near the halfway point for its two main destinations. There they gave us lunch and an hour to stretch after which we boarded the shuttle bound for our next stop, which was either San Jose, Costa Rica (heading north) or Panama (heading south).

I remember the veggie wrap I had for lunch there being less than appealing. Its accompanying sides of coleslaw and a very dry brownie had the texture of one cooked in an Easy-Bake Oven from the 80’s – and actually being from the 1980’s – was pretty bad too. How do you screw up brownies? Once hunger had subsided, hoisting my heavy travel backpack on once again, I followed the path from the restaurant to the beach, forgetting about food. I was completely mesmerized by the black sand on this beach – and still am – every single time I see it, every single day since I’ve been staying here. Sometimes I head to Playa Negra more than once a day because not only do I love to get exercise by walking through the sand and sea water, but the road follows the beach. I walk along the beach until I’m forced to head up to the road, where I either walk straight across to a larger grocery store or into town, another 15 minutes away.

I’ve witnessed some truly spectacular sights in my very fortunate lifetime but none like this jungle-fringed black sand beach. As I walk down the path and hear the loud waves warning of the rip tide, it pulls me in, begging me to come closer. There’s just not a chance I can stay away, not while being able to witness this stunning natural beauty every day. And for two of my soul sisters that got lucky enough to be chosen to go on a final trip with my ashes upon cremation – hopefully NO time soon – our destination has changed, ladies. They were supposed to throw my ashes into the oceans off the eastern coasts of Fiji and Belize, but we will need to amend that last will and testament when I’m back in the US. Right now of all places I’ve been in 47 – almost 48 – years, the only place I want to be is here.

I’m scheduled to depart in two weeks to stay inland for a month before heading back to the US and my only question is, how long will I be able to stay away from Playa Negra?