Costa Eureka!

It's nearly 9 pm in Liberia, Costa Rica and I spent most of the day sleeping off what felt like the beginning of a head cold. My body feels tired and a bit achy still, though I can breathe just fine, and I've been eating. The lovely women who work in the kitchen here brought me my lunch on a tray. About an hour ago, two of my wonderful writing classmates brought me dinner. The food is delicious here! For lunch I had a salad and a hand-made corn tortilla with rice, veggies and black beans, plus a tall, cool glass of what I'm guessing was guava juice. Dinner was so generous I haven't finished it yet: four large plantain patties, a bowl of fish ceviche and a cabbage salad, plus a glass of what tastes like beet juice. Oh, and fried plantains (platanos) with honey (miel) for dessert! Delicioso!

I've taken some amazing photos, in large part because it's so gorgeous here that it's probably impossible to take a bad one. The one featured above is the shot I got of one of the howler monkeys. First time I'd seen one, and I happened to be in the right place at the right time AND have my camera! He moved so fast I was only able to get the one photo, yet I'm quite pleased with it.

Beauty abounds here, and yesterday we went on a two-hour plus walk through the Nosara Nature Preserve. I forgot my camera, which ended up being perfect because I wrote a poem about the experience called "Costa Eureka!" One of my favorite things is the variety of colors in every plant and flower. Here's a photo of some gorgeous pink hibiscus:

And here's a snippet from the poem I wrote after the nature walk:

I am not a nature poet, but

I’ll try to describe pale daybreak

warming to fiery gold, waves blue

white blue white lingeringly kissing

black volcanic sand.

I’ll try to paint for you the yellow

cream dun brown green gray

jungle floor, from which grows

the magnificent, murdering Strangler Fig,

snaking around another tree

until it is snugly held,

juiceless, dead.

I’ll do my best to convey the majesty

of the Rain Tree, draped in luxuriant

lace, yards and yards and yards pour

greenly down, and rustle with a rainy sound.

Thanks for reading all the way through. I'll post again soon, because I really want to share the photos I took on the beach yesterday evening, especially a series that captures the famous green flash!

Take care, and may you always know how much you matter.