What a day! Yesterday turned into a very long day. The flight out of Houston was delayed two hours. We hit turbulence a couple different times. It was rough enough that the flight attendants had to go to their jump seats. Finally landed in San Jose, Costa Rica around midnight.
The line through Immigration wasn’t too bad. They needed to know my return flight information. Guess they want to make sure I leave.
Then I went to go through Customs. Yikes! The line double winded all through the baggage claim area. I finally found the end of the line and started my hour wait to get through it. One of the other retreat participants was there and we managed to hook up and wait together.
The hotel’s last shuttle service was at 1:00 and we missed that by an hour. Together we took a taxi to the hotel and had a smooth check in. I almost fell asleep before I could get out of my travel clothes.
Got up this morning and went down for breakfast. It was a nice buffet and I ate plenty. Went back up to my room to get my bags and came back down to catch the shuttle to the airport.
I was on the second floor so only had to go to the first floor. About one minute after the elevator started going down we heard a loud bang and the elevator jerked and then came to a stop. After checking to make sure everyone was OK, we hit the alarm button.
Thankfully there was a gentleman on the elevator that was a paramedic and worked for the Red Cross. He took charge in a very good way and kept myself and the three other women calm. He spoke Spanish so was able to talk to our rescue crew.
It took them about 20 minutes to figure out how to get the doors open. We pushed our luggage through and then one by one we dropped out. There was a ladder that helped us get down. The opening of the door at the top had about three feet for us to get through. What an adventure!
I took the airport shuttle to the airport and checked in for my early afternoon flight. It is a good thing I went early as the 12:20 flight left at 11:00. I met the other three retreat participants at the airport and we all got on the little airplane. It only seats 12 passengers. When I checked in I had to get on the scale with my bags.
The plane flew low most of the 20 minute flight but we flew through the clouds. The view of the ocean was amazing and the landscape looks like a jungle. It is rainy season and everything is very green and lush.
The airport was very tiny – like the size of a double carport. We waited on a taxi for a bit and then drove to the place where we are staying. The leader was going to rent a car but for some reason it wasn’t available so we had to do a taxi. The first taxi they sent was too small so we had to wait for a slightly bigger one to come.
We stopped at a health food store and some of the ladies got snacks, etc. It took about 30 minutes to get to the health food store and then another 45 minutes to get to our retreat center.
The house I am staying in is the meeting place for the group and the place where we will be having our meals. It is a beautiful, jungle like setting with beautiful blooming plants all around. Tonight there has been a chorus of insects and creatures singing their songs.
One of them makes a chirping sound like a smoke detector that needs its batteries replaced. Took me a hot minute to figure out what was going on.
After a nap this afternoon, three of us walked down about 1.5 miles to a chocolate place. They make chocolate that has magic mushrooms in it. Anyone want me to bring some home for them? They are $30 a bar. It was a lovely walk to the place. It rained off and on while we were walking to and from. I got back and took a hot shower and put on dry clothes.
We had dinner at 6:30. We had some sort of fish tacos. I could swear that the fish was chicken – it didn’t have that fishy taste at all. The homemade guacamole was especially good.
We did a meditation after dinner and now it is bedtime. It has been a long day. It is raining pretty heavy this evening and I hope it rains all night. I love sleeping to the sound of the rain and the insect and creature choir.
Tomorrow we are hiking about 2 miles up hill to a cave and waterfall and will do plant medicine. We will be sleeping in the cave and hiking back down on Wednesday. Thursday someone is coming to give me a long massage. Friday we are doing ceremony of some sort followed by another massage on Saturday. Sunday we head back to San Jose.
What an adventure this has been already and we are just beginning. Tomorrow will be a test of my physical fitness for the hike. The walk today gave me confidence that I can do it.
Grateful for this opportunity to experience new things – even getting stuck in an elevator, grateful for the group I am with, and grateful I faced my fear and anxiety and came.