Buenos Aires Adventures

Buenos Aires. 

Definitely not the smartest travel decision I've ever made. But, I really wanted to experience this city.

When I say 'experience' a city, I mean I love to travel to cities that I think have a 'feel' to them. I love history, and picturing what could have happened in an exact spot hundreds of years before. I love places with a liveliness, somewhere that makes you feel a spark or you recognize that the people feel alive. & I love good food and local beer/wine, & totally indulging in a new cultures culinary take on each.

Ohhhhh Buenos Aires did not disappoint.

We started our 'experiencing' on a free tour of the city and heard a lot about the history and the past aristocratic families. Please note I said FREE. An amazing 3 hour walking tour, that was given just by tips and word of mouth advertising. The city is a total mod podge of palaces of aristocratic families (who literally brought their palace materials by boat from France) and new buildings. Side by side, all throughout the city... not just the Centro or city center. The entire area we toured, from San Martin Plaza to Recoleta and Palermo where we stayed, all had this lovely ambiance. There is a cemetery in Recoleta, an area of old money, that holds the caskets of the wealthy, famous, or aristocratic families of Buenos Aires. I cant even fathom the money spend on the final resting places of these people and entire families. Only a picture will explain how intricate and detailed this 'mini city' of graves/mausoleums is.

One of my favorite parts of the tour was of the statue of San Martin.  This is the person who declared Argentinas independence in the early 1800s. He did this by crossing the Andes mountains, gathering troops in Chile, and eventually defeating the Spanish. We were informed that this crossing of the Andes mountain was done on a mule and with the help of the Chilean people because the Argentinians thought his idea was crazy. However, his statue is a portrayal of him on a majestic white horse. And he is beloved for declaring Argentinas independence.  This is just an example of the dramatics of the people in this country. 

I loved it. As I mentioned, I enjoy liveliness in a vacation destination. There is no shortage in buenos aires. The dramatic pick up attempts of the men stands out in particular.

Ladies, hear me now! If you ever need a confidence boost, GO TO ARGENTINA!

I just need to list a few examples to make you understand. Twice men reached down and brushed the ground off as my girlfriend and I were about to walk past. The line, 'I am going to directly kiss you, in front of everyone, and then I will live happily' was used.  In pitiful English a young boy says, 'hi! I love you, I love you soo!'.  Actually we were told multiple times that men were in love with us, in passing of course. One poor man would 'die if he could not live as my 'Ken''.  It was absolutely histerical. Not to mention our server, a very sweet and funny guy offered us free neck massages with our lunch.

I can't talk about the liveliness of Buenos Aires without mentioning the nightlife. I understand it's like this in other parts of the world as well, but it was my first experience napping until 10pm and then getting ready to go to *dinner*. We also watched the sun come up after going out to a club. Not so crazy you may say.... except I feel like we were the first people to leave the club! At sunrise!  Dinner restaurants didn't open til 8-9 pm and most didn't close til 1-2 or 4am. This city came to life at 11pm, it was awesome to experience!  For a short time. It also reminded me that I don't go clubbing til sunrise for a reason.  Sidenote: somehow we got scooted straight to the VIP area without speaking a lick of spanish... and after surveying the area of bottle service, yatzhee! A table of tall very pretty Argentinian men... and what do ya know, they were on the Argentinian basketball team! Language barrier be dang...hips don't need to speak Spanish, and I learned a few new moves from a 6'5 dark haired Argentinian basketball player. This was PG, sorry women. Well, maybe PG13. Tango, salsa, meringue, I don't have a dang clue... but it was a blast!

Now we get to the culture. Everyone (for the most part) was smiling and pleasant, willing to help, and seemed to be in no real hurry. It's always refreshing to get out of the United States and witness firsthand that money and 'the grind' doesn't necessarily make you happy. Time well spent does. I loved that there were cafes on every corner. And ya know what?! At every one of them there were people enjoying a friends company, reading a paper, or a book. NOT glued to their cell phones. It was refreshing enough to not have service and be glued to my own.

The culinary scene.. 1. Ahhhh the steak!!!! I dont eat a lot of meat in my daily diet. I love a good steak on occasion, but that's usually it. If I lived in Argentina, I would eat steak for 3 meals everyday. We went to a steakhouse La Cabrera,  that served our massive meal with like 10 mini side dishes/sauces for the steak. 

Amazing. Seriously, I'm kinda mad I didn't go back a 2nd time.  Don't get me wrong, I had steak for almost every dinner, but that one meal.... I'll never forget it. (Told you I like food).  The wine. Here's a spoiler, we reallllly didn't like it.  Shenna and I are both red wine fans. A smooth pinot noir would be my favorite, but I definitely have appreciated Malbecs before. I don't know what was up, we sent back our first bottle (first time either of us have everrrrr done that) bc it tasted almost carbonated. We thought it must have just been that bottle, so we purchased a couple more (recommended at a wine store ),middle class expensive... and no. Didn't like it, same issue. Maybe we've never had 'real' Malbec before then. They had a great Stout Patagonia & local beers though. The rest of the food was great as well... cafe and pastries for breakfast, ham and cheese sandwich of some form for lunches (or empanadas if we found them) & great dinners (at midnight)...

San Telmo, Caminito St, and El Boca... these are the areas you're supposed to go to get a feel for the real Argentina. I felt it... tango dancers on corners in El boca, bright multi-colored unique houses, & local crafts. We saw all of this and thought it was cool. Then we went to the Sunday market in San Telmo... 10 blocks of craft tables lining the streets,  traffic is shut down, and people are drinking 40s for their Sunday funday. People playing drums on street corners, & dancing where ever the music is.  Then we came upon our first tango experience. It appeared as though a couple of people brought their computer, a microphone, and speaker and decided to turn the park into a tango show. Really really good dancers started it off, but by the time we came back it was nearly a block wide. People of all tango talents out having a blast as the sun went down.  That's when we knew we had to have more tango. I wish I could say we took classes and learned how, but that would take this white girl a whole month.  We booked a dinner and tango show at the oldest tango house in the city for the next day. Which was awesome! 

I have to say usually when I travel,  with the exception of being roofied and getting a bruising a rib in the Dominican a couple of months ago,  I am very lucky. Things just come together perfectly and magical events fall out of the sky & into our lap. This trip marks the first where this didn't happen. Quite the opposite.  We booked our first hotel at the airport in houston when we found out we were making our flight. We arrived, and found out that its a hostel (not a problem), except it's freakin gross and the workers, who didn't speak english, tried to put us in the bunk bed room. We put our stuff in our dungeon with a full bed, and got the heck out. Everyone told us we could change money a lot of places on the blue market for a much better exchange rate.  Well, we couldn't find one place to exchange our money, we hadn't slept yet (came in on a redeye and couldn't sleep), & girl wanted coffee.  We finally talked a manager into exchanging it.

 Day 2 we left our dungeon and moved to a studio we booked on airbnb. It was nice! Rooftop view of the city, and a nice little patio. With the apartments there you have a fob card to enter the gate, then a key to open the lobby door, and a key to your apartment. Well day 2 we were walking home after strolling for miles around the city, we follow someone into the main gate, he opens the lobby door, then we get off on our 3rd floor and realize we are in the wrong apartment. The outside and lobby looked almost identical.  Problem here is that with all of the security precautions to get in, it's the same to get out. We literally got locked into the wrong apartment lobby for 45 min until someone came home and opened the gates. 2 blonde Americans literally just standing behind bars getting stared at by the pedestrian traffic.  Day 3. We spend an exhausting yet very interesting day at the Lujan Zoo. This zoo allows people to go into the cages of lions, tigers, lion cubs, elephants, camels, pretty much everything but the bear and monkeys cage. 

All of the animals were very 'sleepy'. It was pretty sad all in all.  So, we get home from the zoo, nap, & get ready for our first weekend dinner. We leave the house at *midnight* to go *eat* because that's what the locals do, when I realize I forgot my phone and turn around to unlock the door. The key literally got stuck in the lock. Wouldn't budge. So, we found the buildings maintenance man who had to go through the neighbors place, to hop balconies to open to door. He had to unscrew the entire handle and put it back on. We lock up and head on our merry way again and realize that he put the handle on upside down. yup, had to scale our neighbors balcony all over again. 

The last major incident caused us to cut the trip a day short... the flights were oversold with multiple people on standby ahead of us... for a week solid. Which is our own fault for picking a city with only one flight a day on one airline. But, i really wanted to 'experience' Buenos Aires. Honestly, the entire trip was challenging. We put it together as we went without speaking the language. Thank goodness Shenna can speak muy poquito.

So, as I write this I am about 30 min from touchdown in Houston via Frankfurt, Germany. Yes, we had to fly 13 hours on a redeye to Frankfurt. Then we rushed to catch an 11 hr flight to Houston. Now I am hoping to run through customs to narrowly make a flight to Dallas and sleep in my own bed.  I have slept mayyyyybe 1.5 hrs in the last 30 hrs of flying, and I'm still in the same clothes. But, somewhere in there I'm really thankful for this experience, I always appreciate an adventure :).

I nearly lost my right eyeball once... No, seriously.

I just realized that the story to come is my one and only trip to the ER.

It happened around 2 am one morning years and years ago.  I was in highschool, Junior year I believe.  At that age, I thought it was super romantic to lay under the stars with my crush. (who am I kidding, I still think looking at the stars is romantic). 

It wasn't just me and my crush though, it was me and my best friends, Catie and Suzanne, and their crushes too.  So, here we all are.... laying under the stars on a blanket in the backyard. Obviously, we weren't supposed to have boys over at 2 am which presented a dilemma later on.  But it was very PG... just 6 little lovebirds star gazing.  Until, my eyeball started to itch.

Just my right eyeball. I didn't want to ruin the moment, so I just kept scratching it and not making a big deal when It felt ummmm, funny.  Finally, I could feel my eyeball actually swelling. Like no longer fitting in my eyelid comfortably, swelling. I asked my cutie patootie to shine his cell phone in my eye to see if he could find something in it.  I really wasn't asking for a kiss or anything... I was legit getting freaked out.  He couldn't see anything, and after another few minutes we decided we had better go inside and investigate.

Now, I'm not in the medical profession, but to this day I find what happened hard to believe. I've never heard of it happening to anyone else, ever.  By this time, the white of my right eyeball was swollen.  Big time swollen.  The look on my boo's face was enough to make me realize it was in fact, not normal.  So, we interrupted the romance and called everyone in.  Catie made the executive decision to fess up to having boys over and wake up her mom.  She freaked out when she saw me too...  The scary part was that after eye drops, and whatever else we tried, the white of my eye continued to swell.  It got so big that I could actually SEE the white part of my freaking eyeball with that same eyes pupil and It was getting to where I couldn't really close my eyelid.  So I called my mother at 2 am and told her that I was going to the ER before my eyeball exploded and she met us at the hospital.

A shot in the ass of benedryl or something, and it immediately went down to normal size.  I must have had a piece of grass or something I was allergic to in my eye. Then mom drove us to Krystals, and we were home by 4 am. 

I do have an appreciation for pirates, but I am glad I don't have to wear an eye patch for the rest of my life.  Appppppparently, your eyeball can actually burst and you can go blind, and mine would have if I hadn't gone to the ER when I did. That is per the ER Doctor.  Medical field friends, feel free to chime in.  I would love to hear if this has happened to anyone else, or if once again, it's one of those things that ONLY happens to me. 

Now tell me that's not the most random thing you've heard all day...

My First Pedicure. Yikes.

This is an old story, but it's my mothers favorite... So I figured its good enough to be shared. No kidding- 7 years later, she still asks me to tell it to people occasionally.


I would guess there are maybe like 5 places in my hometown in TN who even offer manicures/pedicures, so it really wasn't any big deal to me that I'd never had a pedicure when I got to college. I knew it was a form of pampering though. So when basketball season ended my freshman year, my roommate and I decided that after all the blisters, ingrown toenails, & calacysts, (TMI?) we sure deserved a pedicure. And sure needed one too.

Ok so...  get the picture -never had a pedicure before, broke college kids... In a new city... Without anyone to recommend a nail salon. Too young to even think to ask someone to recommend a salon.

We got out the phone book. Oh yea, it was back in the day when phone books were still used, and looked up beauty schools. Smart us, we found the most frugal way to pamper ourselves possible. We didn't have anything to compare it to though, so we didn't care. Score, there was a career beauty college nearby!

We head out one saturday, pull up, and realize it was in fact a bit ghetto (Chattanooga people- it was in a strip mall in east brainard). We walked in and were immediately caught off guard by staring hair stylists and customers. I would imagine they didn't have white girls in there very often... We were def the only ones that day... And not to brag, but we make an entrance anywhere we go. I'm 6' tall, and my roommate 6'4. One of the stylists asked what we would like done, when we said a pedicure, she literally screamed for someone who emerged from some back room. He lead us through the salon, past the wig area, and into a space best described as a closet/work space. He then unfolds a metal chair, puts his utensils out on the table, bring a tub of NYC (99 cent a bottle) crusty nail polish for us to pick out a color... tells us very excitedly that we are his first ever pedicures, and then leaves to get the 'jacuzzi tub.'


Yea. My roommate and I look at each other and immediately start discussing how the hell we were going to get out of the barber shop without letting some dude rub and file our feet. She is sending out txts to people to try and get them to call with an emergency when he comes back in with a plug in the wall $20 foot jacuzzi tub that they sell at Walmart.


I was in the chair, and panicked to figure out how to get out of this horrific situation that was unfolding.

I did the only thing I could think of. 'Sir, how much is this?'

 He responded with something super cheap I'm sure. I can't remember now... Probably like $20 each. I then lied and told him, 'oh no, we were told they were only $5 here...'(Keep in mind -i had no idea pedicures are normally $5 a toe) 'We don't have enough money and will have to come back.' It was the only thing I could come up with that sounded halfway realistic or so I thought. This guy was so excited I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

It was like a domino effect. He was all, 'WHHAT?! Someone told you a pedicure was $5?! Who told you a pedicure was $5?! $5 pedicure... That's crazy. Etc etc etc... '

'HEY Y'ALL, SOMEONE TOLD DEZ GIRLS DA PEDICURE WAS $5!!!'

That was it. As we were exiting the broom closet at the back, walking past the wigs, and into the loooooong room of the chairs and hair dryers full of stylists and customers... The barber shop erupted into fits of 'ohhhh nooooo they didn't' 'girls who told you a pedicure was $5?' 'Ha a $5 pedicure... I can't believe that, can you believe that?' On and on and on and on.

I was mortified. After what seemed like 5 min of making excuses, trying not to turn bright red, and holding myself back from running to the exit.... We finally made out way to the door promising to come back with enough money.

Obviously we never returned to the foot bath, metal fold out chair, broom closet, and 3 year old nail polish to let that poor barber do his first beauty college pedicure.
Instead, we went to a nail place where I couldn't understand the Chinese lady and ended up with flowers painted on my big toes.

My first 'professional' pedicure was my only professional pedicure for a long while... I'm sure you understand why.

Online Dating & A Cross-Country Plane Ticket

It's hard to draw the line between being romantic and just being dumb.

I have a story about being dumb. It involves online dating, a plane ticket, & false advertising.

Let me preface this story with a short story. The only time I have flown anywhere to spend a weekend with a boy, 1. We had met 2 1/2 years earlier. 2. I was moving to FL, only 2 hours away from him & 3. We had been talking for years, had met up in Orlando once, and had discussed a relationship.

 So, I thought I was being romantic by visiting him for a weekend. After all, he had been offering to pay for half my ticket for a year or so & there was definite potential with him. This guy was physically like my dream man... Surfer boy, 6'6 with blond hair, a college wide receiver with washboard abs& a strong jawline. So I really shouldn't have been surprised by what happened, but unfortunately i was. This is getting pretty personal, but when I didn't sleep with him the first day, literally the first few hours of the first day, he was visibly not very happy. He was still nice and even took me on a sweet moonlit walk holding hands on the beach the 2nd night, but didn't touch me again and I never heard from him again after I landed back in TN. He even defriended me on Facebook. Not that i would have wanted to pursue something serious with him after that, but really?! After years of making effort to keep up with each other, & all the talk on his part about 'us' and the 'what ifs', that's what it boiled down to.  How romantic, right?  I was dumb, but now I know. Additionally, I dont think the length of time you take to get to know someone will make a difference when it actually comes down to making a relationship happen anymore...

So,
That brings me to my more recent cross country errr 'relationship.'

I have a girlfriend on match.com. I went with her on a date for moral support, & her date brought friends too. Um, her date was super attractive, had a great career, and a really nice guy. The total package. Obviously, I joined match.com the next week. Well, that experience deserves another blog post all of its own... & not necessarily a bad one mind you. But, I got quite a few random emails, a couple of good ones, plenty from older creepers, and then one day... I had an email from a girl.  Missed red flag #1.

I played women's basketball... Lesbians don't scare me. But, this was weird. So I opened it and it said, yada yada yada, 'I have a guy friend who is moving to Miami for his job, & he was looking through my profile, came across yours, & is totally smitten. He played professional baseball, is 32, 6', has a good career, & is a great guy. Can I set you guys up?'

Duh, I like tall athletic men with great careers who have normal seeming friends who try and help them out. So, I give her my email address to give him. A couple of days later I get a cute little email from my 'from match, but not really from match' guy

what ever happened to old fashion dating? haha - I hope my friend

Jamie had good things to say about me on match? haha

- Sometimes though a little help is needed. My name is Sammy

(*picture removed per Sammy's request -he found my blog?)

 Despite being a mirror pic, I thought he was cute. His emails were witty and made me laugh... So after we exchanged a few, he asked for my # & I passed it along. We had also became Facebook friends, and despite the fact that every picture of him was posted by him  (he can't be tagged by others), I still thought he was attractive. Red flag missed #2.

So, we exchange texts and he kept mentioning how he can't wait to meet me, etc etc. I would just say, well I'm sure ill have a layover in LA soon (He lives in LA). After a couple of months of texts every few days or so... I still hadn't had a layover. He becomes a little more forward and asked if it would be ok if he flies out to meet me, that 'he doesn't want one of the online dudes to sweep me off my feet before he gets a chance to.' How can a girl say no to that, haha... I told him if he wanted to book a flight, and a hotel for at least the first night, then he could fly down... Sure. I was pretty flattered, & even a little excited to meet this guy. A couple of days later he told me he booked his flight. We talked on the phone, he seemed normal, his Facebook pictures were fun, his texts cute and witty. The only part I was kinda confused over was how he kept talking about having a fiesta, (missed red flag #3), like multiple times he mentioned it. I totally didn't get it, and one time he casually mentioned he was Mexican. Ok whatever, a 6' athletic super cute Mexican. I'm not racist, I was just confused mainly because he didn't look Mexican at all & he kept talking about props for a fiesta theme party.

Seriously... he text me this pic among others of fiesta props?

 He even forewarned me that he just knew we were going to hit it  off bc he had stalked me on facebook,and liked what he saw. Missed red flag #4.  He also asked if I would be ready for a relationship if he fell hard for me. So all this time I'm very leery, but kinda excited about the possibility of romance.

Let me just cut to the chase. He last min came in a day early to visit his company's office in Miami, so by the time he drove to Fort Lauderdale to meet me the next day, I was on the beach with 2 girlfriends. Thank God. This man walks up and I know I was whispering under my breath, 'that's not him... There is no way that's him.' My 6' ex pro baseball player walked very feminine and well, he was Mexican. I'm not racist at all. But, he absolutely did not look the same in person compared to ANY of his pictures... Bright Red & unable to miss FLAGS 5-8. But, whatever... He was there, & I was still going to give it a shot. Until he opened his mouth. He talked super, I mean super feminine. Or maybe it was what he was saying that left that impression. He volunteered that he 'woke up at his hotel and did sunrise yoga, then had a spa day with a mud bath.' My 2 girlfriends who met him swear they think he was gay.


The flag was then thrown. I am gonna go ahead and put this in writing. I will never date a man who wakes up and does sunrise yoga followed by a spa day and mud bath all by himself. I like a manly man. Period.

Yes I am a bitch and I took a candid of him.

(*picture removed per Sammy's request -he found my blog?

And that's when I knew it was over before it began. I entertained him though and we were nice, but when he asked about booking the boat tour we had discussed and a couple of other things, I just told him we would figure it out. And I reiterated the fact that he was a stranger essentially and I still wasn't sure I was comfortable with him staying at my house when he asked about crashing on my couch again. Generally speaking, i found him weird, and my friends were already coming up with excuses for me to get rid of him before i even asked. So, he left the beach and had to drive back to Miami for dinner with people from his office there. I sent a text and told him that I thought it was rude to have such misleading pictures, he couldn't stay at my house because I could picture waking up to him staring at me in the middle of the night, and that I really questioned if he liked men.

Jk. ;)  I apologized for possibly ruining his weekend, told him that it was nice to meet him, but that it really just wasn't there for me. I never heard another word from him. I took a chance, but it certainly didn't result in romance of any sort. I really am fairly convinced that if I would have let him stay at my house I may have woken up with him watching me sleep or something.  He was not just 'LA guy' different, he was weird.

A few days later,  that girlfriend that's on match who also happened to have met Sam, called me to tell me that she thought he had 'liked' one of her pictures on there. Apparently HE was on there too?! The more I thought about the entire situation, the more irritated it made me. For multiple reasons...

1. I later realized he wore sunglasses in most of his photos and if he didn't, it was edited. Fact... This is false advertising, & for a good reason.

2. He did not, in fact, technically play major league baseball, he played AA baseball. Close, but not quite... and not that it matters really, but it's again false advertising. He said he had played for Tampa Bay.

3. The fact that he was going to use me to stay for free while he met potential coworkers/explored his potential new city with me as a chauffeur .

4. The simple fact that I almost wasted a very rare weekend off in town entertaining him, well and that I missed/ignored 1297 red flags.

5. Let me be egotistical for a minute. The fact that he thought he had a chance.

6. Maybe the biggest reason.... he had a spa day... By himself. And bragged to 3 girls about it. Then has to tell us, umm I'm not gay. Fact: I will never date a gay that goes to the spa more than me. Or half as much as me. Or ever, without me?

7.  He was on match.com? Maybe after he had his friend email me, but the fact is... it's questionable.

8. The fact that once again, I was trying to entertain a romantic thought, & ended up just being dumb. BUT, you never know until you try! One of these days I wont be writing a funny blog about a bad experience.

By the way. I cancelled my match.com subscription last week.

The Happiest Place on Earth... Costa Rica

I am sure everyone has one trip that comes to mind when asked about your best vacation ever, or favorite place you have ever been.

Well, in my line of work that question comes up basically daily.

That leads to this post... I meant to write about my trip when I first returned, but things happens and somehow I never got around to it. I think it'll be even better now though. After going on multiple other trips to awesome places, I realize just how magical my Costa Rica trip was. I don't know if I could ever portray how alive I felt on this trip, or the awe that us 5 girls continually had....  but I'm thinking playing it out like a picture book might be my best try at it.


It's funny, because as the trip and itinerary planner, I have been asked how I picked Montezuma, Costa Rica to visit. I don't have an answer...  As with everything flight attendants do, it came together last minute... within like 2 weeks. I didn't even know where to start searching, and just googled where in costs rica had 3 things: waterfalls, zip lining, and beach.  Montezuma came up quite a few times so I started looking into it.  Found a few lodges, B & B's, many hostels, and 1 resort.  I booked a hotel/lodge at Amor de Mar, and they helped book transportation from San Jose which is a few hours away.



We took off on the adventure with 4 girls... which ended up being 5 when Samantha made a surprise appearance in San Jose.  Most of us didn't know at least 1 or 2 of the others in the group, but we quickly established friendships.   I wont bore you with every detail of the trip, but do want to skim the experiences that we had.

We had quite a few adventures...

-walking up interstate off ramps in downtown San Jose... 

-Samantha's 2 am arm numbing spider bite scare, when we realized we literally were in the middle of no where, and no Doctor could make it to see her within like 2 hours.

-Catching the public bus back to San Jose ( a 6 hour trip, ferry transfer included) not knowing any Spanish or where the heck we were until we pulled up to the airport, & by the grace of God were awake and watching. 

-Corals accidental nudist moment on the rope swing in front of the zip line crew,

-our much anticipated run in with the monkeys on a walk home... who ended up throwing mangoes at us. No seriously, monkeys in the wild = rude. 

- picking wild bananas in Costa Rica was an epic fail, as they are sticky as hell and taste really bad (thank you Shenna for taking one for the team and trying it first).

-Zip lining through the rainforest and over the Montezuma waterfalls... and a stop to cool off in the falls...



The TOP of the jungle, overlooking the Gulf of Nicoya coastline

-Of course we did the longest line upside down...  It was unbelievable! Apparently I missed the instructions that you are supposed to raise up before you get to the platform though. Luckily the platform is farther from the line than I was tall.

                         

-The ride through San Jose traffic and then the ferry ride/booze cruise. We may be the only people to have packed mimosas just for the 1.5 hr ferry ride to the peninsula, but we had a great time...

-The hotel itself deserves a few words.  It was unbelievably beautiful and quaint, and authentic, and organic, and has so much personality. We got to know the employees, made friends with other guests, and thoroughly enjoyed the organic breakfast and smoothies every morning.

Picture it with me...  All of these views, from dozens of hammocks thrown up in the back of the hotel.  If that isn't convincing enough,  there is a natural tide pool we swam in everyday that is heated by the sun during the day.  Still not convinced? The waterfalls trickle into the stream beside the hotel, and I swear laying in it and letting the cool water go by and then exfoliating with the tiny rocks was more relaxing that any spa visit I've had.

-Ok, enough with the relaxation talk for now.  I feel like it is time to introduce Chicos bar.  You must understand that this is a one dirt road town...

....and everything can be reached by foot.  Obviously that means there isn't much to the town... a few little restaurant that I wont even mention because that's another blog post entirely.  The food was to die for, prices unbelievably cheap, and both places we went to for dinner were located on the beach... literally, candle lit and toes in the sand.  But, back on track... there are a couple of tour guide places, one convenience store, and Chicos.  The only bar in town. 

How she kept up with those coffee beans all night, I'll never know...

 If the locals were not aware that there were Flight attendants from FL in town... The next day they were.  By then we had an invitation passed along through another hotel guest for surf lessons, and the bar knew exactly what to pour us when we arrived the next night.  Which brings me to...

REGGAE NIGHT. 

Every Thursday night...  reggae night at Chicos start is signaled by the fire dancers.  A few glasses of wine in, and we were in complete awe.  Coral even tried to learn...

 



-We made so many friends that night.  And really discovered that people lived in little Montezuma from literally all over the world.  I give most of this credit to Shenna, for being a dancing social butterfly and pulling anyone and everyone watching us have the time of our life out on the dance floor too.

-At Chicos we realized that we needed to track down this surf instructor who wanted to give us lessons.  Shenna went to the bartender to ask if he knew Mauricio, and he pointed 2 stools down and said sure do, that's him.  Score.  A dance partner, and surf lessons set up for the AM.

-The next morning was not pretty. By the time we woke up, we had maybe 30 min to pack up, eat breakfast, check out, and head out for surf lessons.  30 minutes is not long enough to cure a tequila hangover.  Another thing that sure doesn't help... an unexpected 45 minute walk/hike to the beach we would learn to surf at.

to

 

We walked through light and grainy sand beaches...







To trails through the middle of the jungle...


              to beaches where you sink a foot into the dark sand...

   

 To beaches of multi-colored smooth rocks and a reddish sand... 



















Up mountainsides of jagged rocks... barefoot


Straight to a beach of driftwood, or one of completely unbroken seashells. 

-We walked... and walked... and walked it seemed.  Please keep in mind.  Tequila, early morning, exhausting trip, plus a very hot sun beating down on you...   And yet, it was one of the most unique things I've ever experienced.  Just the miserable walk alone... I've never seen such variety of side by side beaches, different just from weaving in and out of the jungle.

-Finnnnalllly we make it to the beach shack that holds the surf boards...   Surfs up dude.  Almost.  I will admit,  after watching all the other girls pop up on most of their first try... I was pretty convinced that as a D1 athlete, I was going to do the exact same thing.

Surfing is much harder than they made it look.   I think I drank maybe 3x more saltwater, and was by far the least graceful one.... but dang it, I got up and rode a couple of waves before I retired.

Then we hustled back to the hotel, threw on clothes, and ran to the bus stop to catch our red-eye home.  

A phrase widely used there, that as a TN girl I was completely new to: 

Pura Vida (POO-rah VEE-dah), used by Costa Ricans since 1956, literally translated means “Pure Life.” Contextually, it means “Full of Life” “Purified life”, “This is living!”, “Going great!” It is used as a greeting, a farewell, and to express satisfaction. The phrase has become widely known in the USA and Europe. Some foreigners view the phrase as an expression of a leisurely lifestyle, of disregard for time and wanton friendliness. However, Costa Ricans use the phrase to express a philosophy of strong community, perseverance, good spirits, enjoying life slowly, celebrating good fortune, whether small or large.”



I have to say, I totally get it now... OK, maybe not totally... but I don't think the beautiful woman walking down the street with half her head shaved, (that turned out to be our Argentinian waitress), is crazy in the slightest for visiting Montezuma and just never going home.  Or Lucas, our waiter the second night... or probably 25% of the people we met.  They came for vacation and never left.  It's tempting.   No worries... no hustle at the work place... no honking horns of impatient people.  No stress about owning, well... anything. Material items probably mean that you get judged... not the other way around.  Simple.  Back to the basics.  Enjoying life and what mother nature put in front of you, and surrounding yourself with like-minded people.  I wish we had had more time to just lay in the hammocks and read a book, or get to talk to the staff or locals more,  but as you can tell...  We crammed about as many experiences as we could into 2 days.  I made some best friends that trip as well, girls I have no doubt will be in my life forever.  I would guess, a vacation like this wouldn't be appreciated by everyone.

Still, part of me wanted to keep this secret gem to myself.  I'm sure there are locations like this all over the world... and while I can't wait to find more,  Montezuma will always be special to me.  It was the first place I really felt part of a much bigger world that I truly am clueless about.  Sometimes North Americans are egotistical in thinking we are 'the best country'...  and well, the locals didn't like us too much until they got to know us.  They certainly didn't appreciate us saying we were Americans, as they are too...  just central American.  I didn't get it until that visit.   But, with my eyes a little more open now, and after visiting 'The happiest country in the world', I can't wait to venture to the next remote corner of the globe.... or I would be just fine going back to Montezuma.

If.... you want to go:

http://www.amordemar.com/  -I can promise they will remember the flight attendant girls...

http://www.montezumaexpeditions.com/

http://www.hightidesurfschool.webgarden.com/   -We were later informed Mauricio is widely known as the best instructor on the pacific side...