Mystifying Journey

                                          Wild Ride

         "The journey of a lifetime begins with one step."

Lord have mercy, y'all! I am finally here, in Costa Rica on the Pacific in a little tropical village called Esterillos Oeste. It took three grueling days of canceled flights, middle of the night awakenings, and travel on unmarked highways to make it. I am sitting on a patio about a hundred feet from a pounding surf listening to roosters crowing the morning awake, and parrots fussing at one another in the coconut palms.

I traveled with three female companions who started out genial and excited, but by the time we arrived were snapping and sniping at one another like mad dogs. It was not pretty. One of them resorted to drinking duty-free scotch straight from the bottle--a very Southern way of stress management. Thankfully, she was not behind the wheel. She's from Mobile, and everybody knows those folks are a little wilder (and more resourceful) than the rest of us.

Bottom line is, I'm here and after I have about a pot of coffee, I think I will enjoy myself. I do find the unstructured lifestyle appealing for a few days, and then I begin to invent work to do. We've been told by the owners of this home that we have to get on "Tico" time if we don't want to be miserable for the duration, and that means laid-back, stripped down, and easy going.

The surf is wild and free, and sets the bar high for the rest of this environment. Those birds I mentioned are greener than grass and the chickens here give a whole new meaning to "free range." I think I'm going to let them lull me back to sanity. I hope all is well with your and that your soul is satisfied today, too.

                                      In the Spirit,
                                            Jane