A Lesson on What Not To Wear When You Have Thighs Of Thunder; Costa Rica Day 1

Sitting in our shuttle van with our new friend, Jaco, or maybe Chaco or some variation that we couldn't quite grasp and we even asked him his name several times, we made our way to our condo.
We rolled through lush green landscapes and farmland full of cute little cows and chickens everywhere. We asked him about the main exports and what life was like in the Guanacoste region. Unbeknownst to us, we were visiting in the down season. We were aware that it was the beginning of the rainy season but really had no idea what we were in store for.
Thank Goodness we had our driver because the directions we had gotten for our place of residence were sparse, at the very best.
We made it to the general region, after he showed us around Coco for a bit, and I  called the condo management place. After what seemed like forever on the phone and rapid spanish that I could only pick up a few words of, we made our way into a little courtyard area. We shyly went into the management office and our driver took the lead, he told Carolina that we needed the key and after a few moments of debate, she finally relented.
We were in!
We piled back in the van and went about a block down the road to our castle for the next week.
We bid the sexiest van driver ever adieu and battled with the key until finally we entered.
After what seemed like days of travel and me being unnecessarily wound up about said travel, we could finally relax into vacay mode.
Well, first we realized that we had no power.
We briefly panicked and then realized that if no one was here, they probably had it off.
One of the boys manned up and found the power box, threw the switch into 2017 mode and we were officially on vacation in Costa Rica with our best friends!

We unpacked, and by that I mean, threw our belongings into our respective areas of the house. Charlie and I had the biggest room, I'm not really sure why that worked out that way or why it was assumed that we take the bigger room with the big bed, but damn, it worked out fine with me.
I changed immediately into a cute sundress and Charlie and I soon discovered that we had a mommy dove laying on an egg right outside of our balcony, on our A/C unit!
We both squeeled with delight and tried to get as close as we could without getting so close that she would ruffle her feathers.
We loved her, she would grow to hate us.
We eventually all freshened up and descended upon town. It was about half a mile walk there on the beach and it was dusk and absolutely beautiful. The waking up at 1, the long day of travel and the confusion getting to the condo was all worth the beach. As a PNW girl, a sandy beach is a very welcome sight and along with the clear skies; I was pretty much in heaven. I doddled around behind everyone and was beside myself with gratitude. As a parent, leaving your children is hard and then having to write a letter that says "If I die, my children will go with these people. Please dont separate them and please love them as much as we do." is completely horrifying. However, just this little glimpse into another way of life was affirmation enough for me that it's ok to leave them, it's ok to live my life and let them know that I love them but I also need to do things for myself. This beach, this ocean, this view, was enough to tell me that I'm setting a good example by doing what I love.

More things I love are chicken shwarma. Also, beer. The first little place we went to had warm, thick flour tortillas stuffed with various meats. I had chicken shwarma and a shrimp tortilla thing. She didn't serve alcohol but was more than ok with us grabbing a beer from the bar we butted up against. We drank up our beers and were attacked by bugs of various stature. Whilst we waited this kid, roughly 13, walked up behind us with a fistful of palm leaves and just kind of hovered for a bit, which was awkward. Not knowing what to do,we just continued talking and kind of hoped he would go away or say whatever he needed to say. He continued to hover. We continued talking. Finally after what felt like ages of awkward hovering, he came over the few steps to our table and produced 3 palm leaves that he had origamid into flower shapes. "Pretty Cool!" was my immediate thought and
 then, "Damn, I just got pinned into buying a share in this kids tourist trap scheme!"

I fished around in my purse, but had no idea what the conversion rate was and I had colones and american money. I decided I'd go with the US dollar because I knew how much a dollar was worth, I didnt want to accidentally give the kid a 50 in colones.
I handed over the dollar and he seemed incredibly disapointed. Someone asked him if it was enough and he boldly stated "No. Not enough."
To which I boldly stated "Thats all I have."
He wandered off looking irritated.

Whatever.
I didnt ask for this flower!
We eventually got our meal and let me tell you, it was glorious.
The chicken was perfect and the tortilla was soft and buttery. We were all so hungry I think she could have fried a shoe and we would have gladly eaten it. We fumbled around with our colones and I ended up just giving Charlie all of the money and forced him to handle it. I was on vacation. Vacation doesn't involve messy conversion rates.
We walked around a bit and were totally sopping wet with sweat. My sweat moustache made an appearance and didn't take his leave of me until we were on the plane back to Seattle.
It was a welcome friend for my upper lip, it meant 'vacation'.

We walked up to the grocery store our driver told us about when we entered Coco, we wanted to load up on snacks, various cheap groceries and the ever important, alcohol. At this point it was pitch black outside, although it was barely 5:00 and starting to thunder and lightning. We messed around in the store for a bit, grabbed some things we recognized and a few things we definitely did not and watched with trepidation as the bagger put everything, including our rack of beer into a big box for us. I tried to ask for several bags so we could all help carry the load the couple miles home, the kid didn't even acknowledge that I was speaking to him, probably not out of rudeness but the fact that I wasnt speaking his language. We all shrugged and took turns carrying this elephant weighted box home. It was thunder and lighting, pitch black, we're all travel worn and drenched in sweat and carrying a huge box that will soon collapse into itself like a black hole, the walk went on forever. I swear, we walked 10 miles. Then my thighs started chafing. Not just like typical chafage, like bloody legs, someone call 911 chafage.
During the home stretch to the condo I said fuck it, and started crab walking to avoid the thunder thighs issue, also at this time my hands started to swell up, so I threw my big, sweaty sausage hands into the air so the blood could circulate back down.
I was clearly a tourist.
The pool never looked so good. We ran inside, deposited our loot, grabbed some beer and jumped in, in our undies just as it was starting to down pour.
All in all, it was a beautiful first day, full of life lessons, (its ok to be a parent and live your life/dont wear a dress when you know your thighs of thunder will rub together),

food and my favorite people.

Cheers.