...of Mice and Men (and Women)

Onto the next chapter of our travels...

We arrived in Costa Rica yesterday at 2pm CST (2 hours behind EST). Our route took us from Toronto to Miami (we've been in Miami's airport 3 times within the last 5 months now) and we flew out of Pearson at 6:15am. Needless to say Robyn and I were both zombies yesterday. Our connection left Miami to San Jose, Costa Rica at 1pm and arrived in Costa at 1:30, the time zones affecting the arrival. A quick shuttle ride (arranged before departure) and we checked into our hostel, to promptly crash and nap for the next three hours.

Today we're meeting up with the rest of our jolly gang for the next few weeks: Ashley, Scott, and Chris. Ashley few into the area today and Scott and Chris have been in country for the better part of the last week. They'll get to the hostel later this evening.

We plan to spend 3 weeks touring Costa, spending the majority of the time on the Western, Pacific, coast, but first we will be heading North to Tortugero for a couple nights. From there we'll head back through central Costa near Monte Verde on our way to Montezuma and other beaches along the coast. We're going to stay as a group for a while but eventually Chris must return to San Jose to fly out and then a few days later Scott and Ash depart also.

Robyn and I will continue on though: although the timing is flexible by design we'll be flying from Costa down to Ecuador to explore the country for a bit. Also of importance off the coast of Ecuador is the Galapagos Islands, which was one of the reasons for our travels. After our time in Ecuador (3 weeks?) we'll go further South to Peru in order to visit Machu Picchu and the rest of the country. We plan to commit to three more weeks or so in Peru, which takes us to our currently-scheduled return date of October 5.

Everything sounds like quite a whirlwind right now, and it will likely end up that way too, but we're very excited about it all and I look forward to sharing as much as I can with everyone.

I'm off to drink a beer now on the patio of our hostel. Things are starting out rough.

Summer Teeth are Smilin'

Having returned to Canada on June 21st and flying today, July 23rd, back down to Costa Rica, Robyn and I spent just over a month at home, and we loved every minute of it. At the time of our return we were excited to see familiar faces, speak our native tongue, eat more-familiar fare, and regain our strength, and we feel that we were able to accomplish all this and then some. While in Guatemala we talked (often) about the various things that we would do within our brief taste of a summer of freedom in Markham, and when we got home we tried to knock as many of the items off the list of to-dos as possible.

Robyn (and her 'I have to take my job home every night so I deserve the summer's off') aside, I have not been able to enjoy any portion of a summer without the unyielding presence of a job since I was 13. At 14 my parents drove me to various golf courses in order for me to start my short-lived career as one of the best cart-boys in the GTA. When I reflect on the things I chose to do with my summer of unappreciated freedom at 13 and compare it with how we spent this past month, I recognize that not a lot has changed. In my first teenage year my family still owned a cottage and I was playing competitive baseball all around the province, and these two activities dominated my summers. It's funny to see that, now given a chance to return to a employment-free lifestyle, I still gravitate to the same two summer pasttimes. But having a driver's licence and access to a vehicle has expanded my range...

During the month at home I was able to:
- Spend three weekends (8 nights total) at friends' cottages (a giant thank-you goes out to the McDonough family and Reid family and Chilvers family for making all that happen)
- Play 4 games of baseball for Da Beers. We went 1-3 but I am comfortable with my contribution
- Play 2 games of 3 on 3 hockey with Robyn's brother Aaron
- Play ball hockey once
- Go for 1 run
- Take numerous saunas
- Walk Robyn's dogs 5 times
- Overthink the items that I should include in this list

Sports and activities aside, Robyn and I also made a point to re-engage as members of the Markham libraries, take long, lazy breakfasts, house/apartment hunt on the Danforth, shop for natural foods and funky clothes at Kensington, and spend time with family and friends.

We were able to celebrate (in chronological order):
- Ryan Steane's annual date-of-birth extravaganza
- The glorious wedding of Lauren and Adam Segal
- Aaron Fluxgold's birthday
- The arrival of my new second-cousin Maella (congrats again Sara and Marlon)
- Robyn's stool sample results returning 'tropical disease free'

Most of all Robyn and I were grateful for the chance to spend time with our family and friends, though, as all of the activities above would mean little without them. Travelling allows us to see and share experiences with each other that we will hold onto for the rest of our lives, but without a great group of people to regale these adventures to they would lose some of their lustre.