On my next to last night of this Costa Rican odyssey I looked out my window and noticed the stars. The little beach settlement of Playa San Miguel lacks light pollution. The clouds parted for my viewing. Stars I hadn’t seen before hung low in the sky, practically on the horizon. How much is out there that we never consider existing simply because we don’t see it?

It took a tremendous amount of effort to get here though. It was my turn to drive so I had to navigate narrow dirt roads with precipitous cliffs and cross 3 streams in our old rental car which lacked much pickup. Thank God for my adventurous friend Yvonne (who also had her heart in her throat but kept that sentiment to herself). When faced with adversity, it’s best not to complain till you’re on the other side of it.

We were rewarded with a solitary beach, no tourists, warm water, palm trees, unique shells and tide pool marine life. It could have otherwise been my Cannon Beach home.

The last day of driving back to the town of Liberia involved another set of winding narrow but at least paved roads. We stayed overnight with my Amigos de las Americas Costa Rican friend Flor, whom I hosted in Cannon Beach last year. It was nice to finish the trip with a Tica, surrounded by her friends and family eating a home cooked meal in her patio, swinging in a hammock, tasting her fermented nanche drink.

Oh what a land of contrasts, welcoming people, simple cuisine, natural splendor, quiet memories. Time shared with my travel companions and hosts has been indelibly recorded in my soul. I will forget the travel tension and irritation, and laugh about the steep roads, houses with uneven landings to trip over in the middle of the night, not flushing down the toilet paper, the crazy way our Monteverde B & B made our beds with only one sheet, the monkeys that almost came into our cabin, the morning welcome song of tropical birds. These are the reasons we travel— to be jolted out of our comfort zones for brief moments that allow us to see that this too is part of living.