The Costa Rican Adventure - Volume 21 - Observations - Becoming A Digital Nomad
It has been almost two months now since I decided to sell everything I own and move to Costa Rica with just two suitcases. It was quite liberating actually. Mostly because I learned to appreciate living with next to nothing, just the necessities I guess you could say. And when I write this, I understand that not everyone can just sell everything they own, pack up and move to another country. The circumstances in my life just happened to be ideal for such a move and I felt that it was worth the risk and opportunity. So far, so good.
I have found at this point in my life, that routine and structure are the two best ingredients for keeping things simple and predictable. When they say "pura vida" here it means "simple life" and that is exactly what I am trying to maintain. We have all experienced our share of stressful years and events in our lives and it's a cathartic feeling when you can finally start to see some light of peace in your life. For me it goes back to what I talked about in some earlier blogs relating to age and stage. Every age and stage has a different set of experiences, good and bad that either allow us to find that semblance of peace in our lives, or experience more of the obstacles and lessons that are going to help us to get there in later months or years. I don't want to talk about regrets, because all of my experiences in fifty-two years have made me the person I am. But I would say that one of my most sincere hopes is that I can help people in my life and those that I meet to reach that stage of peace and happiness much sooner than I did. Life is meant to be enjoyed and it truly is a lot easier than I think we all make it out to be. Nuff said. :)
I mentioned in the title about becoming a digital nomad. A lot of people ask me what I am doing now and the simplest answer is that I am now a full-time writer. If I had to elaborate more I am now what is considered a digital nomad. It is a steadily increasing field with the effects of the pandemic being that many people are choosing not to return to their places of employment and are instead working from home or anywhere in the world for that matter. The simple definition of a digital nomad is that it is a person who is location-independent and uses technology to perform their job living a nomadic lifestyle. Essentially you need a computer and a good wifi connection and you're all set. My ending up in Costa Rica was the product of another story which you can read about in an earlier blog. I'm happy here and it seems to be a very good fit for me right now.
The last two months have been a lot of fun and full of many new experiences, routines and observations. I've fallen into a pretty regular routine, which as I mentioned before offers just the right amount of simplicity, predictability and structure. Every day I will get up early and go for a 3.5 mile (5.6 kilometer) walk into La Fortuna. I live on the edge of town, which is still considered La Fortuna, but it is about a mile or so into the heart of town. I walk seven days a week. Very proud that I haven't missed a day since I've been back. The fun part is that I am meeting a lot of new people along the way. I started out waving every morning to the regulars that I would see and pass by on my route. Anyone from restaurant cleaners, tour guide reps, store owners, restaurant cooks, street vendors, park sitters, school security guards, property security guards to the other regulars on a walk or on their way to work for the day. Slowly but surely it was fun to stop and introduce myself in my ever-growing Spanglish. People are super nice and are very understanding when it comes to the language barrier. Those who know Spanish are very helpful and patient and those who know as little English as I know Spanish will do their best to communicate through our Spanglish and hand gestures. I've made some good friends and it's nice to have the familiarity of friendly faces in the places you go. My parents were always the friendly, over the fence neighbors and that is a trait I have always loved no matter where I have lived.
I've extended those new friendships and relationships into an afternoon and evening routine too. Three days out of the week I will do a working lunch. I found a few restaurants that I really like and I will take my computer, eat lunch and write/work for another four or five hours. I've been fortunate to meet some really nice people in the restaurant business as well and they take very good care of me, as I try to do for them. Every once in a while they will pile on a handful more of papas (French fries) or slip me an extra pop (soda, Coca-Cola). The wifi is perfect for writing and internet, I can do some people watching for future characters in my screenplays and stories and I get a healthy, delicious meal. The rest of the days I have a comfortable, little desk set up in my efficiency/Airbnb and settle in there for five or six hours. Two nights a week I am the number two fan (behind his girlfriend Mary) of my very good friend, Jimmy Loop. Jimmy is an extremely talented performer and very well known in La Fortuna and the surrounding cities in Costa Rica. He plays at two open-air restaurants in La Fortuna. I bring my computer, sit in the back and write to some good Latin American music (and eat and drink a little too). And that has been my routine for the last two months.
I also mentioned some experiences and observations that have come along in the last couple of months as well. This will be random, but interesting nonetheless (I hope). In my walks I have come across several unique animals. One was a venomous, Central American Coral Snake who slithered across the dirt road several feet (safely) in front of me. This snake is similar to the North American Coral Snake and I was taught a saying that helps you to remember the difference. Both have black, yellow and red colors, so the saying goes, 'red touches yellow - kill a fellow' and 'red touches black - safe for Jack'. Either way, I loath snakes so there is never a problem for me to keep away from them. Another animal that made me mess my pants (not actually, but could have) was an armadillo. I was walking to the local grocery store down a darker, dirt road one night and it shot out of the bushes right in front of me. I apologized emphatically (lo siento, lo siento - I'm sorry, I'm sorry) to the neighbors after screaming out, "wholly shit" about as loud as I could. The last creatures I come across daily are the little ground dragons as I like to call them. They are ground lizards, of which there are about 600 iguanid species, so I'm not exactly sure what they are. But I walk along several sidewalks that are surrounded by tall grass and they just zip right in front of you every day. A little startling, but you get used to it after a while.
Another interesting creature I have hanging around me, on my apartment and often in my apartment are the little, transparent-like geckos. They make a loud bird-like chirp to call to each other and they devour an amazing amount of mosquitos and cockroaches. And believe me, I have experienced some world-record cockroaches in just about every place I have stayed in Costa Rica, so I am a big fan of the cute, little gray lizards. Although I have to say, I wish they would be just as hungry for the sugar ants as they were for the mosquitos and cockroaches. The sugar ant is an anomaly I still have yet to conquer and figure out. They are this tiny, tiny little ants that will find the most minute, most obscure pieces of food and sugar that you could possibly imagine. A drip of juice, a crumb, a tiny morsel of food, it doesn't matter. They find it and tell every last relative on the ant ancestory.com website. Pretty amazing actually. So I've gone through a couple cans of insect repellent and I'm sure there are more to come. I guess the upside is that I have become even more meticulous about cleaning and keeping things in good order as I was before.
One other observation that is unavoidable is the rain I have experienced here. I did live in Shelton, Washington for a year of my life and had experienced consistent rain, but that was quite a bit different. That was consistent overcast skies with a light tinkly rain. In Costa Rica (and we are in our winter and rainy season right now), it rains every day. However, what you experience is a consistent pattern much different than what I described from Washington. Here you have beautiful, mostly sunny skies for the first half of the day, then in the afternoon storm clouds will roll in and you get dumped on. And when I say dumped on...I literally mean dumped on. It is a downpour and torrential rain like nothing I have ever seen before. But honestly, it is very peaceful and therapeutic in its own way. It has a calming affect and is actually pretty neat to watch. If I had one caveat it would be that I could do without the lightning that is produced by these storms. Oh my gosh. I had a horrible storm experience with friends on a Wisconsin River, canoeing trip one year and I don't think I ever recovered from that. Needless to say I am still a little jumpy at any lightning. It's a minor detail that can obviously be overlooked from all the beauty here.
That's about it for now. I'll finish by saying that not a day goes by here that I don't remind myself of everything I am grateful for, how lucky I am to be where I am and all the good people I know and have in my life. If you came to visit and read this, I'm grateful for you too.
Until next time...stay tuned!
