Costa Rica, day two…

 

I am absolutely in love with my new world.

 

Everyone I have met here, from the baggage porters to the driver to the Villas Escondidas owners and visitors, have been wonderful.

 

I checked in after Laurie Barron welcomed me with open arms and a long hug, and spent two hours more or less unpacking what I’ll be using while at this location (and then some!) and organizing my hotel  space.

 

Charli chose the walk-in shower as her first place of refuge while I did that. She didn’t come out until about 8 to explore her new world, but it didn’t take her long to settle in when she finally ventured out.

 

After the briefest break from organizing, I laid down on the bed for what I hoped would be a brief nap, but I couldn’t sleep. So I finally got up and wandered over to register my stay and pay for it. Laurie stashed my extra moolah in her safe so I won’t be carrying stacks of cash wherever I go between now and the time I need to give it up for immigration fees and other needs.

 

I was feeling the humidity some by then so I took a dip in the pool and sat in a chair while I dried off (mostly) and watched four or five turkey buzzards soaring and swooping like crazed acrobats overhead. Amazing sight!

 

After that, I walked down a lovely path to the stream that runs about 100 feet lower than VE. Took some pictures there, which I posted on Facebook yesterday afternoon.

 

After that, I fell well and truly asleep until Laurie knocked on my door and invited me to dinner with her wife Melaney and the other VE guests, all of whom are lovely people. There’s another Northwest Pacific guest here. She’s from Ashland, Oregon.

 

Melaney told us about when night falls here  — 6 p.m. sharp pretty much every day of the year — and said that most people disappear into their sanctuaries about that time to avoid the flying/swarming insects that turn out as soon as night falls.

 

After I helped rinse the dinner dishes, I returned to my room and prepared for bed.  Not long after turning the lights out, a tremendous cloudburst arrived overhead.  The cacophony it elicited was total music to my ears. I love the sound of heavy rain on the roof!  I recorded my first Costa Rica rain symphony and posted it on FB, too.

 

I tried finding a freaking piece of paper to make a shopping list. Do you think I brought a single page of blank paper?  NOPE!  So then I thought I’d make a list on my phone but the app gave me fits since it’s the first time I tried to use it. So I gave that up for the night and fell asleep soon afterward. Charli slept with me on the bed, and is hovering nearby as I type this.

 

I’ve spent this morning trying to figure out how to get MS Office in this laptop since it apparently didn’t transfer over. Finally got that figured out and then had to get a new password for this site so I could write this to you. I put in a password I will remember instead of the ones WP generates…

 

I may visit the feria today with another VE guest. If I do I hope we can stop at an ATM so I can get some colones instead of USD. I’m pretty sure I can. I want to stop at a grocery store and get a few things for the mini fridge in my room, too.  And cat food and cat litter. (Laurie kindly provided some of both in my room prior to our arrival.)

 

And I still have to make a shopping list!

 

Cat food

Cat litter

Peanut butter

Jelly

Bread

Eggs

Protein bars

Prepped food of some sort for fridge…

Batteries

What else?

 

I don’t have a printer here (yet) but I can always logon here from my phone (I think!) and read  the above list!

 

This new way of doing everyday things takes some getting used to, but I am SOOOO up for it!

 

I’m very very happy and not even a tiny bit stressed.  It felt like coming home instead of leaving home, if that makes any sense at all!

 

Charli is still a wee bit anxious — I can only tells because she mews at me a lot more often than is usual and she returns frequently for petting. She’s adapting.  She’s doing okay.

 

But she’s all over the room exploring this morning. There have just been strangers (to her) in here a time or two, which sends her back into the shower stall pronto, so she’s on the lookout for that again this morning. But the anticipation of that potential doesn’t keep her from sitting in the windows and looking out!  She has been doing that a lot as soon as I opened the curtains before dawn this morning to watch the sun rise on my new home!  She’s fascinated by the brand new bird sounds, as I am.

 

More later!  Pix, too!