Family yoga at 8.00 am overlooking the ocean is my new preferred way to start every day for the rest of forever. This little corner of Costa Rica in Montezuma at the Ylang Ylang Beach Resort, whose address is “500 meters north of the school,” is a garden of awesome. The tropics are so familiar and restorative, reminiscent of Bali, and we all love it.
Our area is next to a pretty cool little beach town, low-cost and low-key, and there’s not too much need to go anywhere. The waves are just the right amount of raucous, although you have to pick your swimming spot with care because of some rocky areas (tomorrow’s activity is surfing). When you can’t be bothered with the surf, the pool is right up the tropical path, where you might spot a pizone on the way—definitely from an inelegant angle up a tree at times. They are so cute, like a cross between a cat, a monkey and an anteater.
Evenings so far are spent at the pavilion for dinner, with an Asian and vegetarian-heavy menu for dinner and “tipico” for breakfast: rice, beans, plantain, papaya, crepes, huevos rancheros and tamarind or passion fruit juice. It’s so nice sitting on the front patio of one of our two bungalows, but mosquitoes join the party for their own happy hour over by the damp trees, so we prefer being under the fans of the pavilion at dusk. We play cards and 20 questions and “would you rather…”?
Last night at happy hour, there was a cracking thunderstorm that knocked out power and water for awhile. It was amazing and humbling to watch and hear. I was grateful to be back in the bungalow at that time, because we had just gotten back from a “41-minute” cum 1h20m drive to the other side of the peninsula. The roads, both dirt and paved, are so full of potholes, fallen branches, and deep ditches that you have to crawl along. The sites are reminiscent of Ghana and Sumatra, with the banana leaves and cement-block schools with rubber-tire playgrounds and the occasional rusting car.
To enter or exit, we have to drive along a portion of beach, littered with woodsy debris and some plastic and one huge half fish to cross the last 150 meters from dirt road to the resort. Sometimes the tide is too high to drive it so we park walk, timing against the roll of the waves.
We will be driving the five hours, including ferry ride, back to the airport, so hopefully no issues! On the way here, Finn, Tatum and I caught a ride on a puddle jumper from San José, and the three of us comprised half the passenger list. The view at 5,000 feet was amazing. I knew I was in another country because when we boarded, at the base of the steps on the tarmac sat an open cooler for us to take for ourselves a morning drink of bottled water or a can of beer.
My personal highlight so far is the family game we played yesterday, designed and judged by Finn. He randomly generated two teams (Mom and Dad v. Tatum and Clara) to be the first to achieve the following:
1. At the beach rock temple garden by the waterfall, build a tower of nine rocks.
2. Swim in the pool for 3 minutes.
3. Run to the hammock and perform a team dance to the 3-minute Moana song.
4. Take photos of two different colored lizards.
5. Loudly shout “froggy beans” three times in a public space.
6. Fist bump a random person (both team members).
7. Be the first to run back and touch the hammock.
The girls won, mostly because Kevin and I lacked the eyesight to spot camouflaged lizards, but our team dance was surely entertaining…aerobic, you could say. Winners’ reward: desserts of choice after dinner while the others were expected to look on “in despair.” That’s okay, I don’t need dessert because I needed to fit back into my single pair of leggings to start over on the yoga mat the next day.
@theterrace 