Dear Cosmic Family!
It has been over a week since the last post, and until now we have experienced so much generosity and goodness from other people, that I decided to make this the main topic of this episode.
Part of our plan of leaving behind the 3d corporate world was and is, relying on other people's generosity and goodwill. Yes, we had the luxury of flying into Costa Rica, buying the touring bikes, and expensive camping equipment. All of this was paid for by the blood and sweat of being a desk slave for a large part of our lives. When Lee and I met, we both knew that enough was enough. This is that inner knowing that most of us have: "I was not born to work, I was not born to be a consumer, I was not born to live this repetitive cycle of work-eat-sleep-buy-work, with a few days of holiday in-between.
Sadly this is the reality for so many people, and even worse, so many people do not even have any work, living in extreme poverty. For example, we are not being told how many people in India have died of hunger, malnutrition and extreme poverty - as a result of the plandemic lockdowns. No, all the deaths are labelled as covid - I just simply refuse to believe this MSM narrative.
Coming back to the main theme of this post, however...
We left Aserri last Sunday. Our host Melissa, called some of her friends who lived on a coffee plantation (cafe tal) in Frailes, in the mountains, and simply asked them if they could have us there for a few days. They said yes! As the mountains in the middle of Costa Rica are steep and almost impossible to ride with fully loaded bikes - Mellissa offered to take all eight of our pannier bags, plus two rucksacks in her car, whilst we could ride the hills without any baggage.
The distance to Frailes was 13 miles. I only managed 9, and then Melissa stooped her car and picked me and my bike up, to drop me at the house. Lee braved it and completed the remaining three miles by himself. He clearly loves the challenge more than me, but I was never a fitness freak in the first place!
When we all arrived at the new house, were met by an elderly couple: donna Elein and don Albaro, and a little jack russell dog called Luna. The proud owners of a sustainable coffee plantation. They also had their 95-year-old father there, who suffered from Alzheimer's.
Straightaway they served us lunch: a typical "Casado" meal, containing rice with beans, chicken, vegetables and salad. This was new to us, as until that moment, we were usually buying and making our food.
The house was surrounded by coffee bushes, lemon trees, banana trees and all sorts of tropical flora.
This is where, for the first time I caught a glimpse of a hummingbird, although it was too fast for me to see it properly!
The couple only had a small two-bedroom, wooden house - so they let us to set up our tent on their patio - but we were allowed to use the kitchen, the bathroom and sit in the living room if we wished. What more did we need ??
The funny thing was that they did not speak English, so to be able to have any conversation with them, we had to make an effort to improvise, use our hands, and google translator! This is the fastest way to learn Spanish!
So the days were passing by...The couple's hospitality has far exceeded our expectations..
They took us in their Toyota pick up for little trips to their fincas (coffee farms), they took us for the anona fruit picking, some local walks and little drives here and there.
Donna Elein also showed us how to make homemade maize tortillas and empanadas.
Eventually, we learnt that they liked pizza! - so wanting to give something back - we offered that we wanted to buy a pizza for dinner - they happily accepted the offer. This made us feel good. We did not want to be just two leaches - we also wanted to exchange energy and return some love to them in the form of pizza! On the last night we also made vegetarian spaghetti, and banana pancakes - and they enjoyed being attended to for a change!
It was not long before they offered us a lift to Quepos, to take us, the bags and the bikes through a very windy mountain serpentines, all the way to the pacific coast - where the roads were flat enough to bike with the load.
In total, we spend 5 days there, and we feel we have made friends for life. They gave us much more than just a roof over our heads - and they will stay in our hearts and memories forever.
Another quick example of human goodness was when we were riding north, from Quepos to Jaco.
Riding in the extreme heat takes it out of you. I started feeling too tired to ride and told Lee that our 50 km target to Jaco was maybe a little bit too ambitious.
We realised that we were not going to make it to Jaco that evening.
So we did what some bikepacking people do: We stopped near a house on a road, and I walked to the door to ask if we could camp in their garden for the night.
In broken Spanish, I asked this large woman (whose name was Joanna as I learnt later) if I and my boyfriend can camp here? First, she told me to go to the beach and camp there. However, when we were about to set off, she came running back and said something about not understanding me correctly. Understanding every tenth word that she said - we concluded that she was inviting us to her house to stay because camping at the beach was too dangerous. We gratefully accepted the invitation.
They had a spare room. They gave us fresh sheets and let us use the shower. First things first, however, we needed to take the dip in the ocean... We walked to the beach at dusk to find it completely soulless. This was a perfect opportunity to take our swimwear off and to be completely washed of our sweat and tiredness by the ocean waves. It's not easy to find an empty beach in Costa Rica - so this was a divine gift from above and below.
The next morning we thanked those poor farmworkers for their hospitality and left for a short, 10km ride to Jaco - the surfers' paradise.
The journey continues...we are learning to receive, we are learning to accept, knowing that right now we cannot give back in equal measures...maybe this is part of the process of being able to live on the New Earth..who knows?
With blessings and gratitude,
Joanna and Lee π§π»ββοΈπ§π»ββοΈ