~with love from the osa~

we've officially been here for over 21 days.  they say (on deepak chopra's 21 day meditation challenge) that it takes 21 day to fully change habits and adjust to a new lifestyle.  those 21 days have been a roller coaster, but i'm not feeling nauseous yet... i'm still hanging on.

speaking of nauseous, i REALLY wanted to blog about our trip to town a couple weekends ago.  (our internet has been down for a week or so).  it was truly amazing in so many ways.  the ride out here is super rough and really bumpy.  we caught the collectivo- which we mistakenly called called the "bus".  we waited for about 30 minutes, watching monkeys swinging up in the trees, when the "bus" showed up... it looked straight out of a mexican border-crossing movie drama.  big truck, two benches on either side, covered top...no frills.  i thought a lot about my mother and grandmother on that ride and how much they would've absolutely hated it.  i'm smiling now even as i write this.  so for the first half hour of the ride i was in good spirits~Amara was on my lap and thought all the crazy, flying-above-our-seat bumps were super fun.  but soon enough my motion-sensitive stomach began to settle in.  i was convinced that i was more than happy to get off and walk the 10 km to town, but patrick's better judgement (at the time i was definitely feeling worse judgement) encouraged me to stay on the ride.  so we did.  i really wanted to take a picture of the collectivo to post, but felt it was slightly inappropriate and didn't want to be an american jerk.
...we spent the afternoon wandering around pto. jimenez... i have to say that the highlight was a chocolate espresso frappachino i got at a sweet little coffee shop that i'd scoped out an hour after we arrived in town in early august.  patrick later told me he was surprised i'd ordered that and said, "i've always thought of you as more of a caffeine fiend than a sweet-coffee person", to which i replied, "what is it about chocolate ice cream and espresso that doesn't scream me??" patrick doesn't drink coffee, so we don't spend much time at the coffee shop at home together... i guess my mama's magic mochas are a little under the radar. 
here are amara and i on our way to the collectivo...

 we went on an epic hike last sunday.  it was the moment that i could breathe out.  i love going hiking on the ku nature trails at home, and really needed to connect with the forest.  don't get me wrong, the beach is absolutely phenomenally beautiful, but i'm a forest girl.  along the way, we hiked up a waterfall...

... up to another waterfall...

... and to the tree-climbing tree!  here's patrick swinging down.  i have yet to attempt it.  this is the rainforest tour that andy, the dad of the family we're living with, takes people on.  this is what he does for a living... best. job. ever. 

the one thing life here is short on is girlfriends.  not that i would EVER want any others than my girls at home, but there are a lot of dudes and not so many ladies (relatively speaking, of course~there aren't many people here).  i did get the opportunity to go to lapa rios for a delicious ginger-tini with terry (mama i'm working for/living with) and some other women who've been here for the month of august.  it was be-au-ti-ful.  i want to take patrick up there to get some video shots for his music... and get another ginger-tini:)

it's been kind of a challenge not having the internet for the past week, but in a way it has been really good for me to unplug and let go of kansas.

wishing you love and light as the leaves start to fall from the trees...