Costa Rica - Recap

Hola

No Pura Vida! For Me...

Well, the fact that I’m writing this blog entry at 8:55pm on a Friday night should tell you how things have gone for me here in Costa Rica. [Blogger’s note: it’s now well past that Friday night I began writing this and I’m actually now en route to France.]

Sigh.

Out of all the places I’ve been to for work-related meetings, this has to be the most disappointing. In terms of exploration, that is. I mean, check out my list of cities, mashaAllah: Paris, Madrid, Mexico City, Brussels, Vienna, San Francisco, LA, Vegas, Orlando, Denver, and San Jose (Costa Rica). And, I must say, I would rank my Denver experience one step ahead of Costa Rica, folks. At least in Denver (which has one of my favorite looking airports) I got to go the Red Rocks Mountain. Here in the Rica…nothing! Of all places to do nothing in, it had to be this one!

But it’s not a result of being lazy or anything like that. I think my multiple, well-documented documentaries on my adventures is proof that I’m the last person to sit around and waste an exploration opportunity.

But, Alas! I suppose it was bound to happen, right? I mean I always pretend to relate to my clients and colleagues when they tell me that they travel to nice places, but don’t get time to leave the hotel. “Yeah, I was in Prague but all I saw was the hotel,” insists Client X. In response I laughingly add, “Haha, yeah, absolutely! You might as well be in any city in the world, right?” But on the inside I’m thinking, Wow, I just had a great time checking out museums, local masjids, a great restaurant, historical sites, beautiful gardens…and on-and-on …

And so now it has become clear to me that Allah has taught me yet another lesson on this trip: Sometimes you have to actually do some work when you travel for business, stupid slave. Lesson learned.

So the meeting itself went along fine. It was the same client and therefore same set-up from Vienna, so I wasn’t expecting anything intense. In Vienna, though, I arrived on a Sunday night; here in Costa, I arrived on a very late Tuesday night because the client didn’t want to pay for us to come out any sooner. That translated into a loss of time to have fun because those first two days in Vienna were really laid back.

After the meetings for this trip, I also found myself stuck in my hotel room emailing like a mad man things for work on the “Tartarus Study” (see previous blog entry). And on top of that, the locals here have scared me into walking outside and adventuring into the wild on my own. Like I love to walk around the areas I’m visiting aimlessly or take a taxi someplace phenom, but in this particular spot, I apparently don’t have the luxury (or safety?) to do that. I mean, technically I can do it, but the question is, do I want to? Earlier today I tried walking around the hotel, but, small gangs of random thug-looking locals a few blocks away from the hotel gave me some pause. That and the fact that a concierge guy told me that I shouldn’t hit up El Pueblo (a place that has some night life) due to safety reasons. Oh, and another local told me to be weary of pick pocketers because they’re really good. And that’s comforting on some level to me because if I’m going to get pick pocketed, it had damn well be someone who is good at it. Me pick pocketed by an amateur?! Unacceptable.

To add to my tragedy, the weather in Costa Rica has been insanely perfect and the occasional mountain views I see have been truly breath-taking. I shouldn’t think or write about this anymore, actually; otherwise I’m bound to have a Nancy Kerrigan “Why Me?!” moment. One thing is for sure, I definitely plan on coming back for an actual vacation inshaAllah.

Oh, one thing that made it worse for me was getting my cousin’s Saira’s email about how much she LOVES Costa Rica. I emailed her when I got here asking what she thought of Costa Rica and it turns out that it’s her favorite place on earth and that’s no exaggeration. Almost her exact words verbatim! Her email sounded to fun and enticing; made Costa seem so much more appealing than I imagined that it could’ve been taken from a the Tourist Department here at CR. Ok, now I’m depressed for sure. :(

I have to be honest, folks. I feel like a complete tool for not doing anything now. Should’ve extended my stay! [Blogger’s post-Costa Rica note: Or I should’ve woken up at 5am on the day I was leaving to venture out to the volcano like I had planned to…]

But, on the flipside, the good news is that home-cooked Punjabi food awaits me. Ahh, meat…I come to devour thee!


Until next time...