Fifth Time In Costa Rica, 13

Happy Sunday, Gentle Reader, and welcome to post number lucky thirteen, which is to say I have been in Costa Rica almost two weeks, and just over a week in Monteverde. Yesterday, as I was finishing writing this blog I got into an interesting conversation with the lady from Montreal. She wanted to know if I was married and had kids. Then, when she learned that neither disaster has ever befallen me she tried to appear sympathetic, as though there must be something wrong with me. Then she tried to console me by telling me that even unmarried people can be happy. I replied, ``And some of us are even happier.`` The manager, who like me is happily single, seemed to be quite enjoying this little exchange, and we did chat a bit about it later. It turns out that, for me anyway, travelling alone is sometimes a bit strange, but only for one little reason: it seems that solo travel and travellers have become such a rarity that I was surprised to come across even one other guest here at the Mariposa who, like me, was alone. It kind of leaves me feeling like I`m of a different species, or that I`m from another planet. I for one couldn`t imagine being paired off with one person and having to be with that same person day in and day out, with no real privacy. I did experiment with shacking up once, when I was much younger. It lasted about a year. My partner and I were very well matched and everything, but I knew this kind of arrangement was not for me, and after it ended I haven´t had, and have never since have had, any desire to repeat the experience. I don`t need anyone like that in my life, just friends who know when it`s time to go home. I also accept that a lot of people need to be partnered, especially men, since a lot of men tend to be both, really selfish, and also really pathetic when it comes to taking proper care of themselves, but we are not all like that. Also I understand how it takes the many compromises that make a marriage work to kick the selfishness out of some of those male idiots, and especially having and raising kids. But again, not for everybody. Of course, being unmarriageable, even today, makes many of us suspect, as though we are somehow emotionally or psychologically damaged, or incomplete as human beings, or that we are somewhere on the Spectrum. Sad, isn`t it, how much the whole psychiatric industry bends over backwards to pathologize any behaviour or lifestyle choice that is even a little bit outside of the social and cultural norm, and even sadder to think how many mental health professionals are just too mentally and intellectually lazy, or maybe just too plain stupid, to be able to read nuance and see the many shades of grey as well as the full pallet of colour. Much easier to deal in broad strokes of black and white I suppose, with a new medication being synthesized every month to treat yet another new, invented and imagined mental health disorder, and this of course keeps Big Pharma very rich, very fat and very happy. In other news, I walked down to San Luis, the village down the hill in the valley down below. I find it interesting that the first time I did that walk, in 2010, I was about forty-five pounds heavier than I am now, with an undiagnosed thyroid condition, and I could barely make it down that super-steep and winding road. Last year, weighing about twenty-five pounds less, I did it with no difficulty. Today, 2018, having lost yet another twenty pounds and counting, it was easier than ever. I am sixty-two years old, but more fit than I was at fifty-four. And still losing weight. When I got down into San Luis I took the other direction and walked a long and very quiet dirt road past the University of Georgia, which is a small residential university campus. There is a network of trails there and I went partway on one of them, but didn`t go too far, since I was in unknown territory and hadn`t even notified the management at the bed and breakfast about where I was going, and I must admit that it was a spontaneous decision. Still, what a beautiful and dreamlike and dreamscape of a walk. This quiet, really deserted rural road surrounded by lush tropical forest and trees and views of forest clad mountains. At the small store at the bottom of the hill, on my way back, I bought a litre of pineapple juice, which I finished on the way back up the hill. It is a long and difficult climb and I stopped several times to rest, sitting on top of big rocks, and ultimately on one of two benches with the most amazing view of trhe Nicoya Peninsula. On the right, the mountainside seemded quite dry and parched with large areas of brown. On the left, it was all lush and green, so there must be some different microclimates at play here. I did make it back alive, but really took my time, trying to use this time as an exercise in contemplation and rest. I want to go back down there again. A hug from Costa Rica.