Costa Rica: River Rafting and Onward to the Pacific

Monday, Jan. 20, 2014

Today we had a two-hour safari float on the Rio Tenorio.

Our first transporter was Erik, who picked us up at 6:50am. About two hours into our travel, he stopped at a small town for a snack break. We were not hungry after having eaten a large breakfast at the hotel. It turned out he had not eaten anything yet. He was consuming a hefty meal. It would have been fun to eat with him.

As we continued the drive, Erik would give a brief history of this town or that. Also he stopped our car so that we could get out and see a two-toed sloth crossing the road in the rain by hanging from the power lines. We stood there without umbrella and rain gear and took pictures. It was a steady drizzle. 

During the next hour of the drive, as we were coming down from the mountains, the weather changed to dry, sunny, and hot. When we reached the rafting site, Erik introduced us to 2 other transporters. He unloaded our luggage and drove off.

Our two new transporters were Diego and Salim (Tom heard Alan, but to my ears Salim). Diego would point out highlights of our travel. Whenever we hit an especially rough patch in the road, he would blurt out, "Yeehaw!" (cowboy style) which amused us. Quiet Salim/Alan told us that he would be our raftman. He asked us if we were married. Then he asked us if we had any babies. When we told him we had four, he exclaimed, "Four babies!”  When we told him we were grandparents, his eyes got big.

This was a WONDERFUL and such a peaceful raft ride down the river. Just Tom and I and Salim, who loved what he was doing. He said he was on vacation every day, and he gets to exercise the whole time rowing for us. He would point out interesting trees, such as mahogany, balsa, cashew, and paprika. He stopped for animals such as crocodiles, howler monkeys, various types of iguanas and oh so many different kinds of birds (blue heron, kingfisher, osprey, ibis, tiger heron) for Tom to take pictures.

He said because it is dry season, the river water is much lower. He learned to speak English by talking to people while going down the river.

We stopped for a snack.

Salim cut up a fresh pineapple,

and we drank orange juice.

After a two hour ride, Diego met us. He said he napped waiting for us to come down the river. So he was happy and chipper, and Yeehaw-ed when he saw us. So these two drove us to a restaurant for a meal. Then they drove off.

So what happens now! We were eating our lunch but wondering where our connection to our final destination was. I asked the restaurant host if we have our luggage. He said Yes. OK now what!!? When we were almost done eating, Diego and Salim/Alan drove up. I was a bit relieved. Now I could ask them what happens to us!

Diego told us that he would be driving us to the town of Tamarindo on the Pacific coast. Whew!!! Now the car was in full A/C. It is hot, dry, and sunny outside!

We made a brief stop in the city of Liberia, where Tom bought a charger for his iPad from a street vendor.

Then on to Tamarindo and the Pacific.

Costa Rica: A Lazy Day of Rest

Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014
This morning was a bit chilly. I woke up to a gentle rain. It rained most of the night and couple of hours in the morning, then again in the evening. The rain is misty. You can see many people without umbrellas or raincoats. I wanted to see our beautiful view, so I wrapped myself in a blanket and went out to our back porch.

Later, our cleaning lady used the same blanket and Tom's to make two love birds in the shape of a heart. Awwww!







Today was a wonderful lazy day. We spent the whole day walking, bird watching, taking pictures, sitting in Jacuzzi, eating, and just enjoying being together...

             
   

Costa Rica: Tropical Wet Forest

These are just some pictures of our Arenal Hanging Bridges tour in the tropical wet forest. It was a misty, wet day.

Way in the distance you can see people standing on a

mid tier bridge. This was taken from a canopy bridge. 

Tom and I at ground level

This is an unusual flower!

If you look really closely, there

is a large insect (~6 in. long) on

the left side of the hanging

strands.

Costa Rica: Arrival and First Adventures

Friday, Jan 17, 2014

We arrived in Panama City at 2:20pm. When we walked out of the airplane, it felt like we were in a sauna. Here I am, black turtleneck, long sleeves, and heavy long sweater. How did all the other people dress for the weather and they boarded the plane in Chicago in freezing cold weather same as us? I took off my sweater. Now I am carrying my coat, scarf, sweater, backpack, purse, and luggage. Next time I will layer clothing in such a way that I can be in a summer outfit upon arrival.

Costa Rica...arrived at 3:45pm.  Cloudy here with drizzle. This special guy Adrian spent 4 hours with us, driving us to our hotel in Fortuna. He told us that Costa Ricans are easy-going, friendly people. They commonly use the phrase pura vida to describe how they’re feeling. He drove us up a mountain 3800 feet above sea level on the way to Fortuna. In fact, we were driving in the clouds, and at times it got quite scary winding in and out on a narrow mountain road in the fog and rain.

Then we stopped to have a real local Costa Rican dinner at a small Mom & Pop restaurant (locals call this kind of restaurant a soda). Delicious. We had casado pollo. Casado is rice, beans, salad, and fried plantain. Then you add grilled chicken, beef, or fish. This is a very typical Costa Rican food. Adrian said he can eat that for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So could I.

Finally we arrived at our accomodations for the next two days—Lomas del Volcan (hill of the volcano), a rustic mountain cabin, yet extremely nice, clean, and well furnished. Also, a balcony with a view.

So our first day starting at 6am O’Hare airport, we arrived at our destination after 8pm at our lovely and scenic cabin at Lomas del Volcan in Fortuna. No late night adventures for us...we pretty much went right to bed!

Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014

Woke up to soft rain. Back porch view is BEAUTIFUL… lush and green! I could stay in this little cabin for a whole week decompressing from work and deadlines.

Arenal Hanging Bridges Tour

Since our tour started at 7:30am, we had an early breakfast. It was super nutritious and delicious! Beans and rice, fresh pineapple, passion fruit, and watermelon, baked plantains, sausage (an unfamiliar variety), and some finely chopped vegetable dish.

We had a fantastic guide named Carlos who is passionate about the whole ecosystem. This region is a Wet Tropical Forest (different than rain forest). Some areas near here are called cloud forest. Last night’s mountain drive must have been through a cloud forest. The whole time during our tour, Carlos was always looking for interesting birds, monkeys, trees, sybiotic plant life...all too interesting yet hard to remember all he said. He says he could easily give an eight hour tour, and I believe him. There were so many trees with more than one other plant growing on them, some as a parasite, but others  in a symbiotic manner where one plant helps the other to thrive.

During our walk, we were at three different tiers of the forest. We crossed hanging bridges at each tier of the forest—ground layer, mid layer, and canopy layer.

Both in the tropical forest area and at our cabin, which is at the base of Arenal Volcano, we would normally have great views of the volcano, but alas, the fog has obscured it. Yet I love the mist and gentle soft rain.

As we are sitting at our lovely porch, Tom is noticing so many birds that are different than what we are used to in the US Midwest. So our serene resting place has become a place of bird watching while we are sipping our coffee.

Long time ago, when Tom and I were dating, as we were walking nowhere at all, Tom commented "Why do you in Medicine treat symptoms. We in engineering would not stop until the source of the problem is resolved?" I was silent. Soon I would graduate to become a pharmacist and Tom, an engineer.

Now after many decades of marriage my professional days still compose of filling medications for symptoms, and and resolving drug interactions by suggesting to doctors of options.  For the patients, I suggest to supplement of any vitamins or co-factors if they are taking medication which depletes those items.

I have been going through a major health issue since menopause...Insomnia. I did not dare work full time because it is not safe.
I relied on OTC sleep aides like melatonin, Benadryl, Valerian Root, and combos. I reached a point when none of them worked.

I am not sure for how many years I have not slept well, or the percentage of nights when I could not sleep a wink for the whole night.  Yet work does not distinguish well rested person and one ready to collapse. Job expectation is the same.

A dear friend of mine, about nine months ago asked me to try a prescription sleeping pill and wrote me a prescription. Because she was a good friend, I decided to give it a try. To my amazement I fell asleep...each time. I never quite felt normal though. I limited myself 2 pills per week when I had to get up very early and had a long working day. In about 6 months I was only able to sleep if I took the sleeping pill.

OK the source of the problem...menopause, loss of female reproductive hormones...I would not dare get pharmaceutical hormones. Studies since marketing for just about all hormones on the market does not look good. So I started to read, read, and read. Not only is my hormone level lower than low, but also balance of all hormones were missing. I have heard of Natural Hormone Replacement...maybe even twenty years ago. Hormones derived from plants that is indistinguishable from hormones created by the body. One reading lead to another...Progesterone is precursor to Testosterone, Esterone, Esterogen, and so many others and we need right ratio of them. So if I could get my hands on plant progesterone and supply myself, all the others will come out balanced. If one is lacking in progesterone, she will lose the ability to sleep. She will also lose the ability to counter the high cortisol level from many stress. Adrenal glands are overworked when there is no progesterone. So I began to restudy how each glands and organs worked and how to restore the balance.

I sought a NP (nurse practioner)  who was an expert in Natural Hormone Replacement therapy. Although I started to treat myself, it was very reassuring that she set out the dosage and duration I needed and how to go about in treating myself.

For the last three weeks I have slept every night, and when I wake up I know I have gone through deep sleep cycles.

With this experience I thought, what if I become a mid-level practitioner like NP or PA (Physician Assistant) or PP (Pharmacist Practitioner) and work with an MD who feels the same way that I do about getting to the source... What would that take? Is it possible? I committed to work full time until Lizy graduates from college. Then I can go to grad school for 6 semesters and take all the exams... OK I will be 62 when Lizy graduates. I will be 65 when I am licensed to practice as a mid level practitioner. Why Not! I can keep myself healthy and bring others to health along with me! Excitement is building up! Like I FINALLY KNOW what I want to be when I grow up!

My Get Up and Go Has Got Up and Went

Tom has a song in his collection called “My Get Up and Go Has Got Up and Went.” I probably heard it twenty years ago. I listened to it with human interest then. Yet now I am experiencing a sad ring of truth in it. It is not necessarily for my health, because I have always been weak and delicate—sickly really—even as a youth. Then and now, my health is about the same.

I am looking at Tom who had so much energy, so much endurance. It was only nine years ago he would work twelve-hour days to renovate our Chicago home to sell. This went on and off for a whole year. He was fifty years old then. In our earlier years, he would work all day, come home, and work on never-ending old house projects, play with the kids and still carry so much responsibility for the church.

I look at him and my heart aches. He still should have decades left. He still works a long day for church-related literature work. Yet he is not able to do much. His back pains him. Standing hurts. Then I feel so sorry for myself. Everything I want to do is very much tied to his health. Like simple things such as going for a walk on a beautiful day, going shopping, traveling, visiting... For so long I was the limiting factor, and I have always been. That was okay because I had Tom, who was my energy and my cheerleader.

I only remembered the title to the song, but Tom gave me the words to the whole song:


MY GET UP AND GO HAS GOT UP AND WENT
                            by Pete Seeger

     Chorus:
     How do I know my youth is all spent?
     My get up and go has got up and went
     In spite of it all, I'm able to grin
     When I think of the places my get up has been

Old age is golden, I think I've heard said
But sometimes I wonder as I crawl into bed
My ears in a drawer, my teeth in a cup
My eyes on the table until I wake up

As sleep dims my vision, I say to myself
Is there anything else I should lay on the shelf?
But nations are warring and business is vexed
So I'll stick around to see what happens next

Chorus

When I was younger, my slippers were red
I could kick up my heels right over my head
When I was older my slippers were blue
But still I could dance the whole night thru

Now I am old, my slippers are black
I huff to the store and I puff my way back
But never you laugh, I don't mind at all
I'd rather be huffing than not puff at all

Chorus

I get up each morning and dust off my wits
Open the paper and read the obits
If I'm not there, I know I'm not dead
So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed

Oh to Sleep...

Sunday evenings we have a gathering with seven couples and a half (who is actively seeking his other half) from four different churches. It is a Bible study, discussion group, a place to pour out your anguish, joy, sadness, prayer request...and we have jelled as a group.

I’ve been having trouble sleeping for years. More specifically, I have trouble sleeping when I have to get up early, like between 5–6 am. In such times I do not sleep at all or I sleep in such manner I wake up exhausted. So our Sunday group prayed for me. I went home, took 20 mg of melatonin (sleeping supplement) and really hoped that this time I would go to sleep. The next day was a big day. I had to have my rest.

My alarm went off at 5:30 am, and I had not rested all night. Exhaustion filled my bones even before the day started. So my conversation with the Lord went something like this: “Lord, I need Your alertness, Your keen ability to function as a pharmacist, Your stamina, and Your speaking through me” ...because I slur and do not make any sense when I am exhausted. And a good portion of my work is talking to patients, nurses, and insurance people.... “Most of all please make the workload manageable during my thirteen hour shift. It is snowing now..I pray my three hour round trip commute will be safe.”

As I was driving home at 10 pm that night, I realized I truly experienced Him as my upholder in every aspect. I also heard within that my inability to sleep will not last.

I remembered when I was agonizing about not being able to sell our Chicago home, the Lord told me it will be sold. I still agonized for three more years until it sold.

I remembered when I spent most of my waking hours in bed because of severe CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). I wanted to die rather than live like a vegetable. God told me I would get well. It was three more years before my recovery.

So this time I will praise my God who sustains me and wait for His complete restoration of my sleeping ability. Meanwhile He is my strength.