Beaches

I don't know about everyone else but my head has been all over the place this month. And by all over, I mean everywhere but writing. I sat down a hundred times, thinking about and planning posts, but then when it comes to actually writing, I just stare at the computer screen.

This month feels like it's been three months long. This has just been some kinda year, right! Sometimes I think the only thing that's kept me going are my memories of faraway places I’ve been to, and where I want to go once we're able to travel without the fear of not being able to get back in the country.

One of those faraway places I’ve been thinking about during Covid 2020 is Costa Rica. And!! I recently read an article that Costa Rica just opened to residents of 12 states--Pennsylvania being one of them. So, needless to say, that may be my first stop in December or the new year.

In an earlier post, I mentioned there were two countries that I felt a strong connection to: "As soon as I stepped on the tarmac, I had this urge to kick off my shoes and touch the earth with my bare feet." I wanted to feel its electricity flowing through my body. Kenya was one of those countries; Costa Rica was the other.

I remember feeling so at home there. I loved the air; I loved the earth; I loved the smells. I loved the sounds of the animals. I loved listening to ticos y ticas (what native Costa Ricans call themselves) speak Spanish and try to follow along.

I especially loved the water. Costa Rica has the Caribbean Sea on their eastern coast, and the Pacific Ocean on their western coast. Both are beautiful and unique. My last day on the eastern coast was inspiration for the short story I wrote for my memoir class.

The story describes my last day in Puerto Viejo. I wrote this in 2011. I wanted to keep the writing similar to that time, so I didn't update it much; just some grammatical and technical corrections. But I liked the way it was written and the voice it was written in.

Hope you enjoy it. And let me know what you think!

#beaches #stories #costarica #memoir #araeofsunshine #blog #blogger #blackblogger #write #writer #writing

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We pedaled the two 1970s-style banana seat bicycles down the gravel road. Pebbles shot up and smacked into the iron plate over the rear wheel. Occasionally one from his bike would kick up and fly through the air and ping off my handlebars or off me. He looked back at me every few seconds to make sure I was still upright and hadn’t fallen into the ditch alongside the road. It had been years since I even mounted a bike, and to do it in flip-flops on gravel was probably not the best time to reintroduce myself.

After about five miles and twice as many close calls of me running into cars as they passed, we made a sharp right turn over a small trestle and onto a path that led into the tropical forest. The path lay at the feet of 30 or so palm and other types of trees. High above our heads the canopy of green blocked all sunlight. All around us the plants kept out the heat. We jumped off our bikes and started walking over and around roots. Below us the moss cushioned our steps. Birds chirped their exotic songs. Howler monkeys screamed through the trees. Green and brown geckos scattered as we trudged on. Frogs croaked as we passed their little hideaway deep in the ferns.

When I was beginning to wonder if we had entered a never-ending rainforest, we soon emerged onto a white sand beach. My eyes began to sting from the sunlight hitting the water, making it sparkle like a blanket of diamonds. The sea rolled, and the waves crashed softly on the shore. Small birds ran to the water’s edge as it receded, pecking and eating the tiny clams, and then ran back up shore when another wave crashed. Little blue crabs peeked out from their deep holes in the sand, until something would pass by and it would dart back underneath, hidden from all predators’ eyes.

We leaned our bikes against a log that had had fallen from a tree in the forest and rolled onto the sand, or had washed up on the shore from some distant land by way of the Caribbean Sea. I laid out one of the beach towels and tossed my book and hat onto it. He had already headed to the water’s edge, surfboard in tow. It was my last day at the beach, and I planned to spend my time relaxing in the sun and splashing in the water. I stepped into the sea, testing the waters to make sure it wasn’t too cold. No, not cold at all. More like refreshing. I quickly plopped my body down in the waves and splashed around like a kid. After his failed attempt at surfing, he noticed how much fun I was having and was soon splashing in the waves right next to me. We took turns sitting on the surfboard and came to sit on it together, bobbing up and down as the gentle waves came in from sea.

He and I talked about how picture perfect the scene was, about how crystal clear the waters were. We viewed the current ripple movements in the sand underneath our feet. Silver fish swam against the tides that washed them to the shallow water. They raced back to the deep blue before another tide could sweep them up in its grasp and fling them to shore. The sun reflected off their silver scales as they swam by.

I slid off the board and took a few steps out to the deep blue. I began to think, We are the only ones out here… What if some huge shark comes and chomps down on my leg? What if I get dragged out to sea? Ever since I poked my head around the corner to the living room when I was a little girl, and saw possibly the worst scenes of the movie JAWS that a little kid should ever see, I had been deathly afraid of the open waters. Always afraid I wouldn’t see the giant dorsal fin slicing through the water, heading straight for me, ready to feast on my unsuspecting sun-kissed body.

But this day I was feeling extremely brave. I turned my back to the open ocean, turned my back on the many fish and larger sea animals and whatever else that may be out there. I looked around and saw no one but him, his eyes sparkling back at me. And, like I said I was being very brave, more so than usual, I reached back and untied my bikini top, and then the bottoms. I pulled them out of the water and tossed them toward the surfboard. He looked surprised and amazed and excited. And, lucky for me, he caught the bikini halves and put them up on the board. I will admit, I was very surprised at myself, but something had come over me. No one will believe this back home, I remember thinking, but then again I’ve been told many times that it’s always the quiet ones who do the things people least expect!

With a smile on his tanned freckled face, he stepped out of his swim trunks and threw them up on the surfboard with my bikini. Within seconds, we turned into two little kids whose parents just took off their diapers. We weren’t constricted any longer. We were free. We jumped and splashed and swam in the water, dunking each other and racing against each other and the current. A small propeller plane flew overhead. I know they saw us; the water was too clear to not see anything. So I did what any forward thinking young woman would do: I waved at them and continued to splash in the water. I was having too much fun to stop. We dove in the water and swam around like dolphins. We let the waves carry us inland. I was tingling all over. I felt electric. I felt alive.

Sadness swept over me when I looked up and saw a man and his two young children walking towards our part of the secluded beach. The children were running down the sandy shore, picking up stones and shells. We reluctantly grabbed our swimwear and began the daunting task of pulling them on with the weight and the suction of the water keeping them down. By the time the man and his children made their way to our area, we had everything on as normal. I dunked my head under the water one last time, sitting on the bottom for a few seconds, listening to the sounds of the waves.

As we trudged out of the water and gathered our belongings, I turned back to the water. I wanted to stay there longer. I wanted to stay in those last moments forever. The blueness of the sky meeting with the various bright greens of the forest, cascading down to greet the white sands that disappeared under a blanket of water that gently rammed waves against my body. I wanted to stay, but I knew I had to leave. I continued looking back at my own little paradise and watched it slowly disappear behind all the trees and ferns and plants as I made my way through the tropical forest and back to reality.