A Little Travel Around Central America

 

An enormous croc sunning on the banks of Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Almost a year ago, we booked a January 2018 cruise around parts of Costa Rica with stops in Panama and Nicaragua; at the time we arranged the cruise, R was 9 days post prostatectomy with a knee replacement scheduled for seven months in the future. As travel planners, we were attempting to predict R’s future condition — would the cancer metastasize? Would he regain mobility from knee replacement? How long would recovery take? Would we survive two major surgeries as a couple?

No matter which scenario might play out, the cruise seemed a doable, though not an ideal travel plan.

View of the Panama Canal

The good news is R recovered from everything much faster than anyone predicted and would have been ready for much greater activity and adventure — but who knew? While not high adventure, we’ve enjoyed some new experiences.

Dolphin watching in Golfito

Observing serious faced monkeys in Manual Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

Onward we go plotting greater future adventures.

Kissing This Bad (2017) Boy Goodbye

Darling Lily. Sometimes best to let sleeping dogs lie but not in a year filled with resistance

Best quote heard this season: If women do not have a seat at the table, they’ll be on the menu. Not sure who said this.

I had big plans (not really that big) for a dramatic year-end post but a nasty cold or bug zapped my energy and my best brain cells forcing me in another direction.

I’ve yet to figure out the purpose of this blog: Travel? Retirement? Transitions? Celiac? All of it? But for today, I’m settling for a travel summary of the year.

Good riddance 2017, you’ve been a tough year in so many ways — like prostate cancer surgery, recovery, follow up blood tests, despicable politicians, recovery, life, fires, hurricanes, more despicable politics, recovery and then knee replacement, recovery, more lying, corrupt politicians, physical therapy (I see a pattern), more recovery and on…..

However, Mueller’s investigation has been one hopeful, bright spot.

In between the medical stuff, we fit in some travel. Where we live, some think of us as frequent travelers, people always off to some place. While I’m good with that characterization, I see us differently. We are two people whose plan for the early years of our retirement was to seek out adventure and new experiences — while we still possessed the energy and brain power to plan, enjoy, and adventure. If I learned anything from the hard lessons 2017 taught, it is to delay nothing because in life, one just never knows what is lurking around the corner (and I don’t just mean presidential election results).

For way too long, we’d delayed visiting Washington, DC together so directly from R’s five week check up with the cancer surgeon, we flew to DC, walked the city, visited museums, and blew out of town right before a blizzard hit.

Point Dume, California before the devastating fires. Excellent hike with stunning views.

Next we took a too brief trip to California where we visited dear friends and then Canadian family who were in the California desert thawing out. We hiked a favorite Palm Desert trail and felt our traveling groove inching back.

Once in Bend, a lucky thing happened. A cheapish, sold out cruise from Japan to Vancouver, BC suddenly had two Aqua Class cabins available. Quickly, we booked a cabin and in less than a month headed to Tokyo. We were back in the travel game, at least temporarily, until R’s knee replacement.

Meiji Shrine, Shibuya, Tokyo. We loved Tokyo.

After a wonderful trip to Tokyo, Kamakura, Hokkaido with a stop at Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka peninsula thrown in for interest, we returned fully in love, once again, with travel. This was good, since we’d already booked a trip to Johannesburg, the SA safari camp Ngala, Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), day safari in Chobe National Park, and a multi-day safari at Kanana on the Okavango Delta, Botswana with a few days in Dublin, Ireland, the point from which we’d fly back to the states. We planned to empty our once full 2017 travel account.

Botswana baboon baby hitches a ride on momma

We returned to the smoky, burning Pacific Northwest. Fires burned around the area and throughout Northern California, areas devastated, lives and homes lost or reduced to ashes. While another surgery was minor in comparison to death and destruction and chaos, neither of us looked forward to another recovery.

Between surgeries and recoveries, we actually fit in some pretty fab travel. So what’s the issue? We all have visions of how life will go and I doubt many hope that frequent tests for cancer recurrence will be part of life. When the vision is different from reality one can easily feel disappointed.

I’ve kissed 2017 goodbye. Onward to a more active, mobile, politically progressive 2018 filled with more women leaders. I plan to do my part. Oh, and hurry up Mueller. Lots of us are ready and waiting.