Celiac on the Road (and trying to eat Veganish-Pescatarian)

When one eats in a less typical way or has an autoimmune illness like celiac, traveling is more complicated, challenging, and requires planning. On our recent travels, at moments I lost my planning mojo, allowing myself to slide into a “It will work out” mindset. Not a good state for a celiac.

More than half our travel time was spent on an Azamara cruise ship, a line I give top marks for thoughtful, mostly careful food preparation and variety. At every meal, the kitchen offered at least one vegan entree, several vegetarian options, wonderful fish and lots of fresh vegetable and fruit salads. I could count on a delicious vegan curry or dal each day at lunch.

One evening, the chef made me a savory seafood stir fry with rice noodles and vegetables.

Looks good, doesn’t it?

Following a tour of Carara National Park and the Tarcoles River, we stopped for a typical Costa Rican lunch at the stunning Villa Caletos.

Beautiful fish, black beans, fresh veggies.

An this was the view from the restaurant. In my relaxed state, I grew loose with planning.

Once off the ship and in California for a road trip, securing food resumed the more typical pattern of sometimes all goes well and sometimes it doesn’t. No pampering, like on the ship.

In Los Angeles after an entertaining tour of the impressive Union Station, we and our friends headed to Olvera Street for lunch, the land of Mexican food (usually a safe choice) but which offered limited options for me. The restaurants were ripe for cross contamination, the beans were prepared with lard, the cooks disinterested in answering questions about the food. A little research ahead of time could have prevented this goof. I was off my planning game.

A quick google search produced a list of gluten free friendly restaurants and we headed to True Food Kitchen (truefoodkitchen.com) in Santa Monica which offered excellent safe food, lots of vegan options, a jazzy, fun atmosphere.

Our travels continued. Next up, traveling and eating on the Central coast

With Travel, Sometimes You Get What You Need

Punta Arenas, Costa Rica. Sunny and humid.

Seems like we traveled forever, but really the trip was 24 days. While on the road, we reached a milestone — R’s radical prostatectomy was a year ago. With that milestone and five clear PSA tests behind us, we are back to thinking about the future, making plans, laughing, and feeling grateful for our good fortune.

So what would we say about this trip, our first longer one since R’s knee replacement?
R called it “weird.” Weird. Probably not the descriptor the marketing department at Azamara cruises would hope for but R’s honest assessment. To him it felt weird.

A camera shy scarlet macaw

The Costa Rican cruise, with stops in Punta Arenas, Quepos, Papagayo, as well as Panama and San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua provided both high and low moments. For the first six days, I was sick with respiratory flu which was definitely a low point and limited my fun, unless one considers a trip to a Panamanian pharmacy for cough syrup fun. I managed by taking pain reliever, sleeping during the day, going to bed early, and limiting interactions with others.

On a tour (once I recovered) to the humid jungle of Manual Antonio National Park, sweat dripping down my back and gushing from my scalp, I observed R who stood away from the tour group, turned slightly toward me, a “this-is-lame” look on his face. In that moment, I realized he was bored. Hot, uncomfortably soaked through with sweat but also bored. The man whose life over the past 13 months was shaped by preparing for and then recovering from surgeries and figuring out what physically he could do…..was ready for more activity. My heart filled with an almost unrecognizable happiness. Who cared that I was sweat soaked from my hat to my underwear to my Smart Wool socks, the man was ready for more exciting adventure. I could see a future.

Us, in our damp clothes, looking forward

Once in the air conditioned shuttle, he started talking about cycling, training for an April bike trip in Spain; he chatted about what he wanted to do and see in California, our stateside stop, listing hiking, wildlife viewing, hanging by the ocean, and seeing friends.

Maybe Costa Rica wasn’t a dream trip but……the shift forward we’d been dreaming about, talking about, hoping for took place there. That made it a good trip.

Ándale.