Sunrise Walk Amongst the Creations

The moments of the day
  The conversation within those moments
  The realizations within those conversations
  The thankfulness within those realizations
  The humbleness within the thankfulness
  The words of my reality

I am intrigued by life,
  With life.
  Constantly fascinated with all at hand.
  Marveled at the true beauty of this world.
  Of the makings amongst us.
    
As I wonder about,
I wonder how their is hatred,
Wars,
Destruction,
Unhappiness
Revenge
Distrust
And so forth 
with all the beauty shining its light with each passing moment. 

These wonderings I speak of,
I share,
Came about while taking a sunrise walk amongst the creations
that make up Arenal in Costa Rica. 
These feelings
These occurrences,
Well here they are. 

Alarm went off at half past 4, 
  Yes, that’s in the morning.
  Quick change
  Breakfast of champions, peanut butter and banana of course
Our driver picked us up.
  Into the van we went.

And through the hills of beauty.
Our driver drove,
stopped,
drove some more,
stopped for photos.
Overlooking a manmade lake
Diving that of Arenal and Monteverde.
Photos,
Reflections,
Deep breaths
And back into the van.

Up the road, 
And before we knew it, 
We were getting dropped off at the edge of what appeared to be a very long dirt road. 
Erica and I began walking, 
We walked, 
And walked 
And walked some more. 
We shared conversations, 
Beautiful laughs, 
Stopped to ponder at the animals’ brave enough to show their eyes. 

We walked a little more. 
This time, 
We stumbled upon horses glistening in the rising morning sun. 
I was convinced; they were magical 
And I’m pretty sure, I saw some wings. 
That image, 
Was far too fairytaleish. 
This too, 
Took us back for a few moments as we watched the horses in complete amazement. 
And as a time has a way of doing so when one is enjoying themselves fully, 

Hours went by 
And there we were at the end of the path 
With our driver waiting patiently in the van. 
We ended our sunrise hike, 
Huge smiles on our faces. 
Almost in shock of the majestically reality of a morning we created. 

In the van we went.
Stopping not too much further up the road.
This time,
for hot springs.

We got out of the van,
Went under a bridge
And there they were.
My first hot springs.
Beautiful flowing stream of water,
With steam rising just above its surface.  
I put down my bag,
Looked up
And saw a local family laughing as they spent their morning relaxing and simply enjoying the presence of one another.

Where that time went,
I am not sure that I can tell you.
Something along the lines of flowing in these shallow warm springs of the earth
With my whole being submerged under water,
Eyes closed
And nose above water
Just enough to keep the breath flowing.
It was divine.
So incredibly divine.

Another humbling moment.
And as the previous adventure,
Time went far too quickly.
Before we knew it,
We were grabbing our belongings,
Taking photos of locals playing about
And then jumping back in the van. 

We ate lunch that day at around 10am.
  As we had already been up for quite some time.
  Our lunch consisted of peanut butter and banana sandwiches,
But of course!
Sitting in the center park,
Soaking up the sun
And the realities of the moment.

Within hours,
We had a horse back riding tour scheduled.
And off we went.
We arrived,
Shared a few words
And before I knew it,
A helmet was getting strapped to my head
And I was jumping on the back of a horse. 

Needless to say,
  I thought I was ready for what was to come,
  But in the moments shortly following the initial take off,  
  I felt like crying and jumping off the horse.
  I’ve been wanting to horseback ride for quite some time.
  My adrenaline rushing when getting on the horse,
  The tears coming when the horse began to gallop faster than I could grasp.

I took a deep breath
Laughed it off
And before I knew it,
We were trekking along a path carved just for the horses
Amongst the rainforest of Arenal.
In just a moments notice,
I was ever thankful again for taking this leap,
Facing an unknown fear
And becoming one with the horse.

We rode horses up to one of the most luscious waterfalls I’ve been blessed to experience.
We hiked some distance to get to the bottom,
Stripped down to our swimming clothes,
Trekked over some more rocks

And submerged.
Completely submerged ourselves in the ice cold water
Flowing off the side of Mother Nature’s artwork.

What euphoria.
What a rush.
Again, ever thankful.
Humbled.
Blessed.

We hiked back up.
To be greeted by our horses.
Trotted,
Galloped,
And adventured along
Down to the roots of where this particular journey began. 

The rest of the weekend
  Was that of what you can call peacefully mellow.

We went back,
Made lunch or at this point dinner
On the balcony of our hostel overlooking a beautiful little town.
We ventured into the city
To take part in the free festivities taking place,
Carnival rides,
Bands on stage,
Bright colors
And lots of smiling faces.

We took our smiling faces
Into a place of a little more calmness,
Ice cream and a bench in the city park.
I am extremely thankful for those moments that night.
Erica and I had the chance to express, listen, give and receive advice.
The beginning of a beautiful friendship.

We woke the next morning,
Found ourselves having breakfast in the park,
Then a trip to a local waterfall
And before we knew it,
It was time to adventure back to our home.

The bus ride consisted of almost 6 hours of me having my perfect seat on the bus
Two open windows,
Fresh breezes blowing my hair every which way.
Camera around my neck.
Coloring book on my lap.
And ipod in my eyes.

These moments,
As I am sure you now know,
were experience with so much bliss. 

These moments,
  I am so thankful to share
  With each and everyone of you.
  Thank you for reading and sharing my journey.
  Your support gives me strength.
Until next time.