Xmas Picnic In Costa Rica

by Jessica
(Costa Rica)

What started out as a couple of bachelorettes opting for a private picnic alone on Christmas, turned into a most appropriately miraculous day.

We were joined only the day before by two more good friends, also single women living in Costa Rica.

We were quite the international group: one Australian, a Finn (who spent 20 years in Ireland), a Canadian and an American.

We packed up a couple of coolers, a table and some chairs and set out for the land where the most adventurous of us — this year — is building a retreat center settled in the center of a horseshoe in a river bend surrounded by jungle canopy. We were fully prepared to be roughing it as the weather the past few weeks had been dreary, wet and windy.

The closer we got, the more the clouds seemed to blow themselves away from our destination. The sun came out! It was perfect weather. Cool and breezy with plenty of blue sky above the canopy where we would set up.

We four managed to carry all the gear down to a cozy spot where almost immediately we were greeted by a family of monkeys. Like any good Gringas, we completely abandoned what we were doing to take as many pictures as possible. Over here! I can see his tail! Oh! There's another one! Hurry Quick!


Finally hungry and necks tired from craning upward for so long we sat down to some local pineapple, spicy goat cheese and imported crackers with wine, of course. The food options here are slim so we felt particularly blessed to have a gourmet cook among us. We were treated to egg salad sandwiches as well as freshly prepared sushi rolls complete with dipping sauce. This was not your ordinary Christmas Picnic! We also had fresh baked focaccia and beet salad with deviled eggs. I cannot forget what I think was possibly everyone's favorite (and subsequently missing from the picture) smoked fish pâté.

There is a commonly used phrase here mostly said after a delicious meal that means something like “yummy”. “Que rico!” literally translates to: “How rich!” We were indeed very rich in many ways this day. Deseando un próspero año nuevo también.

(Check out Jessica's poetic blog: Enchanted Rant)