On Traveling and Letting Go of Expectations

January 27, 2012 By Shannon Leave a Comment

I’m a Pretiree, dammit. I’m living in paradise and life should be awesome! Except it isn’t, yet. Before you stop reading or find a way to virtually smack me, let me qualify that. It’s not bad…don’t get me wrong. I’m living in a beautiful little surf town in Costa Rica for the next 3 months. The awesomeness of that fact isn’t lost on me.

However, I’ve been getting a bit down lately because things aren’t going exactly the way my husband and I planned this trip. I figured that many of you could understand because you may be like me – a Type A Planner. Planning is WHAT I DO BEST and when plans don’t work out the way I..well…planned, it frustrates me to no end.

You see, coming to Costa Rica is what I consider a retreat every year. It is a time I set aside to get away from the typical pressures of everyday life so I can really focus on the important things – my family, my health and building my business. In past years, these elements have fallen into place rather easily.

One of my 'offices' in Costa Rica

I have been particularly focused on the health and wellness aspects since we arrived last week. In my quest, I vowed to meditate and do yoga every day we are here. So far, I have meditated 3 times and done yoga 0 times. Yesterday I worked 14 hours and barely even went outside. Um, not winning.

Then, there’s the food. Costa Rica offers an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables and it can be a culinary adventure to eat here! In fact, a friend of mine who lives down here runs a world-class raw, vegan chef service complete with celebrity clients. Did I mention that this friend also has a gorgeous bikini model body despite being in her late 30′s and the mother of two? This also inspired me, or made me jealous enough to take action…but really what’s the difference?

I decided to make only super-healthy meals for my family from then on. The first thing I did was voraciously scour the Internet for raw, vegan recipes and soon enough my Pinterest Food Board was teeming with them! And that’s pretty much where it ended. I have made all of 0 of those recipes so far (but they look really great, you should try some!). Oh, and I had fried cheese for dinner last night. Woops.

Then, last Saturday, I went to the weekly organic market held on the beach. “Wellness, here I come”, I thought. I would buy a ton of healthy, organic vegetables to make all my awesome raw, vegan Pinterest recipes! Yes! What I didn’t know is how seriously people in this town take their organics. There was a minor free-for-all once the green light was given to start shopping! It was a bit like a crunchy version of Black Friday at WalMart.

I got caught up in the moment and my competitive nature *may* have gotten the best of me. The results?:

- $45 worth of vegetables (not as many as you might think, the prices were at Whole Foods level)
- 2 vegan “burger” patties that tasted like cardboard
- $14 jar of almond butter that tasted like ground-up cardboard (the ultimate prize!)

Shortly after opening the almond butter, my husband smashed it onto the floor “by accident”. I have a suspicion it was the on purpose type of accident so I wouldn’t make him eat the rest of it – because we paid $14 for it, dammit!

We’ve also had transportation challenges since we arrived. Outside of a $100 a day car rental, we have no way to get my son from our vacation rental to the preschool we have him enrolled in. The rental was supposed to be an expensive, but necessary short-term solution until we found a car or ATV to buy. This has been much more difficult than expected with lots of time wasted chasing dead ends. We are living in a small community and there are only so many vehicles to go around. I shouldn’t have assumed we could just snap one up like we would on Craigslist in Vancouver.

What makes it worse is that there is actually a solution to the school transport issue. My son could take the bus. There is a bus service to the school and about 15 kids his age (3 and 4 year olds) take it every day. But I can’t bring myself to put him on it. It is just too much. He’s only 3! Isn’t it enough to send him off to school in a foreign country every day?

I suppose what I need to remember is that the chaos and figuring things out through trial and error is actually what traveling is all about – new and unexpected experiences and stretching outside of your comfort zone. If I wanted to know exactly what was going to happen everyday (or at least have the illusion of such knowledge) I should have stayed home. I also have to remember to take it one step at a time. The point is not to get it all done in a week. I have 3 months. That’s the beauty of Pretirement. There is time.

So, I will carry on and hope the transportation gods smile upon us. For a good day at the ‘office’ I will reward myself and surf, hoping the waves will be forgiving. I will rejoice in the fact that my son is being taken care of and taught by loving people who are introducing him to new experiences. Most of all, I will look up at the sky and remember to not focus too much on the obstacles and just keep on living.

Update: I wrote this post a couple of days ago and hadn’t had a chance to post it yet. Our luck has turned and we found a bought an ATV (yay) and can now get to my son’s school and to all the neighbouring beaches. I’ll try the organic market again tomorrow and use a bit more restraint with my purchases! Have a great weekend everybody.