Clumsy is as clumsy does

If I were to keep a travelogue of our international travels, I would have to title it, "Falling Down All Over the World."

First, there was Italy. Our honeymoon. I fell twice. Skinned the same knee both times. Once in Positano and once in Sienna. I still have a scar.

There have been other trips (pun intended), and I won't go into those. I'll skip to our latest adventure in Costa Rica.

About a year ago, my mom and dad very generously offered to keep the kids for a week so we could take a trip for our ten year anniversary. (At least, that's how I remember it. I hope they remember it that way too...) So, last week, we boarded a plane, sans kids, and went to Central America. It. Was. AWESOME.

Here are a few shots from the lobby of the hotel overlooking the ocean. Just in case you didn't believe me.

And, here is the view from our poolside lounge chairs, where we sat reading and wiling away the hours most days.

But, it wasn't all about lying around on our lazy bums. We had some adventures while we were there, too. Our first adventure was to go sailing on a small Catamaran with our very able guide, Luis. (You might be wondering when and where my fall occurred, but you'll just have to wait for it. It will be fun. Kinda like being in my head all the time. "I know it is going to happen....Is this when it will happen? A Catamaran on the Pacific Ocean? Will this be when I fall?")

The sailing adventure was fun. It was a slow, relaxing ride - except for the strain of trying to communicate with Luis, who spoke little English. Actually, his English was pretty good. We just got hung up on words like "shark" and "attorney." (The juxtaposition of those words is purely unintentional...) They are hard things to describe when you don't know the proper words. It was like a seafaring game of charades much of the time. I know you wish you could have been a fly on the sail.

Abogado, by the way. Or licensiado. (I think.) Both for attorney. Luis knew the word "shark." It just took us a while to realize he wasn't saying "chart."

Anywho.... here we are on the catamaran. And, no. I did not fall off.

Our second adventure was the next day, when we reunited with Luis and two honeymoon couples and took off in sea kayaks to go out to the rocks you see at the tip of that peninsula that juts out from the left side of the following photo. When we arrived at the rocks, we did a little snorkeling and then kayaked back.

Corin was real worried that this would be my clumsy moment. He was very concerned that I would fall into the water and he would not be able to haul me back into the boat. To his delight, I only got out of the boat once - on purpose - when everyone else got out. And I wasn't nearly as difficult to haul back in as he had supposed. So, no. This was not it either.

That evening, we went on a sunset boat tour. I envisioned a dock with a boat tied to it that we would board without getting our feet wet. So, when we saw the boat anchored 20 yards from shore and realized that we would have to board a small outboard motor boat to get to the bigger boat, I thought maybe this would be my moment. But, thankfully, that excursion went on without incident as well. Here we are on the boat tour, just as happy and in love as we were ten years ago on our honeymoon.

Ok, so by now, perhaps you can share the sense of foreboding that I felt the day I woke up early to get on a bus to go on our Mega Combo Tour. This would be the day we would do a canopy tour (via zip-line), ride a waterslide through the rain forest, and then ride horseback to a natural hot spring, heated by a near-by volcano.

Here is a very flattering picture of Corin and me in our harnesses, helmets, and bug spray - all ready to go.

After riding the zip-line without incident and successfully navigating the waterslide (There are no pictures of the waterslide that I am willing to post. I have to draw a line somewhere...), we got to eat our first seemingly authentic Costa Rican meal. It was yummy. I could have eaten three plates of rice and beans. But, I thought people might stare.

Then. THEN. We had to pony up. Literally. I have not ridden a horse since my cousin and I were on a pony at the farm of some family friends when we were probably 4 and 5, respectively. Someone apparently neglected to cinch up the saddle tight enough and that bad boy slid down around the horse's belly, dumping us both to the ground. I really had no intention of ever mounting a horse again. But when we realized the only other people on the tour who were opting out of the horseback riding to ride in the wagon were old or infirm, we decided to buck up and just do it.

I have never been so terrified in my whole life. And, when my horse slipped on a rock going down a hill, all I could think was, "Great. I get the one horse that is the horse-equivalent of me and is going to fall down with me on his back. Great. Just fantastic. The one advantage of riding the horse instead of hiking was that I trusted that someone sure-footed would be doing the walking." Luckily, he righted himself. He must have better ankle strength than I do, thank the Lord. And, somewhere along the way, I was finally able to relax my grip enough that my knuckles regained their normal color. And when we dismounted at the hot springs, I had never been so glad to be on solid ground.

At the hot springs, we were instructed to "take a steam", then cover ourselves with mud, then shower it off, and then enjoy the various pools of hot spring water. I can't believe I'm going to share this with the world, but here we are after our mud bath. There was some man walking around handing out these, ummm, headpieces for us to wear in our photos. For some reason, it did not occur to us how goofy they would look in print. I don't know why....

After posing for this picture, we rinsed off as we'd been instructed and headed across the small wooden footbridge from the mud to the hot springs. And, are you ready for it?? THAT is where I fell.

While it was definitely slippery and precarious, I was totally caught off guard. I figured that since I had made it through the sailing and the kayaking and the snorkling and the zip-lining and the watersliding and the HORSEBACK riding, for heaven's sake, I could make it across a bridge. But, that's just where I was wrong. You would think I would learn not to get too cocky about the simple things like walking on cobble stone or crossing a bridge. You'd think my experience would have taught me to take nothing for granted. But, alas. I was destined to fall on international soil. It's what I do.

And just so you don't go away with the image of us in those goofy grass crowns, here is a parting shot of one of the many hu-normous (as Pressley would say) iguanas that roamed freely around our resort. I've never seen anything like it in all my life. TONS of them. Everywhere. There was a time when I would've thought that was kinda creepy. But every time we saw them, all I could think was how much Evan would be delighted by them and how much I missed my kids.

Paradise was nice, but I'm glad to be home where I belong.