Seeing Stars ***

Age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Every day I am reminded I am not in the bloom of my youth anymore.  Physical strength isn't what it was.  Right hip is going to need replacement down the line.  A few wrinkles sneaking in. Worst of all, the saggy skin that cannot be tightened up, sans plastic surgery.

But wonder of wonders, I see stars.  I see them like I have never seen them before.  Literally and figuratively.  The magical serendipity continues in my life as I was just last night looking up at the sky full of starts and was awed at how much brighter and clearer they are here.  Is it because they are closer since we are closer to the equator?  Is it because the air is cleaner in this tropical jungle?  Are my eyes, along with my heart and soul, seeing things clearer than ever before?  I don't know the reason, I only know the stars were amazing to behold last night.

So today, with my aging body staring me in the face, I see the figurative stars clearer than ever before too.  I still don't see them all, no matter how much I search though.  I just know I am getting to know myself better and better.  There is something to be said for being alone in life. That is to say, without a better (or worse) half.  It has been many years since I have been in this space and at the time I was a teenage girl.  A totally different mind set and focus than finding myself alone in these, ummm, let's call them "mature years".  :)   Maybe a little scary having some real time to sit and introspect but all in all, a good thing.  The challenge for me is to use what I am discovering for a better future for myself and all those I encounter and connect with in this life.  I am very excited for my future.  I mean, some people live to in their 100's and it is true that you are as old as you feel.  I feel very young here.  I am very free.

Don't look to me for the answers in your own life though.  Everyone has to find their own stars. So don't be afraid of the darkness, it only helps your stars shine brighter!!!

Moving on to what is going on here in beautiful Costa Rica. :) 

It is the dry season now.  Temps consistently in the mid 90's.  Low humidity though.  All the luscious green is starting to dry up.  No worries though, it will come back around in May when the rains start back up.  The dry season is also called the "high season."  Not sure why except that everything goes up in price because of a lot of tourists in the country.  So it is "high prices" and "high tourism".  That is not all bad because especially here in this little coastal village, most of the money is made on tourism.  And the full sunny days are great because no worries of when you should go to the beach.  You can go anytime.  No worries about torrential downpours.

However, high also means "high dust".  The roads here in Nosara are not paved.  They are gravel with a lot of dirt under the gravel.  So as the traffic going down the road increases, so does the dust level.  We drive down the road on our moto with rags over our mouths to help from breathing in the dust.  We had to move our clothesline where we dry our clothes because it was too close to the road, even with a green bushes barrier.  Then moving our clothesline meant we had to treat the tree bases that we hung our lines from with insecticide because ants were getting all over our cloths.

The way that some areas here deal with the road dust is to pour molasses on the roads.  Yep, that's right, no tarred roads for us.  We just sweeten the area.  :)   It is because molasses is much cheaper and easier to get.  Remember, this country grows sugar cane.  And yes, if it does rain, the molasses all dissolves.  However, on the Pacific side here, it is very unusual for it to rain anytime from December to March.

I came up with an amazing chocolate sauce for our dessert business.  It will go on many things but for starters, plantain fried in organic coconut oil.  We found out about Frankie, who lives just down the road.  He grows and makes his own organic cocoa and coconut products.  Their flavor is amazing and the freshness cannot be beat.

For the time being we have decided not to have people come to the house.  We are going to make the desserts to go and take them down to the local beaches around sunset.  Each night around a hundred or so tourists gather at the beach to watch the sunset.  We think at least some of them might enjoy a fresh, locally made dessert.  So we will take a cooler with desserts to go down and try to sell them.  First try is New Years Eve, when I figure quite a few people will be at the beach to watch the sunset on the past year.  

A medium sized cooler at the super is $90.00 but fate stepped in, once again.  I had called a woman about possibly buying a bike they had for sale.  We decided not to buy the bike but they also mentioned they are moving back to the U.S. at the end of January and had other things for sale.  I called her and asked her if she happened to have a medium sized cooler with a handle. She said yes and that she would sell it to us for $20.00.  Wooo hooo!  

I am excited to finally get even a first step going on our new little venture to thrive and survive in this foreign land.!