At the beginning of our third week in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, Siobhan left for a week to volunteer with a project to help sea turtles (see her blog about this topic for more information). I continued onward with my normal routine, until later in that week when my friend Justin arrived. His visit came as a sudden, pleasant surprise, as I got an email from him the day after Siobhan left, and greeted him at our apartment just three days later. He had been poised to start a new job, but when the start date was pushed back two weeks, he decided to take advantage of the down time. Having traveled throughout Europe together with our mutual friend Mark in January of 2008, we had already had a lot of adventures together. During his time here, we spent a good bit of time surfing, eating and cooking great meals, made a successful trip to the casino in the neighboring town, and saw an epic moonbow. We also had some visitors in the form of a couple neighborhood cats (which we named "Paloma" and "The Grey One"), and had an interesting time hanging out with them on the balcony. Unfortunately he had to leave before Siobhan returned, so they still have not met.
Soon after Siobhan's return I developed a fever, but it passed for the time being and we were able to have a healthy Thanksgiving. After a jog on the beach, we made a point to go for a quick swim, basically so that we could say we had swam in the ocean on Thanksgiving. I had never been out of the country on Thanksgiving before, so it was a strange and somewhat sad holiday. Fortunately we discovered that a restaurant in town was serving a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. For $20 per person, we got a full plate of food (turkey, potatoes, green beans, beets, and stuffing) in addition to a glass of wine and a slice of pumpkin pie. The food was quite good and helped lessen the sting of our foreign holiday, but a second helping would have been nice... after all, it was Thanksgiving!
The next morning I awoke feeling ill, and found that the fever I had briefly experienced on Tuesday morning had returned with a vengeance. As it grew worse, my temperature began to fluctuate in the 101-103 degree range, and I alternated between waves of feeling very hot and very cold. Being in a tropical location, where a dengue fever outbreak had occurred the summer before, and where malaria is never entirely out of the realm of possibility, I was concerned about getting treatment if needed. Adding to my distress was simply being away from home, in an unfamiliar place with unknown (to me anyway) health care services. I spent several days mostly laid up on the couch, but fortunately I was able to fight off the illness, and did not have to go to a doctor or hospital. As best we can figure, I probably had the flu.
Another reason for concern over my illness, was that my friend Ryan was coming to visit the following week. I did not want to be a vegetable during his visit, and luckily I was recovered enough that I was able to do most everything, though not always with my typical level of energy. We spent his first day relaxing and catching up, but on the second day of his visit I felt well enough that we were able to take a trip outside of town for a zip-lining expedition in the canopy. When we arrived at the facility, we ascended to a platform in a tree, strapped into our harnesses and then the cable, and proceeded to ride the cables from tree-top platform to platform. Some of the lines moved pretty fast and they were all high above the ground, so it made for a fun experience. Most of the time we rode the cables lying on our backs in the harness, but we each tried the "Superman" method as well, where with the help of the guide, we flew face first on our stomachs.
During Ryan's trip we also celebrated my 29th birthday for a second time and did some surfing. Halfway through his time here, three of Siobhan's friends arrived (Ashley, Abby, and Luke), so we all had fun hanging out together (see her blog for more information about their visit). It has been great having so many visitors, and I continue to be thankful that my illness occurred at the best possible time.
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