Blissfully Wanderlost

When preparing to leave New England for seven months, one of the last things one thinks of is all the wonderfully quirky cultural tidbits that have convinced us to make the Live Free or Die state our permanent dwelling place.

To wit:

• Milly's pumpkin beer in a rimmed glass

• Apple-picking, apple pie, apple crisp, and mulled apple cider

• Running along the Goffstown Rail Trail and swimming in Namaske Lake, just outside our back and front door, respectively

• Sunday blues jam at the Village Trestle

• The first snowfall and snowshoeing up Mt. Uncanoonuc

• The unique zaniness of New Hampshire's presidential primary

After the flurry of securing passports, booking tickets, reading travel guides, and setting up automatic bill pay, one can finally contemplate the special bites.^tm

• "Special bites" is a term that Stuart Ritter and I made up on the top of Pedernal mountain in New Mexico while in Boy Scouts, probably around the summer of 1993. We were sharing a batch of re-hydrated chili out of a pouch. This brand of chili was, oddly-enough, meatless. (A fact I found distressing; Stuart it seemed, didn't realize that chili is, ipso facto, a meat dish.) We decided to add small chunks of his superb home-made beef jerky. Thus, bites that contained said meat were termed "special bites."

Lo these many years I've wondered about the English language. Questions have come to mind like, "Why is you so hard, English?" "Why must I take a subject called you every year until I graduate high school?" and "Why can we just all speak Esperanto and get it over with?"

But the biggest bone I have to pick with the English language is the strange nature of some of its words.

I'm talking about that curious phenomenon whereby you speak, write or see a word several times in a short period of time and the word becomes gibberish. You swear it's misspelled. You've never seen it before. It becomes loathsome to you.

Latest example: embassy.

It must be French. Yeah, that's the problem.

Today we made packing lists while waiting for Liz's car to get fixed at the Kia dealership (she had a clogged AC duct which was causing water to pour into the passenger side floor and the more it has rained, the more sopping wet the right side of the car was--yuck!).

We are trying to fit everything into two large day packs and a smaller carry-on so we will never have to check any luggage on our flights. Our deliberations have gone like this:

Do we really need towels?
Yes.
I guess you're right. But we don't need toothpaste because they have that in other countries.
It's called pasta de dientes.
Sounds like something you can get at the Olive Garden.
Let's bring some just in case.

After a late night epiphany I realized I won't need these guys:

I just can't imagine carrying dress shoes in my backpack for the once a month occurrence when I might need them. So it's gonna be casual all the way.

And we booked our first two nights in San Jose, Costa Rica at the fabulously funky Galileo Hostel.

Here's a preview of our major destinations in the order we plan to explore them:

• Costa Rica's Pacific Coastline

• Central and Caribbean Coast of Panama

• Caribbean Coast of Colombia

• Coast and Highlands of Peru

• Interior Guatemala

We will be taking planes, buses, sailboats, taxis, and possibly burros.

Hopefully these ones:

And not this poor guy:

In fact, Eduardo has passed on to that great Machu Picchu in the sky.

Some of my goals for the trip include the following:

1. Perfecting my Spanish. (como duh, no?)
2. Expanding my yoga practice.
3. Practicing daily meditation and creative exercise routines like crossfit .
4. Learning how to surf, snorkel, and make a great Pisco sour.
5. Volunteering in-depth in Guatemala.
6. Ignoring the vicissitudes of American politics, my retirement account, or Boston sports teams.
7. Keeping up this blog and a personal journal. Perhaps writing the great [Latin] American novel too.
8. Growing in patience, love, peace, and understanding.

Things I want to avoid:

1. Over-planning.
2. Skin cancer.
3. Diarrhea.

Just a test run to see how our blog works.

Here's a picture of Liz and Kevin:

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Here's where we are going in two weeks:

From there...who knows!