Surf. Spanish. Salsa. Sunsets. Repeat.

For the past two months, I lived in Beautiful Nosara, Costa Rica. Filled with locals and foreigners, who go there to escape the cold or their hectic life and to slow down. And slow it was. I was in the world of 3G. You remember 3G right? It seems so ancient, but I swear that 3G is different than the 3G we had before. At one point it was the fastest connection we could have. But now it seems like an answer to my prayer of learning patience this year. Being here has made me revisit my entire idea of contentment. Sometimes my webpages did not load, videos did not download, Netflix always buffered and my WhatsApp spun with the word “Connecting” up top. So, I disconnected. And in doing so, I was able to write more, reflect more and engage more with locals. I also took on the local culture. Being off the grid means, Hakuna Matata. No worries. Because you can’t, you won't even get notified of stressful things. It was amazing.

I decided to focus on two things that I have always loved: the Spanish language and Salsa dancing. If you look at my original transcripts at the University of Connecticut, my first major was Spanish. I either wanted to be a Spanish teacher OR a bilingual attorney. Yup- I was highly considering law thanks to Joan from Girlfriends who was a Black attorney, who had a vibrant social life living in a big house in LA. All lies. Lol..JK..But back to Spanish. I love talking to people and the more you travel, the more you realize how limiting being monolingual is. I took classes four days a week for about 2 hours, and spoke Spanish every moment of the day, getting to know locals who were very helpful in conversing as I learned.

Secondly, Salsa dancing. I’ve always loved the art since being introduced by my friend while living in DC. There was a large African-American and Afro-Latino group that salsaed every night, and it was my entire social scene while living in the nation’s capital. I took lessons once a week and went out salsa dancing once a week. It's a beautiful dance that let me spend my evenings being twirled, dipped and just doing jazzy salsa moves!

Lastly, Surfing. Now I am in no way graceful in the ocean. It was a challenge. I was scared of the waves. Scared of the board. Scared of the people, and despite there never being sharks, I was scared that somehow, they would show up. So I took lessons and quite a few. I stood up on my first occasion so physically it was possible, but I mentally had to focus because I was my worst enemy. I had a lot of fun — a lot of frustrations when the waves pounded me time after time. But I was resilient and I'll def surf again if I find the perfect waves, perfect temperature, and perfect board. I left all that in Nosara, but I'm hopeful that maybe Bali, the Canary Islands or other Pacific coasts will offer it to me again.

Nosara is pretty perfect. I can see why some people go there for a week and never return home. If yoga, surfing, clean eating, and sunsets are part of your wellness plan, Nosara is the place created just for you!