The One with the Splinching

“I don’t know where I’m going, but I sure know where I’ve been.”

We hit off with a GREAT new theme song. I haven’t been in Panama for a while now, and with new destinations come new songs. The words “here I go again on my own” seem to fit my lifestyle perfectly. Every couple of weeks, I head off to a new place. Sometimes to dive, sometimes to explore and sometimes just to relax. Okay who am I kidding, I go everywhere to dive. Screw all the other kinds of adventure. But I do go everywhere on my own.

The new general theme of this blog seems to be “catch up”. I go on adventures and we catch up on what happened months ago. So let’s get to it, shall we?

Pura Vida in Costa Rica

After leaving Panama in the world’s smallest plane (with killer views), I ended up in a hostel in San Jose. There was no plan. The plan was to make a plan. It didn’t go great. Turns out there’s not a lot to do in San Jose. Having to spend 5 days there turned out to be a bigger challenge than it sounds like.

It’s a hostel, so there’s always people around. The people in my hostel were weeeeird. There was one elderly man who had the biggest stash of pills I’ve ever seen in my life. Luckily, there turned out to be one normal person, who I ended up spending a couple of days with. We did a ‘free walking tour’ of San Jose, had some GREAT ‘casado’, a local dish with rice and beans (of course), spaghetti, veggies, salad and a choice of meat.

After this amazing adventure of walking around San Jose for hours, we decided to take a tour of Cartago, a city nearby with a beautiful volcano. We booked the tour with the same guide. This turned out to be a HUGE mistake. He was married, but had a thing for blonde Western girls. And HEY WHAT DO YOU KNOW, that’s me. He kept trying to hold my hand and calling me “baby”. Talk about awkward.

So we walked around Cartago and went up to Vulcan Irazu (we took the bus so there was no chance of me dying on the way up). It was a really cloudy day and once we got to the top, we couldn’t see anything. It cleared up for about 15 minutes, we took some pictures and once the mist came back, we headed back to San Jose.

After this trip my German friends left. “Here I go again om my own“, as always. Not wanting to stay another second in San Jose, I decided to take a bus to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica’s most visited national park on the Pacific side. Ended up meeting a bunch of fun people. We had some beers, shared some laughs and discussed all the different ways to play ‘Circle of Death’, ‘King’s Cup’, ‘Ring of Fire’ or whatever you want to call it. You can’t go to Costa Rica and not see at least one ocean. It has two for crying out loud. So, wanting to see what Costa Rica had to offer (next to flirty tourguides), I visited the park and was not disappointed. Watch out for the monkeys though, they’re real bastards.

Now, DRUM ROLL PLEASE. For my big Costa Rican adventure, I went to ISLA DEL COCO. Isla del Coco is a group of island some 300 miles off the coast of Costa Rica. A place know for diving. And sharks. A place known for diving WITH sharks. It’s like Disneyland, only better. It takes about 36 hours of sailing on open water to get there.

7 days of diving. It was just amazing. We saw Hammerheads on almost every dive. Every once in a while Galapagos Sharks, White Tip Reef Sharks, Grey Reef Sharks and Silky Sharks would join the party. Eat, sleep, dive, repeat. Credit for most of the pictures below goes to Philippe, a fellow diver on board.

Next to the amazing diving, it helps if the people you’re diving with are also nice. Can’t say I could complain. They threw me a “300th dive” party, WITH cake.

For my last week in Costa Rica, I stayed with a local family and went to more Spanish lessons. After almost getting kidnapped by getting in the wrong bus, I mad it to school and met a group of students who were spending a month traveling around the country while learning Spanish. Shout out to Josue, Miguel, Leo, Brian, Adi, Ale and Isadora.

Christmas Spirit

Nobody should be alone for Christmas. Not even me. So I traveled back to the land of America to spend it with my CUHRAZY family. We had burgers at Five Guys, because  of tradition and spent 30 minutes driving around Christmas light heaven. The days were full of amazing food, movies and ugly Christmas sweaters. Always nice to be home for a few days. Being on your is all good and well (#makethatthecatwise) but there’s nothing like being surrounded by the comforts of home.

Palau

So Palau is the exception in my “I don’t know where I’m going” theory. I try to visit new places every time I travel. What’s the point in going somewhere you’ve already been, when there’s so much still to explore in the world. BUT my friend Gian is working in Palau and I just had to go see him. I mean, that sounds like a good excuse, right?

We spent New Years Eve having dinner with his mom, sister and a girl we met at the diveshop. We were in bed by 11 and slept straight through the new year. That meant no hangover on January 1st and we got to spend the entire day diving. We saw so many amazing things, it was the best day of the year and it was only the first of many.

I spent 10 days diving with my dear friend and saw the most breathtaking animals. A HUGE thanks to Gian Gian for taking me in and entertaining me. Thanks for laughing at me when the darts-pin hit me straight in the foot (I still have the scar to prove it) and thanks for sharing this life’s passion of the underwater world. Can’t wait ’till our paths meet again.

Aloha State of Mind

I figured I was as close to Hawaii as I’d ever be, so why not stop over for a few dives? I spent a week at an amazing hostel in Kailua-Kona full of like-minded people. The plan was to go diving a few days, see Hawaii and go to the top of a volcano. BUT, plans change. The shop I was diving with cancelled most of my dives, so I was left to spend time at the hostel. You’re probably thinking “why didn’t she just go out and see things”, well I’ll tell you why. For those of you who have never been to Hawaii, a car a MUST. Within town it’s easy enough to get around by foot or Uber, but all the other stuff is too far away. Considering I didn’t rent a car, it was hard to find one last minute. Or should I say impossible?

Not all was bad, I did an AMAZING manta ray night dive, where the mantas swim so close they might actually swim into you (accidentally of course). I spent a lot of time exploring the beautiful town with it’s amazing people and I went a sunrise tour of Hawaii’s tallest volcano. Did I mention it’s FREEZING up there?

Did I also mention I went whale watching? Of yeah, we saw dolphins and Humpback Whales.

Splinched

So, insane travels to add to my “already done list”. I realize that not a lot of people can say they’ve traveled as much as I have. Looking at the pictures of this post alone, I’m reminded of how unique my lifestyle is. But, to be honest, over the last couple of months traveling has become more and more difficult. One who travels alone, needs to know how to truly be alone. It’s not always rainbows and butterflies. It’s not always unicorns and fairy dust. Instagram lies. While I love to travel and see all these amazing places, I constantly feel “splinched”, to use the proper Harry Potter term:

Splinching is what occurs when a witch or wizard Apparates or Disapparates unsuccessfully, leaving part of his or her (clothes or) body behind in their former location.

Don’t get me wrong, I won’t give up traveling to look for a 9 to 5. It’s just hard when you constantly feel like a part of you is left behind. It’s like I’m constantly fighting to keep myself as a whole, so I travel back and forth between amazing places and the place where my heart truly lies: home.

The whole: “here I go again on my own. Going down the only road I’ve ever known” – thing is a choice and a lifestyle, of which I’m well aware. Just never forget that “whoever said a girl’s best friend are diamonds, clearly never owned a dog”.

Next stop: South Africa
Travel companion: crazy best friend

Don’t forget to check out the new songs by clicking on “menu”:
Theme Song: Here I go again –  Diego Boneta (Rock of Ages Version)
Song of the week: Coming Home – Dirty Money & Diddy

Cheers

Fi