Packing Error.

We spent the first four days in the jungle. The second four days we spent on a beach on the Pacific Side, in a Marriot Hotel called The Mangroove.

I made an error while packing. If you know me, you know over the past few years that wearing tank-tops when it is hot out has kind of become my thing. I don’t do it to show off muscles, because there aren’t any muscles to show. But, in my excitement for the trip, I packed tank tops, but only 2 t-shirts, and only 2 collared shirts. By this time of the trip, those were getting dirty, and I didn’t know what to do.

There were two options:

• Buy some new shirts. This would be expensive, as a shirt that I would wear more than once would be $30 or so.
• Do the hotel’s laundry service. This would be expensive too, since it was about $8/shirt.

If you prefer to watch the video of it, here you go.

In short, I created a third option. Why not just wash the clothes in the shower, then let them dry in the Costa Rica sun for about an hour? It was almost 100* outside, surely it wouldn’t take too long?

So I did. I washed a good portion of my clothes with the large dispensing bottle of shampoo and body wash. Some of my clothes I washed with a bar of soap instead. Then, I wrung them out, piled them into a backpack, and walked, with a dripping backpack, down the beach to find a suitable tree branch to hang my clothes in the sun.

The obvious question to ask is “What did Taylor do during all this?”
That is a great question and I am glad that you asked.

Taylor sat on her butt by the pool like a normal person and said “Don’t associate your redneck ways with me while you do this.”

That is a very admirable position, and we spent the rest of that day by the pool, while I wore a shirt that smelled like a bar of soap.

Surely I am not the only one who would do such a thing, am I?

The beach

Taylor and I have been to beach resorts before. Several years ago, after a really, really hard season in our marriage (I don’t want to post the details here), we did a trip to Cancun. Two years ago, we did another trip to Cancun.

But this hotel was still amazing. Look at this image above: Notice how instead of cutting off a branch, they changed the line of the roof to accomodate the branch. This kind of respect for nature is what we saw all around the country.

The hotel was amazing. Just like before, we tried to see what restaurant options were available. There was a really fancy restaurant called Ginger nearby, but by this point, we didnt really want anything fancy.

We took an evening stroll with our favorite koozie to a restaurant. Though the hotel “highly recommended” taking a shuttle, the 0.6 mile walk, across an empty (and completely safe) beach was the obvious right answer.

It took about 3 hours to get to the beach from the jungle. The drive was a fun one. It is always nice to look out the window to see what another country is like.

The hotel did have bikes available to use. Just like always, Taylor and I like to do some sort of physical activity before sitting around and really resting on vacation.

A friend of ours said that this is just the season we are in: with all the business of school aged children at home, our vacations have a lot of time set aside to rest. And we fully intended to take advantage.

The beaches were so incredibly clean. It was just over a 2 mile stretch of sand that the hotel sat on, and there were only 2-3 little piles of trash in that distance.

The pools were amazing. In the distance are some boats, and across the water is a peninsula where the Four Seasons, Costa Rica sits. They do not offer day passes for common folk, in case you were wondering.

There were a ton of these little black and white squirrels.

One of these iguanas popped up beside Taylor while she was reading her book. She screamed, and the people in the chairs beside us had a laugh.

We spent a lot of time in the pool, just 200 yards from the ocean.

For our final night, we went to a restaurant called Mar Azul, and it was a beach-bar kind of vibe. I felt fancy and got to order the grilled lobster, and managed to get this framer of a picture of Taylor.

Finally, all good things must come to an end. I hate that I am even writing that sentence, but that is the first thing that comes to mind early this morning.

Our final day was about 100* out, so I obviously wore my finest taco-cat palindrome tank top. And when you look like this traveling international, all of the security guards want to talk with you.

What’s next?

Taylor introduced the idea a long time ago, and it is something we try and stick with in our marriage: Always have something to look forward to. It could be our friend Brian Maness who emphasized it. So, we always try and have some trip to look forward to. Our kids are small, so this year we did a trip without kids. Then, if the stars align and the economy doesnt fall out and both of our jobs are still in a solid place:

• 2024: Disney World (with Kids)
• 2025: Taylor and I both turn 40, and our 15 year wedding anniversary: Italy (without kids)
• 2026: Luke’s Goal: Hike across Scotland on the Great Glen Way

What are your plans for travel? How do you decide where to go next? Do you have any fun places you would recommend? Leave them in the comments below.