In one of the most gorgeous sunsets I’ve seen in my life, I grabbed a baby turtle and release it to the sand, so that it could find its way to the Costa Rican Pacific. I was standing somewhere in the left extreme of a line of forty people, everyone shoulder with shoulder, holding their hopes of preservation in the shape of an animal and finally release them to continue the circle of life. A race of forty hatchlings immediately started leaving their small and barely noticeable track, some more hasty than others in responding to Mother Nature’s call. Their instinct dictated them to go forward, the roaring ocean claiming its children. Mine – I dare to call it such for the time being, in the biggest of ironies, started following the sun, not going straight as the rest, so it took it a while to meet a wave. I felt a rush of excitement when the little black spot in the sand embellished with the colors of the sunset finally disappeared under a veil of foam, salt, and water. “This is kinda the day it’s been” my Canadian group says. This is the description of my last afternoon of work at Junquillal.
How could I’ve taken this for granted? As a kid, my father took me to a lot of places in Costa Rica so after a while I started believing I’d seen it all. I longed for Europe and traveled there then, came back not really knowing if anything was left for me in this land. This is when I find out I’ve lived my life in no less than paradise. The heath hugged me, the kindness of the people made my days brighter, and the peace I found taught me that although I was able to see the beauty in another places, I had given my soul to this land long time ago. The culture of double standards, of widely accepted mediocrity, and blatant face saving still bugs me. I still criticize and condemn the lack of interest of the population in vital political and environmental matters. Nonetheless, I want to be here, and though my heart is scattered around the world with the people I love, the part that I still keep is in love with this place. I’ve been suspecting I was hopelessly surrendered to Costa Rica since I started my trips around the country once I came back, but it has been these days of waking up with the sound of the waves, contemplating the dusk with the sound of the howling monkeys in the back, and the walks in the night through a shimmering green field of fireflies that has convinced me of being in the right place. While essentially remaining a city boy, I’ve been able to venture in the cloud forest, to witness the silent majesty of a volcano, to run two miles in the beach to see a huge leatherback nesting in the Caribbean, to see the sun rising in different coasts, to live at the foot of a mountain with the shape of a sleeping Indian… I’ve been living to the fullest and rediscovering a place where I completely wrongly thought once that I did not belong.
