I have been working hard to try to get into a Costa Rican routine. Part of that routine includes an early morning workout, which thus far has occurred on my rather large front porch area. While I am accustomed to morning workouts due to my 6 a.m. San Francisco Crossfit routine (aka “God’s Workout" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/magazine/23wwln-medium-t.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&oref=slogin ), it feels different here for a variety of reasons.
First of all, it is already sunny and about 30 degrees warmer at 6 a.m. here than in SF… add in the humidity factor and you have yourself a workout. Additionally, I miss all my morning peeps… they are a very friendly bunch at 6 in the morning. And while I hate to admit it, I also miss the coaches pushing me to go harder, do more etc. I am trying to channel Coach K and Boz in my mind and push myself to do one more round or get my pushups or squats closer to the ground. One of these days I will do a burpee (notice I said “a”) and make them proud, though not quite yet.
There is a gym in between my place and downtown Quepos (which, believe it or not, is actually air conditioned) and I have thought about stopping in to inquire about their rates (and more importantly try to buy a set of dumbbells from them for my front porch workouts). However in the times I have driven past, I have never seen a woman in there. And of greater significance, getting to that gym involves a bus ride in both directions, which I feel would be a waste of time and an unnecessary risk of my life every morning.
Once my Spanish is better, I will be daring enough to walk in and not be so concerned, but for now I am going to stick to my weightless front porch workouts. Lord knows my ass is big enough that certainly I am getting a workout just carrying that thing around. I figure in another week or so I will know enough Spanish to make the attempt to communicate my need for dumbells. And I now have more motivation than just trying to stay in shape (and cool off) to enter that gym..
The other day I was walking down the road across the street from our driveway (the old road between Quepos and Manual Antonio), when I saw literally the most beautiful man I have ever seen. When I first saw him, I was unable to see his face as he was walking down the street putting on his shirt… so my first glimpse (read: gawk) of him was his chest and abs… and holy mother of God, I almost fell over. With a body like that, I can understand why he would wait until he was in public to get dressed. Really, it is form of public service… a charitable act of sorts. He is clearly a very kind and giving person who is simply trying to make life a little better for those around him… and I, for one, appreciate the thoughtfulness. Once he pulled his shirt on and I saw how beautiful his face was, I decided then and there that he had to be the man my boss’s psychic told her I would meet (more about that another time). But frankly, even if his face wasn’t beautiful, that body was enough. He could have been the Elephant Man at that point… I told you it gets dark at 5:30 here…
He smiled at me and said hello, along with something else I didn’t understand… which I have replayed in my mind to be "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and I want you to bare my children... Oh, and by the way, Soy médico." (I am a doctor.) I decided then and there that I was going to practice my Spanish for hours every night so that I could have a conversation with this man sooner rather than later… that is if I ever see him again. But that brings me to the point of the gym, there is no doubt that this man works out… no amount of genetics or manual labor could create this work of art… so if I go to the gym, I may just run into him again (and by “run into” I mean stalk). That my friends, is worth risking my life on the bus.
Ok, enough about my future husband….back to front porch Crossfit.
On Wednesday morning I was doing “double unders” on my front porch when out of the corner of my eye I saw something moving in the trees above me. I looked up and there were at least 10 spider monkeys (arana monos) jumping around in the trees. I couldn’t believe it. I ran inside to get my camera and took the pictures below.
Sadly the monos move much faster during their morning workout than I do, so the pictures didn’t come out great… but you will get the idea. I stood watching the monos for about 15 minutes before they decided to move onto other areas of the rainforest, at which time I went back to my double unders, totally distracted by the fact that moments before there were monkeys, in the wild, just a few feet above my head. This place is magnificent.
And now that my hero Aaron has created a blog to record the daily SF Crossfit workouts, I can do those workouts and feel a little closer to my peeps back in SF, while hanging out with my monos here. Best of both worlds.
Now, if I could only learn Spanish, get to the gym, find my man and have cervesas with him at sunset, all would be right in the world. But knowing my luck, he is the guy who gave the STD to the girl at the pharmacy.
http://sfcrossfitlog.blogspot.com/
http://www.sanfranciscocrossfit.com/
If you look closely, you can see thier tails and bodies...
There he is, up in the tree... they really do blend in well.
Right before this picture, he was standing on his hind legs... doing a balancing act tight rope walk.
No comments:
Post a Comment