la alma

I surrendered my pride long ago and admitted that my trip is not unique in any way. I am not the shark venturing through the sea of travel alone, I am in a school with thousands of others. The irony is that all of us fish feel like sharks with our own insights, thoughts, and ideas about life, the world, etc. So every day as I meet these delightful, independent, fish-like-shark humans the conversations are present and genuine as we reveal our guts.

The fragility of life has been a running theme over the last few days. For me it started on the way to Leon, Nicaragua when we passed a man covered in a tarp and the scene of the accident that took his life. My first thought was what he had for breakfast...did he prepare it or did someone make it for him? Was it the typical gallopinto (rice and beans), platinos and eggs? As he shoveled it into his mouth was he thinking about work, family, lovers, bees? Did he die instantly or did he have time to say something? What would I say? (i hope i won´t need to say anything). Now that man is buried, there was probably a service, and everyone continues on....

What if there´s a group of souls that we are meant to encounter during the course of our life/lives? I met Lukas on the beach and over Christmas goodies his mom sent to him from Spain we fantasized about this soul posse. The thought of my soul floating in a small crowd of other souls while our mortal bodies subconsciously search for each other made my heart thump. I feel I have already met a few of these beings - those people that I secretly fall in love with ....before my attraction was somewhat inexplicable but the idea of our souls being connected is absolutely thrilling.

I first met S in the internet cafe in Leon, and then I saw him again in Managua while he was being mauled by a group of men trying to persuade him to take their perspective taxi or bus...so when we both ended up in the same hotel in Liberia, Costa Rica it was time for a getting-to-know-you-better conversation. Unfortunately, S was on the vacation from hell...everything was going wrong and two days before he was going home he was in a horribly traumatic car accident. A near death experience while traveling alone is worthy of some serious empathy so while he sipped rum I listened to him re-work the priorities in his life. To avoid any nightmares we stayed up until the wee morning hours chatting and he left me with a book he recently bought at (drum roll please...) Powell´s!! A Powell´s bookmark and everything...oh the pleasures of home.