Going Home

I've had the chance to see so many old friends and spend some quality time with my parents. However, I've found it impossible to meet up with all the friends I wanted to see, so perhaps you can understand perhaps why I haven't kept up my blog so well. It's the last day of my trip and I'm so glad to be going home!!! Home to Julio, home to our little house, home to family and friends in Costa Rica. Home where I'll be able to be reliably connected and able to keep up with my part of our great business, Boyero Tours.

I have experienced the great hospitality of friends, family, and new friends (via the hospitality network Couchsurfing.com!) However, it has been extremely frustrating at times because my laptop wouldn't connect to the wireless network, or there wasn't one, or you had to pay through the nose to use it, etc., etc. Anyway! I struggled to stay connected and work on itineraries and emails to clients and potential clients throughout the nearly 4 weeks I've been away, but it hasn't been a picnic. On my next trip to the States I'll do a few things differently – first off I'll probably buy a Tracfone (prepaid cell) and see how that works – it's just too frustrating to be without a cell phone in this day and age, especially in Portland where all my friends have one. Second, I will schedule out a chunk of time each day (when friends and/or family are working or have other activities) for working on Boyero Tours, not just expect it to happen organically - this mistaken strategy ended up feeling like I was taking time away from visiting with family and friends. Thirdly I will look ahead of time for places I can get wireless connection and maybe pay a one-time monthly fee or something for hotspot access if I won't be able to get consistent free wireless access.

Okay, so... I'm still getting the hang of this blog thing. I write differently than I would if I was writing purely for myself, say in a journal. I suppose that's good, but it is strange to write for an audience, albeit a small one.