Por un pelito de rana

This Spanish phrase literally means “by a frog’s whisker.” The idiomatic equivalent in English is “a close shave,” as when we narrowly escape from danger. The danger for us during the Thanksgiving holiday was giving up and resigning ourselves to the same weekend routine: getting groceries, washing laundry, and catching up on schoolwork. So yeah, we did that on a couple of days, but despite our mutual aversion to planned tours, we signed up for two trips, a day pass to the Tabacón hot springs beside Arenal volcano in the northwest part of the country and a cruise from Puntarenas through the Gulf of Nicoya to Isla Tortuga on the Pacific coast.

In honor of the impending holidays, I will recap these two trips to the tune of a famous Christmas carol:

12 jokes too many (por exemplo) 11 pools a-boiling (at 27ºC to 42ºC, 80ºC to 107ºC) 10 Cubans kvetching (about a life they haven't lived for two decades after moving to Miami) 9 waterfalls misting (and mixing with the rain, which made them all that much more relaxing) $8 piña coladas (but worth every cent at my first swim-up bar)

7 kayaks awaiting (although we choose to snorkel instead)

6 ships a-sharing (a single beach on a remote island)

5 hours of no school 4 heaping plates (of fish, chicken, rice, salad, milk and rice, and even wine on the side)3 palm trees (to lie under and see this view)2 luxuries (the jacuzzi and Caribbean band in the background)and a nice sunset for the cruise home

My holiday wish to all of you -- 'cause you ain't gettin' no card through the Costa Rican Correo, you see -- is that you can de-stress in time for the madness of the new year. May it not overwhelm you so fast that it seems like only two days of rest.

Al final del arco iris

Not all idioms are different between Spanish and English. The literal translation of this Spanish phrase is "at the end of the rainbow," which shares its figurative translation with English: an unreachable place with an unattainable prize. The phrase fits very well for us this weekend because Tim and I chased a pot of gold we would never find: a relaxing beach vacation. We had reserved a rental car so we, including the dog, could find some solitude in a cabin in Manzanillo, on the Caribbean coast. The plan was to do nothing but rest and recover.

But upon going to Alamo right after school on Wednesday, excited to start our road trip, we found out that we were not allowed to rent the car. Because we have been in the country longer than three months, we are no longer classified as tourists; therefore, we must have Costa Rican driver's licenses to be on the road. However, the type of work visas we have do not allow us to get such licenses. Heck, we're not even able to get a cell-phone number without a cédula, a legal identification document.

So there we were, down $50 for our lost cabin reservation and lacking the escape we so desperately had awaited. I was in need of serenity, now, so I decided to look for another rainbow. The next morning, during my regular walk with Sage on our property, I was able to find one:
Unfortunately, there was no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow either. But I did reach a small epiphany about unattained prizes. With all the crap being thrown my way, there are still some flowers worth stopping to smell.