Quest

I feel like I’ve been making a bit of a hash of these travel reports; but, I am on the plane to Costa Rica and it would be so nice to be caught up! The end is in sight as I’ve actually written up most everything else and all I have to do is go through the process of putting this up on World Nomad, and that will take a bit of time.  Not to mention, going through the photos in order to put some up as well.

Santa Barbara -- where my parents used to vacation, visiting their dear friends there. Santa Barbara, where my aunt visited as well. It looked just as it sounds; just as I’d imagined. This had to have been the look in my mother’s eyes when she said “Santa Barbara”. Santa Barbara looked perfectly like itself. Ocean views, hillside homes, curving vistas, terra cotta everywhere, and fine decorative tiles, palm trees and many fine tropical plants, and everything done up as befitting a middle class vacation town. Terra Cotta tiles lined the streets and made for an easy journey rolling our suitcases down from the bus depot to the hostel, making our way past the upscale shops. As it turned out, everyone was preparing for the annual Christmas Parade.  The hostel was rather on the young side; but we found our way into it, and it worked out just fine for two nights. In fact, we had such a wonderful time visiting with a Maori healer, Cushla, who worked there, that we were tempted to stay another. During our stay we had a marvelous walk up to the Whole Foods at Four Seasons, and when we turned around to come back, we took the steep downhill back into town. An exhilerating hike because the vistas were so marvellous. A couple of nights, and we were on our way to Santa Monica. Sure, we would be in monstrous, smog laden L.A., but there were rewards there, too. So many books, so many gurus carry the L.A., or suburb of L.A. such as Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, address.  Santa Monica, we had heard, had better air than L. A., too.  My friend, Aranka, had no timidities about visiting L.A. when she certified as a Bikram Yoga teacher. Organics were widely available; so, why not go for it! We were on our way!

But not before we went for a wonderful organic meal in Santa Barbara at a place called Sojourners Café. There we met someone who told us about a drumming circle on the beach at sunset. I was really interested in it, but, as so often happens, it didn’t quite fit in with the timing of how things worked out. There never seems to be enough time to do anything! Whether at work or not! Sometimes I think it’s really just the shortness of the day in winter that leaves us chasing around to do things before the sun goes down.