First full day

I’ve arrived! It was late last night, but I’ve arrived. And honestly, when I got here I was beyond uncomfortable. Everything was so out of the norm for me. So out of my element. When I learned that I was going to be living in a tent, I seriously considered eating the $367 I paid for my plane ticket and turn and run. A tent, I’m living in a tent for the next five week. But it’s a nice tent, honest. Fully furnished, even comes with a cat. It’s quite crafty how they’ve set the whole thing up. It’s like a studio apartment, raised from the ground with a nifty little ramp to walk up onto the wraparound porch. It’s covered by a roof to shield the rain…we have lots of rain. Inside my studio, I have a double bed, night stand and a three tiered mutli-purpose shelf. My back window faces the jun gle, and I’ve learned that the sound of the rain is amplified by the giant leaves on the trees. It’s never raining as hard as it sounds. Rain and birds, that’s all I hear. Truly, truly a peaceful soothing sound. I used to use an iphone app called “rainsounds” to fall asleep every night, and now it’s going to take everything in me to stay awake when the rain hits. My brain associates the sound with sleep, and today, since I woke up at 6:30am it’s already rained 6 times in four hours. The rain doesn’t last long, usually 5-15 minute incremental showers.

I had my first dip in the water today. They took me to a place called the Champagne Pond. The pond is geothermally heated, meaning it’s heated by the volcano from below the earth where the lava lives. I think the story goes, it's called the Champange pond because the heat from below produces tiny bubbles in the water. Or something like that. It was really cool to lie on my back floating on the water listening to tiny crackles in my ear. I attempted to snorkel to see deeper into the crystal clear water, but the snorkel and I did not get along. My body just refuses to accept the fact that with the help of the breathing apparatus it’s perfectly ok to take a breath and relax.

Driving around the island is beyond breath taking. Coconuts and mangos litter the side of the road “like garbage” I was told, “No one buys mangos” It’s so odd to see a piece of $3 fruit lying on the ground. I tried something called Egg Fruit today, and a papaya for the first time. It was my first day of vegetarian living, and I couldn’t have picked a better day. Every Wednesday Polestar hosts an evening of song and meditation which is followed by a potluck. Over 30 people from the community showed and the food they brought was indescribable… because I have no idea what half of it was. I tried everything! Even the avocado lime pudding.