Get Caught in a Paradise!

I am writing this overlooking a lush green garden filled with tropical plants against the backdrop of a frequently rumbling Volcano. Behind me is a trail leading into the Rainforest. I am staying at the Arenal Lodge in Costa Rica. While this accomodation had all forms of creature comfort stitched into the Wooden Cabin, i still cannot believe where i spent the last night. We were at the Pacuare Lodge, right in the middle of the Rainforest jungle, on the banks of the Wild pacuare river. It was a tree house suite perched on top of a mini hill. I didn't think I'd like sleeping without air-conditioning. But it took me back to my childhood. The sounds of the night were managed to creep easily into the cabin; the creatures whose names i did not know, the rustling of the wind through the trees. I was awakened by the first spot of daylight at 6 a.m., and then by sound of the running rapids soon after, but I didn't mind, because I wanted to greet the day!



Be it the Rain forests of Costa Rica or the Beaches of Trinidad or the Colonia pleasures of the Latin world that was once ruled by the Spanish, the thought that always crosses your mind when you are on an Unwinding vacation like this is would this live be really so good if you decide to live this all year and not just come here to soak yourself in it for a brief period of time?

In places of such beauty, we slowly shed our city skins; we soften, mellow with pleasure. We come to rooms like this and think: What am I doing wrong with my life? Why can't I live here forever? Buy a house next to a beach or score a cabin in the middle of a lush cloudforest, like this, furnish it with colonial antiques and fixtuers, run a little bed-and-breakfast, or just live on my savings. You begin to fantasize about the life you could have: Get up in the sun-washed morning and work for three or four hours, then walk down to the beach to play in the water for a bit or trek up the jungle trails to get lost in the woods, eat a large lunch in the small garden, take an afternoon nap for a couple of hours under the ceiling fan. Wake up and go to the beach for a swim, walk along it for a bit and sit on a rock to watch the last green flash of the sunset. In the evening, hit the same pub you have been to a hundred times in the last few months and have a pint in the company of the same two or three people you have gotten to know in town, and then walk back up the hill to your quiet bedroom, filled with books that you can read until 2 a.m., nobody will tell you otherwise. In the morning, you find a check waiting from your father back home or your bank broker in Seattle—not a large check by American standards but enough to allow you to live six more months of this life. Do it, the demon whispers in your ear. Chuck it all up, tell your boss at the hi-tech company where he can put his evaluation; stay here. Live a little.

I am sure every one of you - at least the avid travellers - would have felt this way at one point or the other, but this kind of thought surely does not cross your mind in every random tourist spot you hit. These thoughts creep into your silly brain only when you find yourself suddenly caught in a magical place that you cannot seem to escape or leave behind so easily! Here are some of the places where I came so dangerously close to following this kind of desire! :

• The hill towns of Cinque Terre
• The walled city of Dubrovnik
• San Miguel De Allende - the Colonial jewel
• Ronda - the sleepy hill town
• Waikiki - the city with the magical beach

I am sure you will have a list of your own.. go ahead , jot it down or make up one now and pack your bags and head out to your paradise and succumb to the desires!