Collecting Pretty Things

The tide is out and I am on a run down the beach. Fish dart away in tide pools as I approach and crabs rip sideways into their holes. Around the next bend I see another swath of open sand as far as I can see to yet the next bend. I run along the surf line and see beautiful shells everywhere. In fact, a large shell the size of a papaya has been there so long undisturbed that the tide has actually worn the edges round and smooth. One shell catches my eye. Like a glass blower’s masterpiece it is delicate with perfect curves converging to a point. Sometimes the stuff created in nature just hits you like a train:

I place the shell in my pocket without thinking.  

Super Highways, Back Roads & Enjoying The Present

Yesterday I was in Tamarindo less than 10 miles away as the crow flies. My wife and I had been there 18 years ago when we were still dating. Back then we had had backpacks and camped on the empty beach drinking Pilsens and watching the sun set. Today there is a JW Marriott just down that same beach. Crazy.

My lady says, “you can either live in the past or enjoy the present.” She may be on to something because I’ve never met anyone who lives in the past but can also sincerely enjoy the present that has overtaken it. We joined about a thousand others on the Tamarindo beach at dusk. The sunset is still beautiful and the surf break is still the same but the village is a super highway of tourism. I have also learned to be careful about criticizing industry that is essentially built by my presence here as a traveler and those like me… or kind of like me.

Back in the present, the tide is slow and rhythmic like a meditation.  Why do I get this beach all to myself today? Perhaps I’ll return here in 18 years to find another hotel.  There will always be those that feel more comfortable on the superhighway and those that prefer to move to the edge.  When enough people discover the edge, the highway extends there and the cycle repeats.

Pretty Things

I have now run further along the empty beach and my one shell has turned into a little collection.

Unconsciously, I have amassed a handful of pretty things. I think back to a few days prior when we rode horses along the edge of the Arenal volcano and then laid down some cash to go to the most beautiful developed hot springs that I’ve ever been to.

A woman emerged from the locker room at these hot springs in full makeup and then posed for a quick photo with boyfriend as photographer. Ok now time to enjoy the springs, maybe? But then she kept slightly changing her pose, snapping, viewing, adjusting, and repeating. Collecting pretty things. She easily spent 20 minutes there while I alternated ducking under the waterfall and floating eyes closed humming in the mineral water. By the time I had casually seen this ritual with 15-20 more people within an hour I started to get mildly creeped out like I was in an episode of Black Mirror.

I drifted back and forth between my own mind and the awareness of those around me. One particular model looking girl actually set her tripod up in the middle of the path and was preening and smiling. She moved slowly cycling through poses like a garish circus animal in a bikini. We clumsily edged our way around her camera and she never broke expression or eye contact with the video camera as we walked off to the next pool down the line of 30 or so. What does one do with these pretty things? Post them of course.

Experiences Versus Appearances

My son is 12 and talks about followers and “subs.”  To what end I don’t know.  If it is all to get subs what is the inherent value?  What happens if everyone is trying to build and audience rather than build something else? I myself write on the internet.  I like to think that there is something pure about doing it for the sake of focused and supercharged creation with minimal marketing as opposed to for the sake of focused and supercharged marketing with minimal and meaningless content.  It does have me thinking twice about deleting my photos from the trip.  But wait they also trigger memories.  

I do have a roll of pics of infinity pools, sunsets, tropical cocktails, and various manufactured adventures that were really fun and really picturesque. However, what good would it do you to see them? There is value in showing that financial independence habits do actually result in a life of great experiences rather than one of miserly pain as some would accuse. However, no thoughtful person wants to just encourage feelings of inadequacy or envy when the goal is to inspire action.

What Remains

A big part of why I get to do adventures like this one is thanks to financial independence. Notoriety, political influence, and other types of status are temporary. They go away unless endlessly maintained. However, saving and investing keeps compounding and working for you regardless of whether anyone knows who you are. Even if you and everyone around you stops caring about them, your finances retain power. Pretty things are attractive but never sustain.

I look at my hand full of shells and then down the beach.  Endless shells lay in the sand.  Some are assuredly even more beautiful.  I once met a man while travelling who didn’t take any photos.  I asked him why and he tried to explain that he had spent over half of his life travelling and living a nomadic life on the road.  He had his journal out and explained something about the photo being a lie but the experience being the thing.  I offered that a picture is still worth a thousand words but it is the experience behind the photo triggered by the words or the story that one tells with the photo that matters.

I got back to our place from the beach. My wife and kids sat by the empty pool.

We thought someone else came by after an hour or so but it turned out to just be a stray dog. Super common here in Costa Rica. I step inside to get a drink of water. Semi transparent geckos skitter as the bolt of the door turns with a knock. In the kitchen I see jars of shells sitting behind the sink. Likely collected from a thousand walks.

The shells kind of blend into the scenery.

I hope you enjoyed this bit of travel journalling while I’m down here in Costa Rica.

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