Empty Nesters on a Green Global Trek

The dogs are in the rental 4×4 and we are ready to go to the beach to see how our new yoga deck looks. We have the whole day and a fair amount of driving to do to get there. When we are about five minutes outside of San Jan Del Sur, we hear a loud bang and it feels as though the car has hit something in the road.

We are on the new main road which is tarred and very good. Suddenly we see the front left wheel of our car literally fly high through the air and over the side of the road. Ben manages to steer the car and luckily he is able to pull over to the side of the road (what a man!).

By the time we turn the car off, three men come up from the side with our wheel, to see where it came from. And minutes later, they offer to help us and after about an hour of work, they put the wheel back on. It’s clear the car is not going anywhere, even with the wheel on as the axle has been ground flat.

As we try to contact the car rental agency, my day is saved by Francisco, a man who drives a three wheeler with a covered seat. He stops on his way home to see what’s going on. He is not in a rush. We start talking and soon he offers me a most welcome seat in the shade of his covered tricycle and we start talking about his job and his family. Eventually Ben and I give up waiting for the rental service to come with another car and we stop a taxi and go into town to have lunch and a swim.

Fours hours later we finally are making our way to Ostional, with a new car. The same landscape that had been green and lush just a few weeks earlier, is now dry and mustard color, more reminiscent of the Veld in Africa. It’s windy too.

We arrive at the property, with about half an hour before sunset to see that the bamboo deck has been installed. It is nestled half way down the ravine with fabulous views of the trees and cacti, with birds flying above and monkeys close by.

It feels natural and airy and is exactly as we imagined it.

The bamboo yoga deck is thus our third piece of incremental building, after the rustic pathway with steps to the beach and the bamboo shower. Now that we have the deck, it can be used for yoga as well as a platform to spend the night.