The Vision Quest Chronicles: Tales of Living One's Vision

Today, the last real day in Costa Rica, was all about relaxing. A bit of work this morning with coffee then breakfast then sunning by the pool overlooking the central valley. I really enjoyed sitting on the hillside in the hot sun with the cool breeze.  Around 2:00 this fun started to wane and I wanted some exercise so I joined my family for a hike to the waterfall.  after all of the lush rain forest we have been in, we were a bit non-plused but it was still a lovely little walk down the trail marked “easy”. Well this did not entirely suffice for the exercise I was seeking so my 10 yr old nephew and I decided to then take the trail marked “steep.” as he remarked on several occasions, “they did not lie”  After trekking down and down and down in the hot sun and only just beginning to hear the other cataracts below us, we decided to turn back.  How did I go from chillin by the pool Hollywood Hills-style to “I’d like a nice brisk walk” to end up in the scene from Kill Bill when Uma Thurman is walking up the 10000 steps to the temple of her kung fu master? I even carried a bamboo staff which my “ninja” nephew had abandoned to my capable, if somewhat shaky hands. (I had skipped lunch…not a good idea).

After surviving this ordeal I had to hike yet another mile to the restaurant on the hill. I entered the lobby as if I’d just hiked the Andes, all sweaty and red and asked for a diet coke and some water…STAT! I was offered Diet Pepsi instead but I was in no position to quibble as this was an emergency.

After this things settled down considerably. I washed up in the ladies room and returned to eat a very civilized salad. After this late lunch, shower, short chill and off to the spa for a quick scrub. I will not do a full review on the experience as I’m exhausted but let’s just say the phrase “water-boarding” kept springing to mind.

Alas it was a splendid day and a splendid trip. I feel healthy clean, rested and nourished. What could be better?

Pura Vida,

Nicole

To view more photos please visit Vision Quest Retreats on Facebook 

**If you are a woman (21+) and would like to contribute to the book I’m writing on women living their Visions of Success please click this link to access The Vision Quest Survey **

If you have any questions about the project please contact:

Nicole Cutts, Ph.D., CEO
Cutts Consulting, LLC & Vision Quest Retreats

www.nicolecutts.com

202.669.5777

I am exhausted from all the fun nature and animals.  didn’t want to get behind so this is a temp post till en la manana. will at least post some pics.

Pura Vida…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,

Okay! Good Morning I’m back after a night’s sleep. Having some of this great Costa Rican coffee while I write this before breakfast.

Yesterday was all about the ANIMALS. I am a nature freak so this was a perfect day for me. We got up early had breakfast (which is included at Xandari…awesome) then took off by 8:00 for the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. I stayed there last year at the Peace Lodge and was very much looking forward to seeing the place again. Drove through rainy hilly cattle country, green and gorgeous.

The first animal we saw while making our way onto the property was the adorable White Faced Coti. He was just on the breakfast terrace having his coffee, oh I mean drinking from puddles on the ground. The La Paz Waterfall Gardens are a sanctuary with great enclosures and some animals just on the loose, nothing dangerous just pretty butterflies and birds and of course the coti.

The first stop, the hummignbird garden where we got to feed the adorable little flying jewels. Then Monkeys! My old friend Esperanza, the Black Handed Spider Monkey was there and she put her little hand outside the bars to greet me. Have you ever held a monkey’s hand? Very cool is all I can say.

Then butterflies, the aviary and the frog house. Saw some wildly colorful birds and a frog I had not seen last time. By the way the frogs are not behind glass but in a sort of hot house and you have to find them on top of and under leaves.

Then a stop at the casita they have on property (a reproduction of an old farmhouse) where they served cheese, a sort of heavy cornbread and agua dulce con leche which is hot sugar cane drink with milk…that stuff is delicious!

A quick stop by the big cats, beautiful but in zoo-like enclosures, then a walk down into the rain forest, which the sanctuary borders. This was a nice easy walk down after all the activity we have been doing. You come to three amazing cataracts as you take this walk which only takes about 40 mins.

Finally lunch and a quick stop back by the aviary to see the Tucanes again then back here to the hotel.

I took a walk down to the spa then to the pool where I stayed until the sun started to go down. A short stop by the yoga hut for some easy poses and a spot of meditation then back to the room to shower and go to dinner.

A lovely day!

I look forward to you joining me on my next Vision Quest Retreat.

To view more photos please visit Vision Quest Retreats on Facebook 

**If you are a woman (21+) and would like to contribute to the book I’m writing on women living their Visions of Success please click this link to access The Vision Quest Survey **

If you have any questions about the project please contact:

Nicole Cutts, Ph.D., CEO
Cutts Consulting, LLC & Vision Quest Retreats

www.nicolecutts.com

202.669.5777

The word du jour?    FUN! 

Just got back from waterfall repelling…what a blast. Flying through the air, toward the ground this time. Five repels and a good 20 min hike back up and out of the canyon. Change out of wet clothes then lunch (arroz con pollo, and topped this off with some good Costa Rican coffee). Back at the hotel…soon pulling out to head to the next spot. Again unsure of internet access but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Pura Vida!

To view more photos from Costa Rica please visit Vision Quest Retreats on Facebook 

 **If you are a woman (21+) and would like to contribute to the book I’m writing on women living their Visions of Success please click this link to access The Vision Quest Survey **

If you have any questions about the project please contact:

Nicole Cutts, Ph.D., CEO
Cutts Consulting, LLC & Vision Quest Retreats

www.nicolecutts.com

202.669.5777

Blue Jean Frog

If you spend any time in Costa Rica you will hear the phrase Pura Vida. Sometimes it is in answer to how are you, sometimes it is a proclamation and sometimes said to signify resignation in the sort of way people say “that’s life”

Pura vida literally means Pura = pure and vida = life, but “Pure life” in Spanish would be “Vida pura” instead, so the real meaning is closer to “plenty of life”, “full of life” or “this is living!”

I like to think of this as full of life, because that is what this place is and how it can make you feel.

Yesterday I took you through describing my day pretty much in relation to my senses and less about the activities. Today continued to be a sensual day but also a long one so I will close with more of a traditional travelogue, movement from point A to B with a dash of intentionality thrown in.

Early this morning coffee in the lobby then off in the van to the hanging bridges, a walk through the rainforest on trails and across suspended bridges. Lush, rainy but not a downpour. Monkeys, birds, the cute and deadly blue jean frog and a tiny maybe not so cute bright yellow highly poisonous eyelash viper.

Taste, the sense that was not particularly awake yesterday came alive today at lunch, thrilled by a freshly made spicy guacamole followed by some tasty arroz con pollo.

A lovely nap back in my room then to the hot springs for some more cuddling with the water.  Cold rain pelting me while I sat like a snow monkey in the steamy pools…divine. Scenes like a Gauguin painting on ecstasy…steam everywhere water dripping rushing misting, coming back to rest on the earth.

A massage in a large open bungalow on the bank of the creek, open to the rushing water. Good to let go to breath to allow, to be in the moment.

Very sleepy and unsure of internet access at next spot, but I hope to be able to connect again.

 Pura Vida,  Nicole

To view more photos please visit Vision Quest Retreats on Facebook 

**If you are a woman (21+) and would like to contribute to the book I’m writing on women living their Visions of Success please click this link to access The Vision Quest Survey **

If you have any questions about the project please contact:

Nicole Cutts, Ph.D., CEO
Cutts Consulting, LLC & Vision Quest Retreats

www.nicolecutts.com

202.669.5777

Today was all about the sensual…awareness of my senses and how they are pleased by this place. So instead of saying where I went and what I did I’m going more with what I experienced through my senses related to sight, sound, touch, smell and spirit…  

Sight: COLORS, green of every description, crystal drops of rain hang, drip from the frilly edges of a delicate white orchid its center a purplepink. A sort of magenta mixed with black on the long leaves of the corn plant, its leaves prettier than most flowers’ petals, certainly much stronger. Looking at the world from 200 feet above the forest canopy and out over the lake that men made, sky and clouds and blue and more green.

Sound; the wind rushing past my ears, the whir of the zip line screaming silently across a canyon. Laying back first in the rushing winds and then the rushing waters of the hot springs and hearing the water almost believing I could hear where it started, at its source I traced the water back on its journey through the roiling earth, heated by the most awesome of all gods, the volcano. The rushing water does not just make one sound, when you listen you will hear about four or five distinct voices. A bird just now laughing screeching outside my door, the profusion of tree frogs, cicadas and other insects. In the midst of all this sound lies pure silence, peace distilled.

Birds call to one another all day and then there is the rain.  The rain, sometimes unsettling and relentless, batters down at times like it will never stop. It leaves everything wet to the…

Touch: How can you feel air? But sometimes you can especially when the air is soft and wet and just a little bit warm. Feeling the wind whip past my face and ears, kissing my cheeks awakening me from my sleep reminding me that I am alive. Hot. The heat that rises from the hot springs. You can feel the steam and the spray on your face. You close your eyes and let the water caress you, rush past you, threatening to drag you on, then you feel that pull and you want to go with it. I lie back in the shallows, a swirling pool and feel the water rush over me. As I lay in the hot water I feel cool raindrops refreshing on my face.

Smell: I took a moment today above the canopy to smell the air. The air smelled good and by this I mean you could actually smell the Goodness in the air. When air is good you want to pull it inside you. It feels like pure life with no chemicals no poisons just good clean air that you know comes to you with only the best intentions. Tonight walking to dinner the air actually smelled sweet. I love when that happens…

Spirit: I love when this happens. You are looking all over to find that perfect orchid so you can take a detail of it’s center. You walk around the gardens all day in search of the perfect specimen. The right orchid never really jumps out at you. When you return in the afternoon to your room someone has placed an orchid on the the small wooden table in the corner.

To view more photos please visit Vision Quest Retreats on Facebook 

**If you are a woman (21+) and would like to contribute to the book I’m writing on women living their Visions of Success please click this link to access The Vision Quest Survey **

If you have any questions about the project please contact:

Nicole Cutts, Ph.D., CEO
Cutts Consulting, LLC & Vision Quest Retreats

www.nicolecutts.com

202.669.5777

Heading on safari rafting trip down La Rivera Pena Blanca

Earlier in my quest to discover my vision I was considering how my passion for travel might figure into my purpose. Ever since I was a child I loved to travel and did so at every opportunity. I think I inherited this love from my mother and perhaps her mother who I referred to as my “nomadic grandmother” because after leaving Jamaica in 1976 she never stayed in one country for more than about 6 months choosing instead to keep no residence moving between our home in Maryland, Jamaica, Florida and Canada. Not only do I love seeing new places and learning about different cultures but frankly, perhaps also like my mother and her mother before her, I do not like to stay still for very long. Stillness breeds boredom in me and boredom I find deadly.

La Rivera Pena Blanca

When thinking about my passion for travel and how this might form into a vision (my true purpoe for which I am also paid well) I considered being a travel writer. Then I briefly considered just working to make enough money to take fabulous trips but it occurred to me that this did not feel right. It was while sitting by a poolside, of all things, in Kruger National Park in South Africa that I distinctly recall realizing that even while in the most exotic locales I feel empty if I am not productive or on some sort of a mission. Eventually this realization led to an understanding; my work must involve travel. This is, in part why Vision Quest Retreats is such a compelling vision for me. Doing what I love; helping women clarify and achieve their visions of success, traveling to exotic locales and “working” in settings that I love and in which I thrive.

All that said I am begging your allowance while I indulge my former fantasy of being a travel writer while I am here in Costa Rica. I will be doing this little travel blog while I am having fun, working on my book/s (always), and doing a little location scouting for future retreats.  

March 18, 2011: Today safari rafting trip down the river Pena Blanca that leads to Nicaragua, saw many birds, fish, howler monkeys, Jesus lizards running across the water, long nosed bats, a couple of dogs and… a cow?

In the Garden

Later went to hot springs thermal spa here at the Tabacon. The water is heated by the active Arenal Volcano and falls in a series of pools surrounded by lush tropical landscape. Lunch traditional Costa Rican food on the terrace overlooking the pool. The sun was divine after what seemed a long winter. Saw the first snake I’ve seen in CR…thrilling!

Siesta in my room late afternoon, then dinner at La Novilla Steak House. A nice meal in an open air restaurant under a full moon. Heading to bed after I do some real writing…

Buenas Noches y XXOO,

N

Don’t expect any great nuggets in this entry. After a few complications, namely discovering that my passport was expired about 24 hrs before I was to leave the country, I did make it onto a 6:00 AM flight this morning. Grateful to the US Passport Agency for hooking me up, but have to admit I’ m a tad salty about what has to be the ugliest passport photo in recorded history. My vanity does not like the idea of looking at that mug for the next 10 yrs, but life is good, inspite of my ego.

So why am I writing? Just to kick start my travel blog/vision quest entries. As on many of my adventures I have set an intention and it helps me to put it out there so I will at least feel accountable. Two intentions; 1) enjoy my time and my family and 2) do some writing and organizing for the book I’m working on about the process of women living their visions of success. This travel blog will focus on the fun and the vision questing. (Family is private.)

Going to bed soon as I awoke at 3:00 AM this morning after a harrowing day yesterday and then an awesome Women Owned Business Wednesdays…perhaps more on this in another post.

after a long day of travel

Listening to Sade and enjoying the peace and solitude of my temporary digs. Torn between beginning work now and getting some sleep….instinct says? Sleep. Ok I will follow this.

Off en la manana to raft down the river Pena Blanca.  Hope we spot some monkeys and crocodiles and anything else that wishes to show its face.

Buenes noches,

N