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My last year of my 40’s. Pretty wild to think about. I don’t feel like my 40s should be coming to an end, it went by so dang quick. I had Ayden 10 days before I turned 40, so that could be the reason it went by in a blink? Either way it’s been one heck of a ride and I’m really happy to be spending this year out of the country. It feels like a really good time to be shaking things up a bit, taking time to call in what I want the next 10 years to look like:)

I woke on my bday morning feeling like I wanted to hike, uphill, for a long time. I’m used to hiking more than what we’ve been doing since our arrival. We have a great street walk we do most mornings, but I wanted a woods wander, or jungle wander I suppose. We parked the car at the bottom of the road to our property and up we went. 

Adam and I got to spend a solid couple of hours sweating it out, wandering up Maderal road into the neighboring community Alegria. We came back down and hiked around our property of Tacotal, taking the old way down to the river. The jungle near the river feels ancient. It’s where most of the bigger, older trees live on the property. 

A good portion of the path was overgrown, it happens so fast here. Luckily we had brought the machete and cleared the path a bit as we went. This fallen tree below is definitely ready to come down.. we found there was a safer path that didn’t go under it on the way back up:) We’ll use that next time. 

The Machuca river is incredibly special. I always feel like I’m being taken care of there. Like it can hold anything I am carrying, and more so, it can carry it away. I was holding a lot of stress in my body. From the move, from weird insecurities that bubble up with time and space to reflect, from changing countries and all that it entails. I’ve been feeling a bit heavy at times and the river, with its swift moving, powerful water, washed it away. It made me cry. Like i just needed the river to remind me to let go, not fight the current, and be ok with all that comes from this wild life. It’s was a reminder that all the ups and downs are what make us who we are. I felt a sense of relief to let it go and know that I can come back to be reminded whenever I need.

We hiked up to hang with our friend Human and his sweetheart. I got to watch him chase away Capuchin monkeys from his jackfruit tree with a pitchfork. I laughed so hard and will have that memory forever. It was amazing. 

For dinner we went up to this restaurant called Aeromar on Maderal road. It is super close but took us a while to get there because it’s a 40% grade up and we were following a herd of cattle and a cattle truck. But it was worth the wait. 

The view, the people and the sunset really showed up:) 

It was an incredible way to start my next rotation around the sun:)