Nature – Page 9 – Happier Than A Billionaire

CAUGHT RED HANDED

By Nadine Hays Pisani| 2018-04-15T18:19:56-04:00 February 9th, 2011|Categories: Nature|Tags: animals|

Costa Rica Cost Of Living Update: Garbage Pick Up- $6/month

We wake to our alarm going off. My husband jolts up ready to surprise an intruder, grabbing an assortment of weaponry he keeps just for this occasion. However, there was no bloodshed, no fisticuffs, no fight to the death. Our interloper was this little guy, caught red handed eating a banana.

He got up on our table, knocked down our security camera, and watched as we took a photo shoot of him. Similar to Barbara Streisand, he only allowed us to photograph his left side.

And just to show us who’s boss, he defecated on our terrace as he left. And just to show him who’s boss, I stepped in it the next morning.

My guess he is some kind of opossum. A banana stealing, alarm smashing, terrace pooping opossum.

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ZIP LINING AND PIT VIPERS

By Nadine Hays Pisani| 2018-04-15T18:19:57-04:00 January 31st, 2011|Categories: Nature|Tags: canopy tour, snakes, zip line|

Costa Rica Cost of Living Update: Zip Line Tour $45/person

People shouldn’t be nervous when zip lining in Costa Rica. Many companies have you tethered to an additional cable making it extra safe while flying through the jungle. It’s one of the highlights of traveling to Costa Rica, getting up close and personal to the monkeys and sloths that make their home so high in the canopy.

It turns out the real hazard was this little guy, an extremely venemous yellow viper hiding in the brush on the ground. Their venom affects both the cardiovascular and nervous system. Besides the distinct possibility of death, here is a bucket list of all the groovy things that can happen if you are unlucky enough to get bit by one: pain, necrosis leading to amputation, vomiting, and the mac daddy of all ailments…severe diarrhea rendering you unconscious. I don’t know about you but if the diarrhea is that bad I’d rather be sleeping while it’s happening.

I took this shot and quickened my pace through the rain forest. Zip lining was fun but not getting bit by a viper was priceless.

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A SHOT WORTH TAKING

By Nadine Hays Pisani| 2018-04-15T18:19:57-04:00 January 27th, 2011|Categories: Nature|Tags: hummingbirds|

Costa Rica Cost Of Living Update: 15 ounce bottle of honey-$4

It’s common to wait for the right time in life to pursue one’s dream but sometimes that perfect moment is disguised by the fear of leaping out of one’s comfort zone.

I am guilty of this. When it was time to make this move I came up with ten different reasons why we should stay in the states. I detailed every hair-raising situation that could happen while living in a foreign country. And believe me, I have a good imagination.

My husband calmly listened and gave ten better reasons why this could be the adventure of a lifetime. He reminded me that my fear was change… simply that. And change is one of the strongest reasons why people don’t go out and grab the life they always wanted, often times hovering in the same place for years.

Hummingbirds are uniquely designed to hover in the air while flapping their wings up to 90 times per second. Their speed allows them to dash in and out of flowers drinking the nectar with their perfectly designed bill. They keep moving forward even after the brief seconds when they need to fly backwards, something only hummingbirds can do.

My husband snapped this picture after waiting patiently for the right moment to come. He knew it was a shot worth taking.

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ALWAYS LOOKING UP

By Nadine Hays Pisani| 2018-04-15T18:19:57-04:00 January 24th, 2011|Categories: Nature|Tags: palm trees, punta uva|

Costa Rica Cost Of Living Update: Seven ounce bottle of 15 SPF suntan lotion- $14 (Next business idea…selling suntan lotion on the black market)

There is nothing as tranquil as sitting under a palm tree, much to the consternation of my husband. Ever since I’ve known him, he has a fear of getting hit in the head with a coconut or, depending on the season, an icicle. I’ve seen him zig-zag through a bunch of palm trees like a football player dashing across the field for a touchdown.

This may stem from him growing up in New York where he witnessed people getting hit in the head with all sorts of objects, not one of them being a coconut. Here are a few highlights of the many things that my husband has seen while living in Brooklyn: person stabbed in head with screwdriver, cracked in the teeth with a wrench, hit in knee/skull with baseball bat, pummeled repeatedly with city garbage pail, and the piece de resistance of this collection, someone voluntarily being tasered for $50.

So when a ten pound coconut landed ten feet from my head and made a crater size indentation in the sand, it didn’t take long for him to say “I told you so.”

Apparently, I should always listen to my husband when it comes to getting bonked in the head with things.

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ARE YOU BORED?

By Nadine Hays Pisani| 2018-04-15T18:19:57-04:00 January 21st, 2011|Categories: Nature|Tags: sloths|

Costa Rica Cost Of Living Update: Gallon of super gasoline $4.47

People often ask me if I am bored and I never know how to answer this question. When I was working ten hour days I would have welcomed boredom. I would even have invited him into my house and made him a cup of tea. I was that anxious to have a moment that did not include a mound of paperwork or irritating phone calls.

Someone just asked me this question while at the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. There I sat, watching the ocean churn and the palm trees sway in the breeze when someone asked, “Aren’t you bored?”

I’m not sure boredom was the word she was looking for since it’s easy to make the simple things in life more complicated. It turns out that appreciating the present moment is not boredom but gratitude. And a life of gratitude feels great no matter where you live.

Later that day I watched a baby sloth climb back up a tree, ocassionally reaching out his arm as if I was his mother. It’s a memory that will always stay with me.

It was a good day. And there were no irritating phone calls to answer.

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CAUGHT RED HANDED

ZIP LINING AND PIT VIPERS

A SHOT WORTH TAKING

ALWAYS LOOKING UP

ARE YOU BORED?

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