Sat next to Kayle this morning and chatted a while before we both worked and read from our laptops. We decided to create an online support group for people with partners abroad for Kevin and Geovanny. We made a couple of food stops. The joys of trying to find satisfying snack foods while traveling sometimes lead you to delightful new finds, like caramel corn puffs and lime corn nuts. A later stop included gift shop ravaging and a garden tour, as well as a formal recognition of our tour guides, Anni and Geovanny. Let's face it, they put up with a lot from this highly inquisitive, energetic, and sometimes particular group of boisterous singers from the Pacific Northwest. Always looking for a way to say Yes and ready to adapt to our shifting needs, they helped create a fun, learning-filled trip, hiding many of the stresses of group travel behind their attentive smiles.
Now riding next to the Party Animal, Dominic, we arrived back in San Jose in the early afternoon. It felt oddly like a homecoming for a city I had only spent four days in. Then again, that was the longest I had been in one place since arriving and the only city I got to really explore. It was refreshing to be back at the Balmoral and also bittersweet knowing that this portion of the trip was ending. More goodbyes were afoot and amid the buzz of excitement to be heading home that was brewing in the group, the reality that I was not going back to Washington began to set in.
After settling in, Laura and I had one final outing together in the city where we first became friends over coffee and art. The cafe in the Teatro National was closed so we walked across the plaza to the Grand Hotel Costa Rica, the 1930 hotel that has hosted royalty and heads of state and now Laura and I for coffee in the street level cafe. We talked about gardening back in Bellingham and I promised to connect her with my green-thumb friend, Molly, which I have yet to follow through on. We shared favourite moments from the trip and, of course, email addresses. We also, it seems, share some unexpected social connections back home and I sent a few hugs along with her to distribute accordingly.
Eventually, a stream of chorusters made their way past us to the hotel lobby on their way to the ballroom upstairs where we joined them for our final evening together as a group. The night included speeches and awards for our leaders, our organizers, our band, our now retired director, and, of course, his wife who puts up with him more often than we do. Katie and Liana gave out special high-school-year-book-style awards for the zany and inspiring among us. We thanked Charlie for his herculean work of creating a completely unique and impressively executed tour by donating money to plant 70 trees, one for each of our 70 members, in his honor here in Costa Rica. Charlie returned the favor with gift bags for all which included a hand painted souvenir mini ox cart and a bottle of cacique. We sang rounds of songs, made toasts, laughed, and dined the evening away. Hugo and Mariana joined us for dinner with Gaby and Leo who sat with us through the event and stayed after to talk and make promises for visits to Washington. As the night came to a close and folks started to filter out of the ballroom, some lingered to help break down sound equipment. I stuck around to sing at the piano with Liana and Deshanna and drink Casique with Charlie and the band. In my usual style, I waited till the room was empty to enjoy one final moment in the ballroom overlooking the Teatro Nacional and, with a joyful heart, bid farewell to the 2013 Kulshan Chours Tico Canta, Costa Rica. Another chapter ends.
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