Costa Rican magic - stories that stay with me

Experience Costa Rican magic through Iina´s sense-awakening stories accompanied by a mysterious audio clip from a night in the jungle

I recently spent 3 weeks in the vibrant nature of Costa Rica. I reunited with some of my dear friends whom I met during my master's studies in 2018-2019. For most of our trip, we stayed in the jungle, a tiny area called Osa that holds 2,5 % of the world's biodiversity. I learned so much just by observing nature - the hard-working ants, the various songs of birds, the curious and cheeky monkeys, the mysterious snakes, the jaguar that is hiding somewhere close by, and from all the other creatures. Some of the encounters with these creatures of nature left an everlasting mark on me.

It´s hard to put the whole experience into words. However, there are some key stories I´d like to share with you. Are you ready?

surfing into the sunrise

4.30 am alarm goes off

we take our boards

it´s still dark

star gazing

I can feel the new day

starting

stretching on the beach

before hopping on top of our boards

the sky starts to open

oh that sweet sun

giving a morning kiss

Recording from one night in the jungle. Accompanied by curious creatures of nature.

the nudist hostel

“welcome to the nudist hostel”, the sign says

at this point, we have hiked more than half an hour into the jungle

“ring the bell if you´re wearing clothes” the sign continues

we ring the bell

once

twice

no one comes

until we are welcomed to enter further

all the hiking trails go through the nudist hostel

luckily we can keep our clothes on

although I wonder how it would be to hike these trails barefoot

and naked

I´m sure monkeys, jaguars, and snakes wouldn´t mind

welcome to the nudist hostel

in the area without signal

here you can access wifi and give a call back home

from the nudist hostel

snake catching a feast

I´m hiking alone

I felt the calling

although

we were told to hike in pairs or groups

I´m doing a little energetic protection for myself and say in my heart:

“universe, now that I´m hiking alone, I´m not ready to meet a jaguar,

and universe, I´m also not ready to meet a scorpion,

oh and I also don´t want to meet the most poisonous snake”

I take a few more steps and say:

“ok, I´m ready to meet the snake, if it appears”

I take a few more steps

quicker than I can realize

in this narrow path,

snake appears on my right,

it´s dinnertime

in front of my eyes, the snake catches a mammal

4 times bigger than his head

dinner is digesting

snake looks at me straight into my eyes

and starts slowly,

what feels like forever,

lurking to the other side of the path

I´m left

catching my breath

feeling humble

and very much alive

baby scorpion in a tent

the ceremony is just about to start

skin to skin

we are gathered

not knowing what´s to come

suddenly

my eyes meet an insect

I haven´t seen before

quite tiny yet unknown

I wonder why no one else

sees what I see

I ask a local next to me

“what is that”

he shouts “it´s a baby scorpion”

the ceremony is about to start

soon the door will be closed

carefully the ceremony master directs the baby scorpion out

and so the ceremony begins.

P.S. later, my friend told me that baby scorpions are the most poisonous ones as they cannot yet regulate their poison…

creature of waters

it´s 6 am

a morning after a heavy rainfall

I´m walking to a nearby river

everyone else is asleep

or starting the morning elsewhere

I notice something moving in the river

maybe 1 meter long, quite thick

creature of some sort

suddenly the creature raises its head

out of the water

looks at me straight into my eyes

I´m not sure what I see

head of a turtle but the body doesn´t match

some kind of big lizard, reptilian

I still don´t know

we look into each other’s eyes until I feel like I need to take

some steps back

I don´t know what the creature can do and what it wants

I share my encounter with friends and locals

people who swim in this river every day

nobody knows what it was

nobody knows

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Iina Santamäki is a B.ONFIRE collaborator and entrepreneur specializing in regenerative leadership and sustainability transitions, facilitation and process design, and systems thinking and change processes. She enjoys holding space for people to show up as they are, be the bridge between different ways of knowing, and learn through self-reflection, dialogue, and deep questions.