There’s an inside joke between me and a few of my friends about how the natural world makes me feel. A few years back, as a passenger on a sunset sail in Key West with two of my best friends, overcome by the natural beauty surrounding us, I blurted out, “My soul is singing!”
This was, of course, followed up by a lot of laughter due to its overwrought sentiment. But the saying stuck. And it accurately sums up the way I feel about beautiful sunsets, being on the ocean and a big sky.
I was most recently overcome by this feeling on a three night trip to Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast in a town called Esterillos Este. After an hour and a half transfer from SJO, I arrived to the oceanfront boutique resort Alma del Pacifico just in time for sunset.
I’d never been to this part of the world before, and never experienced a beach like it. The sand is a dark purple chocolate brown, with white and purple seashells and sand dollars strewn about like stars. The tides are dramatic, leaving long stretches of beach between the resort and the water, making for an amazing surface to reflect the sky. The coastline in Esterillos runs east to west, so the sun doesn’t set over the ocean. And the beach is empty. It was like a magnet pulling me through the back sliding glass doors of my bungalow, across the grassy lawn and out to the beach to run and frolic barefoot, slapping my feet in the wet black sand while the sky changed a million shades of purple.
Each night, I completed this ritual, taking long walks on the wide beach by myself. The first night, a golden retriever splashing in the surf ran over to see me, and after awhile I worried that I’d just adopted a new pet. But later, after the sun had set, he ran off with his owner who was on a bicycle far off in the distance.
Here’s what I saw each night on my sunset walks in Esterillos Este. And yes, my soul was singing.
Night 1
Night 2
Night 3
