Half asleep with my head propped up against the vibrating bus window that separates me from the majestic Costa Rican countryside my mind is in a different place. I know I should be fully immersed in the deep, tropical greens that serve as barriers between the simple homes of hard working farmers. I should be wrapped up in the rolling hills and the sun-splashed valleys. I should be soaking up the welcoming smiles of the curious locals scattered throughout the bus hoping to spark up a conversation with a stranger. In just a few short hours I’ll be sitting under a palm tree on what amounts to a private beach staring out at the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. My mind should be here. It should be present. Today though, it is not.

Today, like many other days, my mind is far, far away. My mind is hovered over a steaming bowl of soup, sweating profusely in the mid-morning sun. My mind is deep in the heart of Cambodia weaving through rice paddies on a rented scooter. My mind is slowly wading through the never-ending sea of motorbikes that envelope you in the hectic streets of Saigon. Today, although my body is most certainly here in Costa Rica, my mind is on the other side of the world.

As I finally snap myself back into the present I can’t help but feel terrible. The knot in my stomach begins to tighten. How am I going to break the news? A text message won’t do. It would be unfair to do it with an email. Maybe I’ll write a letter and mail it off? No, no that won’t do either it’s too slow. So then it comes down to this. Pull up a chair Costa Rica. We need to talk. I’ve… I’ve been cheating on you. It’s not that you aren’t amazing, you are, it’s just that I left a piece of my heart in Southeast Asia. Actually, there is a piece of my heart back home in Charleston too. In San Francisco. In Antigua. In New Orleans. Even in the icy cold streets of London. You too Costa Rica will have a piece of my heart soon. But today I was in another place.

I wish I could say I could help it but I can’t. I wish I could say it won’t happen again but it will. I’m a traveler and I’m afraid this is how it always will be. I’m not alone in this though. I see it in the eyes of travelers all over the world. Where they are is irrelevant. Their eyes sparkle at just a mention of a past love. Immediately thoughts of the hectic streets of India flood their minds while they sit in a café thousands of miles from Punjab. They can smell the sizzling meat on an Argentine grill when lunchtime rolls around in Eastern Europe. They can taste the thinly sliced jamón from their favorite shop in Seville, hear the sounds of a lazy Sunday in a Mexican zócalo, and yes they can feel the salty breeze blowing across your Pacific shores. Can you blame them? I sure can’t.

So Costa Rica I hope that today you forgive me for being somewhere else. This, for better or worse, is the life of a traveler. The list never shortens it only grows as we wander, leaving little bits of us as we go. For now though I’m here with you again and you can be sure that after I leave I’ll be back. I’ll be back when your name is whispered in some far off land. I’ll be back when I close my eyes in line at the DMV. And there’s a good chance I’ll be back sitting under one of your palms, staring out once again at the vastness of your slice of the Pacific.

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