Twelve Feet, Six Continents, One Year

We were all absolutely exhausted by noon. Lily's surf lesson ended in tears despite the fact that she had caught some great waves and even succeeded in making her first turn. Lunch conversation was a comparison of bruises, board burns and worse. We were all absolutely exhausted again by 6 when we sat down for dinner but in between is a completely different story. The morning surfing was hard because of changes in the tide that I don't understand. I do understand that the high tide has been getting later and that our "ideal" 6am lesson time was no longer ideal. But I don't understand why waves behave the way they do. I do know that I love jumping in them and getting demolished, just as I did when I was a kid. But surf lessons, like ski lessons, require going back and forth. The key difference is that the ski lift is basically effortless whereas paddling out against a pounding surf (by beginner beach standards) is exhausting and sometimes futile. In both cases, ...

Seen through any lens, this place is beautiful (photo by Sam Westover) Part 1: The Backstory This is a story about a man named Josh. Some of you know him but didn't know that he has a passion for travel. Some of you know him and his passion for travel but not his extensive and well-placed family of travel professionals. Now all of you can know that we are in a Costa Rican paradise because of his assistance. Let's start this story in the middle, of course. It's late 2018 and my colleague Megan and her husband Josh have come over to tell us about Argentina. Megan has told me that Josh is from Buenos Aires and (insert long digression here) his family has an apartment that there might be available for visiting friends. Megan, almost exclusively, knew about our plan but hasn't told her husband because he also works in our field and appreciates that I'm in a delicate situation. At first, on the premise of a hypothetical future trip to BA, Josh is telling us ab...