Costa Rica: What I Learned From Solo Travel with Jenelle Tremblett Artwork

Ebb and Glow

Welcome to Ebb and Glow — the podcast that shows you how everyday people are taking on life’s ups and downs and coming out better than before. Your host, Jenelle Tremblett, will be with you weekly and with special guests, to chat about everything from careers, relationships, mindset, and everything in between. Are you tired of only seeing the highlight reel? Me too. This podcast will instead be peeking behind the curtain to reveal all the steps, pep talks, and glasses of wine that must happen before we become strong, confident, and resilient.

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Ebb and Glow

Costa Rica: What I Learned From Solo Travel with Jenelle Tremblett

February 07, 2023 • Jenelle Tremblett • Episode 120

#120: Jenelle chats all things solo travel and her recent trip to Costa Rica! She shares what she would change, amazing core memories, and how her trip changed her life perspective moving forward.

Jenelle's Ebbs

Learning to go with the flow and releasing control
Facing fears
Learning patience
Navigating a new country and language
Pivoting and changing itinerary

Jenelle's Glows

Meeting amazing people all over the world that will build into life long friendships
Conquering the fears of solo traveling
Crossing off bucket list items like surfing for the first time
Learning to cease the day/moment
Being happy and secure on your own
Catching the travel bug
Having a new appreciation for my life

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Welcome to the ebb and glow podcast. I'm your host, Janelle Tremlett. And I'm a firm believer that even when life doesn't go as planned, it is taking you exactly where you're meant to be on this podcast. I'm here to help you finally release control of what you think you want and begin to just trust in the ebbs and flows of life. Each week, I will show you how to build that positive mindset radiate with self confidence and cultivate an unshakeable resilience. Let me prove to you that even when life ebb. You will glow. hello everyone and welcome to episode one 20 of the Eeb Glow podcast. I'm your host Janelle Tremlett, and today's episode is one that a lot of people have been excited to listen to and have been following up with me asking when is it coming out, and that is right now. So today's episode is all about my first solo trip to Costa Rica, and in this episode we're gonna talk about the reasons why I chose Costa Rica over many other countries. The things that I would change, the things that I definitely would not change. Some of my bucket list items that I crossed off. And overall just kind of all the things that I, I did during the trip and all of the core memories I made. And more importantly, all of the lessons learned in the trip. Because ultimately this podcast is called Ebb and Glow. it's all to do with whatever happens in your life, there are gonna be ups and downs. You don't want this kind of boring constant to be your life. You can only ever appreciate the really good times when you don't have as good times. and one thing that someone said to me recently that really stuck with me is, Not every day is going to be your day. And even if you're on vacation, that can happen sometimes too. Not every day is gonna be the absolute best day ever. I will say during my trip, pretty much every day was really the best day ever. But there was also a lot of things, like I said, I would change and some not so great moments as well. And definitely some parts of my trip that made me really sit back and really think like, okay, who are you? What do you stand for? Why is this bothering you? Why is this triggering you? Because even if you're on vacation and you're kind of living your best life, so to say, things could still come up. Insecurities, argument, disagreements, things could still come up for you. So with that being said, let's jump into this episode And I'm excited to tell you all about it. And if you're listening to this episode and you either want to go on a solo trip and never have, feel free to reach out to me. I'm happy to kind of encourage you and push you along the way, and maybe this episode will do just that anyways. Or if you're planning a trip to Costa Rica and you kind of wanna know some things, hope this episode gives you some insights. And if you wanna know more, feel free to message me. First of all, why is this my first solo trip at age 29 to make it very simple? The idea of solo traveling never really scared me. I just never really made it a priority until now. And a lot of that is to do with finances and also time. I didn't have as much financial and time freedom as I do today. The nature of the career I work in, I can take longer periods of time off. And also the nature of my career I'm in, I'm 100% commission based. So if I wanna go spend a bunch of money on a trip, I can come back and make more money afterwards. So it wasn't up until the last couple years that my life definitely did not look like that. I was working very low salaried jobs in comparison to living in Toronto and the cost of living and the nature of working in Canada. Maybe three weeks off in the run of a year and living in Toronto and having my family live in a different part of Canada. A lot of those three weeks got spent just going home and visiting family. So think my Costa Rica trip was two and a half weeks long. And prior to that I was home for 10 days. So essentially I took a full month off between mid-December and mid Jann. And up until this, past year, I was never in a position to take that much time off. This is not to sound privileged by any means. The nature of working in real estate, real estate kind of slows down or really shuts off between mid-December to mid Jan. So really nothing's happening. So it's a really slow period of time. And the benefit of that though is I was able to take a lot of time off and go traveling. this led me to finally going on my first solo trip and the, obviously the country I picked was Costa Rica, so I did a lot of research on female solo traveling and where to go. Prior to me booking Costa Rica, I booked Costa Rica maybe in October and then went in January. So I didn't book it that far in advance. And really it wasn't up until maybe September that I really even knew where I was gonna go. I really wanted to go to Bali, but I ended up deciding on Costa Rica instead for various reasons. So When you're thinking about solo traveling as a female, it's actually pretty limited to the countries that you can even go. And I did a lot of research on this. I joined a lot of Facebook groups that were specific to solo female travel. I followed a lot of blogs and read upon which countries are the best for people, especially people who have never traveled alone before. And. One of the top, top, top places to go was Costa Rica, and I knew knowing the time of year I could take a bunch of time off was around Christmas time in January. So I knew I wanted to go somewhere warm and obviously I had to be down south if I wanted to be somewhere warm. And I wanted a type of trip that was both beach but also adventure. Like I love the beach, but I don't think I could do just a beach trip for three full weeks. Well, I really, I could, but I wanted to explore a little bit more. I wanted more jungle and rainforest and hiking and ziplining and kind of foresty type activities. But I also wanted a beach. I wanted to come home with a tan of course, and blond our. and I just love the ocean. So obviously I wanted to go do that. So with all my research it came down to picking Costa Rica and I also thought to myself I wanted to be on a, the reason, the main reason I didn't go to Bali and I chose Costa Rica instead was given this was like a, one of my first big trips. I was wondering if I would still have to work a little bit. So I kind of wanted to still be on Eastern standard time or a time zone that wasn't too different in case I did have to work a lot. And because of course I don't do the type of work where I can just like do it whenever I'd had to be available if my clients messaged me. Thankfully I didn't really do any work while I was away, which was kind of nice. I really took the time off. But overall, that is essentially why I chose Costa R. So again, I joined a bunch of Facebook groups that were specific to solo female travel. Um, I read, um, a blog called The Blonde Abroad who specializes in solo female travel. And I just started like looking up countries and ideas. And also, I forgot to mention a lot of my girlfriends have done a lot of solo traveling and traveling all throughout the world. So I just leaned on them and kind of asked, what countries do you recommend and safety tips, and like, how much money do you think this is gonna cost, et cetera, et cetera. Don't be afraid to reach out and ask people who you know, who have done it in the past. And then the other thing that I did a lot of, especially as I narrowed down exactly where I wanted to be, I researched so much on TikTok. So once I narrowed down exactly where I was gonna be in Costa Rica and narrowed down to even the hostile I was gonna do, I started typing into TikTok like Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, and just kind of watched videos of a lot of people and what they were doing to get ideas of what I wanted to do. You would see like people snorkeling or you would see, oh, okay, that's the volcano hike that everyone does. Okay. I should add that to my itinerary or my wishlist of things to do. It'll start sparking ideas in your mind and like it'll make you realize, okay, I would love to do that. That's how I kind of wanna spend my days. The other thing that helped me out a lot was knowing what to pack. I found looking on TikTok. Knowing what to pack and kind of seeing what people were wearing helped me tremendously in knowing what to pack before I left, So I flew out on uh, December 31st. I actually flew to Costa Rica on New Year's Eve and in looking back when I was planning that, I thought that was a great idea. You land I, my flight landed at 2:00 PM and in my mind I was like, okay, I'll be at my hostel by 3:00 PM Sure. That's great. Like still tons of time to have a really great New Year's Eve. I didn't. I underestimated how much time travel takes in Costa Rica and anyone who's been to Costa Rica before realizes this when they get there. The logistics of Costa Rica and the travel time it takes to get from place to place is insane. You completely underestimate it. So one of the biggest things I would change, and I do wanna do this type of trip every single year, go somewhere warm around Christmas time going into January, as long as I have the type of career I have. One of the biggest things I will change for next year is leave a few days early. So I flew out on the 31st, like I would like to fly out on say, the 26th or 27th instead. And the reason why is when I was landing on the 31st, by the time you get comfortable, by the time you get organized at your hostel, like it was seven after seven o'clock at night on New Year's Eve, and you don't know anyone yet. So by the time I got there, like it's not a, it's not enough time to get a friend group going and then have New Year's Eve plans. So what I would've done instead in hindsight is go a few days earlier. So by the time New Year's Eve comes around, you do have a friend group already and you, you have plans and you're excited about it. That being said, I still had a great night. It was very chill. And given how my last few New Year's eves have went over the past year, I needed a chill new year. So I had no expectations and I didn't care. I was fine if I didn't do anything but obviously I met friends and had a good time. There was a DJ at our hostel and overall it was still like a great night and I met obviously tons of people the next day and, and obviously throughout the trip as well. So it was no big deal, but that's definitely one of the biggest things I would change. The other big thing I would change or, or do differently is I didn't plan it enough. I will say that was my biggest hangup, but given it was my first solo trip, I didn't really know what to plan. Like I've never really planned a trip ever in my life, to be honest. I, I've definitely am like a non planner. I kind of just go and figure it out as I go. And I went into this Costa Rica trip with the same mentality and I wish I did things a little differently. I didn't need it planned to a tea. I don't care for that. But, I just wish I did a little bit more research in terms of how long it takes to get places and like, how many nights should I stay and like what excursions do I wanna do instead? I kind of had a rough idea of a plan, and I honestly changed it so much. The first few days of my trip were honestly replanning my trip over and over and over again, and a few of my friends that I hung out with for the first few days, they were doing the same and they were helping me with what I wanted to change and helping me decide like, okay, go to this place instead of that place. But overall, I just remember when I think back now, I felt like I was wasting a lot of time planning my trip while being in my trip, and it was making me feel very anxious and a little bit angry and upset with myself because I didn't have it planned enough. It's all fine. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. And it was fun like bonding with my friends during this trip to think like, okay, how do I, how do I get to this place, this place? And you realize how helpful people are because you're all in the same situation. Like you don't know until you get there. And it was kind of nice having people that were in the same situation because I didn't feel as alone knowing like, okay, I'm the only person that doesn't know what's going on. But it wasn't like we were all figuring it out together, one of the other things I wanna point out, especially at the beginning of my trip, So again, this is my first solo trip ever, my first time in Central America, and also my first hostile experience. I've never stayed in hostels. I love hostels. Hostels are so fun. It reminds me of being back in university and just being around so many people all the time. I personally loved it and there was many nights I spent in eight and nine person rooms. Actually a majority of my trip. I was in a nine, eight, and nine person room and absolutely loved it. But in going back, I found because, because there were so many firsts of this trip, it made me a little nervous with all the unknowns and knowing I had no control over anything and I didn't know what I didn't know. And so I found the first couple days, I spent a lot of time at the front desk of the hostels and just asking so many questions cuz I had no idea what was going on. And if you're ever in this situation, Don't feel bad about asking questions. That's exactly what the workers at the hostels are there for. That's exactly what other people traveling can help with. Don't be shy about asking questions. I definitely felt nervous and annoying asking so many questions, but I had to keep remind myself that it's okay. you're new here. You don't know anything that's going on, like you will figure it out. But you need to lean on people and ask for help in order to figure it out. I'm the type of person that is usually in charge, usually is taking the lead is usually knows exactly what's going on. Like, there was just so many unknowns and I had to trust other people that they knew what was going on and I had to trust that. Just have patience and things will always work itself out and you will figure it out as you go. So anyways, that was a learning lesson, a big one at the beginning to really release control and be okay with the unknowns and being okay with not having it all figured. One of the biggest lessons and things I realized during this trip is how similar you are to other people around the world, especially people similar to your age. So as I said, I stayed in hostels and I was meeting people all over the world, Canada, America, Spain, Italy, Ireland, the uk, like all around Europe and of course all around Central America as well. A lot of people from Chile and Argentina and yeah, tons of people and. I feel like sometimes you think you're very unique. You think your problems are unique. You think the things you think, the things that you go through are unique and no one else is doing the same thing or having the same experiences. But it was a nice reminder when I was hanging out with everyone in all ages of their twenties and early thirties and realizing that we are all essentially living the same life, just in different parts of the world. And there was something very humanizing about that, which I loved. You talk to someone that maybe has a similar job to you and you realize like you're in the same meetings day in, day out. You're having the same issues with managers. You want the same things. Like we all just want happiness at the end of the day. And it was so fun having those conversations with people and like I said, realizing that we are so, so similar to one another, and. You think you're so different, but we're really not. And I loved realizing that in the moment as you were meeting people. And one other thing I will say, it's, it's funny how when you travel and you're really meeting someone for the first time and how close you get so quickly, it's phenomenal. And I don't know if it's to do with maybe just having a shared experience and we're traveling together and we're experiencing these things together and what, what a crazy coincidence, how we're even meeting to begin with. Like, so many things had to happen for us to be at this exact same place at this exact same time. And it makes you just really sit and think and realize how connected we all are. And like I said, how similar we all are. And it really makes you really care about humans in a way that maybe you didn't feel as deeply when you are just running through your everyday life. But there's something about that shared experience of traveling with people and meeting people for the first time that you get so close and you build such this like connected bond together that it's hard to compare that, like some of the friends that I met on this trip, like I genuinely feel closer to them than some people that I've known in Toronto for years but the people that I met on this trip, I, I just know they're gonna be lifelong friends and I'm gonna see them throughout the world many more times. and it's also cool to wonder who will you cross paths with again? I think that's one of the most exciting parts. You meet people all around the world and your paths might cross again. You might run into them even just like coincidentally, it's gonna be really exciting to see like whose path you cross and who you stay connected with. Like, I'm excited for that. one of the other things I realized while solo traveling is you really get to the core of who you are. Even though you're hanging out with a lot of people and spending a lot of time with others, and you may not actually spend a lot of time alone because even though I did a solo trip, there were very few days that I actually spent alone and I found myself sometimes being like, I need alone time right now. But you also want to relish in the fact that you're around all these great people. So you wanna spend as much time possible with them. But anyways, it allows you to really spend some time with yourself and really think, who am I? What do I like to do? Who are the people that I really wanna surround myself with and what do I stand for? At the end of the day, if you're traveling to a place and everyone around you is say, going to do this one thing, you don't have to if you don't want to, like, you can do whatever you choose to. And that's the joy of solo traveling is you can really plan the exact vacation that you want. Maybe you're so used to traveling with friends and have to kind of appease everyone, and maybe you don't like going out at night, but all your friends do so you go along anyways. When you solo travel, you don't have to do that. There were many people I met, throughout Costa Rica that weren't big partiers, but they were up at 5:00 AM surfing every day, and that's great. Like that's what they wanted to do and that's what they did. Mind you, I did both which says a lot about who I am. There were many times that I was out till four and five in the morning and ready to go and do something else at 8:00 AM actually literally the entire two and a half weeks, I think I slept like three, maybe four hours every single night. It was insane. I don't know how I wasn't so exhausted, but you're just on that adrenaline rush the entire time. the one other thing that I found that really changed me about traveling is it makes you realize what really matters and what really doesn't. I was having this conversation with a friend recently and we were chatting about like, how much do you pack and like, what do you really need to bring on a two or three week trip and you realize. how much, A lot of your belongings don't matter you, you really forget about your previous life. I find. And when you're solo traveling, you realize like how you can live with very little things and how it doesn't really matter, like what you're wearing or what you have around you. It really matters who you have around you. And when I say that, that might be obvious to some people listening, but to others it could be a reminder that, yeah, like all that really matters in life is who you are doing it with And as you solo travel and as you travel and even as you grow, like you get to choose those people and who you surround yourself with. and I found so much power in remembering that. When I reminisce about my trip, I have some serious core memories One of the biggest things I'm glad that I did on this trip that I highly recommend anyone doing whenever they travel or just in your everyday life, is I journaled every single day, during this trip. And what that really helped me with was first, there's a lot happening when you're traveling and especially like the type of traveling I was doing. Like I'm meeting people and like we always joke that it felt like love island and there's a lot of feelings happening. You're meeting friends all the time. There's a lot of emotions happening. There's not drama, but there's interpersonal like relationships happening all throughout the trip and you're, you're having like maybe relationships. People like, you know, I, I'm not gonna go into details, but I'm sure you could fill in the blanks, but while all those things are happening, you obviously have a lot of emotions happening throughout all of this, and you don't wanna bottle it up and then all of a sudden freak out one night because you've had a little bit too much alcohol. And I know for me personally, I didn't wanna get myself into that situation. I wanted to process all of my thoughts and emotions every single day so that I was going into every new day with a really level head on my should. So a lot of my friends can attest to this cuz they've saw me doing it many times every single morning, um, of my trip. And mind you, I wasn't super diligent on this. Sometimes I did at night, sometimes I did three days in a row where I would just journal it all out. Sometimes if I had some time in the afternoon, I would journal then too. It doesn't matter when you do it just, it matters to keep it going. But yeah, every, every day I would just recap on what happened the previous day, how I felt. Were there any triggers? logistically, what did I do? Just as a, a recap of being able to look a year or two from now and read this journal and say, oh, right. That those, that's exactly what I did that day. Because you might not take photos of every single moment, but I find the, the moments that you really want to remember the most are sometimes the moments you didn't take photos of. How was I feeling in that moment? Or what were my thoughts when I was laying there and watching one of the best sunsets I've ever seen in my life? You know, like just things like that. Those are kind of those little memories that really stick with you, but you can't remember if you didn't write them down. So I found that, yeah, every single day I would write all of this down as a way to unload on the paper and not to anyone else. And it allowed myself to, whatever happened that previous day, good and bad, it allowed myself to get a real rational look at everything that was happening. looking back at the trip, I feel like, yeah, I had a very level-headed approach to everything and I think I can, thank journaling every single day for, for giving me that literal internal piece every single day. It was also nice as I was recapping this episode, and it's been a couple weeks since I've been back that I'm recording this episode and I was thinking, right, like obviously again, I know the core things I did, I know the big bucket list items, but what were some of my like thoughts and overall themes and, and lessons during this trip? And it wasn't until I started rereading the journal entries that I was like, oh, right, that is what happened that moment. Oh, right. I did really feel like that when he said that to me, or, oh yeah, I didn't like when that happened, or, oh yeah, when that happened, that brought up an old trigger in me and I didn't like that about myself. So many things, and I'm, I'm sure like. I, I should just like read passages of this journal, but my God, it's like, there is some juicy, juicy stuff in here, spicy but like I said, I, I did come back and take this into a daily practice of journaling every day. And I have noticed in myself the last couple weeks, every single day, I have a lot more of like a level head on my shoulders as I did while I was traveling. And a lot, of that is to do with the journaling but it was also nice, like on the plane ride back, I, I wrote a bunch of things down of like who, who really made a, a long-lasting impression on me. Like I, I listed every single person down that really claimed a piece of my heart during the trip. And everyone listening to this, like, you know who you are, like I don't need to list those people out. But I wanted to just share some of my core memories is how I depicted this. I have two pages of my journal that says Costa Rica, core Memories, and I wanted to share those with you. Now while you're listening, So the first one on the list of Costa Rica core memories was surfing for the first time. I was surfing on the first day of 2022. And there was no better way to spend New Year's Day in the first day of 2022 than learning how to surf. It was phenomenal. I also did some snorkeling in Tortuga Island and during this time I actually saw Shark while snorkeling. How insane is that? And it wasn't a small shark, it wasn't like obviously a great white, but it was not a small shark. I had, I was a little scared, but like still a cool experience. another main core memory of this trip was watching the sunsets every single night with all of my friends. The interesting thing about Costa Rica, the sunsets the same time every single day throughout the year. Like they don't have longer days one season and shorter days the other like we do in Canada or America. But yeah, every single day around five, we would all go to the beach together and watch the sunset and. Yeah, like I, I never wanna lose those memories in my head because those are some pure core memories, uh, that I'll, I'll have for the rest of my life. But just the beautiful sunset, you're just chilling with all of your friends. You're on the beach, like playing some music. Like, what more could you want in that moment? I was rope swing jumping in Laur tuna, and anyone who was there in this moment, I stood up on that rock for a good 45 minutes to an hour before I could get the courage to jump into this damn lake. And it's crazy to me. I'm from a place where we jump off waterfalls all the time, and I did it all growing up way higher waterfalls than this one. But I don't know if it was just like getting older and I just like haven't done like these extreme things in a long time. it took me so much time to get the courage to finally jump. That being said, I am so happy with myself and proud of myself for facing those fears because I knew in that moment, those last five minutes, right before I finally decide, okay, I'm going to jump. I knew that if I don't jump right now, there's a huge chance I'm never coming back to this waterfall. On the trip or maybe ever again. So if I don't do it now, I will forever regret it. And so obviously I did it and I'm, I'm happy about that. I saw a sloth for the first time. Mind you, it was through a telescope, but I still saw one, um, sleeping in my TP room. This was so cool. There was these hostels, uh, private rooms in, uh, laur tuna that was like this, like TP hut. So cool. I booked that for a couple nights. There was a lot of gray hiking with some very special people that I had a lot of fun and a lot of laughter with there was a lot of like, just fun nights dancing, a lot of Latin dancing and reggaton. And we clubbed a lot during this trip. I remember like the week I was in La Fortuna, we, I think I partied five nights straight. It was insane. So much tequila, so much Latin dancing. But there's just something about Latin dancing that. Really brings out the real me. And so I just had so much fun. There's also like a, a few core memories that I won't discuss, but they are listed here, but I'm gonna skip a few of those. Um, another core memory and just some bucket list items. seeing the Rio Celeste Waterfall, I posted a photo of that on Instagram, like that blue water is not edited, it's insanely blue. I did some zip lining in LA for tuna, which was phenomenal. I've done zip lining before, but this was like no other, riding ATVs. I grew up riding ATVs, but it was just so fun like cruising around Santa Teresa and I had my friends on the back with me as well. But yeah, like it was just fun driving those. And I hadn't driven one since I was a little kid, so like, just learning how to drive one of those again was so fun. one of the other like core memories was just like so much laughing. One of my girlfriends, at the beginning of my trip, she was from Spain, and I just felt like no matter what either of us would say, we would just laugh all day long. And just like that feeling of that much laughter, just like laughing over nothing. I, I just had so much fun with her. It was just like so much great energy and so much laughter. It just made me so happy. lots of big dinners with big groups of friends. Again, it was just like when you're back in your own city, living your day-to-day life, like you're not getting 15, 20 friends together for a dinner every single night. But we did when we were on this trip. And so it was just so fun to like be around that many people. And then the last core memory, which I knew was gonna be a core memory, but obviously I have to point it out, is just all of the swimming in the ocean. I am an ocean girl at heart. I need to live by the ocean. It just makes me so happy. Anytime my feet or any part of my body touches that water, it makes me so happy. So any bit of time spent in the water made me so happy. So obviously core memory there and just like laughing with all of my friends in the water and just swimming around. Yeah, lots, lots of fantastic beach walks as well with, again, very special people. So loved all those times. I feel like it's so easy to start listing out all of the bucket list items that you cross when you're on a trip. And like I said, I just called them core memories, like bucket list items that you, you cross off like the snorkeling, the surfing, the, the national park hikes you do, et cetera, et cetera. But when I think back on all of it, I mean, I feel like it's so obvious to say, but the trip wouldn't have been what it was if it wasn't for the people that I did the trip with and the people that I met along the way It's so easy to take photos of, okay, we just did this big hike and now we've reached the beautiful hike and the beautiful monument of the waterfall. Let's take a photo, but it's hard to take photos of really the memories that you built from the moment that you left the hostel to the moment that you actually arrived at that Instagram worthy. For me, it's really the memories and the connection that you build in between. And anyone that were on these particular excursions with me can attest to that. I did like, honestly, one of my hardest hikes of my life with, uh, this bunch of Italian guys and if they listen to this, they're gonna laugh. Because when I went with them that day, they were like, yeah, yeah, we're just gonna go for like a day hike. Like, do you wanna come? And I was like, sure. Like I don't have plans, like, let's go. And for me, I just thought it was gonna be like, I've done a bunch of hiking already in this trip, but I thought it was just gonna be like a leisurely like hike. so I like, I wore like denim shorts and like a bikini top. Cause they were like, yeah, yeah, we're just gonna do this like quick hike and then we're gonna go swimming afterwards. So I was like, okay, I'll just wear my bikini and throw shorts on. Oh my God. This was an extreme hike that I actually don't even think is legal. We, we met tons of people along the trail, along the way, but it absolutely down poured during this hike. The entire hike was so muddy. I fell so many times. I came out of that hike with so many bruises. I was so full of mud and it was insane. And where I'm going with this is the memories is not how I looked at the top of the hike. Like there wasn't even a good view on the top of the hike. All the memories made are from the moment we got out of the car to the moment we got home. It's all the memories in between. Like how many times you fall and like slide in the mud. How many times you're just like, oh my God, I'm not gonna be able to do this. Like, should we turn around? And then you're with your friends and, and one of you say, no, no, no, we've made it this far. Like let's just keep going. It's the bonding moments like that you have when you're really getting to know someone during this like four to five hour hike. And those are the memories that will always have a place in my heart. and another really funny story and example is one of the days me and one of my girlfriends were going on the snorkeling and, uh, Tortuga Island trip. We were out so late the night before. Whatever happened. Basically the people at the hostel front desk told us the bus would be there to pick us up at eight 30. Anyways, the bus was there at eight, like they gave us the wrong time. And long story short, me and my friend slept through like all of our alarms, and all of a sudden I woke up. I remember very vividly, I woke up at 8:06 AM literally like knowing that the bus was leaving at eight 30. And I was like, okay, perfect. Like obviously I slept in, I'm not gonna have a time to get a coffee or anything, but whatever. I just have to throw on a bathing suit, grab a towel and go. Anyway, so I literally go to pull up my phone and message her and say like, Hey, like I woke up late, but whatever we have time, like, I'll see you on the bus. I woke up to a bunch of messages from her being like, girl, the bus is at eight. Like they gave us the wrong time. Like I'm on the bus. Like, you have to come now or they're going without us. And long story short, I ended up being at the bus for eight 30, but obviously the bus left without me. And if you've ever like traveled and done any of these like excursions before, if you missed the bus, you missed the trip and no one's refunding you like that is what it is. And I, it was so funny because I think by the time I'm, this is like my last few days of the trip I'm truly living that poor a vita lifestyle because I was so chill about it. I was like, okay, worst case scenario, I don't go on the trip. I'll book another one for tomorrow and I'll just lose out. Like I'll just have to pay again. But the funny part of the story is the bus that left without me ended up getting stuck in traffic for like 15, 20 minutes. And then I ended up getting in like a cab and catching up to the bus that was stopped for like 15 to 20 minutes. So where I'm going with this is, yeah, during that trip, of course snorkeling was unreal. Of course, every part about that excursion was amazing. But the real funny core memories that I'm never gonna forget is, how funny is it that I actually still got on that bus tour and it's just like me and my friend were like so hungover and just being like, okay, how in the hell are we both on this bus right now? Like, how did we make it? It was just, it was too funny. And just like you, you have so many jokes about that. So, just in those two stories alone, like you can get a real good sense that these trips are all about the people that you, you meet and the memories that you make with them. It's not about who took the best photo or who did the coolest bucket list item. It's really in all the small moments, it's you're sitting around on the beach watching the sunset and really just chatting about life. It's your itinerary and plans all got messed up and you're thinking, okay, will we just go with the flow and figure it out? It's the getting caught up in tons of antics the night before and then waking up with your girlfriends on the trip and just recapping on the entire night and just laughing and being like, oh God, what did we do? And it's just, yeah, it's so fun. I'm sure you can hear it. My voice, like, I had so much fun on this trip and every single day was a new adventure. Every single person I met has a very, very, very special place in my heart. And I hope I cross paths with every single person I met again, and I hope I keep in touch with all of them because yeah, they're all fantastic. I could keep going on and on and on about this episode, but I'll never stop like I have so much to say. I wanna finish it off by saying how much I feel that I've changed after this trip and how it really gave me a new perspective on my own personal life and what I want in the future. One of the first things I noticed about myself is I recognized what I wanted and what I didn't want in future romantic relationships. I feel like right up until the point of going to Costa Rica, I was starting to get extremely clear about what I would want in a partner or what I would want in a romantic relationship, and I found that some of the people I met in Costa Rica and some of the experiences I had really solidified that I was on the right track of what I wanted and what I didn't want. Some of the experiences definitely reminded me of what I didn't want for sure, and but some of my experiences and some of the people I've met really reminded me of the core values I definitely want in a long-term partner. And it was nice to meet people who had those values and had those characteristics that I really, really look for in a partner long-term. And yeah, it was just nice to to reconfirm to myself that I was on the right track. But the funny part, In saying that, I, and again, I had a lot of fun in Costa Rica. I met a lot of great people, as I've said multiple times. But the one thing I noticed when I came back, and one of the things I realized while I was away was, wow, I loved my single lifestyle. And what I mean by that is as I was away, I realized how privileged I was to have the current life I have. I am single. I don't have kids. I have a great career that allows me to make a good living and also take time off when I want. I live in an awesome city with lots of opportunities, I live in a really nice place that I absolutely love and I've really made into a home. And I realized that, this is gonna sound weird, but I realized while I was away in Costa Rica, what I have right now. This period of my life is not forever, and I really need to continue to romanticize and continue to love every single day of this part of my life and never waste time chasing something else or changing a different part of my life. I really need to continue to live in the moment and really appreciate this stage of my life for what it is. I don't want that to be my only solo trip experience like that. I wanna do that for a at least a few more years. And so when I came back to Toronto after being in Costa Rica, I realized like, okay, romantic relationships is really not a priority to me. So I really need to put dating on pause for a bit. if I don't see myself in a super serious relationship this year, then there's no point to really put any time into that. But on the flip side is I recognized what areas of my life that I did want to prioritize and did want to focus on. And it really got me to thinking, okay, if I want my life to look like X, Y, Z in three years, and this is so typical, but am I doing the things today that are going to get me there? I had to really ask myself those questions and be really honest with myself. And I realized one of the areas that I really wanted to go headfirst into was my career. While being in Costa Rica, I noticed so many real estate signs and I realized that like, I don't have to sell real estate in Toronto for the rest of my life. There's, there's nothing keeping me in Toronto besides my career, and I love my career. Toronto is at the only city with real estate. And I, I recognized it then like, okay, are there other parts of the world that I wanna live in? I've said for years that I would love to live in Europe. Okay, well what does that look like? And so, yeah, it really got me thinking and really got me dreaming. And throughout my days in Costa Rica and especially on the plane ride back, I really sat there and thought to myself, okay, what do I want for my life in three to five years? And what does that look like and what are the things I need to do today to achieve that? I wanted to stop playing small and start achieving my goals even quicker than I ever planned. And I came back realizing time is money at all times. And time is the only resource we never get back. So let's be extremely clear with how I'm spending that time and who I'm spending that time with. And one of the other things that I really realized when I came back was how much I want it to get up and go do it again. But in order for me to do that, when I'm here in Toronto and working, I've realized how much more I needed to focus in order to accomplish all the things I want to accomplish in a shorter amount of time, in order to take additional time off and be able to go and travel to other places more times throughout the year. I don't wanna live a life where I take two weeks off a year and I don't ever see the world. One of the biggest dreams I have for myself long term is living all around the world, knowing multiple languages and really experiencing cultures all over the world. And it's safe to say that I caught the travel bug with this trip to Costa Rica, and I don't think it's gonna stop ever. So yeah, I definitely came back with a whole different perspective on what I wanted for myself in my life and where I want it to be. And. Even in the last couple of weeks, I noticed in myself how much more focused I am, how even stronger my boundaries have gotten. how my no bullshit radar has even gotten thicker and bigger and better. Yeah. I like, I don't put up with much at all anymore. Never really did, but even more so now coming back, it, it's nice and refreshing to be honest. I think you can tell by this episode that this was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life to go on this longer solo trip, and I can't wait to do it again. I actually already have another trip planned, and it'll be to Portugal in the spring for another solo trip, and it's gonna be hard to top Costa Rica. And I feel like I can already tell that I'm gonna be comparing the trips and comparing the groups of people. So I hope that some of my Costa Rica friends that live in Europe will find a way to come meet me in Portugal so I can have at least a taste of Costa Rica again, because I miss all of these people so much. One of my goals this year is to travel to three different countries, Costa Rica being one of them. Obviously I'll be going to Portugal, but I still don't know that third country. So if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know. It'll have to be maybe, maybe in the fall, like August, August, September, October time that would like to try another country would be amazing. But overall, anyone listening to this, if the idea of traveling at all, maybe you don't travel at all and maybe you're like, oh, I just wanna start trying things out, please go. Like, don't let anything stop you. Please reach out and ask me anything. But if you've traveled a bunch with friends and the idea of solo traveling scares you, no, you have to do it. It's phenomenal. It will change your life, as I've said multiple times. And I can't recommend it enough. It'll allow you to come back to your current life and your everyday life. With a new appreciation of life in general, the people that you surround yourself with, the people that you meet along the way, and just a new appreciation for life. wherever you are today, listening today, I hope this episode at the very least, inspires you to go after and do the things that you've always wanted to do and stop telling yourself you'll do them someday. And like I've said, if you are curious about anything I've talked about in this episode and want me to dive more into it, feel free to reach out and just ask. I wanted to cover as much as I could in this episode, but obviously I couldn't tell you all stories. Some of those will be saved just for me to know. and obviously the people I traveled with because it's very cliche, but what happens to Costa Rica will stay in Costa Rica.

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did you know

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that I'm not

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only a podcast host, but in my full-time career, I am a Toronto based real estate agent. if you are someone, you know, is a busy professional looking to get

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into

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the Toronto real estate market, I highly recommend reaching out to me. You can go directly to my website@wwwdotjenelletremlett.com and you can click the

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let's

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talk button

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to book a call with

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me.

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I work buyers, renters, and sellers in the downtown and east end area.

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So don't hesitate to reach out to me and I would love to help you find your next home. And in the meantime, we'll see you back here next