26.02.2011

After 6 hours of travel from Monteverde we reached the Pacific coast of Costa Rica in a town called Playa del Coco. Tired of heat, we dumped our bagpacks and engaged in a conversation with the owner of the place we are staying at. In a very short period of time Steve shared with us the story of his life and a couple of others.

Among them there was an intriguing piece, we had never heard before, about the eagle’s rebirth process. According to that story, when an eagle reaches around 40 years, its mid-life point, it flies high up into the mountains to undergo a peculiar transformation process. Its feathers become thick and heavy so that it cannot fly anymore. For several days the eagle knocks it’s beak against a rock until it plucks it out
and loses all its old feathers. Then, while completely naked and unable to feed itself, it relies only on the fat accummulated in its body for the next 3 months. During that period it gains new feathers and beak and can soar again to continue the rest of its life.

Though told in a different context, we had only one association with that story, i.e. our sabbatical.

After some internet research we found out that it is unfortunately more of a legend than a real transformation process of an eagle based on the ornithology.

Anyway, we like the symbolism of that story a lot.

PS.

We just got back from the beach. While basking in the sand and admiring blue skies we spotted a few herons and an eagle .