voyage number one

this evening i will be headed south...way down south. i'll be in costa rica for a week, spending some time with some relatives. i'm making the flight from lax to sjo with my aunt L---. i don't call her "aunt L---", never did. just L---.
it's been eleven years since i've been down there. now that i'm older i hope i can have a more enriching experience. maybe, subconsciously, i want to discover myself through seeing my mom's history. she was born there.
maybe i feel a little displaced. like i know my family history through stories, not experiencing it or seeing the places my parents knew as kids. i am a stranger to their childhoods. i guess i just hope for a glimpse of something meaningful, enlightening, healing, etc.
what's more likely to happen is just a lot of hanging out, drinking coffee, eating mangos, and trying to communicate with my family in spanish.