When Leo and I met...

Leonardo and I met when I traveled to Costa Rica, on February 7 2008, on vacation with my friend Darlene.

After battling one of the biggest snow storms of the century to get to the airport (a 6 hour drive to Belleville to pick up Darlene and a 4 hour drive back to the airport in Toronto), encountering flight delays and then finding out our resort that we orginally booked had been closed by the Costa Rican government... Darlene and I found our way to a little hotel called the Monarch Resort.

One of the very first people that I met when I arrived was Leonardo and little did I know that moment would change my life...

After our first day in Costa Rica, Darlene approached Leonardo and said "Hey, my friend thinks you are cute!" Leo invited us to come meet him after work out on the beach to hear him play his guitar and watch the sunset. The three of us had a great time and hit it off immediately.
The rest of the week was filled with adventures! We toured around in our four wheel drive vehicle, getting lost but always having fun. Leo brought his guitar in the car and sang to us while we drove and saw some of Costa Rica. We spent one of our last days out on a boat with a few of Leo's friends and got to see some really beautiful beaches and of course the famous sunset...

The last day that we were in Costa Rica, was Valentines Day. Darlene and I met up with Leo to do some last minute souvenier shopping and made our way back to the hotel to pack up our luggage and wait for the shuttle to the airport. I went into my room and found a gorgeous flower arrangement with red roses and tropical flowers (Leo had gotten a coworker to come into my room while we were out and leave them for me)! It was such a nice surprise but I was not going to be able to enjoy them since we were leaving. I had an idea I would take out all the roses and put them in a plastic bag in the centre of my luggage. I wasn't sure that they would survive but I gave it a try!

Well, the week came to end and Leo and I had to say goodbye. We really had an amazing week getting to know one another and, as I sat on the plane on the way home, I knew that it was not going to be the last time that I saw Leo.

When we landed in Toronto, I drove Darlene back to Belleville and then headed home and I received a call on my cell phone. My heart jumped when I heard Leo's voice... I was barely home and so excited to hear from him.

I got home and unpacked and was so surprised when I pulled out the roses, that Leo had given me, and saw that they were alive and still were so beautiful! I put them in a vase and it did not look like they had just traveled for almost 24 hours back from Costa Rica and squished in a plastic bag in the middle of my luggage with no water!

We spent the next few months talking on the phone, emailing, chatting on msn messenger and talking over the internet. Not a day went by that we did not talk (I have the phone bills to prove it!) and we already started to make plans for another visit.

The countdown began... we counted the weeks, days and hours that I would come to visit again!