pura vida

We've been home a week and a half and unfortunately Costa Rica feels like a distant memory. The reunion with the kids was sweet, but getting back into life...not-so-sweet.

Now when we feel stressed Mike and I say "pura vida" and sigh. "Pura Vida" is Costa Rica's mantra, motto, salutation, affirmation, exclamation, and way of life. It's their best advice. (The cynical side of me would point out that it is also their logo, gimmick, and brand. But hey, why not? Pura vida!) It means "pure life." And when I finally began to surrender to Costa Rica's quirks and charms, I really felt it. Pura vida.

My next posts are going to be more of a travelogue, because I want to tell you about the places we went. But here are some photos to give you the flavor of Costa Rica.


First of all, the food. They offered quite a variety, but I always went with the "typico," meaning black beans and rice, fruit, steamed vegetables, stewed plantains, usually with some chicken or fish blended in. It never got old, and was never presented exactly the same. In this picture, it's breakfast.



Next, the car? You have to realize, we had this car. Three times. The first three cars of our marriage were nissan sentras. So it felt like fate that we would be driving around the treacherous and exciting back roads of Costa Rica in one. Mike won the tug-of-war on renting a budget car, but I won on renting a GPS. And I've never been MORE RIGHT about something. Not only were there no street signs, but no addresses. So the GPS took us everywhere by looking up the names or categories of places we wanted to go. It also warned us of the recurring, one-way "dangerous bridges," and it played a little simba drumbeat periodically to let us know about interesting sights to see. We didn't always feel safe driving around Costa Rica, but we survived without incident.



This is just a typical road. We were on these dirt roads for hours between each of our 4 main destinations.


I laughed at both of these signs. Depicted below, I believe is a child (or little person?), a dog (which, no kidding, there were no leashes or fences for dogs--they were just everywhere, happy and chill. At your feet in every restaurant, frolicking in every park. Pura vida.), a sloth, and a monkey. These last two we did see, but only in the forest.




Here we are at the end, after the "pura vida" mentality has completely soaked in.

More to come!