A Day In The Life of Pura Vida
You might be thinking, what is Pura Vida. And what does it even mean. The answer is simple. If you have been to Costa Rica you know exactly what Pura Vida is. Pura Vida is a way of life. It’s a way of living each and every day with a sole purpose. The meaning of Pura Vida is “pure life” or “simple life”. Costa Rica is hands down one of our favorite places to visit for a few reasons. It allows us to escape the everyday hustle and bustle, allows us to live the simple life and we love Costa Rica’s rich and vibrant culture.
We recently visited Costa Rica for the second time and we had such an incredible time that we wanted you to experience a day in the life of Pura Vida through our eyes. So let us take you on a journey through one day in Costa Rica filled with joy, happiness, adventure, laughter and memories.
Our day started at 6:30 am when we went to eat breakfast at the resort before departing for a day full of adventure. At approximately 7:30 am we met our tour guide, Christian, at the lobby of the resort along with our friend Evan who joined us on our Pura Vida Adventure. We weren’t sure what to expect and if Christian would be with us the whole day or if we would be passed off between multiple tour guides. Needless to say Christian spent the entire day with us. And he was amazing.
It wasn’t more than 5 minutes after we left the resort and Christian was talking to us, asking us lots of questions about ourselves, about our trip to Costa Rica and explained what we would be doing throughout the day.
Fast forward to our first stop of the day — a fruit stand on the side of the road. Talk about living the pure life. An older Costa Rican man grows the fruit and then sets up his stand near Liberia to share the fruit with locals and tourists. He took a watermelon, used a machete to cut it open and then brought each of us a slice of watermelon. And as he handed it to us, he said “this is for you, my friend”.
A complete stranger gives you something and then calls you his friend. This is exactly what you will experience everywhere you go in Costa Rica. The people are so vibrant, so happy, so friendly and so genuine. This is just one of the many reasons why we love Pura Vida!
Back to the watermelon, it was perhaps some of the best watermelon we have ever tasted before and we weren’t even asked to pay for it. There was a small cup to leave money, and of course we did.
Our next stop of the day we hiked through the jungle to a vibrant blue waterfall known as Rio Celeste. Before entering the national park, we had to walk all the way back to Christian’s van because they don’t allow aerial drones in the park. Christian wasn’t even mad and in fact he was very helpful and understanding. And talk about one of the most beautiful places on earth, Rio Celeste is a site to see. At first you think you are seeing things, but you ask yourself how can the water really be that blue?
After we left the waterfall we had the opportunity to hike up and see the volcano where the water comes from. But we opted not to go just because it had rained pretty hard that week and was really muddy. And we were worried about getting Christians van dirty. He kept saying if we wanted to go that he would take us, but we decided not to for our own sake.
The next stop of the day was a Sloth Sanctuary and lunch where we were shown a nature preserve by a young Costa Rican boy named Manny. Manny who is 13 years old, works at the preserve in order to save money for college. It was incredibly eye-opening seeing someone so young working to pay for their education. And we had a fantastic time with Manny. He even taught us things about our iPhones that we didn’t even know! At the preserve we saw tons of plants, insects and animals. And the natural, beautiful setting was just impressive.
After the nature preserve, we experienced a true authentic Costa Rican meal. We had lunch at a local hole in the wall restaurant. And for lunch, we were served a very traditional meal with chicken, rice, beans and glass of fresh squeezed mango juice. The food and the service was incredible. The waitress kept coming over to check on us and see if she could get us anything else.
Our last stop of the day takes us to a volcano, natural hot springs and volcanic mud bath. This is the silliest thing we have ever done and perhaps something we will remember forever. Sitting down and taking a volcanic mud bath is not something that you would expect to do every day. But the three of us covered ourselves in mud until we couldn’t see our skin anymore. Then we waited for the mud to dry so that your skin gets the most out of the volcanic minerals.
Spending one day in Costa Rica like we did on a crazy adventure accurately sums up Pura Vida. You forget about things that don’t matter and you only pay attention to the things that do. Life is so short. So one of the things we plan on working towards in 2019 is living that Pura Vida life. People in Costa Rica are known to live to be over 100. Why? Because they don’t let the stress, the hustle and the non-sense of everyday life get to them.
Pura Vida!