Pura Vida

Used to say “hello”, “goodbye”, “you’re welcome”, “it’s all good”, “I’m good”, “you’re good”, and a bunch of other phrases, Pura Vida is the unofficial national catch phrase of Costa Rica. Literally translated as “Pure Life”, the phrase Pura Vida incapsulates the culture of positivity and gratitude present in everyday life here.

Known as the “happiest country in the world”, Costa Rica is small central-American country sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Caribbean Sea on the east, Nicaragua to the North and Panama to the South.

There are only two seasons here, rainy and dry. Interestingly, we arrived during the seasonal shift from rainy season which ends in November and dry season which starts in December. The first few days of our trip in the rainforest were pretty wet but as we travelled to our beach resort on the pacific coast and into the month of December, things became much drier.

We’ve spent the last four days being relatively lazy. Mornings were spent lounging by the beach. Afternoons were spent floating around the pools. There were plenty of drinks and snacks in between. M has eaten her weight in jello and ice cream. Josh has drank his in piña coladas.

My brother and I booked a snorkeling tour for early one morning. Though the water was a bit chilly, we saw some pretty incredible schools of fish. We snorkeled for over an hour and swam in both deep ocean and shallow pools with tons of live coral and spiky sea urchins. Best sights were definitely a round stingray, puffer fish, a huge blue-spotted cornetfish and a big school of green jacks just to name a few.

Yesterday afternoon, the events staff hosted a big foam party in one of the pools. It was a bit rowdy for M but she enjoyed watching from the safety of a near empty pool close-by. As we leave Costa Rica this morning, she has two requests: To come back to Costa Rica again some day and to have a “pirate foam party” birthday party this year. Definitely to the first. Probably to the later.