¡Pura Vida!

This is probably the most common expression in Costa Rica. It will be on your souvenir t-shirt, sarong, beach towel, candle, coffe mug, and so on. It can be a statement, a question, or an exclamation. Like this:
How was your bus ride? Pura vida.
¿Pura vida? Pura vida.
What do you think of Costa Rica? ¡Pura Vida!
It translates literally to “pure life.” It is used for everything positive. And in Costa Rica most things are positive most of the time. Life here is relaxed. The people are welcoming and helpful. I keep telling our friends here that they make this an easy place to be.

Unfortunately, it is a place I get to be for only a short while. Tomorrow Marie and I head home to Minnesota. I hope you have enjoyed my blog. I have thought of it like writing postcards—without the space limit : ) Writing it has been interesting, though different than I expected. I had hoped to have Marie write more, but it quickly became clear that her contact would be through Facebook. (If you haven’t already, you could find her there and see her pictures and comments.)

I also imagined a bit more for comments from my readers, but the hiccup at the beginning when I had to re-create the blog kind of got in the way of that. If you haven't yet, please email any comments to me at pederchild@gmail.com. I would be interested to hear what you thought of this travel-blog or what your favorite part was or whether you have questions or anything else you want to share.

Please stop by soon—I would love to see you, to swap stories, and to treat you to a cup of Costa Rican coffee. ¡Pura Vida!

Poas Volcano

During my last week here, I visited two more volcanos—Poas and Irazu. They are both among the mountains that ring the Central Valley, so relatively easy to get to. They also are both in national parks with wide trails leading to overlooks right on the rims of the main craters. Poas's main crater is more than a mile across, and it often sends up steam from the geysers and the lake in that crater. Irazu's last major eruption was in 1963, and it is known for its lake that is distinctively fluorescent green (see below). I feel lucky to have seen the lava flowing down Arenal and now these craters.

Irazu Volcano

Playa Hermosa--Weekend #8--The LAST One

For our last weekend tour, we splurged on a rental car and a trip to the northwest part of Costa Rica, to the province of Guanacaste. This is the region many people from the US and Canada visit and buy time shares. Since it was the week after the big Easter holiday, the beaches, hotels, and restaurants were quiet. Just what we wanted! We lounged around,swam, checked out the tourist shops, and ate lots of fresh seafood (including a shrimp, mango ceviche that was fabulous). Hermosa means beautiful and it was. From the picture you can see that our hotel had a pool and Jacuzzi (which does wonderful things for the ladies' hair)—plus it was way up on the hill so it had a fabulous view.

Driving went well. We were glad to have had some time to learn our way around and to observe the driving patterns. Two months ago, it seemed chaotic. Now we know the main roads and the main cities and generally where one place is in relation to another. Traffic still is pretty fast and fluid, but we were more prepared to go with the flow. “Drive like a Tico” was our slogan.

By the way—Tico or Tica is the Costa Ricans’ name for themselves. It comes from their tendency to add a –tico suffix to words. For example, “un momento” becomes “un momentico” (“one moment” altered to “one little moment”). And I use a time example so that I remember to tell you about Tico time. That is the name for their relaxed attitude about time—things happen eventually but no one it too uptight about schedules. Ironically, everyone is up early and off to work. Our students were surprised—they thought Tico time would mean everything would start later. Part of the earliness is that it gets light about 5, and the equatorial sun is already high in the sky by 8, so the cool morning time for doing things is early and brief. Then there’s time to be slower (or late) the rest of the day. And it’s warm enough that rushing around in the mid-day heat does not make sense. We hope to bring at least some of this casual sense of time home with us. Do you think my boss will like it?

Lounging around with the family was wonderful, and this was a good place to do it. It’s hot and humid, so a slow pace is the way to go. The town is small with mostly gravel streets; life centers on the beach. There’s a Rastafarian feel to it—lots of dreads and reggae. It was busy with tourists for the Easter week holiday, but it wasn’t too crowded. After our evening meal, we would head back to our room before the partying got wild. We stayed at a lovely small hotel with a nice garden and hammocks for reading. The kids and I played some rummy and laughed a lot. With easy access to tasty homemade ice cream and a good internet place, we could have stayed longer.
Like the picture? You may see it again at Christmas : )

More Puerto Viejo

Puerto Viejo is about as far south as the coast goes, but we went even farther south for some incredible snorkeling. At Manzanillo there is a national park along the shore with some interesting rocks outcropping and points, plus coral reef to explore. We each spent hours floating around finding incredible fish and plants to observe. I don’t know any of the names of what I saw, but my favorite fish was the little black one with purple spots along its spine and a bright yellow tail. The coral that looks like a brain was pretty interesting, too.

Juan Santamaria Day

Monday, April 13, was a day for celebrating in Alajuela--Juan Santamaria Day commemorates the national hero (see the statue silhouetted against the sky to the right of the lightpost). The historic date is April 11, 1856, and April 11 would usually be the holiday, but the festivities were moved to the 13th this year to avoid conflict with Easter weekend.

The story is that Santamaria was a drummer boy who volunteered to set fire to the building where William Walker and his band were barricaded. Walker was an American trying to gain control over a Central American state that he could make a slave state. Santamaria succeeded though he was mortally wounded doing so. Walker and his men were captured.

The holiday focuses on school children, so they have the day off from school in order to be part of the parade. They practice for weeks to be ready for this big event. The dignitaries who spoke before the parade all emphasized the importance of education. Once the parade begins, each school is introduced and off they go.