#puravida moments

“Pura Vida” is the mantra of Costa Rica.  You might ask someone how they are doing and they respond with “pura vida”.  Or, you might tell someone thank you and they commonly respond with “pura vida”.  Basically, “pura vida” is an acceptable response to just about anything here.

We as Gringos like to use this phrase to describe all of the things that happen here, that wouldn’t happen in our life back in the States.  We refer to them as #puravida moments.  And recently we’ve had a lot...

Riding the public bus is like riding a roller coaster.  You go slow then suddenly freakishly fast.  You whip around corners and blow through stop signs.  Your stomach might even drop a bit when you go down hills.  There is nothing gentle about the driver hitting the breaks.  And it is not uncommon for the driver to drive down the shoulder.  I’ve even experienced a bus driver make a left-hand turn from the right-hand shoulder, across 4 lanes of traffic, during morning rush hour.  #puravida

Walking down Avenida Central during rainy season is like playing Frogger.  Minus ten points for whacking someone with your umbrella...whoops!  This walking street is super busy anyways, full of people at all hours of the day.  Then you throw in umbrellas, and the fact that everyone must maneuver the five foot radius now surrounding them, and its just comical.  You can’t see anything except umbrellas and the whole way you’re just punching air...right, left, up, left, side-tilt...to avoid people, trees, and light poles.  I’m tall, so I just go up.  I just extend my arm straight up and let everyone else go down.  It’s just easier.  And gives the people who are crouching down and umbrella hopping under the collective whole, a little more space.  #puravida  

Sometimes there just isn’t electricity.  Like the time you’ve been dreaming of a pumpkin milkshake from the one place in the whole country that has such an item on their menu, you arrive and your dreams are crushed because the power is out and they don’t have a generator.  #puravida

You go to the corner “pulperia” to buy eggs because you’re going to bake.  And you know it’s wise to buy a couple extra because the likelihood of them all making it to your house in one piece in the plastic bag they’re in as you commute on bus and by foot is low.  Really low.  #puravida

You go to the movies and it takes you 40 minuets to figure out that you’re watching The Lone Ranger, not Wolverine.  #puravida

Your Tica mom tells you that you have a cold because you showered at night.  That since your throat is sore, you should wear a bufanda (scarf).  And that because you have a cold in Costa Rica, American medicine will not work.  #puravida

You find a cockroach in your room.  At 3:00AM.  Then you look up cockroaches on Wikipedia to make sure they can’t kill you (but close your eyes over the pictures because they scare you), and try, but fail, to go back to sleep.  #puravida

Life is always an adventure here!  And I know I’m going to have several more of these moments in the months to come!  Grateful for laughter and for the understanding that life is just different here.  Not better or worse, just different.