Costa Rica // Pura Vida
🚗 San Jose 🏙️ -> Arenal 🌋 -> Monteverde ⛰️ -> Manuel Antonio 🏝️ -> Tamarindo 🌆 🚗
Mattia: Let’s go for a hike in Costa Rica
Chiara: Hike?! Like an easy one though, right?
Mattia: Do you think I want to turn a holiday into an Ironman? Don’t worry, it will be easy.
Chiara: If YOU say so…
Aaaaand of course. Chiara in the middle of the hike. Boy was she happy…
P.S. Mattia Cella is still alive, currently writing this piece.
A typical conversation in Costa Rica. Ready?
Pura Vida?
Pura Vida!
Wait but… Pura Vida?
Pura Vida Hermano.
Okay. Pura Vida!
Pura Vida to you too.
This idiom is used for literally everything.
As a greeting, as a goodbye, asking how one’s doing or feeling.
And the answer is always the same.
We loved Costa Rica ❤️
And in a way, we also felt like the country loved us back.
Well, it also started in a great way.
We had 5 seats in the plane for us two only.
This is what we made of it (don’t watch if you are easily offended):
It’s fair to say we landed in the country very well-rested.
But we could have slept for hours.
Costa Rica had A LOT of beauty in store for us that we weren’t always ready to accept.
One of the things that amazed me the most was the rainforest.
The amount of colors, plants, animals, and things we saw in the jungle was truly unbelievable.
Not to mention the beaches!
And the surf.
🏄♀️ 🏄♂️
We surfed together for the first time.
This guy (I forgot the name) pretended to be a surf instructor.
We totally believed him, paid him, and tried to surf.
He looked professional at first, but then he turned out to be…
Well… not what we expected.
Chiara actually rode a wave when someone else was next to her, and got hit by a surfboard.
She was okay eventually, but we got so mad at that guy for not preventing that to happen.
You don’t let your “student” surf a busy wave…
But anyway.
This is BEFORE the “““““““ lesson “““““““.
[you can tell that because we’re smiling]
But I guess nature decided to award our bravery.
To trust that guy.
And to surf busy waves.
How?
With the best sunset we’ve ever seen. Enjoying a beer of course! beer
Tamarindo 📍
We even saw beautiful beaches.
Huge.
Flat.
Water was so low (30cm) for hundreds and hundreds of meters.
I even went seashell hunting.
Why? Because Mattia Cella can’t stand under the sun doing anything for more than 26 minutes (timed). ⏰
Look in the back. The beach was sooo big.
And its water was unbelievable. 👇
There would be so much more to say about this trip.
Chiara went to the hospital (nothing serious, but still) 🏥
We ended up in a private party in the outskirts of Tamarindo 🎊
We saw a family of 🦥 🦥
We saw many 🦜
We hiked Arenal 🌋
Took a boat trip of a guy that was in prison for many years. We still don’t know what he did. He cooked fish for us on a secluded beach. ⛓️
Well.
That should do it, until next time! 👋
Wait, actually.
Let me close with a video of a scared Chiara being so brave:
Zip-lining in the middle of the rainforest!
