"Pura Vida" in Costa Rica – Chapter 1: Arriving in Guanacaste

The northwest coastal area of Costa Rica is best described as a paradise. In fact, living anywhere in Costa Rica is called “Pura Vida” by the native people. The phrase literally means “the pure life”, but it has implications that go far beyond “pure” and that include a richness of culture, a slow, easy pace of life, an incredible eco-centric environment, and a satisfaction (from living there) available nowhere else on earth.

They just might be correct.

After two flights totaling eight hours from the Seattle, Washington area where we live, we arrived in Liberia, the largest city in northern Costa Rica, in the Province of Guanacaste. Liberia is a large enough city to have traffic lights, four lanes on the main thoroughfares, and even left turn lanes at major intersections. Other than in Liberia, however, we did not see a traffic light, and we encountered few stop signs as we motored through the Province.

You are almost overwhelmed by the humidity and the heat as you step off the airplane. Most public buildings are open in this tropical climate, including the airport structures, so air conditioning is not even a thought. In spite of the overhead fans which are everywhere, I was soaking wet in minutes. Of course I can look at a flight of stairs and begin to perspire.

Immigration and customs officials were most gracious and welcoming, making very pleasant our initial contact with the people of Costa Rica. And that remained constant throughout our trip. After renting a car at twice the U.S. rate due to CR taxes, plus the fact that our Hertz #1 status was of no value there, we headed in a generally westward and slightly southward direction from the Liberia airport toward Playa Tamarindo on the Pacific coast where our rented condo awaited just steps from the beach. (In the top pic that's my wife Kay Lynne on the left, Jim's wife Kay in the middle, and Jim.)

Other than on the main roads between major cities (like Liberia and San Jose), driving in Costa Rica can be a harrowing experience, especially in Guanacaste where they had just experienced one of the wettest rainy seasons in their history. The paved road ended suddenly only a few miles out of the Liberia area. My cousin Jim Narva (from Sunnyvale, CA) was driving. My wife and I had met Jim and his wife Kay in Atlanta and had flown together from there to Liberia.

The monster pothole Jim hit as the paved road suddenly vanished jarred us all to the bone. Jim hit the brakes as we found ourselves on a dirt gravel road that was ominously displaying the effects of the recent downpours. Washboard-like bumps filled the areas in the road not occupied by enormous potholes as we made our way, from that point on, very slowly.

Fortunately we had rented a four-wheel drive SUV because we had heard the roads could get bad during the rainy season. It was the peripheral effects of the three recent major damaging hurricanes which hit New Orleans, Houston and Cancun that caused torrential rains here. We felt their effects as we jostled our way toward Tamarindo at an average speed of about 15 mph. It took us almost three hours to go less than 40 bouncy miles.

But things were not all bad. About two thirds of the way we stopped to eat at an open, plantation-like restaurant (second pic) where they grew a lot of the food they served on the acreage nearby. A local family owns the establishment, kind of out in the middle of nowhere, and it was the friendly family members of the second generation who were on duty. They cordially showed us the papaya trees and variety of crops that grew out in the back and all around.

I got a chance to try my “pocho” Spanish for the first time on these unlucky people, but we soon learned we could communicate quite well, thanks to the fact that they understood English far better than I could speak Spanish. We sampled various versions of delicious rice, chicken and beans combos (pollo con arroz y frijoles). It was either incredibly delicious food or we were extremely hungry. I’d bet on the former.

Forty five minutes later, following two wrong turns after darkness had set in, we arrived at our vacation condo in the Villas Cerca Del Mar complex (third pic) in Playa Langosta. There Jim and Kay’s son Andrew met us, accompanied by three of his friends. Andrew is a graduating senior at the University of Redlands in southern California and is taking some international studies courses at the University of Costa Rica in Heredia (a suburb of San Jose) as were the others but they were from different U.S. universities. (Fourth pic is from left, Dana, Andrew, John and Ashley)

Together with his friends, he had come up to the Playa Tamarindo area (a world-class surfing location) to ride the waves for the weekend and enjoy a short visit with his folks – a welcome break from their nearing finals. Our three-bedroom condo housed all of us comfortably and was called “Villa Jazmin”, http://www.tamarindo.com/jazmin/ owned by Cathy Gardner, a friend of Kay’s who teaches with her in California. It certainly lived up to all expectations.