Pura Vida

Pura Vida... a very common phrase you would hear, so integrated in the lives of Costa Ricans, it has become a flexible way to say a greeting, farewell, or even thank you... but basically, since it's a country based around tourism, you'll see the phrase on all kinds of shirts and countless types of souvenirs, etc...

The day of leaving the missionary home in Managua, Phil and I embarked on a 10 hour-long bus ride from the capital of Nicaragua, to the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose, which is basically smack in the middle of the country... We took a nice coach bus called Trans-Nica, and crossed over the border... Immediately after leaving Nicaragua, you can see a difference in how the country looks and is presented... Just from looking out of the window on the bus, there was next to no garbage on the side of the road and everything was greener. Unfortunately, even though it's the same land, it's taken care of so much better in Costa Rica.  Our goal was to meet up with a certain crew of wintery people, from the land of Long Island, who could not wait to soak in some Central American sun, at the airport there in San Jose.

I took one pic in San Jose... here it is...

This was a monumental moment for me... I always imagined getting Wendy's only when I got back to Long Island... I never thought they would have one here... so, when I saw that on the bus... I told Phil, "Yea, we're going there." To eat a JBC in Central America was an epic experience... In the words of Dan Huber, "I owned." (I wish I knew how to say that in Spanish)

Why did I take one picture of a fast food restaurant for all of San Jose?  Because San Jose is a grimy, hole of a city, inland of Costa Rica, and there was no reason to hang around there... that may sound harsh, but we were just there to get to the airport... our destination involved the Pacific Ocean...

So, who came to visit us?

The Taboadas and Chattertons.  Here we are enjoying one of many delicious meals.  We got to enjoy a week with them at Tamarindo, a very nice beach and vacation spot, on the Pacific side of Costa Rica...

We took a nice, healthy, 4 1/2 hour ride from San Jose, to Tamarindo, which was just what everyone needed after a long day of traveling, via bus or plane... to arrive at Tamarindo Beach, which looks like this:

A huge, wide open beach with pretty consistent off-shore wind.  Most of the time, the waves were nice and small, great for long boarding and paddle-boarding...

Another pic of the beach at Tamarindo... the tide would go out really far, making the beach over double the size...

The view outside the balcony of the hotel room... very nice

 The view of the hotel from the other side... You can see it way in the back there, nice and close to the beach

The town basically consisted of just restaurants, hotels, souvenir and surf shops like these... very touristy, but it was nice to be in such an accommodating place for a change...

Found this giant, over-sized bugster dead on the ground and decided to keep him

Just to give you an idea of the town... it's not really a good example... but it consists of all those shops I mentioned earlier... it's a really cool place to just walk around...in Tamarindo, you will find lots of tourists, surf bums that decided never to leave, and local Costa Ricans, profiting from all the foreigners

Finally got to surf!... after about 4 months of living in the mountains... seeing the ocean and then surfing for the two days we rented the board was such an amazing feeling...

Austin having a blast on the boogie-board

Emily enjoying her mariachi band experience, when they start playing a song for you at the dinner table

A nice group-photo of the kids at one of the many restaurants in Tamarindo...

Pic in Tamarindo... Phil, LJC, and JMD

 Chatts in Costa Rica!

Henry and Rachel and the sunset at Tamarindo

This pic was requested to be put on the blog... Here I am with Corinne... the Chatts call me their long-lost brother or twin... maybe my awesome mustache brings out the strong Chatterton qualities my face seems to portray...

We did some exploring... we went to a couple other beaches... this one was called Playa Conchal... here, there were no waves... more like a calm, bay type beach...

The Three Siblings...

Phil and Corinne

Big bro and Lil bro

Hanging from a tree at Playa Conchal... and I took the worst fall...I'll pretty much say it was an epic fall...

yes... we went on an ATV tour at Playa Conchal... that was a blast...

Here's an adorable pic... Phil and Corinne with faces covered in all the dust and dirt from the ATV rides... it could be like one of those orbit gum commercials... *ching* look at my white teeth shining through this grimy face... yea, anyway...

Playa Conchal at the end of the day... it was a nice getaway from busy Tamarindo for a couple days

The canopy tour zip-lining was fun and exciting... here's a bunch of pics from that...

Yea, zip-lining through the trees was great, especially if you've never done it before... we even got to go upside down.... Here's Henry holding his head, flying through the trees haha..."Holy craaap!" ... that was great

One of our last days at the beach... here we were at Playa Avellana... Phil set up his Nicaraguan made hammock, and if you look closely you might see someone in the tree

Lunch at Playa Avellana

A nice pic of the Taboada Family together on the last day of the vaykaysh

Here's our crew, sunset on the last day...

Costa Rica was a blast... This blog's supposed to be about Nicaragua-related things... but taking time to see some friends and family, and a week to relax, was very important and definitely a huge part of this whole Central-American experience... After 3 1/2 months in Esteli, it was refreshing to finally see the beach, and meeting friends from New York made it even better....

Ok, that's about it... thanks for tuning in...

O and by the way...

They're Offish