I recently explored the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica and fell in love with the country.  Within a few short hours it became clear that "pura vida!" was an important phrase to both Ticos (Costa Ricans) and expats living in the area, but what did it mean?  

Wikipedia says "Pura vida literally means Pura = pure and vida = life, but "Pure life" in Spanish would be "Vida pura" instead, so the real meaning is closer to "plenty of life", "full of life", "this is living!", "going great", "real living", or "cool!" It can be used both as a greeting and a farewell, to express satisfaction, to politely express indifference when describing something or even to say "thank you". Costa Ricans use the phrase to express a philosophy of strong community, perseverance, resilience in overcoming difficulties with good spirits, enjoying life slowly, and celebrating good fortune of magnitudes small and large alike."  Kind of like this blog, eh?

Over the course of a couple of posts I'll share some images that (to me) capture a bit of the beauty of Costa Rica and the essence of pura vida.  They're not even close to the real deal but they're still pretty nice to see.  Everything below was shot in Playa Grande and Tamarindo.
 


































Gorgeous!  More to come in the next installment...