~Pura Vida~

We spent eight magical days in Costa Rica!
What? You didn't notice I was gone?
See...this is the kind of stuff that keeps you from getting invited. 

The girls each brought a friend and the Coach brought me. I brought one of my multiple personalities. her name is: I'monvacationdammit. 

I won't bore you today with our entire trip, I mean, I only have 1406 photos in my arsenal. Plus 55 videos of us zip lining, ATV-ing, Golf carting, snorkeling, tubing, wake boarding, knee-boarding, paddle boarding, surfing, boating, catamaraning. Sounds like I am just making stuff up now. 

In Costa Rica they have a saying: Pura Vida. You will hear this many times during the day from everyone and their brother.

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", "Awesome!" or "cool!". It can be used both as a greeting or a farewell, universally known in Costa Rica and it has been used by many Costa Ricans (and expatriates) since 1956.

Every single person we encountered was pleasant, friendly and full of personality. Even if they spoke little English...they were happy to see us. 

Thank heavens I know how to say Cervesa, Banos, Hola, Muy Bien, el vino, gracias, por favor and agua. 

Frankly, that was more spanish than I needed to know.

We saw a lot of monkeys.  Of course, Monkeys DO have a schedule to adhere to. You can only spot them in the mornings between 5-7 am.

Or in the afternoons between 3-6 pm. 

I admire a critter with a schedule. Actually, they are only active when it is not so hot. Smart little boogers. 

Here is a group of howler monkey's..

Holla! 

Notice that two of these captured here have babie's on board. {sorry, the video quality diminishes when it is enlarged}

At the end you can hear Lo ask if I carried her and Linds like this as babies...the answer: OF course, what kind of mother wouldn't carry her child on her back and swing from tree to tree?!?

I'll share a few of the highlights in the future....actually, I could blog about this for the next month. But I won't do that to you. 

Pura Vida!!! 

Oh, and wish us luck.....we are moving to Costa Rica. 


One day.