5 Lessons from a Month of Living in Costa Rica
Our family looking like an episode of survivor during our beach fire at Playa Negra, Puerto Viejo Limon Costa Rica.
We have just returned to the United States from spending the month of December traveling and experiencing the wonder that is Costa Rica. Let us tell you Costa Rica is a magical place that somehow even Hollywood cannot capture the true essence of. If you desire to see some of the most beautiful animals’ nature has created from Scarlett Macaws, Parrots, all sorts of monkeys, Ocelots, and sloths then we would tell you to get Costa Rica on your bucket list for travel.
A month allowed us to really feel like we experienced the wide variety of life offered in Costa Rica. From the city traffic and hustle of San Jose to the mountain views and coffee farms of Atenas, to the absolute remoteness and off the grid experience in the Osa Peninsula outside Puerto Jiminez, to the beach and surf vibe of Dominical and finishing our month off on the Caribbean side enjoying reggae, sloths, and the Jamaican vibe of Puerto Viejo Limon.
To be fair we did not travel north of San Jose so there are some beautiful places we have saved for our next trip to this beautiful land.
The first two weeks were just the two of us. This is a picture of Paos Volcano, a currently active volcano in North Central Costa Rica.
Here we go our five lessons learned from the month of living in Costa Rica:
1. Costa Ricans or “ticos” as they refer to themselves are a very hard working and physically fit society. Many of them walk to all the places they need to go in a day. Their community is centered much more “locally” in concept, so that their lives are spent in one general location. We really enjoyed this aspect of life especially when it came to our meals and grocery shopping. The local co-op grocery store is just that “local”. The fruits and veggies, coffee, chocolate is all grown locally or in the region. They are very proud of their made in Costa Rica status and almost every product is tagged to let you know if it is Costa Rican or imported so you can consume consciously. Because the food is not shipped very far from farm to store, their food is much purer and contains many less chemicals that what we often see in the United States.
2. Traffic is traffic no matter what country you are in. Flying into San Jose, a city of over 2 million people and picking up our rental car was an adventure all in itself. We had mapped some of our routes before we left and had a good idea our first AirBnB in Atenas, was roughly 18 miles from the airport. No problem we thought as we packed up to head south from Miami. However, after a day of travel spent mostly standing in the customs line to enter Costa Rica, we were not prepared to find out this “short” drive by our standards was over an hour away in evening traffic. The true surprise however, really hit us as we got into the Toyota Rush (Never heard of these either, so here’s a pic) and entered traffic using WAZE (essential app for navigation in CR). Everyone was honking at and around us. Not the lay on your horn kind of honk followed by expletive language, rage, and irrational driving behavior I was expecting. No, they honked twice, beep beep, to let you in! The beep beep was courteous and nice, followed by a wave or on some streets a “gracias” as you sat window to window with strangers, each of you going nowhere for a bit. They were not angry, upset or in a rush, they accept traffic as part of their lives if they choose to live in these areas. As we drove through the narrow streets filled with traffic and “beep beep” all around, the businesses had their music playing, restaurants mere feet from the road were bustling with foot traffic, people on motorcycles politely zipped down the center lane immune to the log jam of small cars. A traffic jam here almost seemed like a street party! If my Spanish had been better, I could have no doubt had some very interesting conversations with fellow motorists all enjoying life where they sat.
Thankfully, ours wasn’t this nice and had almost 100k km on it already. Think of it as an underpowered modified station wagon by US standards. It did however do the job for us as it climbed mountain roads, navigated potholes the size of it, and survived several river and stream crossings all in a day commute in Costa Rica. pssss. don’t tell the rental company :)
3. The best alarm clock ever is mother nature and in our case the Howler Monkey (insert pic). They are a small docile monkey that spends most their life in trees, eating leaves, and napping. Due to the lack of nutrients in their food choices, they are only active about 45 minutes a day. However, around 5 am every morning the alpha males in each community let you know exactly how they got their name. They let out a roar that surprised us and shook our house the first day we experienced them in the Osa Peninsula. At first, we were a bit scared of what was going to follow that roar. Would we be attacked, would they ransack the kitchen (our house had no walls or doors, only a mosquito net around the bed, a safe for valuables, and a refrigerator that ran on solar)? We laid in bed and listened for the next thirty minutes or so as the males roared back and forth letting each other know where they were. Once it subsided, we went downstairs for coffee and breakfast only to find these little monkeys climbing and eating leaves in the trees nearby. For the next week, their calls and feeding time became part of our morning routine and a wakeup call I have missed every day since we returned.
A male Howler letting out his roar. We had to use a stock photo for this as none of the pics we captured do these guy justice. They are by far the best alarm clock we have ever owned.
4. “When is enough, enough?”. This was a question posed to us by Gabriel at El Toledo Coffee farm during the introduction part of a tour we attended. You all know we love coffee, so getting to see an organic, family-owned Costa Rican coffee farm was something we wanted to experience. What we were shocked by was the honesty and truths shared with us by Gabriel. I had no idea how much water was needed or used in the processing of the coffee tree, or that the bean is really the seed of a berry like a grape or cherry. It has a sweet taste and can be eaten just the same. However, it is treated as a byproduct and waste in most coffee processing meaning the berry is crushed and along with the juice becomes waste while only the coffee seed is cleaned, dried, and roasted for our traditional coffee. Gabriel shared with us the history of coffee in Costa Rica, how regulations for “organic farming” are easily manipulated and that “organic” is as much a market scheme as it is truly a desire to create better products. Then he asked us the question at the beginning of this paragraph. When is enough, enough? Money, land, bigger houses, cars, even cups of coffee? He shared his story of inheriting his farm from his grandfather through his father to him. Gabriel talked about the struggle of trying to make sure his children see the honor and value in producing clean foods that replenish their soils and grow in cooperation with other native plants. He worried that his children would believe the message that going to college and moving to the city is the only way to lead a happy life, leaving his farm to wonder what was next. Gabriel did not want to sell us anymore coffee (although we bought some), he wanted us to be conscious of the people behind the foods we eat and drink. To be aware of supporting those who work in our local soils, providing the local foods and to help ensure the family farm has a place in our future societies.
Jerrod in El Toledo Coffee Tour
5. “Pura Vida” - It is a greeting, a closure, it is a way of life. It means “Pure Life” and it is the essence of Costa Rican living. Shopping and spending money locally. Spending time with family and friends who all live nearby. Walking to and from the places you need to go so you can talk with those you encounter, share a cup of coffee, and stay connected to the world around you. Pura Vida means taking care of the earth, the environment and appreciating all the life it provides. You could not help but smile as you said or responded to someone with “Pura Vida” it is pure, happiness, and lighthearted living at its best. It is Costa Rica.
“The Pure Life” is Costa Rica at is essence.
We hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we did experiencing it.
Be sure to jump over to instagram @alternateroads to see more of our day to day travels, misadventures, and fun!
Thanks for inspiring us to share this with the world and following along with our dream.