pura vida

In case you didn’t catch my post detailing the top five things I love about Costa Rica, check that out here. This is the top six through 10 things I love about being here, which also happens to be the bottom five things I love about being here, depending whether you are a glass half full/empty person. Lest you think I am a glass half empty person, I chose the title because I had an internal dialogue about whether to use numerals in ‘top 6-10’ (technically it should be top six-10 which is weird), so I just stuck with bottom five. My inner copy writer is sometimes very conflicted on this blog! Anyway! …

6. The colors. You can kind of tell where gringos have moved in because our houses are all boring white, gray, and maybe green. But Costa Ricans match the interiors and exteriors of their buildings with the showiness of the flowers and jungle birds. I was reading something about how this keeps heat out, but that sounds a little suspect to me. I think that the fluorescent pink, bright red, turquoise, yellow, ochre, bright blue are just the colors that make sense with the landscape here. I was searching for my favorite neighborhood house when I realized that I actually have a great example, which is my house. I love the grounds of our house as they are lush, peaceful and, of course, colorful.

7. The birds. The birds in Costa Rica are out of this world. Have you ever heard of an agami heron? How about a roseate spoonbill? Check that shit out ASAP! Don’t worry, I’m posting pictures here so you don’t have to go far. We also have a mot mot that visits us at breakfast (affectionately named Bob), and noisy parrots that swarm our palm tree. Last year, we went for a hike, and I was like, ‘I want to see a toucan’ and then we heard this bird calling, and Vien was like: ‘that’s a toucan.’ And we followed its call like it was the pied piper until it got stronger and stronger and then … there it was in the canopy, calling out for freedom and beauty. That’s the end of the story but guao! The birds here are so amazing.

8. An international perspective and community. Costa Rica is a really interesting place because it’s very local, but also very international. For example, it’s extremely hard to buy things here that aren’t made here. I mean, you could order foreign stuff but it’s exorbitantly expensive and you likely have to wait a couple months to receive a shipment. Which may never come because your address reads like: 50 meters past Kike’s place on the right. And the Ticos know everyone, including the gringos. Maybe not by name, but by description and general neighborhood. On the other hand, there are a bunch of expats here from all over the world, with a bunch of what I would call ‘world experience.’ What is world experience? It’s living in many parts of the world and understanding that there’s just … more. I guess that’s it for me. Being here has helped me get a little perspective. OF COURSE what’s happening in the US right now is Really Important, but there’s a whole world out there that is experiencing other things, living in a different way and under different circumstances. That world experience has helped me to relax into a different reality that includes other possibilities and isn’t so grim.

9. The sounds. If you know me you will know that I am not a huge fan of noise. Speaking of top ten lists, noise is my top-one trigger of sensory overload. So movie theaters, fireworks, and ummm my children are all pretty high on my list of things that make me overwhelmed. But I have found that Costa Rica is a noisy place and I actually kind of enjoy it. Waking to birds and howler monkeys. Listening to the cars with a loudspeaker on top selling watermelons, fish, or advertising local sales. Hearing my neighbors’ music or loud argument. I was super nervous about my kids’ (ok one kid in particular) loud antics but I really don’t feel worried about that anymore. I know my neighbors’ business and they know mine.

10. Funny cultural differences. I present this one with every ounce of self awareness as possible. I realize that if I was Costa Rican and I came to the United States I would find certain thing incredibly funny, both haha funny and just … funny. The same is true for me here. For example, T-shirts. English language T-shirts are kind of the rage around here, but it doesn’t seem to matter what is printed on the T-shirt. Case in point: a Deloitte T-shirt on our green grocer bagger. The tank top on a 50-year-old man that reads: Namaste Bitches or I AM The Wolf. Another example: Christmas! In the US Christmas begins in earnest after Thanksgiving. So I was surprised to hear Christmas music on the radio in early October. But not full-on Christmas music, because (I conjecture) the season is so long there just wouldn’t be enough Christmas music to fill all that space. So just about one song in four was addressing the bells ringing over Bethlehem. The subsequent songs would be talking about sexy ladies dancing a la King Africa’s La Bomba, which I found totally disorienting. Along with the snow on the Christmas decorations and the really hot post-rainy season weather. I just couldn’t make it work in my mind. And yes that is Santa on a flamingo in the picture below!

Anyway, hoping everyone is surviving ice in all its forms. Wishing you some sunshine!