Pura Vida… maybe?
Hi again, everybody! I am back with another travel blog post, but it’s been a while, so let’s catch up! The last time I posted, I was in Cape Cod. That was almost 8 months ago! The only vacation we have taken since the summer was to Arizona for New Year’s, but I decided not to do a post for there. ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ♡
Okay, let’s get started! For Spring Break this year, we decided to go to Costa Rica! The unofficial slogan of Costa Rica is basically “pura vida”, which literally translates to pure life, but it can mean anything positive. As our guide during the chocolate tour in Arenal says, “If someone asks you if your shirt is good, say Pura Vida! If someone asks you how your vacation was, say Pura Vida! If someone asks you how the food you are eating is, say Pura Vida!”… the list goes on. We started our journey in the beachside town of Samara, with our mode of transportation being a blue golf cart with a monkey wearing sunglasses on the front. It was very bumpy getting up, but we survived.
On the first day, we went to the local farmer’s market, where we bought food, and my dad bought a bag of coffee. This was the start of a solo fad where he bought a bag of coffee every day. (๑•̌.•̑๑)?? He bought like 10 bags! Anyway, after we poked around some souvenir shops and got lunch. We made our way to the beach in our golf cart, where we rented a little shaded tent with chairs, played in the sand, and swam in the water. For dinner, we went to a restaurant on the same beach, where Mia and I got locked in the bathroom for more than 10 minutes. (uhh.. I highly recommend you don’t question, a waitress rescued us)
The next day was Easter! We had an easter egg hunt in the scorching sun first, and then we drove out to Carrillo Beach. On the way there, there was a guy going about 50 miles per hour while our golf cart, being a golf cart, was going about 15-20 mph. He flew off his motorcycle and landed on the ground, but aside from some roadburns and scrapes, he was okay. After that, we made it to the beach and relaxed. I personally liked this beach better, but other people might have different opinions. We ate dinner at a seafood restaurant that was close by.
A humongous hermit crab we found on Samara Beach. We named him Mr. Crabby, for the fact that he was a crab, and because he kept being crabby and skittering away from us.
Mia drinking/eating a coconut on Carrillo Beach with very sandy feet
Easter egg hunting! Bunny went too, and got one egg with Japanese gum inside.
The third day, we swam in the Airbnb’s pool in the morning, and then went fishing while my mom went to get a massage. We caught 2 types of fish, grouper and redfish. A funny thing about the grouper is that it lives so deep (we had to reel over 600 feet!) that when it goes up high, like to the surface, its eyeballs pop from this (• •) to this! (⊙⊙) It’s really funny. For dinner, we ate the fish we caught!
All the fish we caught! We caught a lot, but we didn’t keep it all; our guides took whatever we didn’t want.
Some grouper we caught! I was too grossed out to touch them, so I made my dad do it. Usually, we weirdly catch 2 fish at a time, but one time Mia caught 3!
Mia feeding a cat that sometimes wandered by our Airbnb to grab a little snack! She is feeding it grouper and water.
On the fourth and last day in Samara, we went to Carrillo Beach again, and had a lot of fun. So much fun, in fact, that we stayed until the sun went down. We got a drink that was like condensed milk with shaved ice, but we were playing in the waves for so long that we forgot about it, and it melted. We ate dinner at another seafood place, and something cool was that we could see lightning in the sky! At last, we got back to the Airbnb. When we arrived, our luggage was unzipped, and so was my mom’s and dad’s! We learned that many things had been stolen!!! Here are the things: My dad’s work computer, my mom’s computer that I was going to use to work on this blog (I am using my school computer), my dad’s cords and plugs, my mom’s hair straightener, my dad’s backpack, my mom’s airpods, and my dad’s swiss army knife! Oh, and also my dad’s Nantucket t-shirt and a random pair of shorts, which I thought was a little odd.
Sharing our lime-shaved ice condensed milk concoction!
See? We stayed until the sun went down!
My dad saw these mangoes on the side of the road and he decided that he wanted to pick one . Here he is!
Do you think that our experience was pura vida? According to my math, it was still 80% pura vida :)
Samara staaaaaats!
Best food: Coconut cake from the local farmer’s market
Best shopping: Farmer’s Market
Fun fact: The name for local Costa Ricans is Tico
Best things to see/do: Jump the waves at Carrillo Beach
Where we stayed: Airbnb called Casa Ellora
How 2 pronounce: Sahmurah, purrah veeda