Living La Pura Vida
By
Jodi Lai, National Post
When you ask a Costa Rican how
she is doing, she doesn't reply
with a curt "Fine, thanks."
Instead, she smiles and replies,
"Pura vida!" And why wouldn't
she? The uniquely Costa Rican
motto sums up what the beautiful
country is all about.
Pura vida means pure life and
the country is full of it. It
conveys a sense of living in
peace and harmony and
appreciating nature. It's the
laid-back mentality that is
really contagious when
travelling in the country. Costa
Rica is so peaceful, it doesn't
even have a military. It sees
fire ants as its soldiers,
armadillos as its tanks and
toucans as its air force.
Sandwiched between the Pacific
Ocean and the Caribbean Sea,
Costa Rica is aptly named the
Rich Coast in English because it
is home to an astounding 5% of
the world's biodiversity. The
mixture of dry flatlands,
coastal plains, beaches, lush
rainforests, mountainous regions
and ancient volcanic regions not
only account for this unique
biology but also make for an
interesting, scenic and
unforgettable drive.
Costa Rica has won awards for
the best coffee in Latin America
and is becoming famous for the
coffee that grows in its
high-altitude volcanic regions.
These high altitudes, however,
also mean that cars in these
regions are robbed of valuable
horsepower because of the
thinner oxygen. Rental cars in
the country are mostly Japanese
SUVs (as the average gas price
in the country is $1.04 a litre,
which is high considering the
average Costa Rican makes only
about $12,500 a year) that have
big hood scoops to feed as much
oxygen as possible into the
engines. Some of them are
equipped with turbochargers,
needed for the boost to get up
steep inclines in mountain-area
roads such as those found in
Monteverde's remarkable City in
the Clouds. All-wheel-drive SUVs
are a must for driving Costa
Rica, especially for rural areas
and places where tourists don't
normally visit.
Although SUVs will make
travel-ling much easier and
safer, there is no better
four-wheel-drive beast than a
horse. To get to some secluded
areas such as one of Costa
Rica's many astonishing
waterfalls, horseback is the
best and only way to go unless
climbing up a rocky incline for
half an hour is your cup of cafe
con leche (coffee with a shot of
steamed milk, a Latin American
specialty). Although every step
of the trek would be worth it to
see the clear, secluded and
stunning waterfalls, at the end,
horseback will save you time and
allow you to take in the scenery
during the ride.
This might be the only time on
the road that you can stop and
smell the Red Ginger flowers
(roses pale in comparison with
the colourful indigenous
flowers). The corkscrew mountain
roads are mostly paved, but they
are extremely narrow, undivided,
flanked by large trees or cliffs
and are usually unlit at night.
A driver has to be on constant
alert with high beams on for
oncoming drivers and for stray
monkeys and armadillos that are
prone to wandering on to the
road.
Costa Rican drivers, who are
courteous and follow traffic
rules well, seem to have an
affinity for keeping their eyes
open on the road. One of our van
drivers was whipping down a
winding road near the Arenal
Volcano in the late evening when
he suddenly slammed on the
brakes. He slowly began to
reverse the van.
Everyone on the bus was
beginning to get nervous, when
our guide stood up and asked,
"Have you ever seen a sloth?"
With a shared sigh of relief
later, the passengers stepped
out of the van and the guide
pointed up to a two-toed sloth
that was crawling slowly
upside-down on a telephone wire.
It was OK; the amazing thing was
that the driver could fly down a
steep and dark road into blind
corners like a roller coaster,
avoid accidents and still be
keen enough to spot a dark sloth
hidden by some trees.
If the driving is left to a
hired driver, you can keep your
eyes open for animals. Lizards
and iguanas are as common in
Costa Rica as squirrels are in
Canada. Monkeys are less common
in populated areas, but if one
is spotted, try not to smile.
Showing teeth is a sign of
aggression for monkeys, and what
they say about angry monkeys is
true, even in beautiful Costa
Rica.
Nature and wildlife preservation
in the country is serious
business, so venturing into some
parks such as the Palo Verde and
Rincon de la Vieja national
parks promises a glimpse of
howler monkeys (whose call can
be heard from about a kilometre
away), Capuchin monkeys,
toucans, crocodiles and a lot of
colourful birds and butterflies.
A week of exploring Costa Rica's
astonishing rainforests,
volcanic hot springs, stunning
waterfalls and diverse national
parks and zip lining across tree
canopies and canyons was
incredible. My new dream: To go
back and live la pura vida. |
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