La Pura Vida
I left Costa Rica’s largest capital heading for the countryside, to get a taste for the real ‘La Pura Vida’, a Costa Rican saying for the easy-way-of-life. Costa Rica is the size of West Virginia, with 11 volcanoes, and a coast on either side, the Pacific and Caribbean Sea.
Leaving the city, we drove through long windy roads, encased by tall green mountains. We were greeted by an artist when we arrived in, the off-the-beaten path, less touristy town called Aquas Zarcas, a couple hours north of the countries’ capital, near hot springs.
A day after arriving we hiked into the jungle to a waterfall, passing by exotic flora, and fauna. In our short excursion into Costa Rica’s wilderness, we saw an owl, ants that carry leaves, and just under a dozen large blue morpho butterflies, with their nearly six inch wide iridescent wings.
I’ve longed to see a sloth, and of course, the sloth was the hardest to see. It took work to find him.
It wasn’t until we arrived back to our quiet tree-house with artwork dangling from the trees, glittered circles and candles, dotting the pathway to our doorway.
My husband and I spent a long time looking for sloths before heading out to lunch. A surprisingly painful affair, with our neck’s crooked back as we peered upwards. Sloths really blend in with nature, making it hard to find them.
Then our first sloth appeared, right outside the artist’s house nestled in the very tall trees above us.
The sloth hung there, grasping to the branch ever-seemingly so gently, its fur the same color as the bark. He groomed, and scratched, swaying with the wind.
I laid down on a towel in a soft patch of grass to get a better view of him, and to relieve my neck pain from watching him on the branches that reached up to the sky. I got a glimpse of the sloths perspective as we both faced up towards the sky. Watching him as he swayed way high up on the branch with a good breeze. Wind chimes echoed nearby, and that moment easily became one of the holiest moments of my life.
With this quiet experience, I was beginning to grasp the true meaning of Costa Rica’s, ‘La Pura Vida’, the pure life.