Costa Rica

What Does Pura Vida Mean to You?

I asked the question on our Facebook Page - What does Pura Vida Mean?

Kevin Peterson came back with the following response which I really enjoyed and I hope you enjoy it too…..

“Pura Vida in practice has many meanings and is used in many different contexts. It is as much an expression of a way of life as it is a commonly used phrase. Hawaiians use Aloha in a similar way, but Aloha has a different connotation. One of my favorite things is to see the huge grin on a Ticos face when you use the expression after there has been some sort of mistake or delay. It is like the Universal excuse. Anything that goes wrong can be absolved by the use of those two little words.

The other thing that I find interesting is that Pura Vida is the ultimate expression of "living in the moment". I remember in the 70s there was the whole "Be Here Now" philosophy that was going around the West. But for Westerners it really just an idea. We never really lived it. For Costa Ricans it is a way of life and Pura Vida is ... Read morethe ultimate expression of that.

Sometimes the "living in the moment" aspect of Costa Rican culture can be maddening for us westerners because we like to make plans and create a structure for our future events. But you have to give the Ticos credit. It may be difficult to make future plans with Ticos but they sure are a happy lot ........ Pura Vida.”

Kevin is the founder of the Eco-Preservation Society.

You can connect with Kevin on facebook here and on twitter at http://twitter.com/ecointeractive (over 80,000 followers follow Kevin’s Tweets!)

The Ecotinteractive website is http://unhub.com/EcoInteractive

Thank you for the fantastic and enjoyable comments Kevin and Pura Vida

Pura Vida

Pura Vida – Costa Rica, Central America
By: Lisa Lubin

Pura Vida

In Costa Rica there’s a saying that permeates everyday life. Pura Vida literally translates to "pure life". It’s also used to mean "it’s all good". Here are a few examples.

“How are you?” “Pura Vida.”

“How’s the weather?” “Pura Vida.”

A pretty girl or cute muchacho is “Pura Vida".

Pura Vida is an attitude, a feeling. It’s all good. It’s relaxing, taking it easy. In the States we don’t have this outlook in everything we do.

It makes me think about how we say we want to live life to the fullest. It's so hard to do when we are preoccupied with working, making more money to buy more things, commuting, running on the treadmill, falling into bed exhausted. How do we have time to really "live life", pura vida?
We say “stop and smell the roses”, “work to live, don’t live to work.” It takes five seconds to say these words, five seconds to think about the meaning before our own daily thoughts, responsibilities and to-do lists crash into our brain.

I'm no expert. If I figure how to make "life" better, I'll let you know. Do the same for me.

Pura vida!

Thank you to Lisa Lubin for this excellent article and to read more about Lisa Lubin's travels, go here.