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Livin´ La Pura Vida, Costa Rican Style

© Colleen Kaleda

The scene - Monteverde, Costa Rica. It´s nighttime in my cabana, and the tropical rainforest pulsates just outside. The noise is enveloping my wooden enclave - frogs and insects, birds, snakes, monkeys. Nowhere else on Earth have I felt nature so close and so alive. The sound is hypnotizing, lulling me to sleep.

But wait. I think the forest has come inside. There´s a strange bvvvp-vap sound in my cabana. It´s coming from under my bed. I hear the sound every few seconds, then nothing except the din outside. It´s dark under the bed, and my flashlight check confirms that I´m not alone. A creepy-crawly something lurks under my bed. And it´s pretty darn big.

It´s a gigantic gold beetle, replete with red eyes and a green-blue iridescent underbelly. A natural wonder indeed, but a serious threat nonetheless. When the beetle emerges, I can only admire it for so long. My size 8 boot is the swift killer. Natural selection at work? No. A method of ensuring sound sleep? Si.

Despite my folly that first night in Monteverde, it´s clear that this place is special for its natural wonders, and Costa Ricans know it. As I write this, in Montezuma, a tiny village on the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific Ocean, a frog is jumping just feet from my cabana porch. Just beyond the amphibian and me crashes the Pacific Ocean.

Scenes like these are why Costa Ricans have adopted the slogan, "Pura Vida" or pure life. The phrase is emblazoned on tee shirts, signs, and pamphlets, even incorporated into tour companies´ names. Despite the commercialization, the mantra fits the country well.

Indeed, pure life fills this West Virginia-sized nation. The entire place is green, covered mostly with rainforest, dry tropical forest, and grassy hillsides. The lush vegetation cradles houses and entire villages. The heavy rains this time of year provide long, quenching drinks for plants of all shapes and sizes. Among the green, birds sing and monkeys howl. The black howler monkeys are the noisiest residents of the rainforest, with an eerie, throaty howl that echoes for miles. I haven´t actually seen any yet, but they remind me daily that they´re not far afield. Pura vida, indeed.

Active volcanoes pierce the rainforest from underneath, lava-encrusted cones showing like bald heads circled by rainforest canopy. Volcan Arenal, the most active Volcano in the Western Hemisphere, takes up residence here. I recently spent an afternoon and evening on a mountain bike to Arenal´s base, followed by a hike to its lava wall (the highest you can go legally and without certain death). The trip reconfirmed how truly alive our Earth can be. Every few minutes the mountain would rumple and steam. From my jungle viewpoint, I could hear the snap-crackle-pop of boulders being pushed up and off the lava cone by liquid gurgling underneath. Then, just seconds later, I´d hear the mystical cry of howler monkeys. Definitely work the sweaty ride up the mountain!

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