PURA VIDA!

So I am almost 2 months late in posting this, but that is what happens when you are living life and it decides not to give you any down time.

Costa Rica was a bit touristy of a choice for me for a spring break destination, but I wanted rainforests and Mike wanted beaches, so we compromised!  Where I really wanted to be at was SOUTH AMERICA!  But I guess I will allocate at least a couple months for an epic-ness like that in the future!

And actually, Costa Rica turned out to be pretty epic!

I learned how to surf! Our surfing instructor was amazing!!! I didn't even know how to swim and yet he somehow managed to teach me how to stand up on the board (before Mike MUAHAHHA).  He was from France and said he moved here because he loved the people and the "Pura vida" life style!  That approach to life is really amazing and respectable :] but personally, I think it also crosses too closely to a fine line that could evolve into "I'm just enjoying my beer on the beach with the gorgeous sunset and... woah! I guess I've been sitting here on the same hammock for the past 8 years, how'd that happen?! Oh well *sips beer*'  That approach was all too common while backpacking through Southeast Asia.

We ate A TON of fresh fruit, every single day!  Mangoes in Costa Rica are RIDICULOUS.  The local fruit there tastes like sweet, sweet crack.  Like how local apples taste from New York! And I'm pretty sure I ate an entire gigantic watermelon all by myself for lunch one day.  Maybe multiple meals.

We also canoed down a river with a guide, who had eyes of a hawk and pointed out the craziest animals along the river to us! Like Spider Monkeys and Howler Monkeys and a whole bunch of different birds... apparently Costa Rica has one of the most diverse species of birds in the world!  I even saw a Macaw!!! And a bunch of vultures eating a dead caiman!

Tons of beaches, Arenal Volcano, Baldi hot springs (AHHH-mazing!!! if you don't mind bathing in water that 500 other ppl have been in), cloud reserves, and sky bridges were soooo amazing... I've always wanted to visit a rainforest ever since playing Amazon Trail, and after this trip it just makes we want to get lost in the Amazon forever and ever and trade cacao with some natives for malaria medicine :]

I'm too lazy to type out all the details but it was such a fun trip!  Costa Rica is the perfect place if you want a one stop shop for all the outdoors-y stuff you could want in a vacation!

 PURVA VIDA!