Hasta la vista, Pura Vida 🥹
Our first six months in the land of Pura Vida are coming to an end. It’s been quite the adventure.
We are currently en route back to London (via the beach and San José), having packed up a few essentials and vacating the ranchito in the mountains for the school holidays.
Before leaving we were blessed with an up close and personal encounter with a cusingo — a variety of toucan, but smaller and more commonplace than its larger and more ubiquitous cousin.
The bananas hanging on the back porch always attract all manner of avian wildlife, but this one was rather special.
The chicks are now chickens and very much free range. Our two — Jonathan and Whitey — joined forces with the neighbours’ three chicks to form a little gang and they spend their time pecking around both gardens. Whitey began laying eggs but disappointingly not on our property! Probably for the best, as we will be away for a couple of months in any case. Hopefully we will come home to a new generation of chicks in the autumn.
It is now rainy season and the wildlife has been spectacular. I picked this hairy beast off the tip off an unsuspecting child’s umbrella during a recent downpour. They have a habit of turning up in the most unlikely places.
Did I mention it’s been a bit rainy? Good job we widened those storm channels.
We stumbled across this lively cocoon near the beach the other day. I did not know that caterpillars can still move while metamorphosing into butterflies.
We have spent the last four days by the beach, soaking up the tropical warmth and getting lots of boogie boarding in. The water is so warm you can swim and surf in trunks all year round. I spent four years in Cornwall and tried surfing many times, but never really enjoyed it because of the need to wrap yourself head to toe in neoprene.
We are staying in a modern Airbnb with open plan kitchen and pool. Light and airy, and a great way for the kids to while away the afternoon while the adults prep dinner and sink a few cold beverages. After six months of school runs, Costa Rican bureaucracy, transatlantic work travel and cramming in the office hours late into the night, it’s been a therapeutic few days of R&R.
The kids enjoyed devouring a big bag of mamones, which must be related to lychee. They call them the Pac-Man fruit, for obvious reasons.
This was our first foray to the beach on public transport. Surprisingly straightforward, but only once you know where to catch the bus from (which involved an afternoon driving around town the day before to get the tickets and figure it out).
From here we will catch another bus up the coastal route to San José. Getting those tickets involved hiking back to the terminal on the main road in 30 degree heat, only to discover later that the bus stops right outside our Airbnb. If only we had paid closer attention to the ‘timetable’ when we arrived on the first day…
The beach is glorious. Expansive and pretty deserted at this time of year. Well worth the $2.50 entry fee to the national park.
Spotted a hermit crab upon arrival.
The ants here never cease to amaze. So organised and chaotic at the same time, and the colonies are simply huge — spreading underground across acres and cropping up all over the place.
We picked up a couple of coconuts on the way home today and hacked them open to get at the fresh sweet water and white flesh inside. This one took on the appearance of a sloth eating a snail while I was chopping it open (the white ‘snail’ is the new coconut palm tree sprouting forth).
Everyone is looking forward to spending summer back in the big city of London, and catching up with friends and family. We will miss la Pura Vida, but it isn’t far away.
— Seb