his couldn’t be the right way. An actual river was flowing across the
road. My girlfriend, Michelle, and I were deep in the wilds of
Guanacaste, an hour from Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, when it
appeared, like the opposite of a mirage: a not-insubstantial channel
of muddy water blocking a distinctly insubstantial muddy road. A
dense endlessness of palm-on-fern-on-orchid foliage pressed in
from all sides, and every bit of earth and rock seemed to be coated in
a sheen of green moss. Aside from the rush of the water, all we could
hear was the ha-ha! and hoo-wee-doo! t au nts of t ropica l bi rd s.
When we picked up our rental car at the airport, the attendant
had given us a long inventory of pitfalls to watch out for. But a río in
the vía was not among them. Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?
Our phones had long since lost reception, so we put the Nissan in
reverse, retraced our steps and swiftly confirmed there was no
alternative route. “We can’t possibly drive through that.... Can we?”
Michelle mused, staring at the rapids ahead of us. I got out and threw
a rock into the river, trying to gauge its depth. It sank into the murk
w it h a n i ndeter m i n ate spla sh. We looked at ea ch ot her. “I g uess let’s
see what happens?” she suggested as I got back into the driver’s seat
and fastened my seat belt. “Pura vida!” I replied, repeating the words
the rental-car guy had waved us off with, and put the car into drive.
Anyone familiar with Costa Rica knows pura vida. Something of
a national slogan, its literal translation is “pure life.” But it means
much more than that to Ticos (as Costa Ricans call themselves). Pura
vida is used as a greeting, both when saying hello and goodbye. It’s
also used as the equivalent of “cool” or “no worries.” The deeper
sig n i fica nce, however, refers to a n ex per ience of l i fe a s it t r u ly is,
accepting both the good and bad forces that course through it all.
I’d seen many references to pura vida over the years: artists
calling it their inspiration; burnouts wearing T-shirts emblazoned
with the phrase. I found the concept deeply appealing, and while I
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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