A Taste of Pura Vida in Costa Rica

 

I enter online contests all the time.  I never expect to win but my way of thinking is if I don’t enter, I definitely won’t win!  At some point during the spring or summer of 2012, I entered a contest to win a week long stay at a yoga retreat in Montezuma, Costa Rica.  In the fall of that same year, I received an email informing me I had won.

I didn’t know a thing about yoga or meditation when I replied to the email asking for my preferred travel dates.  All I cared about was going on a free trip to a country I had always wanted to visit.  The yoga classes and other activities were optional so I wasn’t even obligated to participate if I didn’t want to and my plan was to skip all that and spend that week learning to surf and lying on the beach.

After a long trip by air, sea and land, I finally made it to Anamaya Yoga Retreat atop a hill overlooking a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding coastline.  After a brief introduction to the place and the people I would be spending the week with, I unpacked, settled into my shared room and slipped into the salt-water infinity pool to relax.  I later glanced at the week’s scheduled events and decided that attending that evening’s group discussion and dinner would be the appropriate thing to do…at least for the first night.

Introductions were brief but personal.  Each person said their name and their reason for attending the retreat.  I felt awkward stating that I was only there because I won the trip so I lied and said I was there to get some well-deserved relaxation and learn more about yoga.  The words just rolled off my tongue and I immediately realized what that meant for me; there would be no early-morning treks to the beach or late nights partying in the town below.  I had just committed myself to 7am yoga classes for the entire week.

Dinner was beyond my expectations.  I’d stayed at all-inclusive resorts before and the food was always just ok.  But Anamaya was not your typical all-inclusive resort.  All participants sat at a huge dinner table complete with yoga-inspired décor and candles that shed a relaxing ambiance over the room.  Light music made sitting with a group of strangers to have a meal even more relaxing.  The meal itself consisted of three courses – soup and appetizers, the main course and desert – and everything was healthy, fresh and organic with all the vegetables and dairy products coming from a nearby farm.

Getting up at 6am the next morning wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be; my bed faced a huge glass door that overlooked the Pacific and the early morning sunrise was so spectacular, I just couldn’t bear to sleep through it.  After a light snack consisting of various fruit, I joined the group for our first yoga class.  This being my first attempt at yoga, I was both embarrassed and intimidated at my lack of ability in comparison to the other more seasoned yogis in the class and I failed miserably. I was unable to do more than half the poses and I ended up in severe pain for the rest of the day.

After breakfast, we gathered around in a circle to discuss our lives more in depth.  I am not used to opening up about my private life in such a setting but everyone was so at ease at doing so that I relaxed and began to open up too.  I instantly felt comfortable in that group of people from all over the world, each with his or her own goals, aspirations, failed relationships, moments of enlightenment and hopes for the future.  Every single person in that circle was there at that moment because they had had something bad happen in their lives and had reached a point where they wanted to change for the better and move forward in a more positive direction.  That was the first time I had ever been surrounded by a group of people who were not afraid to admit they had fallen and wanted to get back up.  Before that, it always seemed that everyone’s lives were perfect and I was the only one who was falling.  We laughed, we cried and we hugged as we shared our inner-most secrets.  Later that day, I received another gift that I have been carrying around with me since that magical, life-changing week in Montezuma; a lesson in living what native Costa Ricans call the Pura Vida.  Translation? Living simply, happily and purely.

Thank you for reading and commenting. Please enter the Gratitude Travel Writing competition and tell your story.

Gratitude Travel Writing Contest

We hope you enjoyed this entry in the We Said Go Travel Gratitude Writing Contest. Please visit this page to learn more and participate. Thank you for reading the article and please leave a comment below.

One response to “A Taste of Pura Vida in Costa Rica

  1. Hi Andrea,

    Pura vida! I love Costa Rica, and you were blessed to win such a retreat/prize. Huge fan of meditation here as I’ve sat daily for many years. Between the nature of the retreat and the location it sounded like an absolute blast. We stayed in Quepos, Monteverde and Playa Potrero, among other spots, and deeply enjoyed our vacay in the land of the Ticos. The people are genuinely warm, inviting, and so much fun to hang with. I’m really grateful to have visited CR and can’t wait to return. Thanks much Andrea, tweeting soon! Signing off from Savusavu, Fiji.

    Ryan

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

We Said Go Travel