Pura Vida

     ¡Pura Vida! As I am getting closer to leaving the country, I thought I would revisit a phrase that is part of the name of my blog and that I briefly mentioned in my first blog I wrote about Costa Rica. Pura Vida is a phrase that is unique to Costa Rica, and has been a part of the culture here since around 1970. The phrase was first introduced by a Mexican movie titled Pura Vida that was released in 1956. In the movie, the main character always struggles to do anything correctly, but he is still very optimistic no matter what his problems are. It took until about 1970 for the phrase to become popular, but now it is used by everyone all over the country. There are even many businesses, hotels, tourist places, and other things in Costa Rica that use the phrase as part of their name. We even stayed in a hotel that was called the Pura Vida Hotel.

     So what exactly does Pura Vida mean? Literally translated, it means "pure life." However, just its direct translation does not truly show what it means. Pura Vida can be a greeting similar to "Hi," "What's up?," or "How are you doing?". But it can also be a response to any of those greetings or questions to say that life is good. It can be used as another way to say thank you or goodbye as well. Truly, you can use Pura Vida in just about any way you want to in order to show that life is going well and you are doing well. A phrase that I think most of us would understand that is similar to Pura Vida is the phrase "Hakuna Matata" that was popularized by the movie The Lion King. Hakuna Matata just means to not have worries and that things will eventually be okay.

     For people in Costa Rica, Pura Vida is not just a phrase though, it is also a way of life. People in Costa Rica are generally very happy and laid back, and that is because they live a Pura Vida lifestyle. Even though things in our lives are not always perfect, it is important to remember that they could be worse, and that worrying about those things is not going to make them any better. So why not just relax and enjoy life. I know this is something that can be hard to do, and I tend to worry even though I know I cannot do anything about it. But if there is one thing I want to take away from my trip here, besides learning Spanish, it is to try and live a more Pura Vida life.