The Blue River, Costa Rica: a Pura Vida introduction
It had been 2 years since we travelled internationally. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but in 2 years, a lot happened. The last international adventure we had, we were a family of 3 with a little bun in the oven. We had ideas and plans for the adventures ahead of us. We booked trips to Japan, Mexico City, and the United Kingdom. Our new family of four was itching to explore. Little did we know the world had something else in mind for us all, a whole new type of adventure called quarantine.
The year of 2020 brought a lot of new perspective for me. I started taking a closer look at how I valued myself, and I realized how tangled I had tied up my self-worth in many things that were out of my control. I started to see my privilege in a different light and suddenly my desperate need to explore seemed shallow. I dug deeper and discovered that the wanderlust I craved stemmed from my core value of curiosity. That’s when I realized that I should stop comparing my minor sufferings to the major sufferings of the world. That’s when I knew that I could live into my core value of curiosity in so many unique ways outside of travel.
So after a year of self-discovery, we boarded a plane once more and set our sights on Costa Rica to discover the Pura Vida.
We had 2 weeks of adventure planned. Just to make it fun, we decided to gamble and visit during the rainy season. The gamble didn’t pan out, it rained… a lot. However, the rain didn’t alter the beauty of the country or the time we had together as a family.
For our first stop, we decided to go deep into the northern countryside off the beaten trail to relax in The Blue River Resort. We weren’t sure what to expect as this resort seemed less popular then many others we looked at, but it quickly blew us a way. It was absolutely gorgeous with beautiful gardens everywhere. And so many birds!
Many people come here for the river rapids. We were here for the dinosaurs. Truth be told, we chose this spot specifically because they have a hiking trail with large fake dinosaurs that peaked our interest. Seeing dinosaurs in the country where Jurassic Park was filmed seemed like a no brainer. Unfortunately, my risk taking eating habits caught up to me and I came down with horrible food poisoning the first night we got to the Blue River Resort. Darn that road side ceviche! While I stayed curled up in fetal position next to the trash can, Jason and E went out to explore dino land without me.
The resort had so much more to offer than dinosaurs. It was located at the base of an active volcano, Rincon. The minerals from the volcano created a stunning shade of blue in the river. The resort turned the active hot springs into pools. And when I say hot, I mean hot tub hot!
We spent hours walking the resort gardens. There was a hummingbird garden… a butterfly garden… a sloth garden… even a crocodile garden. We couldn’t find any sloths or crocodiles, but we did find some fun mud baths!
Our first stop exceeded our expectations and set the stage for the Pura Vida we had hoped for. Even with the bumps along the way, my newfound sense of self-discovery allowed me to enjoy every minute of it. Ok, maybe not the puking parts… but the memories that stuck are vast majority wonderful.
Until next time,
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