Pura Vida is BULLSH*T

Trust me, Pura Vida is EVERYWHERE in Costa Rica.
'Pura Vida' is as much Costa Rica as Costa Rica is 'Pura Vida'. You can't really mention one without mentioning the other. Try to talk about 'love' without mentioning 'heart', it's kinda like that.

Costa Ricans are proud of their 'Pura Vida' heritage, as well they should be, after all, 'Pura Vida' literally means 'Pure Life', so it doesn't get any more apple pie than that. And they pride themselves on living as such- pure, simple, happy, calm, peaceful, etc. I'm sure you get the picture.

Live here in Costa Rica and you'll hear 'Pura Vida' uttered about a thousand times a day, everyday. 'Pura Vida' this and 'Pura Vida' that. 'Pura Vida' is mostly used for greeting/departing others and statements of 'understanding'. For example:

"Damn, did you hear about that dog getting run over,,,it was so sad?"

"Pura Vida."

Unfortunately, 'Pura Vida' has other connotations as well, not so 'positive and pleasant' connotations at that, at least in my mind. I'll let my video explain it-



TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

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Making a LOVE Connection in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, girls often become pregnant early and often.

*First off, judging by some of the emails I receive, I think we may have a little misunderstanding. Let me explain. When I talk to an expat living in Costa Rica, we are merely discussing their experiences. That's it. This isn't hard hitting '60 Minutes' type reporting with facts and figures (which can often be misleading), these are real-life people like you and me who have decided to make Costa Rica their home. Their perspective, their opinion based on THEIR experience and observation. If you don't agree with what's being said, fine, just comment, give some feedback or better yet, ask me to interview YOU. Don't email me what's being said is 'wrong'. Unless of course the person talking has their 'facts' wrong. But don't YELL at me, I'm sensitive....hehe.

In the below video we're discussing a few of the concerns one should consider when dating or having a relationship with a local Tico. This is Williams perspective.

*Although this discussion has nothing to do with 'prostitution', I have a feeling some will find this page in hopes that is exactly what we're discussing. So, for shits and giggles, I decided to also embed that video as well.



And the Prostitution video:



TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

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Jumping out of a bus: A physics challenge!

If you have studied Physics at least upto Higher Secondary level, you will be well aware of inertia and its plays. And here goes a popular question; why do we run forward after jumping off a running bus? You should notice that 'forward' is highlighted. When I asked this question to a post graduate in physics, he felt it insulting!
'Who doesn't know that it is inertia? Don't you treat me like a school boy!'; that was his reply.
Well, after asking this to a lot of people I feel this is not a school-time question. If you also say 'It is obviously inertia', you should answer this question;"Then why do you jump forward?" Let me explain this question a bit: Here, what you mean by inertia is your inability to come to rest by yourself, since, before jumping out you were moving forward with the velocity of the bus. If you don't nullify the effect of that velocity you will fall forward, right? I hope you don't disagree upto this point. But the crucial question here is, if you jump forward, how will you nullify that effect? You are just adding extra velocity to that forward velocity! In order to cancel the effect of a forward velocity, you have to introduce a backward velocity, not a forward one. So it means if you jump off a bus and run forward, you cannot cancel the effect of inertia.
Most of you may not agree to this because your experiences tell the reverse. But I didn't say you have to jump backward next time while jumping off a running bus. I just said, you cannot cancel inertia by jumping forward. Actually, the answer to that question is not purely physics but at the most physiology! If you are to cancel the inertia effect, physics tell you to jump backward. But the physiology of your body is not suitable for that. As long as you cannot jump back with a velocity greater than that of the bus' forward velocity, your resultant velocity will be along the bus' direction and you tend to fall back. Now because human body cannot prevent a backward fall, you should not do that. Human body is well equipped to prevent a forward fall (that is what we do while walking and running) with two legs and that is why we jump forward although it increases the effect of inertia.
Still don't agree? Suppose you throw a glass bottle from a running bus to the road. When will it break more easily, when you throw forward or when you throw backward? The answer to this question will solve our first question well.

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Surviving Crime, Murder and Corruption in Costa Rica

Here's how to travel to Costa Rica and survive crime, theft, murder and overall mayhem. You know, because it's around every corner.
So this dude from Connecticut, Howard Daniels Jr. writes an editorial to A.M.Costa Rica (Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday'....whatever) and gives his take on why tourism is down in Costa Rica. His reasons, here's the exact quote:

"The reason that North Americans are not going to Costa Rica as much anymore is twofold. #1 crime and #2 tired of dealing with bribe dealing police."

This subject is a pet peeve of mine and I've written about it numerous times. So, I'll let the VIDEOS BELOW do most of the talking. But here's my bottom line: I would say that 98.9% of the BAD things that happen to tourists while in Costa Rica are a direct result of their STUPIDITY when traveling abroad. #2- Their are exceptions but 99% of the time, if you're bribing a police officer, it's because you got caught breaking the law and with some of the fines here, you'll hope the cop is 'corrupt'. However, they have been known to 'shakedown' tourists on occasion as well, but this is more the exception than the rule and don't forget, you do have recourse when a bad cop tries to pull a fast one.

Lastly, only the worst of the worst stories get printed, so perception and drama RULES on the internet. If tourists weren't so STUPID, crime against them wouldn't be so high. Yeah, I said it.

*Living here is an entirely different matter.

If you are traveling to Costa Rica, watch all the videos below from beginning to end and I can assure you, your risk factor will be cut to about '0'. I have much more INFO about crime and it's effect on tourism in this blog but don't stop there, visit other sites and get more perspective as well.

Our ORIGINAL video about Theft and Crime in Costa Rica:



Renting a car, you don't want to skip this one:



Perspective on 'corrupt' police officers in Costa Rica:



Perspective on this 'murder' and 'crime' thing in Costa Rica:



Plan on riding the public buses:



Backing up your Travel Documents:



TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

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The most expensive beverage in the world!

'Beverage' is one of the most popular terms in our society. So it can be interesting to know about the most expensive beverage in the world, right? Its name is Kopi Luwak. It is basically a coffee bean and it costs between 200 to 1,200 US dollars per kilogram. Then it should be something very great, isn't it?
But then you should know how it gets this value. Kopi Luwak is also called civet coffee (Civet or Luwak is a small mammal found on certain regions of Asia). It is made from a type of coffee bean berries. What civets do here is to eat these berries first, for their fleshy pulp. Then these berries go  through the digestive tract of civets, gets mixed with various enzymes and digestive juices there and finally gets defecated! Now we have to collect it. Yes, I mean it, we have to collect shit! After gathering, washing, sun drying and brewing, these excreted beans yield a highly aromatic coffee. And there it is, the most expensive beverage in the world. Looking at the size of a civet, you can imagine how difficult the production of this coffee can be,

Kopi Luwak is produced mainly in the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali and also in Indonesia and Philippines.

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Pseudologia Fantastica

Funny term, ain't it? Doesn't it seem like a scientific term? Yes, it is. You may find it interesting to know that telling lies can be a disease!
Pseudologia fantastica is the scientific name of the disease 'pathological lying'. That is the state in which you tell lies as a habit or as a compulsion. While ordinary lies will be aimed at certain purposes like making profit, escaping punishments etc, pseudologia fantastica is characterized by lies without purposes.
It is a mental ailment usually reported in youth, typical onset age being 16. Most of the reported patients were found to have abnormalities in the central nervous system and this is not a kind of serious psychosis. A typical characteristic is that the lies told by the 'patient' may not be completely improbable, but may have some element of truth. If you force him, he may admit that it is a lie, although unwillingly. Also the tendency to make lies is long lasting, and most of the lies told will be in favour of the liar himself. E.g, telling a brave thing he had done, telling that some very famous person is his relative etc. This disease can also be present as a false memory syndrome, i.e., the sufferer actually believe that fictitious things have happened.

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Going to Milan? Smile Please!!

You ever propose to go to Milan in Italy? You will suffer if you are a serious person. Because, in Milan if you ever appear in public, there should be a smile on your face! The law in the province of Milan requires every citizen to wear a smile. If arrested for violation, the fine can go unto $100. You are exempted from this law only if you are visiting a patient in hospital or you are attending a funeral.
Italy has got many strange laws, some nationwide and some pertaining to towns or provinces. Here are a few examples;
* In Italy, a man can be arrested if he’s wearing a skirt!
* In Turin(a city in Northern Italy), dog owners can be fined heavily unless they walk their dogs at least three times a day!
* In Lerici(another northern city in Italy), it’s illegal to hang a towel out of a window to dry it!
* In Rome, groups of three people or more are not allowed to sing, drink, dance, or eat in the streets of the city, lest they want to face a €500 fine!
* In Eraclea, it’s illegal to build sandcastles on the beach!

Although these laws are mostly ignored by citizen in Italy (as is the case with public smoking in our place), there do are such laws there. It means, if somebody wants to give you a kick, there can be many ways of doing it in the form of fine.

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Eco Lodge in La Fortuna Princesa de la Luna

As promised, our VIDEO on Princesa da la Luna, a really COOL Eco Lodge just a few minutes from La Fortuna. ENjoY!



TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

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Princesa de la Luna Eco Lodge in Fortuna

Eco Lodge, Princesa de la Luna in La Fortuna Costa Rica.
Princesa de la Luna is an Eco Lodge about 12 minutes from the center of La Fortuna and sits on 25 acres of rain forest. It has about 6 miles of hiking trails, a natural 'river pool' and what seems like 20,000 different varieties of Costa Rican fruit trees. We've lived in La Fortuna for almost 6 years and had never been to Princesa de la Luna but finally, we recently got the chance.

We did a video of Princesa de la Luna and I'll post it in the next couple of days... this is just a 'teaser' post, complete with a few pics of Princesa de la Luna.

One of a few 'common areas' at Princesa de la Luna.

The pool at Princesa de la Luna.

The natural 'river pool' at Princesa de la Luna.
VIDEO up in a couple days, so CHECK back, it's worth a look.

TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

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Go to Hell!

Have you ever shouted 'Go to Hell!' to somebody? At least, you must have heard someone shouting it so and the one to whom it is shouted is definitely insulted.
But in Norway many people may say this casually because they have a place named 'HELL' there! In Norwegian language, the word 'hell' means 'luck'. And due to this peculiar name, this place has now become a tourist attraction where the visitors wish to take photograph in front of Hell Railway Station.

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Before building your home in Switzerland!

One of my dear friends is very enthusiastic about Switzerland. Its her over-enthusiasm that made me have a skimming through a few details of Switzerland. I stumbled upon a strange law there,
"Every inhabitant in the country is by law required to have access to a bomb-shelter"
Quite funny, eh? For many Swiss citizens, this space is in a large civil defense shelter, but for others, and specifically non-Swiss, this shelter space comes in the form of a heavy-duty basement shelter. The bomb shelter isn't a nice-to-have or a government recommendation, but it's a mandatory requirement. That means, if you are to move to Switzerland and to build a house there, first of all you have to build a strong bunker beneath your basement. Don't think this is a simple thing. A heavy-duty bunker is very costly to build, having long and thick concrete walls along with carbon steel, vault-style doors, air filters etc.
This law is the proof that Switzerland is very serious about its civil defense and this tradition dates back to World War II, where bomb-shelters were essential against the fear of German invasion.

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Hotel Villa Decary in Nuevo Arenal

Villa Decary is about 45 minutes from La Fortuna Costa Rica and just a mile or so from Nuevo Arenal. One of the views from Villa Decary of Lake Arenal.
Villa Decary describes itself as a country inn but it also has a bed & breakfast feel to it as well. It overlooks Lake Arenal and sits on a beautiful piece of property complete with primary rain forest, howler monkey's and about a zillion different types of birds. Villa Decary is the perfect setting to experience what Costa Rica really is all about.

As I mentioned, Villa Decary is about 45 minutes from La Fortuna and many people who stay there venture into Fortuna after breakfast, take in an adventure tour or volcano hike and head back to the hotel around dinner time. That's not to say there isn't plenty of things to do around the Nuevo Arenal area. HELLO... the lake is just outside the door. So, if you like the water, there's plenty of activities to do such as boating, fishing, boogie boarding, wind surfing (Lake Arenal is world renowned for its wind surfing)kayaking etc. There's also hiking and horseback riding in the area.

And you wouldn't want to miss eating at one of the BEST restaurants in all of Costa Rica, The Gingerbread, which is only about a 4-minute walk from Villa Decary. Really, the best food we've ever had since living in Costa Rica.

People that stay at Villa Decary are the type of people who want to fall asleep with nature and not Jay Leno. And really, that's what Costa Rica is all about.

Here's our video of Villa Decary in Nuevo Arenal:



TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

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BOREDOM in Paradise

Retiring to Costa Rica? Boredom in paradise can be very REAL.
Loneliness in a foreign country can definitely cause some serious depression and at the least, a BIG dose of, "What the fuck am I doing here?"

I've seen it too many times, folks coming here (usually older folks) thinking they're going to live in 'paradise' while writing the next great American novel, after all, it does sound very romantic when you say it. Like I mentioned, it's usually older, retired folks who arrive in Costa Rica ready to fill their days doing what they always said they wanted to do but finding out the reality of the dream is much harsher than the dream itself.

My friend Bill has found his passion after retirement and practices it everyday.
The folks that come here with a plan or are starting a business usually end up leaving Costa Rica for other reasons. Running a business in Costa Rica is a day in and day out distraction and leaves little time for thinking of much else. If these people pack it up and go home, it's usually because they underestimated the time and money it takes to create a successful business- it's rarely a 'boredom' thing.

Here's a little VIDEO I did about 'Boredom in Paradise',,,with a little help from one of my expat friends, Bill, who has successfully made the move to Costa Rica after retiring and found... and FOLLOWED his passion.



TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

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Have you ever felt sulfuric acid in your eyes?

Question itself is a bit frightening, right? The most cruel chemical sulfuric acid falling into our eyes!
Well, if your answer to my question is a 'No', then that means you have never cut an onion in your life. Yes, sulfuric acid is the villain that makes you cry while cutting onions.
Let's talk some chemistry this time. When you cut onions, you are breaking the cells in it which releases a sulfur containing chemical called amino acid sulfoxide and some enzymes. These enzymes convert the sulfoxides into sulfenic acid, which is a highly unstable compound. It is suddenly converted into a gas called propanethiol S-oxide. It is a low density gas and so wafts up in the air soon. As you know, our eyes always produce tears necessary to prevent our eyes from going dry. When the propanethiol S-oxide reacts with the water in our eyes, caustic sulfuric acid is formed. Can our brain wait anymore? Before sulfuric acid burns our eyes, brain give order to wash off this villain and we start crying.

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Was Napoleon Really Short?

We all know that Napoleon Bonaparte was called the Little Corporal. And we often quote him as an example to illustrate that limitations can be overcome easily because Short Napoleon was one of the greatest of all conquerors. There is also a term 'Napoleon complex' to informally refer to the inferiority complex certain people have on being short.
But, the fact is Napoleon was not shorter than any average Frenchman! He was actually 1.686 meter tall. Is it really short?
The misconception that Napoleon was short came due to the difference in English feet and French feet. In French units, Napoleon's height was 5 feet 2 inches. But when we convert it to internationally accepted units, it is 5 feet 6.5 inches. So this french unit was misinterpreted by the English speaking world. The salutation 'Little Corporal' might have come from some affection towards him and not from his being short.

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Expat Interviews Costa Rica is NOT always PARADISE

Living in Costa Rica can be paradise, but not always.
William is like no other person I've talked to in our Expat Series. He basically came down to Costa Rica on a whim and ended up staying. I like him. He doesn't pull any punches when discussing some of the not so pleasant things about Costa Rica. Many people I speak with like to gloss over these not so pleasant things and push the idea that living in Costa Rica is pure paradise. Will is definitely a breath of fresh air, for me at least.

If you're thinking about relocating to Costa Rica, then you don't want to miss Will's perspective. Check it out.



Here's a couple other videos you might want to also consider if you haven't seen them yet. In the first one, I discuss 'Culture Shock' and it's definitely a must see. The second one is about things to consider when deciding 'Where to Live' in Costa Rica. ENjoY!





TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

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Radio and Nikola Tesla

Once again, I want to talk about a school day question; who invented the radio? The answer is ready-made, isn't it? Marconi! But that is surely not the right answer. Fact is, no single person can be called the inventor of radio. There were many, including the familiar names Hendrich Hertz, Earnest Rutherford and even our own Jagdish Chandra Bose. 
When I went through the history of radio, I stumbled upon a name- Nikola Tesla. A name that we only hear during electromagnetism classes, as the unit for magnetic flux density. We don't often hear about him much. But, he is the highest ranked contributor to the invention of radio. The thing which had prevented the Nobel prize from being given to him was his clash with Thomas Edison, his former colleague and partner in radio related research.
He had a very remarkable personality. In almost all modern electrical inventions, you can trace at least one principle back to Tesla. It is said that he had photographic memory. He could byheart books by volumes and most of the engineering marvels he had done had no drawings! Drawing part were often done in his mind. He had so many revolutionary ideas like wireless power transmission, even in the 19th century. Many of his ideas seemed to be over-imaginative to his contemperories and he was often called a 'mad scientist'.[Read more about him] I believe he didn't get the recognition he deserved. Even our text books neglect him by confining that name to just a measuring unit.
He is, perhaps, the only real scientist who appeared as character in fictions! One of them was made into a movie, 'The Prestige' where Nikola Tesla is a character. It was that movie which made me read more about Tesla beyond that measuring unit.

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