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Somewhere in a rugged, rainforrested place, is an exotic country that has a two-word phrase that means just about EVERYTHING wonderfully conjured in the heart! For safe travels…take those two words along. For your travel companion’s birthday…sing those two words. Even those scrumptious new cuisines that you will try… these two words will add flavour. The culture; the people; the beaches; volcanoes and biodiversity, made us even merrier when we said: “Pura Vida!” Come along! Through this blog, you will travel with the team of Jamaican nationals from The University of the West Indies, Mona to the fascinating country of Costa Rica! We arrived in the capital, San Jose in the night. Our hosts greeted us with much hospitality and helped us with our luggage aboard the bus that would transport us to the final stop for the night…Turrialba Cartago. It is one of the seven provinces that soon became our home even after the two weeks cultural exchange program had elapsed. The mist of the night was as fresh as an undisturbed spring at the break of day. The tree toads welcomed us all but one of our members got welcomed by name: “Mamby! Mamby! Mamby!” they croaked happily. Much to the astonishment of Donald Mamby our ‘drummer boy’ whose tunes the Ticos would soon fall in love with. We loved the accommodation! We were surrounded by nature. The lush, tidy grass; squirrels and our wooden floor had all put us at ease. The nights were tranquil with the faint sounds of the tree frogs and the clean wind passing daintily through the trees. The mornings were more riveting. All the animals came to life. Butterflies of a kaleidoscope of colours glided through the clean air. Fresh fruits in abundance played a wonderful part in our diet. Have you seen those huge juicy strawberries and kiwis? What about the customary Guyapinto and Rice and Beans? We all grabbed an extra apple for the road as we drove to view the farmlands and cows. Costa Rica is an environmentally friendly country. Everywhere we went to had recycle bins; organic waste bins; bins for plastic and bins for glass materials…that were properly used. The people showed such great care for the flora and fauna. Inhaling and exhaling felt great! We socialized with the students from the University of Costa Rica. They helped us with our Spanish, and we aided with their English. They talked about Bob Marley with such splendor and song tunes from his albums. They peaked our excitement when we learned about a place there called Limon that had Caribbean ancestry. So now, we anticipated Limon; volcano Irazu; the national park and the wonderful beaches. In Limon, we learned that many persons from the Caribbean had come to Costa Rica and Panama when the railroads were being built. Many did not return and so they mostly settled in Limon which obviously had a strong Caribbean presence. The food and paintings had a strong essence of the Caribbean. The hike up to volcano Irazu was epic! Over 3000 meters above sea level! A beautiful pond of blue was seen way down in the dormant volcano. It was cold up there and our jackets became assets. We took lots of pictures and toured the historic space in much delight. As a lover of flora, I still cherish our visit to the Lankaster Garden. Oh what sweet aroma and priceless petals. There were orchids of all species. The aesthetic appeal was amazing. Only the visit to the Sloth Sanctuary ‘slowed’ down dancing of my heart. “Sloths are not lazy.” We were told, “They are energy efficient!” That explains why after close to three years I haven’t yet run out of pages in the ‘Things-to-do’ book I bought at the Sloth souvenir shop. When the schedule of exciting times, trails and tales came to an end, we each knew that we had to return to Costa Rica. Afterall, we have family there. Our cameras were full and our heart of memories, even fuller. And best of all, though we were exhausted from all the wonderful delights, we needed only to say two words which meant EVERYTHING wonderfully conjured in the heart. “Pura Vida!”