We started the descent back to the house, grabbed some home-made fishing rods consisting entirely of floss and a hook, and headed straight to the tilapia basin.
After almost an hour of fishing, we had finally caught 3 small tilapia, each about the size of my hand. We headed back inside, and my host mom fried them up and served them with rice. As we sat around the dinner table we laughed at the absurdity of what had happened. Walking an hour in total to a closed restaurant on Easter Day, only to end up fishing for our dinner!
It warmed me so much to see how easygoing my host family was about the situation. This was the moment I had begun to understand the Pura Vida culture here properly. It’s not a culture of laziness, as it’s sometimes misinterpreted as being, but a culture of accepting the things you can’t change. In a recent global report ranking the happiness of different countries, Costa Rica ranked #12 in the whole world! This made it the highest ranked country in all of Latin America, and significantly higher than the United States which placed #23. After spending just a little bit of time here, it isn’t hard to see why Costa Rica scores so highly!
I had always heard Costa Ricans are quite happy people. But it wasn’t until this moment that I understood the truth of that reputation. It’s moments like these that I will cherish even after my service ends.
I hope that these stories have encouraged some of you to explore and do research on not just Costa Rica, but on other countries too! I’ve been here for almost a year already, and I still feel that there is so much to learn and see.
