“Pure Life”
That’s the catch phrase in my most recent adventure location, Costa Rica. Basically, it’s used to express when something is great or awesome. Or, ‘this is the reason we live’.
And the trip was pretty much that…Pura Vida.
The local dive shop where I got my diving certification regularly schedules diving trips. This has multiple purposes – – to entice those who don’t dive to consider because of the cool locations they go…to get those already diving to buy more stuff at the store to go on the trip…and, the best one, the shop’s dive sponsor gets a free vacation. Pretty damn good.
This was a slightly different trip in that, besides the diving, there were multiple site seeing and adventure side trips. I took a chance on it.
The diving? Not so great visibility, so that sort of lessened the enjoyment of the 10 dives we did. But we did see some cool stuff. I swam within 15 feet of 7 white tipped reef sharks, who are not too dangerous, but still made me clench up a bit*. I found an octopus scurrying across the coral. There were puffer fish galore, as well as at least 4 moray eels each dive**. We saw a seahorse, tiny and delicate, hovering in a coral sanctuary. I saw the tail and shadow of a body of a bull shark (more aggressive) some 30 feet away. I found a shark’s tooth on the ocean bottom. I dove the Pacific, adding to the bodies of water I can now make that claim.
The land adventures? Also very cool.
– We ran a zip line jungle canopy tour. That’s where they’ve strung wire cable between tree tops and you zip from one tree to another strapped in a harness hooked to the wire. The shortest was about a hundred feet. The longest? About a quarter mile…and we were flying when we got to the end of that one. And howler monkeys yelling at us most of the way.
– We visited an active volcano, Arenal. (Un)fortunately, the lava flows were on the side of the mountain away from us. Still, I saw the edge of a lava flow one mini-eruption at night. And the beast belched and rumbled off and on throughout the day.
– We took a river tour and tortured and teased crocodiles in the water.
– We went white water rafting (yes, in a different river than the crocodiles this time).
Here are a few pictures, a couple stolen from fellow trip adventurers – –
Damn impressive, especially when rumbling
That's a moray...that's a moray...
Hard to see, but that's a dolphin frolicking in our boat wake.
HAD to be one sign in the bunch, yes?
No clue what the next adventure will be, but there will definitely be one! I’m liking this…
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*I watched “Jaws” as a kid and it scared the crap out of me.
**One dive I was watching a needlefish and, when it swam off, looked down to see a moray eel a foot from my crotch…yoicks! And away!!!
The Wilds of Ohio 