Crew Log 217 – Pura Vida

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April 13, 2010 – At Sea, 13º 01’N, 092º 36’W
By Herb McCormick

Unlike other popular nationalistic slogans of times past and present (“In God We Trust”; “E Pluribus Unum”; “Drill, Baby, Drill”), the national slogan for Costa Rica consists of two simple words: “Pura Vida.” In its literal translation, Pura Vida means “Pure Life,” but in actual usage the tidy phrase encompasses much broader ideals. Pura Vida, in fact, is a state of mind; a way to live; an attitude to embrace; a goal to aspire to.

Drill, baby, drill? No way, mon. Pura Vida is cool, baby, cool. And the crew of Ocean Watch already misses it – not to mention the hip, funny, progressive, peaceful, environmentally aware Costa Ricans who not only talk the Pura Vida talk, but walk the Pura Vida walk – more than we can say.

Today on Ocean Watch, on this 13^th day of April, we are embracing the number 13. And why not? Late this afternoon, atop a sweltering, windless Pacific Ocean, we crossed the 13^th parallel of northern latitude. Once we put 13º 13’N behind us, we will have left Guatemalan waters and entered Mexican jurisdiction. Mexico, baby, Mexico. There is suddenly glaring light at the end of the tunnel on our long, interesting, 13-month spin Around the Americas. There’s still a long way to go, obviously, but there is also an opportunity to begin to reflect on where we’ve been.

And few places have been as engaging, fun or interesting as little Costa Rica; among the Ocean Watch crew, only David Thoreson had visited before, and he’d sung its praises loud and long. Now we know: He was right. So let’s start there.

Roxanne Nanninga of the Pacific Science Center knows more about Costa Rica then all the rest of us put together. As a student, she visited the country to learn more about its vast wildlife and natural wonders, and it was there that she met her future husband, Mario Gomez, a naturalist and guide himself who knows the rich interior and arresting coastline of his homeland like the back of his hand. Roxanne, our current onboard educator, and Mario led the advance team for our visit, and by the time Ocean Watch docked at the tony facilities of the Los Sueños Resort and Marina, they’d already made important contacts within the Costa Rican scientific and educational communities, all of whom embraced our mission and message. Fluent in Spanish, Roxanne spent a busy week at schools and in labs interacting with students and scientists on behalf of our program.

Mario and Roxanne also arranged for the nation’s premier television news program to cover our arrival, which seemed nice and innocent enough, until we learned that the entire country consists of news junkies who drop everything twice a day to catch up on events in Costa Rica and around the world. Before our second day there, as everyday folks incessantly glanced our way, we began to feel like Michael Jordan or Mick Jagger in their swaggering primes. They may not know much about Ocean Watch in Peoria, but they sure as heck do in Puntarenas.

For that matter, they also know about us in the Pacific surfing mecca of Jaco; under the active eruption of the Arenal volcano; along the funky, mellow streets of the Caribbean “rasta” towns of Puerto Viejo and Cahuita; and even in the bustling downtown metropolis of the busy capital city of San José. That’s because, along with David T and engineer Dan Clark of the Applied Physics Lab at the University of Washington, I hopped in a rental car with Mario riding shotgun and calling the shots for a 1,000-kilometer, cross-country road trip to all of the above.

Driving and sometimes mere traveling in Costa Rica is not for the faint of heart. There are few multi-lane freeways and the busy two-lane highways are devoid of shoulders but full of bikers, walkers, school kids and canines. A nighttime drive through the foggy, treacherous “cloud forest” pass in the central interior is as terrifying as trip as you’ll ever experience (Nice job, Dan). You can be stopped for hours while they clear the debris from a tractor-trailer accident. Your friends will yell at you every time you hit a pothole, which is often. They will also laugh and make jokes at your expense if you fall out of a strange bunk bed – the first one you’ve climbed up to in decades – and blacken your eye.

(Okay, I would’ve chortled, too…if it happened to someone else.)

But the sights, sounds and memories are more than worth a few roadside adventures.

The things we’ll never forget about our travels in Costa Rica are many and fantastic: the molten lava spilling out of Arenal, and the gorgeous lake at the foot of the peak; the cappuccino and howler monkeys, some a foot or two away, in the wonderful National Park in Cahuita; the hummingbirds, the sloths, the sharks, the crocs, the iguanas, the butterflies, and everything else that seems to appear right around the next bend; the high mountains; the gorgeous seascapes; the endless banana plantations; the smiling kids, always the smiling kids (Nice job, Mario).

It wasn’t always wondrous – we’ll get into that a bit when we report on the coral reefs we swam on off the Caribbean coast – but you get the idea. If you’ve never been to affordable, accessible Costa Rica, take our advice: Go.

Back here on Ocean Watch, Pura Vida is now three days and nearly 500 miles in our wake. In the time since we’ve left Costa Rica, we’ve enjoyed boobies on the bow pulpit, leaping dolphins, drop-dead sunrises, a distant waterspout, basking rays and turtles, and the simple pleasure of being at sea with good friends. Our daily routine of cooking, cleaning, reading, writing and watch keeping carries forth, as does our mission of education and science. In yesterday’s crew log about Michael Reynolds’ ongoing research off Central America, I failed to insert perhaps the most important point of all.

“No other ships are out here in these exact waters doing what we’re doing,” said Michael, “so we’re gathering pretty valuable data.”

So on we go, on this notable 13^th day, at this significant stripe of northern latitude, a happy, purposeful boat cleaving across the most pristine wilderness on our planet. We’re doing what we love and hopefully making a contribution in the bargain. Our blessings are too many to be counted.

So, yes and alas, Costa Rica is in the rear-view mirror. But the pure spirit of Pura Vida now rides with us, filling our sails, touching our souls.

-Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson

*This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos

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