tropical vegetation and a natural mountain stream, you have plenty of space for yourself to swim, sunbathe, meditate - the ideal place to really relax and unwind. Finca Pura Vida is a tangible place of power where you can recharge your batteries, be in control of your time and be yourself. The ideal place to escape the winter.

The houses are typically Costa Rican style - no luxury, no frills. Nevertheless, everything is available that one needs and expects from a cozy vacation home. The vacation house Casa Tucán offers space for up to four persons and the house Casa Kolibrí for up to two. The temperatures are very constant throughout the year and vary between 20 and 30 degrees. So you can always be outside in a T-shirt and shorts. Depending on the weather, you might need a light sweatshirt in the evening. The finca has no direct neighbors and you can therefore enjoy the surroundings in peace. However, if you are looking for contact with the locals, it is easy. The Costa Ricans - Ticos for short - are very open, warm and relaxed people. Even with little knowledge of Spanish, it is easy to socialize and even make friends. If you are willing to open this cultural window, the Ticos will gladly allow you a glimpse into their lives.

Birdwatching

Hobby ornithologists get their money's worth at Finca Pura Vida. Alison and Stewart a couple from Canada have spent two winters at Finca Pura Vida. Stewart discovered 175 different bird species. You can see some of his photos here.

La Suiza

La Suiza, a small village but with a vibrant life, is only 1.5 km away from Finca Pura Vida. Here you can find everything you need for daily life: Supermarkets, vegetable and fruit stores, a bank, a pharmacy and a doctor, small restaurants and bars.

Surroundings

Hiking, mountain biking? - Around the finca there are a lot of possibilities and a lot of variety: You should not miss a rafting tour. Costa Rica offers excellent conditions and is world famous for it. Most providers can be found in Turrialba.

A nice day trip can be made to the Tapantí National Park. With a little luck you will see some wild animals in the dense lush high rainforest.

The Volcano Turrialba has been active again for a few years. You can see its smoke plumes from the finca on a clear day. The way up leads you through different vegetation zones of the rainforest and sometimes you feel like in a fairy tale forest.

If you are interested in culture, you should visit the archaeological site of Guayabo. Here you can see the remains of a pre-Columbian city. You can see how the indigenous people of Costa Rica live in the indigenous reserves at the foot of the Talamanca Mountains.

Or why not take a coffee tour and learn where the basis for our favorite drink comes from?

If you don't want to go on a bigger tour right away, you can start by walking upstream from the finca. Following the dirt road, you will come across the fence of the neighboring property after just under a kilometer. You can enter quietly (but please close the fence again) and hike south up the hill. Passing sugar cane and coffee fields, you will go uphill and you will have beautiful views of the valley of the Rio Tuis and the surrounding mountains. After about one to one and a half hours you will come back to the main road, from where you will have a magnificent view. You can now follow the main road down towards the finca to complete the circuit. If you would like to go even higher you can continue hiking uphill. After about 3 km the road ends at a private property.

If you like hiking and want to explore the area around the finca a bit to enjoy beautiful views, there are plenty of possibilities. Apart from the asphalt road (232) that leads from Turrialba to La Suiza and further to Platanillo and Chirripo, there are only unpaved roads in the region, comparable to our forest roads. Beautiful hikes can be made to Las Colonias, Sta. Cristina, to Tuis or to Pacayitas. The area is also excellent for mountain bike tours.

Costa Rica

Experience pure nature - huge active volcanoes, lush tropical rainforests, gigantic waterfalls and dreamlike beaches!

„Costa Rica - without artificial additives“, that is the official advertising slogan. And indeed in Costa Rica you experience pure nature. The small country is a tropical paradise with an extraordinary variety of animals and plants. Nowhere else in the world can you find such different types of landscapes and climates with such a variety of species in a small area. Costa Rica offers beautiful beaches on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, high mountains, rainforest in different forms - high forest, cloud forest, even dry rainforest - and volcanoes, some of which are still active.

Costa Rica's governments recognized early on that this treasure needed to be preserved and focused on soft tourism. More than a quarter of the country are national parks and nature reserves. The infrastructure is very good, the parks have well developed and marked trails. Therefore, as a tourist, you can move easy and comfortable in nature and marvel at the full diversity of this paradise.

The people of Costa Rica are known for their openness, friendliness and helpfulness. Despite their different ethnic roots – Indian, European, African and Asian – they live together peacefully and are quite positive thinking people. Ticos, as they call themselves, are peace-loving, they have no military. It was abolished after the last civil war shortly after the Second World War. The money is instead invested in projects, such as Education. As a result Costa Rica has the highest Level of education in Latin America.

Costa Rica - PURA VIDA

If you ask a Tico how he is, he often answers: "Pura Vida", which means "pure (pura) life (vida)". It expresses a state of health or mood. But also, it expresses an attitude towards life and! It shows the boundless optimism of the Ticos, their uncomplicated lifestyle, their happiness, their satisfaction and their simple joy of life.

Caribbean

The Caribbean coast is one of my favorites. From Cahuita to Puerto Viejo to Manzanillo you will discover picture book beaches, some of which are protected by offshore coral reefs. The water is therefore very calm on these beaches. The Caribbean is characterized by rather narrow sandy beaches and small bays. The palm trees often reach the water. The sand is fine and white and the water temperature is such that you can spend hours in the shallow sea - simply dreamlike. In the National Park of Cahuita you can hike for miles through the rainforest and discover beautiful bays. With a little luck you can see capuchin monkeys, mapaches, anteaters, coatis and many others.

Reggae music can be heard from the pubs in the villages and all in all people here take it easy. People live from fishing and tourism. The locals, whose ancestors came from Africa via the Caribbean islands - mainly Jamaica - to the Costa Rican coast, are dark-skinned and even more relaxed than the rest of the Costa Ricans. Indigenous people, the original inhabitants of Costa Rica live in the hinterland. The territory stretches from the Atlantic side of the Talamanca Mountains to the coast and the border of Panama.

Pacific

The Pacific coast is characterized by large wide sandy beaches that stretch for miles. If you are not traveling at Christmas or over the Easter holidays, you can often walk for hours on the beach without meeting a soul. Once, on such a lonely beach, I met an American woman who approached me with the words, "Oh it's getting crowded today." even though no one was out and about except for the two of us. The Pacific side of Costa Rica is characterized by a clearly marked dry and rainy season. Especially in the dry season you can enjoy a beautiful evening light about an hour before sunset, which makes the beach and the vegetation behind it shine in very intense colors. Of course you can also experience wonderful romantic sunsets.

In the hinterland of the beaches there are often large waterfalls to discover, especially at Playa Montezuma and Playa Dominical. A special experience is to watch the turtles laying their eggs at Playa Ostional in November.

If you have time, you can drive around the Nicoya Peninsula and discover great beaches. I have done this once by motorcycle and once by jeep. The starting point can be Puntarenas and you first take the ferry to Naranjo. If you don't want to take the ferry, you can alternatively drive about 50 km north from Puntarenas towards Liberia and then use the bridge over the Rio Tempisque. From there it goes south via Naranjo to Montezuma. Here you should make a stop for the waterfalls. From there you travel along the west coast of Nicoya to the National Park Santa Rosa near the border to Nicaragua. The drive itself is a real adventure. Most of the time you drive along dirt roads, sometimes just over the beach and you also have to cross some rivers. You will be rewarded by the many beautiful beaches and bays that you will discover.

Rainforest

Without a doubt, the rainforest is one of the highlights Costa Rica has to offer. This diversity of flora and fauna is unsurpassed. The constant warmth and the perpetual humidity produce a dense and lush greenery, plants with huge leaves and flowers with an incredible colorfulness. About 20% of the national territory is protected. In the national parks there is a network of well laid out trails to explore the rainforest. One also has many opportunities to experience other layers of the rainforests in cable cars or on a network of suspended trails high above the ground.

Costa Rica's tropical rainforests are among the most biodiverse areas in the world. More than 200 species of trees can be found in one hectare of forest. The trees serve as hosts for a variety of other plants, which in turn are food sources and habitats for certain plants and animals. In particular, bromeliad and orchid species grow in close symbiosis with other plants. From the ground to the treetops, forests have distinct layers of different habitats in which specific plant and animal species live and which have their own microclimates. The rainforests themselves also have their own climate. For example, if you go to the Braulio Carillo National Park, which is about half an hour by bus from San José, it is quite possible to go from bright sunshine and blue skies to a tropical downpour that can be so heavy that you can barely see 5 meters away.

Overall, the rainforest ecosystem is very complex and sensitive. Any change has far reaching effects. Costa Rica is certainly one of the best destinations to experience different types of rainforests. In a small area you can find dry, wet, cloud and high forests.

Vulcanos

Costa Rica has over 60 volcanos that stretch across the Cordillera from north to southeast. Six of them are active and one is right on your doorstep - Turrialba Volcano. Its plumes can be seen from the finca, but don't worry, you are at a safe distance.

The area around the volcano was designated as a National Park in 1955. When the park is not closed due to volcanic activity, you can get to the 3350-meter summit on dirt roads and trails that go through different vegetation zones of the cloud forest. Its name is of Indian origin and means river of fire (turiri and aba). Around this volcano there is also a beautiful legend: A girl named Cira got lost and was found by a young man from a rival tribe. The two fell in love and when the enraged father tried to kill his daughter's suitor, Turrialba held him back with a high column of smoke. The volcanos Poas and Irazu are easy to reach by car, you can drive up to crater level. Irazu, with its five craters and emerald green lakes, resembles a lunar landscape. Poas is completely different, its crater is surrounded by lush vegetation. A hike on the Barva is Very attractive. You can leave the car (four-wheel drive) at the ranger station and walk through cloud forest to the crater rim. On the way back you should not miss to visit the picturesque colonial town of Barva, which was founded in 1613 by San Bartolomé de Barva and is one of the oldest settlements in Costa Rica.