The deep, menacing howls of monkeys echo in my wooden bungalow as sunlight spills from the open shutters. I untangle my mosquito net, climb out of bed, grab a young coconut from the fridge, and hop onto my rusty bicycle.
I ride down the road through the jungle; the smell of sweet hibiscus flowers consumes my senses until the occasional sloth interrupts my path. I arrive at my yoga studio overlooking the ocean, beyond a grassy field full of palm trees. For the next 90 minutes, I focus on my breath and the butterflies that flutter in the ylang ylang tree. In my final resting pose, I feel an overwhelming sense of calm as sweat drips from every inch of my body.
After yoga I walk downstairs to my favorite café, my “office,” and sip on a coconut milk mocha made from locally sourced Costa Rican chocolate and begin working on my blog. Locals and expats pass through, occasionally interrupting me from my work to fill me in on their latest power smoothie concoction or to relive their surf session that morning.
A few hours of writing later and I get back on my bicycle and pedal out to my favorite remote beach. I laze under an almond tree, snorkel along the beachfront reef in silence with the tropical fish, take an adventure hike into the jungle, or catch up with friends in the natural ocean swimming pools. We grill whole snapper caught fresh that day in banana leaves on a small fire on the golden sand beach and nibble on sweet, organic papaya, mango, and pineapple.
At sunset I head into town for live reggae and a mango daiquiri, which turns into a night of dancing in front of a bonfire on the beach. Friends and I ride our bicycles home under a spectacular display of stars.
This is a typical day in my life in Costa Rica.
Two years ago I boarded a plane with plans to spend three months living on Costa Rica’s South Caribbean in the small beach community of Punta Uva. On that trip, I not only fell in love with the land of pura vida, I also fell in love with travel. Since then I have voyaged across Mexico, Belize, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, England, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, writing about my adventures on my blog.
But Costa Rica is still the one place on earth I call home.
I have seen many spectacular places on this planet, but the more I travel the more I realize that Costa Rica is where I want to live. It remains stunningly undeveloped with entirely rugged jungle-backed coastlines yet manages to house sustainable communities where people from all over the world live and work. In Costa Rica, I have the ability to shop in organic farmer’s markets, dine in excellent Italian restaurants, attend world class yoga studios, and blog with strong, consistent Wi-Fi, while living in a simple wooden home in the jungle and swimming every day at a remote beach. As a travel blogger who values simple, healthy living, what more could I possibly need?
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