Pura Vida Costa Rica

The term Pura Vida, according to Wikipedia, is used by Costa Ricans since 1956, and when literally translated, means "Pure Life." Contextually, it means "Full of Life," "Purified life," "This is living!", "Going great!" It is used as a greeting, a farewell, and to express satisfaction. Costa Ricans use the phrase to express a philosophy of strong community, perseverance, good spirits, enjoying life slowly, celebrating good fortune, whether small or large.

I experienced pura vida firsthand as I immersed myself in the lush land, rainforest air, fresh food and the culture of the easy, peaceful and friendly ... They don't have an army. To me, that speaks volumes ...

Anyway, below are a few pictures from my stay there, in August. There's much more to come, it's just a matter of finding the time to post process.

I changed the hues and added a bokeh texture to this:

Here's a modest house found in the rural area. I turned the photo into a water color and added my signature. I just learned how to create a signature today --- truly simple to do, and neat! :) The signature, once created, becomes a paint brush, so I could sign until my heart's content in a rainbow of colors, with but a click of the mouse ...



The bulls and their colorful, pulling wagons were prevalent throughout Costa Rica. Nothing is for free; I jumped out of the car to grab this shot, and when the fellow saw me as I was running back to the car, he yelled in Spanish how I must pay him for the shot. I grabbed a dollar to give to him, and that made him happy.



So many views to snap pictures of ... but then we'd be stopping the car every few moments. Here's another shot I took in haste, with the hope composition would turn out, if not the focus. I turned it into an oil painting, which I'm still challenged by. Hopefully with practice, I'll get better. I also posted the pre-oil painting shot.

I love the sliced DOF of this shot, which was taken with my macro lens.

This Toucan found a sizeable morsel.

Ok, that's it for now ... :)