TLDR: Have you ever wanted to explore what life outside of mainstream success looks like? Grab a bestie, bae-stie, relative, or loved one, and head to Costa Rica ASAP! Enjoy savoring 12 hours of daylight, discover the power of stillness, and what it means to live the Pure Life!

I've always felt that a moment of rest in North America was damn near an act of rebellion.

Before heading to Costa Rica in August 2022, I had gotten so used to equating my time with dollar signs that when the day came when I could stay in the house and chill without feeling a deficit in survival or my lifestyle, it felt strangely foreign until it started to feel liberating. Then I began to feel slightly proud and maybe a hint of success!

Costa Rica has always been a dream destination because I wanted to wake up and see that picturesque canopy of greenery when I looked out into the distance. I wanted to travel to where Pure Life would reign supreme instead of Capitalism, and I was encouraged to take it easy. Of course, I also wanted to travel to a place where it's hot year-round being a Chicagoan, and boy did I discover, 

That close to the Equator sun hit different.

The tiny beach town in Costa Rica where I stayed, Jaco Beach, had many more realizations waiting for me as I touched down for my "Fly and Drive" vacation. 

Who Needs to Sleep In?

Costa Rica proudly boasts a consistent 12 hours of daylight year-round. No need for daylight savings in this country. Gone were the days back in Chicago when I would plan to sleep in and fight against my circadian rhythm when the sun's rays urged me to get up.

Those days when I used to savagely collect one or two more hours of sleep where I could get it, turning down invitations for events that started before 12 pm on my weekend off days because I knew that I was expected to teach children at 7:36 am Monday- Friday. 

 However, waking up at 5:30 am in Costa Rica meant I was surrounded by others who were also starting their day, and it wasn’t to immediately get to work!

With the sun breaking strong each morning, Ticas and Ticos took to the beach for a walk with their dogs without a leash, surfed, set up beach shops, and worked out in the sand. This could partially be due to the Costa Rican "green season," a season in which its residents are known to take advantage of any time there is no significant rainfall at any time of day. 

When nightfall came, I felt ready to cozy up in bed by 8 pm and sleep by 8:30 pm with no regrets, knowing I could enjoy 12 hours of exposure to the sunlight the next day. 

The Power of Stillness

I took a three-hour ATV ride through the mountains on my second vacation day.

I lived for the sand and mud mix, splashing all over my body while riding through these rural terrains. I'm not quite sure how I ended up being the leader in this tour, which directed us to stay in a single file line as we drove through the mountains.

I worried that if something happened due to my lack of focus, it could cause a domino effect for everyone else on tour.

I gripped those handlebars and squeezed my inner thighs relentlessly until the end of the tour, which brought us to an isolated beach area. Our tour guide shared that this was where they had recently seen a sloth, and they excitedly searched around to show our tour a sloth in non-action. 

Seeing this sloth high up in the trees was much different from seeing a sloth at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, which featured an unseen sloth chilling in a suspended hammock chair with a pixilated tree display in the background.

I asked the tour guide in Costa Rica, "When predators come, what are its defense strategies?"

He laughed. The defense of the sloth has always been its stillness and camouflage.

The sloth's stillness has remained a championed defense strategy that has this species of animal surviving for approximately 64 million years. Natural selection has not selected stillness out of the species for centuries. ,

Therefore, Maybe we all can take a page from the sloth when we feel tested, and it feels like life has our backs against the wall.

Minding My Business Around Animals and Insects

Before taking this vacation, I was so nervous that an animal bite or uncontrollable event by an insect or animal would end my vacation.

However, as soon as I got used to being nestled between various animals, the smoke I previously had for animals started dissipating.

At the end of the day, I was on their turf, inhabiting a place that is known to be 51% rainforest.

I found myself barely wincing or freaking out at the bees that swarmed the sweet bread at breakfast when I used to freeze up so quickly when bees swarmed me due to the pounds of sweet-smelling leave-in conditioner I need to leave in my hair to keep it moisturized.

One of the fondest memories of the trip is the memory of an Iguana perched at the doorway of the snack bar at the hotel where I stayed, with no one even batting an eye. The Iguana could have come in and chosen violence, disrupting the humans doing human things, yet none of that anxiety was in the air. T

hat showed respect for animals I haven't seen modeled to me consistently.

I knew the Pure Life was seeping into my veins when I chilled with a roach on the beach as I watched the vultures circle the trees.

It was lovely to see animals I have only read about in textbooks or seen animated on the Disney Channel live in their natural habitats in Central America. 

No Hierarchy on The Roads 

I spent the weeks before this vacation planning my outfits instead of educating myself on the Costa Rican green season. Information from the first page of Google probably would have quickly revealed that driving at night during Green Season was not suggested.

This is because the highways are like every man for himself, with no one having the right of way., and limited shoulder space.

This means vans of tourists, police cars, and all others carried the same jurisdiction to yield to no one. So why would someone want to add darkness and potentially rain to the mix?

Any car or van can pull over at a moment's notice on a road that may not have a shoulder or quickly dart to the other side of the road without much thought on how it would impact others.

The tour guide for our ATV tour noticed my inclination to veer to the right, to let other more oversized vehicles pass, when he urged us to stay in a single-file line in the middle of the road.

It felt too foreign that all drivers had the right to take up the same amount of space, and they drove accordingly. 

Now the question remains in the age of the great resignation,

Do I need to afford myself the flexibility to travel to Costa Rica or any other location at a moment’s notice?

With Costa Rica's gorgeous, luscious, and rich location, who would balk at this opportunity?

But that’s the thing: It’s the juxtaposition between the frigid cold nights, the clock-in/clock out-hustle, and the 6-8 hours of daylight in the winter that makes my time in these other parts of the world that much more revealing, special, and sweeter!

Grab a bestie, bae-stie, relative, or loved one, and head to Costa Rica ASAP! You won’t regret it!

Warmest Regards,

dd