SDS 306: Pura Vida

Welcome back to the SuperDataScience podcast ladies and gentlemen, super excited to have you back on the show today. And the title of this episode is Pura Vida. So I was in Costa Rica for a few days just recently and I totally, totally loved the country. So I was somewhere in the north, in the province called Guanacaste. I remembered it. Guanacaste. And it’s such a beautiful country, very amazing nature. And even though it was in the middle of the rain season, it was like raining six or seven times per day and sometimes down pouring. One time I was riding on an ATV cause that’s one of the main methods or one of the most convenient methods of transportation since a lot of the roads, once you get into the very remote areas in which one of which I was in, it was a very, some of the roads through the forest or around, around like the ocean coastline there are really destroyed with the rain. So ATVs are quite a popular way of transport, transportation.

And the thing is you’re not protected from all the elements. And so when it was raining so much, my eyes actually filled up with water and this was the first time it happened in my life. Like I was, I had so much water in my eyes, I felt like I was in a swimming pool. That’s how much, how much rain there was. And like my vision got blurry from the amount of water in my eyes. It was such a strange feeling. But even despite all the rain, amazing place, amazing country, lovely people, everybody’s so friendly. And what really struck me is this phrase that they have there, Pura Vida. And what it means is, translating directly from Spanish, it’s pure life. And Costa Ricans say it all the time. And by the way, if you Google Pura Vida, I did this just to find out is this just a Costa Rican phrase?

And it is a very Costa Rican thing to say Pura Vida, and people say to each other when they see like they meet, it’s like an alternative of hello. They say it when they part as an alternative to goodbye. They say it to say thank you. They say it’s to check if you’re doing okay. They say it to confirm that they’re doing okay, that they’re doing fine. You can even say it when somebody sneezes if you want. So it’s a phrase that is used quite a lot, but it’s not about the phrases, the meaning the emotion behind it. I was reading up a bit about it and they, that article said that until you travelled to Costa Rica, you won’t know what the feeling behind it is. But I really wanted to convey it here on the podcast and give you like a little preview, a little sense of what it is.

It’s like, it’s like a feeling of everything is okay. Everything will be okay. We’re all fine. It’s a phrase that conveys gratitude for the amazing nature that surrounds us. It’s a phrase that says, thank you for all the amazing people in my life. It’s a phrase that just reminds you yourself and reminds the person you’re talking to that everything is fantastic. Don’t stress, everything will be good. And we’re all, we’re all super happy. And if you do go to Costa Rico, which I highly recommend, you’ll notice that everybody there is very relaxed. Or at least most people are very relaxed, they are just happy, smiling people all the time. I’ve probably never seen a nation that is so just, just positive and smiling all the time. No matter what happens. And I think it’s probably this Pura Vida phrase is a great reflection of that. And it’s also a great reinforcement, to that feeling.

So the reason I’m bringing this up is because in other countries, especially in the Western world, if you live in a big city with lots of cars and traffic and lots of things to stress about, it can be very easy to get carried away. And forget that life is actually beautiful. We’re surrounded by nature. If you remove all these, this whole concrete jungle and all this technology and you go out somewhere into the forest, look around. It’s so beautiful. It’s so magical and it’s very easy to forget that. So my call to you is, think about Pura Vida. What does it mean to you in your life? If you were to say this phrase to yourself or to your spouse, to your children, to your friends, to your family, to your colleagues, if you were to say Pura Vida, maybe even try saying it, what meaning would you put into that phrase?

It means pure life. But what does pure life mean to you individually as a person? Does it mean gratitude for the amazing family you have? Does it mean gratitude for the wonderful breakfast that you had today in the morning? Does it mean excitement about something that you’re going to be doing this weekend? Does it mean that sense of fulfillment that you get from contributing at your workplace or contributing to some cause that is important to you, contributing to somebody else’s life? What would you put into the meaning of those words?

Hope this is inspiring because it definitely was and still is inspiring for me. I still have this amazing feeling from the world of Pura Vida, which is Costa Rica, and I hope that this will brighten up your day, your weekend, and maybe even you will carry along this feeling or this sense further down into the next week, into the next month. And whenever you feel a little bit down, a little bit upset, a little bit sad, a little bit stressed, just think Pura Vida, everything will be great. Everything will work out and all you have to do is smile. Thank you for being here today and I can’t wait to see you next time. Until then, Pura Vida!