The secret to a good vacation!
Pura Vida!
I think I’ve got it..the real secret to experiencing the most satisfying vacation! And perhaps, just maybe, this secret can be integrated into real life too; a condensed experience which gives rise to the larger life lessons.
We just arrived home from a ten day stay in the glorious, beautiful Costa Rica! Although we visited during off-season (it is the rainy season there), it was perfect for us. Down season meant up-close parking, calm, quiet, uncrowded beaches, excellent and enjoyable service at restaurants and shops and an overall setting for real, true relaxation and enjoyment. As the rain, what would horseback riding be without doing it in a downpour! So I would guess Part 1 of how to have a great vacation is to go during off-season!
Now if just my husband and I had gone to Costa Rica, I believe we would have been interested in traversing as much of the country as possible, seeing as much as we possibly could in our time. We would have visited several of the national parks, done all kinds of adventures, and never eaten or slept at the same place twice! We would have had all kinds of goals and to-do lists for our trip, I imagine.
Costa Rica offers a plentitude of possibilities for seeing a wide variety of wildlife and culture – the likes of which you cannot find here! Holler monkeys literally hollering at us from the trees, Mr. Crabs, (SpongeBob Squarepants families will understand) running across the muddy, pothole filled roads, iguanas and lizards popping up out of nowhere, whales and sea turtles visible from the boat, and the most amazing variety of butterflies, birds and insects we’ve ever seen! So clearly, Costa Rica has so much to offer, in the land itself.
But early in our trip the kids asked to return to the restaurant we were just at the night before. Our initial grown-up, goal-oriented reaction was to try to talk them into trying something new, somewhere different, but they insisted that we all had such a good time (it’s true, my girls had me laughing until I was crying and snorting) and that everyone enjoyed their meal (also true and highly unusual in our family), so we agreed to go back. We ended up returning to this particular restaurant four evenings, each time our enjoyment increased and my daughters began to call the restaurant Oscar’s Place, which was not the name of the restaurant but the name of our server! My husband and I would look at each other when the girls would say they wanted to go to Oscar’s Place again, but we started to see the wisdom in it…it was a winning choice every time! We really enjoyed talking with Oscar as he talked to us of how he loved what he did and found that just that simple loving opened all kinds of doors for him. He talked of his goals and dreams, all rooted in his simple contentment living in Costa Rica. And he gave us free desserts, all kinds, for no charge every night!
We also wanted to go fishing while we were there, but initial phone calls got us a standard fishing boat (the kind that we took last year in Mexico and we all got sick!) for well over $500. This was not what we were looking for, and so instead, booked a snorkeling trip on a nice size catamaran with John Luc and Havier. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, partly due to the beautiful day, nice snorkeling, and comfortable summer breeze, but also do to our guides, who were patient with the girls, providing drinks and an amazing lunch and allowed everyone to jump off the boat into the deep blue ocean (gulp, yes, I was very nervous watching my girls!). On the way back, just off the cuff, I asked them if they would be interested in taking us fishing the next day, on this boat. After all, no one was sick on this larger boat and they did have fishing poles in the water! They agreed to take us on a tailored trip, just for us, for much less than the $500 we had been quoted. We went with them again, the following day, and had another wonderful time this time catching three fish and having sashimi tuna right on the boat! This was an experience we could not have had through the regular advertised tours…this was special and designed just for us. We are incredibly grateful.
Now this theory of returning to the same place and same people started to settle into us in other ways as well and we began to give in to it. We returned to the same beach several times where the girls were allowed to swim in the beachside resort pool when they tired of swimming in the ocean, even though we were not guests at that resort. We simply kindly asked the staff, they agreed with pleasure to let the girls swim, and then proceeded to serve them chocolate smoothies and chicken nuggets in the swim-up bar, which they absolutely loved! We returned more than once, and ended up making plans to stay there next time we come, the staff promising to remember us and take care of us!
We also returned to the same coffee place more than once, owned by an American who traded it all in to live in paradise! He helped us find our way around to our next beach destinations, and helped us find good pizza, which we were all craving toward the end of the week!
We enjoyed time at the local “sodas”, the mom and pop restaurants with the most authentic “tico” food, and after talking with the woman working there, borrowed their boogie board for the day for a small fee (after she warned us we would pay too much renting traditionally).
So the secret to the vacation, as we discovered, was not in what we did, or where we went, but it was in the conversations and interactions with the locals, and the doors that opened up for our experience. So many speak English well, and even if they didn’t we found funny ways to communicate! We found that returning to the same places again and again, with kindness, smiles and patience (and yes, tipping went over well too!) we were treated with kindness and generosity in return. Everyone went over and above to make sure that our time was pleasurable, that the girls were happy and everyone was having a good experience.
We learned through our conversations that generally, Ticos (what the local people from Costa Rica are called) are not as ambitious, not so goal-oriented as we are in the United States where high, blinding ambition often results in a decrease of basic morality and simple kindness and consideration, all in the name of business, progress, money. Ticos are very content with a kind smile, a good meal, comfortable home, and good family. Do they have goals? Certainly, but they are not dependent on them in the moment. They do not rest their happiness or pleasure on the attainment of future goals. I think the land has taught them well.
So if this is true for a vacation, can we see the value in this for day to day life? That it’s not about what you do, where you go, what you see, but at the end of the day, at the end of our life, it always comes down to how you treat people; the value you find in talking with others and ultimately seeing yourself in every other human being, regardless of outer differences. Success and failure comes and goes, goals and dreams come and go, happiness and contentment cannot be found in them. Only in relationships, connections, and simple kindness and consideration for one another will our lives have the true richness and depth that we desire. As the Ticos say, Pura Vida (Good Life)!
