Yoga Costa Rica

Yoga is something that doesn't come immediately into mind when speaking of Costa Rica. But, Costa Rica perhaps is the Yoga capital of the world (aside from India of course). 

Given that I'm a semi-obsessed yogi myself, I wouldn't pass up on the opportunity to do some serious yoga activities while I'm here... So on our second day in Costa Rica, I immediately signed up for some yoga classes. My mom-in-law showed me this beautiful yoga spot at the Harmony Hotel, (took a pic of it below). It's funny because I've actually seen this venue on YouTube when I was searching for yoga poses. It was a video of a male yogi doing some ridiculously advanced yoga on a ridiculously cool spot. He had over 400,000++ views so, you can just imagine how excited I was to see this venue  come to life right before my eyes! I was stoked!

After fine tuning the zen in me, I had to feed my curiosity for the town's most favored gelato place.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a top notch Italian gelato place right in the heart of the jungles of Nosara. I mean seriously, this place got the best italian gelato i've ever had and it's in the middle of a JUNGLE! I know, it's super random but it was so good, couldn't resist and ended up getting 4 scoops of gelato. Namely, mint and dark choco, blueberry cream, chocolate and caramel. Nom nom nom nom!

      

Haven't been wearing any make up since I got here and 

It's quite refreshing to be AU NATURALE and "ZEN-y". I have to say.. I'm all Costa Rica'd out! 

Oh.. the effects of being one with nature. 

It is said that in Yoga, the number of breathes we take are set from the moment we are born. And in each breathe comes a chance. A chance to love, a chance to smile, a chance to play, but most of all a chance to life. May we not take for granted each breathe we take and realize that every we breathe is truly a miracle of life. 

~NAMASTE~

Bracelet and Necklaces by : JILLPINEDA.COM

Bag by: JILLPINEDA.COM

Sunglasses : Ray Ban

Shorts : Sold Denim Lab 

Flip Flops : Havaianas

Costa Rica Day 1

So my husband and I packed up our stuff and headed out to Costa Rica for a much awaited, much needed, and a definitely much deserved vacation. The flight to Costa Rica from Los Angeles takes about 6 hours in total but we had a lay over at Houston, Texas for 2 hours. We took a red eye flight Thursday night and  pretty much traveled the whole day Friday.

As soon as we landed into Liberia, my sweet parents in law picked us up and treated us to a very nice and yummy meal. This dish is called "Casado" it's healthy and flavorful dish that consists of salad, beans, rice, banana, veggies and your choice of meat. I had chicken this time, and a refreshing watermelon smoothie to go with it. It was delish!! Total must after a long and draining overnight flight.

"Pura Vida" is the Costa Ricans a.k.a. Ticos (locals) universal way of greeting or saying farewell. It's their version of saying "Aloha"  for Hawaiians "Anyong Haseo" for Koreans or "Mabuhay" for Filipinos. It literally means "Pure Life". However, the "real" or cultural meaning is closer to "plenty of life", "full of life", "this is living!", "going great" or "real living"

Here's a picture of my first alcoholic drink I had here. A pretty glass of the most refreshing Pina Colada drink. Haven't had this in years!

This is our backyard for the week. This is the same beach where my husband and I got married on so it's pretty damn special to us. Years from now we will probably still keep coming back to this. We call it "our beach", I heard it has now become a popular wedding spot for tourists and locals as well and

we are not surprised because this place is pretty spectacular especially at sunset.

No shoes for me for the most of this trip yahhhhhhh =)

One of my favorite things about Costa Rica is the wild life. You literally get to live one with nature.  My hubby and I try to make it a point to do daily walks by the beach early in the mornings and we find the most random but beautiful things. That morning we found a bunch of tracks from different animals. The photo below are actually turtle tracks. Literally just hours before we came, a turtle was on the shore laying its eggs and went back to sea. Wish I saw the turtle myself but seeing its tracks is beautiful in itself. 

This one is from a crab. The hole at the bottom is where it came from and it dug it's way up to the shore. Its little crab legs and claws beaded the semi wet sand and left a pretty patterns on the shore.

Here's more... Sooo cute!

Then there were horse tracks

and dog tracks

And of course, human tracks.

My hubby is a little camera shy but had to post this pic because who else gets to be photo-bombed by a man and his horse ? 

Oh look! A man and his horse taking a dip in the beach.. How random! 

Eventually we had a very nice family dinner at the Logarta Hotel to celebrate my hubby's birthday.  It's the same hotel where we also had our wedding reception. I got a little teary eyed when we arrived, it reminded my of my perfect little wedding. I'm so happy to be back!

So that's it for our first day in Costa Rica. I'll be posting more pics as we go. 

Thanks for dropping by!

**Pura Vida**

xoxo

Jill

Packing Tip

Hey guys! I'm packing for my Costa Rica trip right now and thought --Hey, why don't I share a packing trick that served me really well in all of my previous travels-- hmmm... Here it goes :)

To fit more clothes in your luggage, roll them up and secure with a rubber band. Then arrange them on top of each other. This will give you more storage space in your suitcase. It's really simple but super practical and it WORKS! I've been able to pack my whole life in one luggage by doing this trick. Hope you like it!