Pura Vida!

To be completely honest, I always thought "Pura Vida" was kinda tacky. Maybe I was jealous when all of my friends went away to study abroad and came home chanting "Pura Vida," and I was stuck making pennies at a summer internship, but that is neither here nor there. Because... pura vida...its awesome.

To scream Pura Vida! is not just a drunken line college kids come home with. It is truly a way of life in Costa Rica. Here are a couple examples I experienced last week:

"Can I have a bottle of water, please?" - - Oh, si, Pura Vida.
"Good Morning!" - - Buenos Dias, Pura Vida!
"I need to get to Tamarindo quickly!" - Not a problem. Pura Vida.

Love it.

A bit about my trip...

Every year Aggreko awards our top sales reps with a 4-day all inclusive trip for themselves plus a guest. I am lucky enough to be able to plan the program internally, while Sullivan Group does all of the heavy-lifting. I am fortunate to be able to call those Sullivan gals good friends - we have so much fun together! This year we hosted Aggreko Excellence at the JW Marriott Guanacaste. (About 15 minutes from an adorable local surf town, Tamarindo). The resort was beautiful, food was delicious, and I got to soak up some sun and Vitamin D for 6 wonderful, busy, days.

In between the craziness, I was able to read 3 1/2 books. Yep, almost 4 whole books. How amazing is that?

• The Descendants - read cover to cover on the flight to Liberia. Absolutely amazing.
• The 5 Love Languages - love, love. Totally hits home, and makes perfect sense.
• Customer Message Management (nerdy work book, but highly recommend for young marketing profesh)
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - - almost done and really enjoying it, but it is so quirky the way it is written I have to re-read every few pages.

I also got to do some fun, touristy stuff. I took a catamaran boat ride and snorkeled. I got to hold a spider monkey! And a puffer fish! And, I got to spend time with a phenomenal photographer, Jonathan Yonkers, a native of Costa Rica who photographed our event. Check him out, here.

Overall, it was another successful Aggreko event. I am truly blessed to enjoy my job as much as I do, and to have been given the chance to explore some really amazing places "on the clock." But, when I am away, man I miss my hubs.

Luckily we have lots of exciting plans for this weekend that I can't wait to talk about next week. Stay tuned!

Celebration Event - there was a light up dance floor in the center.

View from one side of my balcony. The other side was ocean.

Pura Vida :)