Now almost three weeks ago, I was standing in the kitchen talking to Vrindaranya about Swami’s thoughts on Costa Rice when Swami came in. I relayed some information I found on the internet when he pointed at me and said: “do you have three hundred dollars for a ticket to Costa Rica?” I was stunned by the question and said yes. “Good, you, Vrindaranya and I are going to Costa Rica.” A week later our tickets were booked and our bags packed. Who said monastic life isn’t dynamic?
Costa Rica, I had heard about the country before and knew lots of yogis and surfers camped out there and there was a lot of money to invest in teak. Little did I know it also attracted a flock of retirees and families trying their new luck. I researched the internet on what Costa Rica was like and it seemed not just a physical paradise but also a cultural and historical paradise. Here are some keywords for you: no army since 1949, religious freedom, stable democracy, over 90% of their energy comes from sustainable sources, eco tourism, friendly people, tropical climate, fertile soil, and still affordable for Western standards.
This was the country I was flying too and when I got off the plane I was amazed. Some people had called this a third world country, but whatever that means I was unsure. I had never seen streets as clean as here. People didn’t litter at all. Instead, the streets were filled with dropped mangoes and avocados.
We were looking for opportunities for an eco retreat. Our realtor would drive us around the country in 4 and 5 hour shifts to find the ultimate spot. From beaches to the mountainous jungle and we still didn’t see a lot of the country. We filled our days walking up and down beautiful properties inaccessible by car. One of the properties we saw is pictured above and we hope to have a monastery on one of these tops soon.
I also took a few videos which I will post on Youtube. One of them portrays the torrential rain on the way back from Nicoya (close to the Pacific) to Puriscal where we rented a house from a Canadian (pictures on flickr). It was interesting to see the climate diversity in this rather small country. There are active volcanos, cloud rainforests and dry pasture land (I heard someone compare the pastures to West Texas, not sure how correct this is as I’ve never been to Texas).
The country is much less populated than India for instance. The people also leave foreigners alone in the sense that they don’t want anything from you. If you’ve been to India, you’ll know what I mean. It also seemed to be a highly cultured society in which respect was an important feature. One day we ended up at a cattle auction, most cows are Zebus, and saw how cattle were being sold for about 1000 dollars per cow. It was quite difficult to see the scene, because the question was where these cows were heading to. The cattle ranchers were all dressed up in their Sunday outfits shaking each others hand when they would meet.
The two weeks with Swami passed by quickly and before I knew it we were on the way back. As I wrote we had lots of delays on our return and the journey had been physically tiresome but mentally it was extremely refreshing. With the monastic and lay community growing, these are fantastic times.

The new website and webstore are also about to launch. We are mostly waiting for some information on the new credit card system before we can go online.

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