Into the Blue Zone - Pure Vida!

View from Our Room

Ahhh, vacation time! Precisely at 9 am (a little unusual for Costa Rica) on January 27, our air-conditioned (ahhh) van arrived at our hotel to take us to the Tango Mar Hotel. The first leg of the journey took us about 1 1/2 hours to Puntarenas, where we boarded a ferry boat for the hour-long trip across the bay to the Nicoya Peninsula. Then another van picked us up for the 45 minute trip to Tango Mar!  It was just a little nerve-wracking driving up the very rutted narrow gravel road, following the faded signs for "Tango Mar Bar and Restaurant," wondering what the heck we had gotten ourselves into! Well, in fact, we have landed in Pure Vida (pure life, i.e., Costa Rican heaven). We were greeted here with ice cold face towels and a fruity rum cocktail at the front desk, and then escorted to our room by the Belgian owner of the property, the amazing Hilda! This is, in fact, the most beautiful place we have ever stayed!

View from the Breakfast Table

Tango Mar is on the Nicoya Peninsula, named by National Geographic researcher and journalist, Dan Buettner, and a team of the world’s top experts in longevity as one of the five "blue zones" in the world (others are Italy's Island of Sardinia; Japan's Island of Okinawa; California's Loma Linda; and, the Greek Island of Icaria has). These are areas of the world where people live healthy lives well past 100 years of age. Buettner (who was on Oprah on January 26!), in his book, The Blue Zones, describes four main steps to help create a blue zone:

1. Move naturally: your home should go along with the natural way you move. Concentrate on things you like to do, such as gardening, walking, swimming or spending time with family and friends.

2. Express your ideas with a positive attitude and allow time for rest.

3. Eat wisely: forget those diet trends that force you to consume 20% less than normal. Do not consume processed foods and have a few glasses of red wine daily. Please remember: do not over indulge.

4. Be part of the right tribe: put those you love first and try and reconnect with your religion or connect to one you wish to explore.

Interesting how close these ideas are to the Five Ways to Well-Being identified by Nic Marks' (of the Happy Planet Index) and colleagues in a research project undertaken for the UK Government Office of Science as part of their Foresight Project. The brief was to create a set of evidence based positive actions individuals could undertake which would improve their well-being. 

  

1. Connect - Invest your time in your loved ones, in your friends, family and acquaintances. Meet people. Talk to them. Understand how they improve your life, and also how you improve theirs. Knowing that you mean something to someone can be one of the most powerful positive forces in the world.

2. Be active - When exercising, the level of serotonin in your body rises and you get a powerful feeling of wellbeing. Something as simple as kicking a ball or throwing a Frisbee around a garden with a friend can knock both this and the previous point off in one go. If you're feeling down, go for a brisk walk and get some air. You'll soon feel better.

3. Take notice - Keeping an eye on what's going on around you keeps your brain running smoothly. If you see an application for planning permission pinned to a lamp-post, and even the tiniest part of your brain wants to know what it says, then go and read it. On a train or bus, rather than burying your nose in a book or your mobile phone, look out of the window and see what's happening outside.

4. Keep learning - Humanity's relentless curiosity is behind almost every single one of our species' accomplishments. Once you've finished your formal education, that's no reason not to stop learning. Actively seek out different viewpoints, and if you don't understand them then find someone knowledgeable to explain them to you.

5. Give - Finally, be generous. A survey gave £100 to two groups of people, instructing one group to spend it on themselves, and another to spend it on other people. Afterwards, the latter group's spirits were significantly higher. If you don't have cash, give your time, your attention or your expertise instead.

Bottom line - don't worry - be happy - Pure Vida!

Dave will blog soon about the amazing sabbatical interviews we have conducted here in Costa Rica. Next up (we hope) will be with Nature Air, the world's first and only carbon neutral airline (http://www.natureair.com/). We're thinking we may take one of their twin-engine planes back to San Jose on February 1.

La Paz Waterfall Gardens

Our wonderful Academy for Peace hosts arranged for us to take a lovely trip to La Paz Waterfall Gardens today. It was really our first opportunity to see the awesome beauty of this country - the mountains; the plush greenery; the flowers, birds and butterflies; and, of course, the magnificent waterfalls.

Dave even made a connection with a photographer (with a humongous camera) who turned out to be from Macomb, Michigan! The guy also has a private, corporate charter business, and has many clients that he wants Dave to be in touch with for his sabbatical.

It was also my first chance to do souvenir shopping, so I bought myself a new "peace chair!" Just awesomely beautiful!

We do seem to be having a pretty happy time in the most happy country on the planet!

Universidad Para La Paz/BePeace

Every day this week, we have made a trip way up the mountain, past the shade grown coffee fields to Costa Rica's University for Peace, located just outside Ciudad de Colon, a "suburb" of San Jose. UPeace was established in 1980 via a mandate of the United Nations. Its stated mission is "to promote the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress." UPeace offers graduate-level classes and programs in areas such as sustainable development, environmental security and peace, conflict resolution, international law and human rights, natural resources and peace, and gender and peace building. Currently, there are students here from 60 countries. It is a real privilege to be here for a week participating in the BePeace course as a part of the University's summer institute programs.

BePeace is the brainchild of Rita Marie Johnson, an American who moved to Costa Rica 17 years ago, inspired by the fact that the country has no standing army, and with a desire to help in some way. Her accomplishments are nothing less than astounding in that regard. In 2002, Rita Marie created BePeace, a practice that integrates HeartMath and NonViolent Communication, and then founded the Rasur Foundation and the Academy for Peace of Costa Rica, an organization that was awarded the Changemakers Innovation Award: Building a More Ethical Society in 2005. Since then, the Academy has been working with the Ministry of Education to implement BePeace in every high school in Costa Rica.

In 2006, the Rasur Foundation presented a Ministry for Peace initiative that was embraced by Costa Rica’s president, Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The bill passed on August 19, 2009, establishing Costa Rica as the third country in the world to have an official government Ministry for Peace. As a result of Rita Marie’s involvement in the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments for Peace, the Costa Rican government hosted the 2009 Summit of the Global Alliance and the Rasur Foundation facilitated it.


Just this month, Rita Marie has gifted the Rasur Foundation's 2-acre property and its Academy for Peace to Costa Rica's Ministry for Peace to serve as its headquarters, and making Costa Rica the first country in the world to have a complete infrastructure for bringing forth a culture for peace.


Yasar and Mercedes
BePeace Sweethearts

 With that background, I (Carole) can tell you that we are having a magnificent time in the BePeace course, with the majority of the participants being UPeace graduate students from countries all over the world including Nepal, India, Uganda, Iraq, Sweden, and many more. Dave, as he will share, is having a great time setting up and doing interviews, including yesterday's brilliant conversation with the UPeace Vice Rector.


Unbelievably, Nic Marks, the founder of the UK's Centre for Well-Being at the New Economics Foundation, and creator of the global "Happy Planet Index," is on campus next week. We've been invited to attend a 1/2 day workshop next Wednesday, titled "A Happy Planet?: How governments, business and people can nurture well-being and respect nature." The Happy Planet Index has named Costa Rica as the happiest country on earth! Next week, Dave will also be interviewing Costa Rica's Deputy Minister for Peace.

This weekend, we're taking a trip to La Paz Waterfall Gardens with Rita Marie, a BePeace participant from the UK, and a couple of the Academy for Peace facilitators.

What an Excellent Adventure Day

Two blog posts in one day is probably a clue as the great day we had today! First, a lovely breakfast in the garden at our hotel...

...then a trip to the HUGE Sunday Farmer's Market in Santa Ana (note the MSU shirt - the guy didn't actually know anything about MSU, but he was excited to know it was "mi escuela")...

...followed by a visit to one of the oldest (350 years old or so) churches in Costa Rica...

...Dave's tennis game with a local "pro," and finally, a magnificent meal (aged beef, sourdough bread, etc.) at the Doris Metropolitan Restaurant (http://www.dorismetropolitan.com/) for a finishing touch! We could definitely get used to this life!

Tomorrow morning begins the BePeace course at the University for Peace!

The Happiest Place on Earth

According to the New Economics Foundation’s “Happy Planet Index” (a measure that combines happiness and longevity and adjusts for environmental impact — such as the carbon that countries spew), Costa Rica is the happiest place on earth. Already, we’re experiencing Costa Ricans as among the nicest, most generous and most helpful we’ve encountered in our travels.

From the gentleman who helped us upon arrival at the airport, the folks at Margarita's B & B, Carlos (our new favorite, English-speaking taxi driver), those Dave mentioned at the Rasur Foundation/Academy for Peace, the adorable Adrian at our new digs, (Villas Los Candiles in Santa Ana www.hotelvillasloscandiles.com), to the guy on the street who helped us find the Old West restaurant for dinner last night, we are impressed! Carlos says that the happiness comes from two things: 1) just knowing that if you work you will be able to provide a good life for your family; and, 2) that the place abounds in beauty, from the beaches to the mountains and volcanoes to the rain forests.

My favorite journalist in the world, Nicholas Kristof, says that "What sets Costa Rica apart is its remarkable decision in 1949 to dissolve its armed forces and invest instead in education. Increased schooling created a more stable society, less prone to the conflicts that have raged elsewhere in Central America. Education also boosted the economy, enabling the country to become a major exporter of computer chips and improving English-language skills so as to attract American eco-tourists." (see his January 6, 2010 column at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/opinion/07kristof.html).

We can't wait to continue discovering our own clues about the seeds of happiness here, and in the meantime, I (Carole) can tell you that I am as happy as a clam to be here!! Dave seems to be doing OK, too!

No small part of that at the moment is our new "home away from home." This almost brand new boutique hotel, located in a Santa Ana residential neighborhood, is simply amazing, gorgeous, accessible to shops and restaurants, safe, and completely charming! We have a most lovely (and very inexpensive!) 1-bedroom suite with our own private little patio/yard, and a better TV than we have at home! Just in case I didn't know it before, I am a totally spoiled traveler who, at my age, requires comfort!

The Videographer's Great Tutorial

Thank heavens for Lisa - spending her Sunday helping Dave figure out how to use his untold $$$$-worth of new toys (New Mac, editing software, HD video camera with mikes, booms, who knows what else!) for his sabbatical!

This great adventure to Costa Rica begins Thursday, January 13m, 2011. We arrive in Costa Rica, stay overnight in a great little B & B with a pool and tennis courts (of course!). Then travel on the 14th to the Rasur Foundation (http://www.rasurinternational.org/) for a weekend of acclimation and shopping before the BePeace workshop begins at the University for Peace (January 17-21). Next comes a two day adventure with the workshop's facilitator (and founder of the Rasur Foundation), Rita Marie Johnson, to the Waterfall Gardens, etc. Then January 24-26 willl be devoted to doing interviews in San Jose - and a bit of sightseeing, too!

On the 27th, we head out to Tango Mar Resort for 5 days of rest, relaxation, great food, tennis, hanging out at the beach! Back home on February 2

Watch for new posts about our adventures in Costa Rica....