Welcome to Pura EcoVida!
- shannonplayfair
- Sep 12, 2023
- 2 min read
Our tips, tricks and adventures in Costa Rica.
Are you thinking about visiting or moving to Costa Rica? Are you curious about what life is like here? You have come to the right place.
In 2007 we boarded a plane in Vancouver, Canada with 8 suitcases, 2 laptops and a whole lot of hope. We thought we were prepared to move to Costa Rica because we had read a few books and took a beginners Spanish class. We were not ready and went through a huge learning curve the first year. We stumbled and fell a few times along the way but quickly learned how to navigate our way through owning a business, investing in real estate and exceling in hospitality and tourism. It is now 16 years later we have discovered a passion for sharing our knowledge and helping others to get the foundation they need to start their new life in Costa Rica.
Manuel Antonio National Park
Let the adventure begin
In the beginning of our life in Costa Rica we travelled around looking for the perfect place to settle and plant some roots. Costa Rica has so many amazing cities and towns so the perfect place is different for everyone but for us the perfect spot was the Central Pacific near a town of Parrita. It had the perfect combination of Costa Rican culture, beautiful beaches, stunning sunsets and was only a few hours from the international airport in San Jose.
We soon jumped into a number of different real estate investments and projects. We have done everything from simply renovating a house to building from scratch on raw land. We owned a property management company which was instrumental in helping to create a thriving rental market in our area and literally put the town on the map (we mapped out the roads and points of interest on Google Maps). We've been a part of community projects and committees, experimented with sustainable building methods and technology, propagated and planted over 2000 trees and much more.
During our 15 years in the hospitality and tourism industry here we've helped many of our rental clients buy properties and move to Costa Rica. We discovered a passion for teaching and helping people so this website and blog will be another tool we can use to continue helping foreigners and tourists get the information and foundation they need to survive and thrive in their new life here.
The environment, nature and permaculture is at the heart of everything we do and we plan to make it a big part of this site and blog as well.
Who are we?
We're Dave and Shannon Playfair. Canadians who are now permanent, legal residents of Costa Rica. You can read more about us and our story here: