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Why Costa Rica?

The real question should be "Why Not Costa Rica?"

In the last few years Hollywood luminaries that include Leonardo Dicaprio, Kate Moss, Charlie Sheen, Kate Beckinsale and Britney Spears have chosen Costa Rica as their vacation Shangri-La or honeymoon haven. They join artists Madonna, David Hasselhoff and Mel Gibson, who have bought homes or large tracts of land, to have a little piece of heaven on Earth that the rest of the world simply knows as Costa Rica.

Mel Gibson and action movie star Steven Segal have taken their love of this enchanted country to the next level and have traveled recently to meet with Costa Rican government officials including the current president, Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias, to discuss bringing Hollywood to Costa Rica. Like all filmmakers they are looking to bring the next great exotic locale to the film world and take advantage of the fact that Costa Rica has not been presented properly on the "Silver Screen." All of the beauty and diversity that make Costa Rica truly special soon will have that opportunity via the movie "Pura Vida." Costa Rica remains the world's best kept secret except for those fortunate visitors who have graced its shores since Columbus on September 18th in the year 1502 first set foot on its shore and named it Costa Rica (Rich Coast) and sent reports back to Spain that the richest earth in his explorations have been claimed in the name of the monarch of his patron country, Spain.

Little did Columbus realize that beyond the rich volcanic dirt beneath his feet would one day be called the modern day, "Garden of Eden." Statistics that have confounded botanists since that first discovery in 1502 have sought to explain how one small country the size of the state of West Virginia (20,000 sq. miles or 51,000km2) could have more species of birds, mammals, and plants than Canada and the United States combined. That question and many others to this day keeps the scientific world coming every day to explain how a country that exists on a piece of the planet that measures only 0.03 of the Earth's land mass and incredibility have the most bio-diverse eco-system on the planet. Eleven Micro climes permeate the landscape and their short proximate distances between each other create a crisscross of topographies due to this incredible quirk of its creation that makes a venture into the Costa Rican countryside a continuous mix of wonderment and joy that only Nature can provide.

Now Hollywood is turning its eyes toward taking full advantage of Costa Rica's proximity to the United States (3 hours from Florida and 3and a half hours Texas). That fact coupled with so many incredible locations that the World has yet to see, Costa Rica's entry into the World of Movies is not only inevitable but also timely. The Government of Costa Rica has taken into its own hands a campaign to help filmmakers in their quest to have this new canvas to paint their stories on. (Article chronicling this fact is included on this site). The movie, "1492" with Girard Depardieu in the Ridley Scott epic film depicting Columbus first voyage to the "New World" has been the one film to take full advantage of the unspoiled beauty that is Costa Rica. Other movies have filmed various scenes in their productions but none have set out to explain the magic of the Nicoya Peninsula and the province of Guanacaste that is heralded as one of 4 "Blue Zones" where there are more Centenarians per capita due to a lifestyle that has brought scientists from around the world to study. (Video on this fact is available on this site) Now the movie "Pura Vida" is set to bring to the "Big Screen" these provinces of Costa Rica and the people that make it even more special. The moviegoers will be enthralled and identify with the allure that has enraptured many visitors and has caused many a traveler after their initial visit end to up calling this part of the world their new adopted home. For all that haven't had the experience of traveling here, they will soon be able through the movie "Pura Vida" to enjoy the one of a kind experience that others know as the magic country of Costa Rica.