Written by Nikki Solano

Nikki is the CEO of Pura Vida! eh? Inc. (Costa Rica Discounts), and the author of the guidebooks Moon Costa Rica (2019, 2021, 2023, and 2025 editions) and Moon Best of Costa Rica (2022 edition) from Moon Travel Guides. Together with her Costa Rican husband, Ricky, she operates the Costa Rica Travel Blog, created the online community DIY Costa Rica, built the Costa Rica Destination Tool, oversees the brand-new (summer 2023) Costa Rica Travel Shop, and designed the Costa Rica Trip Planning 101 E-Course. Also, Nikki wrote the Costa Rica cover feature for Wanderlust Magazine's sustainability-focused Travel Green List issue, showcased Costa Rica destinations and experiences on Rick Steves' Monday Night Travel show and podcast/radio show, and served as the Costa Rica Destination Editor for Essentialist, a luxury travel brand. Want to show your appreciation for her free article below? Thank Nikki here. ❤️️

For all the things that money can buy, we are far more rich because of all that it can’t.

What can we afford? To work hard and humbly accept whatever success comes our way knowing that we achieved it. Our greatest paycheck to date? One million big ones.

We should mention that the biggest cash out we envision for our business is affirmation that we have helped someone, somehow, somewhere down the line. We get paid for our work (yes, we, like everyone else, have bills to pay), but we have always maintained that helping travellers first and making money second is our prerogative and we have never lost sight of that philosophy. How do we know when a day, week, month, or year has been a good one? By measuring the progress we have made between where we once were and where we are now. That has always been our priority: making goals, no matter how small or insignificant to others, staying focused, and achieving something bit by bit, day by day, and change by change. Whether we set out to issue more donations, better our websites, broaden our reach of experience, talk to more people, answer more questions, or teach ourselves something new, the point is: we are always evolving, and in ways we can be proud of.

Now that you can understand where our head is at, you can imagine how excited we were when we hit the jackpot. We have been entering coins into the same machine for a while now; demonstrating patience, thinking positively, and pulling at the same arm until eventually we set off the sirens. As of today’s date, 1,000,000+ travellers have officially reached out to us for advice and/or support regarding their trip planning by visiting our trusty Costa Rica Travel Blog (our blog statistics are noted at the bottom of this page if you care for validation directly from the internet server bosses). Perhaps an insignificant accomplishment for some, including anyone who has gone viral as a result of good timing and a bit of luck, but since we know that worldly travellers have found their way to us as a result of a reputation that took us far more than chance to build, we are pleased to know that nice guys don’t always finish last. This achievement cash out (or “paycheck”, as referred to above) offers us far more security than money ever could. It informs us that we are consistently and increasingly doing something right, and that the individuals we aim to help truly want or need us as much as we want and need them. From our vantage point, this makes us more successful than any dollar amount in our bank account could suggest. This makes us happier than we can imagine. This makes us richer than you may think.

To every traveller who has ever clicked on our website, browsed our categories, read our posts, commented on our opinions, lived our experiences, taken our advice, thanked us for our help, and/or left us with a smile, we thank you for making us wealthy in the way we have always wanted.

Pura vida! 🙂

Hey, Costa Rica Travel Blog reader, thank you for visiting and reading our blog! We're truly grateful for your time and preference.

Do you know that your spam-free reading experience is most important to us? Unlike some other Costa Rica blogs, we do not to sell your personal information, and we choose not to display ads, sponsored content, or affiliate marketing on our blog so we can keep your visit as distraction- and junk-free as possible. Because we prioritize your privacy, we don't earn money when you visit us, when you sign up for our e-course, or when you click on our links, which means the time and work we put into this blog—including its 300+ articles—is entirely voluntary! If you find our content valuable, and you'd like to thank us for making the trip-planning process easier and your Costa Rica vacation more enjoyable, please consider making a small donation ($1, $2, $3, or an amount of your choosing) to our blog. Doing so is a great way to pat us on the back if you feel we deserve it. 😊 Pura vida, amigos!

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