WorkAway in Costa Rica

Wildlife and wild life both cover our adventure living in Costa Rica. The win-win of giving some, to get some

Living the Pura Vida in Costa Ricaaaaaaa

Don’t know why we get the urge to say Costa Ricaaaaaaa. It is really silly, we fully admit that, and the most logical reason we can think of is maybe adding a Spanish undertone to a very Western way of saying Costa Rica. Well, it gets us smiling and a bit giddy when we do. Probably because we are all too excited to soon be living there for 3-4 months! 

The meaning of Pura Vida
Anyways, let’s clarify what the meaning of Pura Vida is, which if directly translated means “pure life”. However, Pura Vida is more complex than a literal translation, and to fully understand what the phrase entails, it should be understood in a cultural context as it refers to a way of living. This way of living embodies many things – some things we want to highlight are: simple, carefree, grateful and positive attitudes towards life. All things we highly value in our way of life (curious about what that means, you can get to know more at our About Us page – where you can also read more about when Benjamin lived in Australia and Ditte in Thailand.

Why is that relevant, you might think? Because a good bit of the photos throughout this page is from there, as we haven’t got any from Costa Rica yet. Now back to the point. To be on the safe side we emphasize that Pura Vida does not mean living a life where you are doing nothing, just sitting around being all jolly and not taking anything or anyone seriously. It is a lifestyle where you, with a minimalistic mindset and an optimistic viewpoint, embrace what is, enjoy the peacefulness of life and fully appreciate what is around you, in other terms: you celebrate life. 

There could be said way more, and we are only two people who have heard and read about the phrase, we haven’t actually had any real experience with the Costarican way of life – yet. So, bear that in mind, as it would absolutely be better explained and probably a tad more correctly by a local being raised into and fully living the Pura Vida. Hopefully we will have the honor of and be able to gain more real life experience, knowledge and insight into all this in only a few months. 

Putting this project rightfully in context to express its awesomeness

Luck or coincidence?
For those of you who don’t know the history of Chasing Endless Horizons and our big vision and dream, we will provide some nice-to-know details. On December 31, 2025 we will be flying out from Denmark and arrive in Costa Rica just in time to celebrate New Year´s Eve. Fun fact, we actually didn’t book the flight tickets in order to celebrate NYE when arriving. None of us were aware of the exact time difference, even mixing up the time difference as Costa Rica being in front of Denmark (we booked late in the evening, and yes, we had a little wine also). We just picked the cheapest flight date and time. So, after finalizing the booking of flights tickets and trying to find a hostel, we actually checked our local time of arrival and realized we were wrong about the being-ahead-of-part. Some would maybe call it “meant to be” or “pure luck”, we call it a coincidence but a really cool one for sure. 

Beginning with a BIG BANG!
We will be welcoming the year of 2026 in San José at a backpacker hostel (literally called Costa Rica Backpackers), which in our case is one h*ll of a way to begin our journey. We can’t honestly think of a more perfect way to celebrate that we have officially begun the first real, MAJOR step towards achieving our vision and dream with CEH, finally being able to live our way of life while sharing it with others along the way. This means that we by then have officially left our home country Denmark, sold or given away all belongings and everything we own, terminated everything that ties us to the country and had some fairly tearful farewells with our loved ones – that we probably won’t pay a visit to in the first couple of years (definitely one of the downsides of wanting to live abroad). We literally begin the first day of 2026 with our first day as a full-time traveling couple, having risked everything to finally live abroad together and chase endless horizons! Crazy. Just writing this gives us true butterflies in the stomach. 

But why did we choose this country as our beginning and not somewhere else?

At the beginning of this page we gave you an introduction into the phrase Pura Vida, which is one of the reasons why we find Costa Rica so appealing to us. We will probably be writing more about that in our blog posts to come while experiencing living in the country. 

Loving the outdoors – apparently means loving Costa Rica
If you have seen our selection of Photos from Previous Destinations, it will be no surprise that we seldom find ourselves indoors when traveling, as we more than anything can be our best selves when outdoors. This, among many other things, stem from a deep fascination with the surrounding diverse nature, the beautiful and fun wildlife on land as well as in the air, not to forget the amazing marine life underneath us. There is so much to see, experience and do. And what makes Costa Rica so special you wonder? It has it all to an extent that is almost incomprehensible. While living there we will be able to explore both Caribbean and Pacific beaches, this includes both the postcard white sand beaches, palm trees and turquoise water as well as complete black sand beaches being reminders of the country’s many volcanoes. In our research about the country, we have often stumbled upon it being phrased as a “surfer paradise”. We have to try that out, so surfing will most likely end up among our activity blog posts. 

All Activity Posts
Our Travel Blog

The land largely consists of both cloud forests and rain forests (both with their own astonishing characteristics and peculiarities), so much that about a quarter of the land is made up of protected jungle. This website isn’t about politics, industry, climate or economics, but we truly admire countries that acknowledge, care for and protect nature. Not only is the lush jungle awe-striking in itself but it teems with wildlife like only a very few other places on earth. We are not even exaggerating. Costa Rica is known worldwide for its incredible biodiversity with more than 500.000 species (that is a lot and even more so for a country its size!). More on that just below – it’ll make more sense, we promise.

Check Out Our Socials!

It would mean the world to us, if you want to subscribe and follow our journey.
After all, sharing our way of life and experiences is all CEH is about! Help us chase endless horizons!

Living fully while being WorkAwayers in the lush rainforest jungle

Being grateful for what is and finding our best way of making a living
We aren’t rich or have some bottomless money fund to keep us on a spending spree. We have of course saved up all we possibly could before the official lift off – while still living a life in the meanwhile. But we were both students until the start and mid of the year 2024, as to why there is a natural limit to what we have been able to save up. We could have kept on for a few more years and had way more on our bank accounts, but for us that is just procrastinating life itself and saving up for an imaginative construct of a future, we won’t know how or if will happen (said a bit drastically). To put our opinion into perspective, we’ll share something more vulnerable with you guys, with no other objective than giving you a better understanding of where we are coming from on a personal level. 

In January this year, 2025, Ditte was hit by a car while cycling to work. Although she has spent almost the entirety of 2025 struggling with physical injuries and as of now mainly a really severe concussion with life-limitting symptoms, been battling psychologically with depression and anxiety, long-term sick leave, getting let go from not one but two jobs and so many things just not going her way, it could’ve been a lot worse. She did have a social security net helping out, in her own words had an amazing husband doing everything he promised at our wedding in August, 2024; nor did she lose any limbs, have life-long injuries, or even worse. She probably had one of the best outcomes out of a seriously horrible situation.

Experiences like these put everything – life and future – into perspective. At least it did for the both of us. Gratitude for what is and what’s to come is a small way of expressing it. As a good part of other people, we have separately and together had several experiences that, like this one, underlines just how precious our lives are and that we should not take it for granted. Another reason why we, already years ago, decided to buckle up our saddles in 2026 no matter what would happen in the meantime. Then the plan would be to see where life takes us and what happens. 

Back to the topic. Making our living costs as minimal as possible is therefore equal to expanding our financial security until we have it more figured out. A way to do so, we quite recently found out, is to be WorkAwayers. In more general terms that means engaging in cultural exchange, volunteering and simply helping out locals who also provide some form of shelter and/or proviant in return. This is a golden opportunity to experience Costa Rica in a more authentic and real life way, immerse ourselves into the culture, creating friendships with locals and fellow travelers, learning new things, finally try out our hard learned Spanish (thanks to Duolingo and Spanish classes dating 10+ years back) and being able to give something in return for everything this journey without a doubt will provide us. Everything feels better, when you give some, to get some.

First “home” abroad: The Osa Peninsula living in Corcovado National Park
We begin our journey by helping out right in the middle of the jungle in three consecutive weeks at Bolita Hostel. A hostel truly honoring ecotourism, embracing the wonders of nature and a simple lifestyle. It is located on the Pacific side of the country at The Osa Peninsula, actually so close to that it is nearly inside Corcovado National Park, which is known for being remote and more importantly the most biodiverse place in the country.

Being home to hundreds of different tree and plant species, various waterfalls, simply just oozing of lush, awesome rainforest. Here we hope to be awakened by sloths, howler monkeys and various bird species. Not to sound too dream-ish. But we really, really hope to get a glimpse of the diverse range of wildlife living in the national park.

Some examples of the species include all four monkeys and all four big cats species in the country (such as jaguars), tapir, toucans, crocodiles and many more. Ditte will be deeply challenged by the many and big a** spiders, though she will surely pressure herself to overcome irrational fears and be more chill when near them. Benjamin for some reason just isn’t afraid of anything, and therefore at times use Ditte’s irrational fears as occasions for some good laughs. Besides living in the jungle, we will, among many other tasks, be helping out with maintenance of the hostel’s self-made hiking trails – so we expect our chances of catching some wildlife to be pretty solid. Also expecting that we can have many hours to test and evolve our photography and video content competencies as well.

Our Content

Embracing marine life while developing other skills. A win-win
In our off-time we will be able to explore other nearby places. We have already talked about checking out Golfo Dulco as much as possible, as it is one of the only tropical fjords in the world. Plus we will in all likelihood fantasize about being in the water every single day when all muddy and sweaty after hard physical work deep in the jungle. Here we´ll be discovering the waters, maybe snorkeling along with multiple dolphin species, sea turtles, humpback whales (they are migrating for calving season at this time a year) and a diverse array of fish. After our time at Bolita Hostel we have planned a self-paid week at Drake Bay to explore marine life in Costa Rica even more and improve our diving skills too. A short boat trip from Drake bay you find Caño Island Biological Reserve. We are far more experienced hikers than we are divers. So, the opportunity to improve our underwater competencies while being amazed by the vibrant coral reefs, sea turtles, and various fish species in different colors, shapes and sizes, is a yes please for us. Maybe we even get to have several peak moments in our diving career thus far, by getting a glimpse of a manta ray, stingray, white-tipped reef sharks or whales (we wouldn’t in any way mind getting a chance to say hello to our huge friends more than once).

Our Destinations
Our Projects

The rest? We haven’t figured it out yet. So, you should definitely stay tuned

We are currently in the midst of finding our next home in Costa Rica. It might be on the Caribbean Coast near the mentioned postcard beaches, where we will get to know even more about and other ways to live the Pura Vida and just get to know more about the country we have placed ourselves in. We could also end up helping out somewhere else. A lot can happen and who knows which people we’ll meet and opportunities we end up getting. We will know more as we get closer, and plans often change in bigger or smaller ways when living this way. We just have to see what embarking upon this project and adventure will entail onwards.

Therefore, we will update this page either during our journey or at least afterwards. Maybe some of this text will be included in some more specific blog posts instead or we’ll end up keeping it all. You’ll just have to stay tuned, we guess? 

In the meantime you can tag along on some or all of Our Social Media, or you can go crazy discovering more on this site. Maybe by learning more about our previously visited destinations and other projects both past, current and future?

Contact & Connect

Have we awakened some curiosity in you, a desire to support us or maybe an interest in collaborating with us? Then we absolutely hope that you will reach out and fill out this form. It would genuinly mean a lot to us.