What Touring to a Blue Zone Can Educate You About Residing Nicely

It’s simply after dawn, and I’m sitting in a barrel sauna watching howler monkeys devour mangoes in a tree. As one of many primates roars, I plunge into my non-public ice tub at Silvestre Nosara Resort & Residences and spring out of the water a few minutes later—invigorated equally by the Costa Rican fauna and my suite’s health-focused facilities. Within the wellness world, the subject of longevity has by no means been hotter. And within the surf city of Nosara, nestled on the Central American nation’s Nicoya Peninsula, healthspan-boosting practices like saunas and chilly remedy really feel particularly apt.

This rugged Pacific peninsula dotted with picturesque seashores isn’t only a magnet for surfers and yogis—it’s additionally one of many world’s authentic Blue Zones, the place individuals stay longer than anyplace else. These geographic areas (the others being Ikaria, Greece; Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; and Loma Linda, California) had been recognized within the aughts. There’s now a revived curiosity in exploring them, due to best-selling creator Dan Buettner’s hit Netflix docuseries Stay to 100: Secrets and techniques of the Blue Zones.

Touring to a long life scorching spot isn’t all the time simple. Some Blue Zones have modified drastically resulting from modernization, and others require a degree of discomfort that many vacationers would discover off-putting, Buettner explains. The Nicoya Peninsula, nevertheless, affords a candy spot within the center. He factors to Nosara as a “gateway vacation spot” to the Blue Zones, the place it’s simple to embrace the “Energy 9” rules of centenarians, like transferring naturally, consuming plant-based meals, and socializing, all whereas staying at a pleasant resort.

“Nosara occurs to be in a Blue zone, but it surely’s an anomaly,” says Buettner. “It affords a remanifestation of a Blue Zone way of life in additional of a Twenty first-century American format.”