Barely one month after my 59th birthday, I traveled solo to Costa Rica. My plan was to try living there for a year…immerse myself in the culture…then decide what I would do next with my life.
I was contacted by a couple from Oregon who told me they had just listened to the talks I gave at one of International Living's Fast Track Costa Rica conferences. Tim and Camille said they would be visiting "Ticolandia" on an information-gathering trip, and wanted to know if I would be willing to meet them for lunch. I agreed.
When it comes to sports in Costa Rica, generally visions of soaring on a zip line through the jungle, or whitewater rafting on a raging river, come to mind (and, of course, fútbol). But golf? Is golf even played in Central America? In a word, sí!
Mike Clifford didn’t have to travel too far from his last job to his new home in Langosta, the quiet community next to Tamarindo on the Pacific Northwest of Costa Rica.
As the craft brewing movement began sweeping the U.K. in the 1970s and the U.S. in the 1980s, Costa Rica was left behind. As more Costa Ricans began sampling brews abroad, however—and as tourists here began looking for something new—craft brewing has crept its way into this brew-friendly country…
If you still have kids in school, then you may think you have to wait until they graduate before you make a move abroad as a family. Naturally, you want your child to have the best education they can possibly receive. But what if I told you that such an education could be found in idyllic Costa Rica?
Having your own car gives you freedoms and possibilities you can't get any other way, but driving in Costa Rica does come with its own trials and tribulations. It's an adventure—one you need to be prepared for.
In Costa Rica, there are a lot of ways life is simpler. You won't be caught up in the daily grind that plagues cities across North America. But you've also probably read stories of frustrations, or things "not being as easy as they're made out to be."
Costa Rica is a country full of landscapes of striking beauty. But be warned. With that knowledge comes an obligation to learn a new Spanish word: mirador.
When my husband Dan’s mother passed away, we realized that we had entered a new phase of our lives. We had no more parents to take care of, and as two career educators from Texas, our days of teaching were almost behind us.