Before you leave, work with the shipping company to make sure your car meets emissions standards. The test is done in the U.S. You should also consider whether your car will make a good match for Costa Rica. Although auto shops are common and labor inexpensive, the most common parts available are for Asian vehicles and every mechanic can fix them. It can be more difficult to repair an American or European vehicle.
Sunlight filters through swaying palm fronds. My feet are in the sand, I have an ice-cold Pilsen beer in hand, and I’m savoring my lunch: a heaped plate of rice, beans, plantains, and chicken that cost just $6. Coconut milk and a secret blend of spices are commonly used in Caribbean cooking and it’s delicious.
A former video technician who used to spend long hours at a stressful job, Lee is now a freelance consultant doing a little bit of everything, putting his expat experience to work. His biggest business is advising people how to build eco-friendly homes out of shipping containers, throwing in alternative-energy systems, like solar panels, if they’re interested.
Here in our home on Costa Rica's northern Pacific coast, we've taken back the weekends. We sleep in a bit. A small breakfast of fresh fruit and rich Costa Rican coffee follows—just something to hold us over. We pack up and drive from our condo in Tamarindo north along the coast about a half-hour to Brasilito, a tiny fishing village.
Nicaragua is going mainstream. A country that war and conspiracy made infamous in the Reagan years is today home to eco-lodges, spas, and restored colonials. It’s at the top of the New York Times’ list of places to see in 2013. Food and Wine has pronounced it “affordable, safe and undiscovered.” Outside magazine declares, “it feels like Nicaragua’s moment is now.”
Take a typical New York City studio apartment, then halve it. That gives you an idea of the living space of 44-year-old Mark and 36-year-old Amélie Meadows and their son, 18-month-old Zephyr. They call The Blue Goose, a 38-foot sailboat, home. Far from feeling constrained by this living or work arrangement, the couple feels it’s helped them strip down to the essentials.
When he was 35, Colin Brownlee had an epiphany—a life-changing moment. He was staying at a small hotel on the beach, on Hawaii’s Big Island. The landscaping was lush and tropical, there were hammocks slung between palm trees. It was a homey place that guests raved about when they got home and came back to year after year.
The plans paid off and today you’ll find Colin, now 51, at the Banana Azul, his beachfront hotel on Playa Negra, just north of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, on Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coast. After six years, he couldn’t be happier.
When Willy and Monika Krauskopf visited Costa Rica’s Lake Arenal 20 years ago, it was a life-changing event. The couple spent 10 days driving around the country. But they found themselves especially drawn to Lake Arenal because of the natural beauty and unhurried pace of the area.
When Brian and Stephanie Gough went on vacation in Tamarindo, a stunning stretch of palm-fringed shoreline on Costa Rica's northern Pacific coast, their lives changed forever. They had such an incredible time that they couldn't bear the thought of going back to their old lives. So they bought a local restaurant. "We fell in love with Tamarindo," says Brian.