Nestled on the edge of Costa Rica’s Central valley is the town of Atenas. With a population of about 7,000 that mushrooms in the high travel season, Atenas has a tradition of welcoming visitors, dating back to the days when it was a hub for oxcarts making their way to and from the coffee fields in the mountains to the nearby capital of San Jose.
Only a decade ago, Nosara—a remote coastal Shangri-la on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica’s Guanacaste peninsula—was a quietly guarded secret, discussed in hushed, reverent tones by a select squad of yoga devotees and pioneering surfers.
I’m sitting at a big round table in a bar with a group of 20 friends who have all lived in Southern Costa Rica for a while. The conversation turns to why we moved here. What appealed to us so much that we would all buy properties in a foreign country and begin to think of it as “home?”
It all started with a photography assignment, documenting a 40th birthday bash on St. John Island. There, I met a couple who were living full-time in Costa Rica who offered me a place to stay if I ever visited.
For my husband, Michael, and me, living in Costa Rica is pretty much like being on a perpetual vacation. Don’t get me wrong here; full-time living requires some things you don’t have to deal with when you’re on holiday. On a two-week vacation, you don’t have to wash the car or weed the flower beds. You don’t have to pay the bills. And someone else does your dishes and folds the laundry. But it’s not those things that make up our vacation-life in Costa Rica.
One of the most important questions expats need to ask themselves, especially someone nearing or having reached retirement age, is: “Can I be happy with the healthcare in my new country?” I can answer “yes” when it comes to Costa Rica, after living here for nearly 11 years.
Although only the size of West Virginia, Costa Rica offers you a lot of choice when it comes to places to live in terms of landscape, climate, amenities, and lifestyle.
What does a person want in a little beach town? If you’ve ever taken the time to make a list of answers to that question, you’re welcome to compare it to this abbreviated version of mine.
I think my life as an immigrant is fairly different from other expats’. First off, I live in the mountains instead of on the beach. I live in the Orosi Valley of Costa Rica—not the Central Valley. My husband Michael and I are the only “gringos” (not a pejorative word in Costa Rica) in our entire town of 4,000 people. And we “live” in Spanish.
The town of San Ramón is a perfect little grid, its church spires towering above the surrounding buildings. It has many of the amenities you’d expect from a proper city, including a cultural center and a few small museums and galleries. There are events a-plenty, including concerts, exhibits, plays, and festivals.