Here’s a list of some of the highlights of 2011 for us, in no particular order.

1. Had a new healthy baby girl, Aysia, who was born at home in our bath tub in Costa Rica.
2. Enjoyed visits from my mom, sister’s family, Jen’s parents, and her uncle and cousin.
3. Watched a guy kiss a king cobra on the mouth, then put the snake’s head in his mouth.
4. Moved from Grecia, Costa Rica to Escazu, Costa Rica, to Penang, Malaysia.
5. Enjoyed a fun week in Kauai, Hawaii with my mom, sister, niece, aunt & uncle, cousins, and more.
6. Got robbed in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. Lost 2 Macbook Pros, 3 iPads, camera, binoculars, backpacks, and more. Got one computer back thanks to PreyProject.com.
7. Threw a party in Utah and enjoyed visiting with dozens of family and friends on our way to Malaysia.
8. Drove my car (99 Rav4) through several rivers in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, and almost got stuck.
9. Enrolled the kids in art classes, Chinese class, community choir, day camps, and other fun activities.
10. Donated Emily’s birthday and our Christmas to charity (Emily’s idea).
11. Went to a weekly playgroup in Escazu and made many friends.
12. Played with monkeys at a rescue center who crawled all over us.
13. Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Workweek, wrote about me on his blog.
14. Watched how the indigenous Bribri indians in Costa Rica made chocolate, then we ate some.
15. Got chased and almost attacked by monkeys in national parks in both Costa Rica and Malaysia.
16. Bought my first real estate investment property. Thanks Shaun!
17. Took family yoga and horseback riding classes in Costa Rica.
18. Enjoyed soaking in several hot springs around Costa Rica, always with friends.
19. Lived for 8 months in this beautiful and artsy house in Escazu, Costa Rica.
20. My eight year old daughter learned to love reading, and has become very fast at it.
21. Toured several organic farms and learned about the farming business.
22. Saw two opossum mating noisily on our deck one night.
23. Spent 6 days without Internet in a Costa Rican rainforest with our friends, the Kings.
24. Physically left the Mormon church. (We left emotionally/mentally in July, 2010, but continued attending until March 2011.)
25. Ate delicious Indian food (roti) for breakfast almost every morning in Penang, Malaysia and usually paid less than $6 to feed our whole family.
26. Changed my blog title from Fulness of Life to Pearce on Earth and changed the design.
27. Went to a fish spa and got our feet nibbled on by doctor fish.
28. Got used to driving on the left hand side of the road.
29. Read several interesting books on my iPad and learned a lot from them.
30. Visited Kek Lok Si temple, the largest Buddhist temple complex in Southeast Asia.
31. Saw the most beautiful orchids at the Orchid Festival in Penang Botanic Gardens.
32. Ate the most delicious, unique, and cheapest food we’ve ever had in our lives in Penang, Malaysia.
33. Watched the dragon boat races at a dam in Penang.
34. Went to a jazz festival evening concert at a tropical spice garden in Penang.
35. Continued to grow my online businesses working less than 5 hours per week on average.
36. Hung out with friends at least 2-3 times every week.
37. Explored a huge 7-story shopping mall in Penang.
38. All my kids (except the baby) now know how to ride a bike.
39. Played Mario Kart wii enough that I got bored of it, but not enough to beat my kids. (It came with our Penang house, and they played it a lot.)
40. Went to a Chinese medicine man for a very strange herbal massage treatment.
41. Watched a Lion and Dragon dance parade in Georgetown, Penang.
42. Watched amazing Indian dance performances — such energy!

What did you do in 2011? Any plans for 2012?

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Share and Enjoy

Because we’re in a fairly touristy town right now, one of the questions we’re often asked is, “Are you here on holiday?” At first, we always answered, “No, we live here.” After all, we did plan to stay in Malaysia for at least three months. We rented a house and a car, signed the girls up for art and Chinese classes and a community choir, and even made some friends we hung out with regularly. I work a little every day, and we homeschool the girls. So it’s not a vacation in the sense that most people think of it.

But since we’ve arrived in Penang, Malaysia, I’ve felt more like we’re on vacation than like we’re living here. It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by the variety and magnitude of all that is around us. There are new foods to try, unique temples to visit, beautiful nature to enjoy, educational classes to enroll in, seasonal activities to participate in, cool friends to get to know better, interesting cultures to understand, and we want to do it all right now!

Coming from Costa Rica where the pace of life is slower, and there is simply less to do, Penang has been an exciting stimulation to all our senses. We partly expected it, but I think our excitement has caused us to try to do too much at once, and we’re feeling a bit tired and drained (or maybe that’s just because of the heat). This is a night town, too, where some restaurants don’t open until 7pm, and they stay open until two or three in the morning! So we often don’t get to bed until after midnight and we wake up late, which gives us the illusion of having shorter days. It’s an interesting cycle.

So right now, I feel like I just want to slow down, finish writing my book (or even just read a book), focus more on building my business, and relax with my family. I’ve made that a little more difficult than necessary by purchasing some extremely discounted AirAsia tickets to Singapore, Bali, and Japan for this Spring. Each of those trips is requiring more time for planning than I anticipated. I know they will be rich and rewarding experiences, and I’m trying to leave some things to spontaneity, such as any longer-term (7+ days) accommodations which we’d like to see in person before we commit to. But I don’t want to go unprepared, either.

We’ve also decided to not spend a full 3 months in Penang, but to spend our last month in Kuala Lumpur, renting an apartment there, if we can, and taking life a little slower. We’ll leave all the beautiful islands with crystal clear water and the nature of the Sabah/Borneo side of Malaysia for another time. Kuala Lumpur is a new city for us, though, full of fun activities and interesting sites. But we’ve decided that we’re not going to try to do them all. We’ll focus on a few highlights and the things that are most important to us, and take a lot of rest days in between. We’ll refocus on creative education (for example, we’ve enrolled the kids in a 5-day children’s technology workshop), and maybe I’ll finally even get some time to work on my book.

Vacations are great. But sometimes I just want to “live.”

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Share and Enjoy

Below, I’ll be sharing some photos and videos highlighting our trip. But first I’d like to talk about what I learned from being without the Internet for almost a week. As much as I tout working only five hours per week (and I usually do), I have to admit that I do some work every day, and I use the Internet a LOT. In addition to being a fun vacation, this trip was also an experiment to see how my business would run without my daily interaction, and how I would handle being away from my business, personal email, online reading and research, and *gasp* Facebook!

It turns out that except for a few temptations the first day, where I resisted the urge to reach for my iPhone and check email, I didn’t miss these things at all! I was able to completely focus my attention on enjoying my time with family and friends, and the beautiful nature that surrounded us. I didn’t bring a book to read, and didn’t touch the iPad I brought, except to put it away in the safe.

Me drinking pipa juice

Before I left, I did let my teams know that I wouldn’t be available for about six days, and that they would be on their own for handling all problems. I also set up an auto responder on my personal email box letting people know not to expect a response right away. I unsubscribed from a number of newsletters and email notifications to keep the inbox volume down.

When I came back, I had 82 messages in my personal inbox and 84 messages in my business inbox. I was able to clear the personal inbox in 90 minutes and the business inbox in about 3 hours. It surprised me how many of the messages were unimportant in the context of a week, where I would have spent more time on them had I checked daily. And because I wasn’t readily available to my teams, they didn’t rely on me and came up with their own ways to solve problems. The result was that no major issues occurred, my businesses continued running smoothly and growing steadily, and my programmers even launched a couple new features while I was gone. I’m starting to think about maybe switching to checking email weekly instead of daily, at least for my business email. It’s less stressful overall. I’ll get more chances to test how this works in the weeks ahead as we travel to Hawaii and move to Malaysia.

Speaking of Malaysia, on the first day of our trip we ate lunch in Dominical, Costa Rica at the Coconut Spice restaurant which specializes in Thai and Malaysian food. I had the Penang Curry and was overcome by the explosion of delicious flavors, which got me even more excited to move to Penang next month. Only, once we’re there, the same dish will cost 10 times less! Oh, I’m so excited for more Malaysian food!

Penang Curry

On the way to Dominical, though, I did get pulled over for going 20km over the speed limit (about 10mph). I didn’t bribe my way out of this one so it’s costing me a whopping $350 for that ticket! Ouch! Not the best way to start a vacation. I’m not sure how locals making less than $1,000/month here can swallow that kind of ticket — it’s really expensive! But maybe that’s the point.

Speeding ticket

Anyway, after we made it to Dominical and had lunch, we stayed at Villas Rio Mar, where we enjoyed their swimming pools and lovely gardens, very clean cabins, and the delicious dinner and breakfast that were included in the price ($120 for all five us).

Kings and Pearces at Villas Rio Mar

The next day we got up early and drove another hour and a half to Sierpe, where we got on a small, crowded boat that would take us to Punta Marenco Lodge on the Osa Peninsula. However, about ten minutes out, the motor quit, and we had to wait about 30 minutes for a rescue boat. After switching boats, we enjoyed our ride through the river, until we came out into the ocean and started crashing against the oncoming waves. I got quite sea sick, and Emily and Marie were terrified when water started coming into the boat. Fortunately, we arrived safely, and I was able to recover without vomiting. But I’m looking forward to not being on a boat again for a long time, if ever.

Getting on the boat at Sierpe

The highlight of the trip was definitely our time at Punta Marenco! We hiked through Corcovado national park and saw all types of animals, including scarlet macaws, toucans, a white hawk, monkeys, basilisks, giant grasshoppers, poison dart frogs, hermit crabs, tapir footprints, and many more. We even saw a whale from the shore!

Large grasshopper

Being a rain forest, the trees were also incredible, and we learned a lot about the animals and foliage we encountered, from how strangler trees shoot down roots to kill other trees, to how leaf cutter ants don’t eat the leaves they cut, but use them to cultivate a giant underground mushroom inside their colony which they then eat.

Strangler and Ficus trees

We also had fun playing on the beach and in the waves, and hiking through the stunning landscapes. We even climbed a steep and wet trail to the top of a waterfall where we played in the refreshing water.

Many beautiful beaches in Osa

Despite it being the rainy season, we had near perfect weather every day of our trip — bright, sunny days with little or no rain in the afternoons — except for the last day, where it poured constantly. That was the day we were supposed to go snorkeling at a nearby island and hopefully see whales and dolphins. But we still had a great time sitting and talking in the lodge, listening to the rain, and relaxing. The kids played in the rain, did crafts, and made up games to play together. Our hosts were wonderful and made us feel like part of the family.

Kids playing in the rain

On the way home, we stopped in Manuel Antonio for lunch at Jefe’s Mexican restaurant, which was excellent. And then we came back home to reality, which I think doesn’t have to be quite so different from this vacation.

Here’s some of the video footage and other pictures from our trip.

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Share and Enjoy

While many of my international friends will nod in agreement, or at least understand this statement, those back in the U.S. are most likely cocking their heads wondering how I can say such a thing. Because, truthfully, it’s hard to survive (financially or otherwise) any medical problem in the U.S., including a minor one, without health insurance. And even with insurance, the cost can be prohibitive, causing some people to forego getting the care they need.

When we were in the U.S., we paid about $500/month for a high deductible insurance plan that only started covering us once we had $10,000 in health care expenses in a given year. That means I would pay $6,000/year for insurance, plus any health expenses up to $10,000 before insurance even kicked in (ie. $16,000/year)! Unfortunately, without health insurance, we feared some medical catastrophe costing $50,000 or more, so we continued paying into the system, even though we never really used it. When compared to the cost of healthcare in other countries, these numbers are completely ridiculous!

Healthcare is affordable without insurance in most countries

The past two years as we’ve lived abroad and traveled to seven different countries in Central and South America, there has only been one occasion when we’ve needed to call on a doctor for sickness. It was in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and Emily had an ear infection. A doctor drove one hour to our hotel (and back) to check her out and write us a prescription.

The cost? Just $70 for the visit, and $8 for the medicine at the pharmacy. We also had some dental work done in Costa Rica, each cavity costing $40 to fill. And this year, we spent about $2,500 total for a wonderful English-speaking doctor and midwife to attend our home birth in Escazú, Costa Rica. This included all of the pre- and post-birth appointments, monthly ultrasounds, the delivery itself, and all other costs associated with birthing a healthy baby. Sure, it would have cost less than half that to do it in a private hospital, and basically free if we went to a public hospital. But isn’t it nice that we had the choice to do things our way for a reasonable cost?

You can get health insurance in Costa Rica for under $50/month, but I didn’t really see the point, since we almost never visit the doctor, and we have a large enough cushion to cover any medical problems that may arise. With costs so low, even the most horrific medical problem wouldn’t break the bank for us, and I see no point in having health insurance, as long as we remain outside the U.S. Even if we returned, I still don’t know if I would get it. I’ll explain why below.

Granted, our family is very healthy. We eat well, have no major health issues, no allergies (that we know of, besides cats), no chronic conditions, and we generally avoid dangerous activities. We also try to let our bodies heal themselves where possible. Some studies show that 85% of our physical problems heal on their own, without any medical intervention*. If we catch a virus or a stomach bug, much of the time there isn’t much a doctor can do to make it go away any faster, although they can prescribe drugs to help relieve symptoms.

Cut out the middle-man and pay directly for the service

After having experienced the low cost and fantastic quality of health care in other countries, I now feel completely ripped off for having paid into the U.S. insurance system for so long. If I had taken that $500/month and saved it instead, after 5 years, I would have had $30,000 saved up. I doubt I would have spent that much on healthcare in the U.S. during that 5 year period, even without insurance. And if I did have an expensive medical problem, I could do what many others are now doing — fly to Mexico, Costa Rica, or numerous other countries to receive medical care at a fraction of the cost, along with a nice hotel stay and a mini vacation — and still spend less than I would have in the states. I’d rather keep my money safe than give it to an insurance company, who will fight tooth and nail so they don’t have to pay the medicals bills they said they’d cover.

I suppose we have been lucky. I know there are people who have serious medical problems, and without insurance they would be severely in debt, perhaps even if they received care abroad. So I can’t really say that it’s best for everyone to stop paying for insurance. But one thing is certain — continuing to give money to U.S. insurance companies is not going to make healthcare any cheaper nor fix the broken system.

One thing I’ve learned from our travels is that I feel much happier when I don’t hold onto items or continue paying for things that I don’t use regularly. That’s why all my possessions can fit into a carry-on suitcase, and it’s one more reason why I don’t have health insurance.

* Thomas E. Kida, Don’t Believe Everything You Think, p. 59. Kindle edition.

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Share and Enjoy

Regardless of the baby’s gender, we’re thrilled to have this opportunity to bring another child into our family. Hopefully she’ll be just as sweet as our other two, and bring us just as much joy. We’re still not exactly sure how this will affect our traveling lifestyle. We certainly don’t have plans to return to the United States permanently, but we’ll probably end up settling in a little longer wherever we go. Or maybe we won’t. I guess we’ll have to see how we feel at the time.

As I mentioned before, this baby will be born in Costa Rica, so will be a citizen of both Costa Rica and the United States, allowing her to have passports from either country and live in either country as long as she chooses.

This will also allow us to become permanent residents of Costa Rica, since we’re related to her. We’re going to wait on the residency process for now, though, because it’s paperwork intensive, expensive, and time consuming, and we don’t think we’ll be staying here much past this year. But if we decide to make Costa Rica a more permanent home, we’ll definitely be applying at that time.

We’re getting more settled into our new home in Escazú, and we’re really liking it here. The pool is a bit cold for swimming this time of year, but the house is cozy, and we love being so close to the conveniences of the city.

I’m also excited that I recently got mentioned by Tim Ferriss on his blog, because of my Music Teacher’s Helper business. Tim Ferris is the author of the very popular book, The 4-Hour Workweek, which was a great help to me in building this business and creating this lifestyle. I’m honored he chose to showcase my story out of so many others.

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Share and Enjoy

Hills in Grecia

And as for the views, we found a great house in Escazú with its own fantastic views of the city. But this time we’ll only be 5 minutes from the town instead of 15. It’s a charming older house owned by a sweet European couple who’ve remodeled and decorated it with driftwood and their own unique artwork. It even has a pool and a pool table! We love it, and I’m sure we’ll be happy there.

The main reason for the move was to be closer to a good private hospital during the months surrounding our new baby’s birth, just in case we need it. But we’re also excited to be closer to so many fantastic restaurants with international cuisine, larger stores like Pricesmart/Costco, like-minded people, as well as fun and educational activities and classes. We’ll be less than an hour away from the beach, too.

Escazu house night view

Escazú is an upscale suburb of Costa Rica’s capital, San José, and has seen a huge influx of foreigners in recent years. It’s also one of the most expensive areas to live in Costa Rica, so we were lucky to find an excellent deal on the house we’re renting ($1200/month), especially since it’s on a street with some large multi-million dollar homes (including Mel Gibson’s). We plan to stay there for at least 8 months (that’s the minimum on our lease), and then possibly head out to an Asian country such as Japan for the next phase of our adventure.

One of our main reasons for choosing to move to Costa Rica was so we could all learn Spanish. I’m pleased to report that the girls are becoming more and more comfortable with the language. They’re no longer afraid to speak Spanish to people, and are therefore seeing some great improvement in their abilities. We’re hoping by the end of the year, they’ll have the language down really well. I’m also pleased at the level my Spanish has grown to. It’s certainly not perfect, but I can usually get my point across without halting too much, and can understand the other person well.

Well, goodbye Grecia. Maybe we’ll come back for a visit now and again. Here are some pictures of the new place, mixed in with some pictures of our current place in Grecia for comparison – the captions will spell the difference.

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Share and Enjoy

Like me, my mom works on-line, so she was able to come down for a 3-week stay, even though she had to work a little while she was here. The last week, my sister Ashley’s family joined us, including my awesome brother-in-law, Justin, and their 6-year old daughter, Kennedy. We had a blast! The little cousins loved playing together, too, except for the occasional (I mean, constant) fights over who’s “first” and what’s “fair”.

Most of all, it was just fun to be all together, and have time to talk and play. Our friendships and love for each other grew and deepened, and we’re really looking forward to the next time we can be “all together”.

My mom and sister are covering the trip in detail on their own blogs, but here’s a quick list of some of the fun things we did:

• Relaxed in our house, listening to music controlled by my iPhone (thanks for bringing down the Airport Express, Mom!)
• Watched the incredible display of New Year’s fireworks over the entire central valley
• Visited the nearby towns of Sarchi (hand-painted ox carts) and Zarcero (topiary), and also Montezuma (hippies) in Guanacaste
• Played Rory’s Story cubes (a game where you make up stories based on images on dice)
• Went to Doña Ana beach with some local friends
• Drove through four rivers in Guanacaste
• Visited Zoo Ave in La Garita
• Stayed in some lovely hotels in Playa Tambor, Playa Carillo, La Fortuna, and Manuel Antonio
• Visited La Paz Waterfall Gardens
• Zip-lined through the mossy trees and fog at Selvatura Park in Monteverde Cloud forest, and swung on the Tarzan swing
• Visited the fruit market in Grecia
• Saw (and almost got attacked by) Monkeys in Manuel Antonio National Park
• Bodyboarded and played at the beach
• Taught my brother-in-law how to play foosball. I even let him win me once. :)
• Had some amazing food made by Jen, our friends, and some wonderful restaurants
• Swam in the Los Chorros Waterfall
• Listened to dozens of Beatle’s songs as we drove, as well as other music
• Ate at Café Delicias numerous times
• Drove around lake Arenal and swam in hot springs at Los Lagos resort
• Took the ferry from Puntarenas to Guanacaste
• Watched Tangled 3D in Spanish, and The Incredible Mr. Limpett
• Had some friends over for visits and meals
• Saw sloths, monkeys, iguanas, scarlet macaws, blue-crowned mot mot’s, and more, in the wild

What a fun time we had! I’m so glad they took the time to come visit. Here are some pictures and video (not all taken by me) of our time together.

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Share and Enjoy

Yes, Canada and Spain are lovely, but they’re also more expensive, and not our favorite climate. Ecuador is much more affordable, and parts of it are very beautiful, but it has security issues, and we don’t like drinking bottled water all the time. If we ever do want to get residency in Ecuador, though, all we have to do is put $25,000 in a CD (earning 7-9% interest, by the way), and we’re instant permanent residents! And after that, we could become citizens if we want to stay for 2-3 more years. Maybe sometime down the road…

Having a Baby in Costa Rica

Our garden

After looking at all our options, we decided to stay in Costa Rica, and have our baby here! As an additional bonus, once the baby is born and is a Costa Rican citizen (as well as a U.S. citizen), we will then be related to a Costa Rican, allowing us to apply for permanent residency as well, so we will no longer have to leave the country every 90 days if we choose to stay here. We could have applied for residency anyway, as long as we can prove a certain income level, and live in the country 6 months every year. But now we won’t need to worry about either of those requirements, and will only need to visit Costa Rica once a year for 72 hours to keep our residency status. This will give us more of the freedom to travel that we’re looking for, as well as the freedom to stay if we choose.

So the next question is, where in Costa Rica will we have the baby? Based on our last two deliveries, which were extremely fast, it makes the most sense to have the baby in our house, so we don’t risk having it in the car on the way to the hospital. Plus, after watching the documentary, The Business of Being Born, we realized that a natural home birth with a midwife is what we want anyway. But we do want to be close to a hospital just in case, even though we don’t plan on using it. Unfortunately, the best private hospitals are in San José (Costa Rica’s largest city), so we will probably be spending at least the month of June in either Escazú, Santa Ana, or Ciudad Colon, all of which are nicer areas of San José, less than 20 minutes from the hospital. Unfortunately, they’re also very expensive areas.

Uvita and Ojochal

Making friends in the pool

Recently, we’ve also thought it would be nice to live closer to the beach, even if just from March-May. We took a short trip down to the Uvita/Ojochal area of Costa Rica (4 hour drive), on the southern pacific side, thinking it would be a good place to settle for a while, maybe in a house with a nice ocean and jungle view, and a swimming pool. And while it was a beautiful area, it’s just too remote, and wasn’t as built up as we had imagined. Sure, there is a grocery store or two, and several restaurants, but the roads around the town are all dirt roads, and full of rocks and holes, which we know we would get tired of, especially during late pregnancy. And the towns just lacked a nice community feel, being a little bit too spread out without much of a town center.

Considering Jacó

As we traveled back home, we realized how much we have always liked the town of Jacó and the surrounding area, ever since we visited Jacó for our first time last August. We talked with a few people who are going to keep us posted on some good rentals as they come available. There are some nice little communities near Jacó, whether we’re looking for a little condo with a community pool and a bilingual private school within walking distance, or a private villa overlooking the ocean, there are plenty of options in Jacó. It’s also just an hour away from San José, and is central to most everything in Costa Rica, so would probably be a good place to call home. But we’ll have to see where we end up, since we tend to change our minds quite frequently these days.

We also visited a doctor in San Ramon this week, got an ultrasound, and found that the official due date of our baby is June 17, 2011. We’re excited for this change, and probably have no idea how much this will affect our lives. The kids are also excited to have a new baby brother or sister.

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Share and Enjoy

balcony

Last night, after a long 2 days of travel, we cleaned and re-organized the house, then stayed up late to watch one of my favorite old movies on my laptop, “The Three Amigos” – a very silly but entertaining show. This morning I got up around 7:30am, a full two hours before anyone else, and enjoyed a lovely morning, reading quietly on our balcony which overlooks the garden and views of the valley below. It was so relaxing. I also did my morning exercises, tai chi, and meditation there, like I used to. It felt great. I then made a list of some things I’d like to do today. Writing on my blog wasn’t one of them, but I suddenly got the urge, so here I am.

During the past few months, the list of books I want to read has continued to grow and I plan to dedicate a lot more time to reading in the months ahead, and hope to post some reviews here as well. I’ve really missed my morning reading time while we’ve been traveling. In fact, I’ve missed a lot of things.

Back to homeschool

Traveling to South America and the United States for the past two and a half months has been a wonderful and rewarding experience in so many ways. We were able to see and experience new and excited places, meet wonderful people, learn about several cultures, both ancient and modern, try new foods, give of ourselves, and receive so much more. But I think we’ve all decided that we went at too fast a pace for too long. We were flying to new destinations every week! Staying constantly in hotels (except in Utah), eating mainly at restaurants, trying to fill our days with interesting activities. We didn’t necessarily feel rushed, and sometimes even took full days to recuperate. We also feel like we got to see and do everything we wanted to. But after a while, I found myself missing the routine of productive living. I wanted to get back to working on my book and composing music, to evenings at home with my family, and to home cooked meals.

Praying mantis

That isn’t to say that I don’t love travel – I absolutely do! But I think I prefer the type of travel where I just get a one way ticket and live there until I feel like leaving. In a week or two, you can get a nice whirlwind tour of a place, and a good overall feel, but you don’t really get to immerse yourself in the culture or the language, get to know the people, and really be changed as much by the experience, to the same degree as when you stay longer, and with the intent to make it more permanent. We’ll still probably take a few shorter trips here and there (like with visa runs), but generally, I think we’d like to spend more time in a place before moving on.

A lot of people have asked me what my favorite place was in all of the areas we recently traveled to (Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Nicaragua, Florida, and Utah). I love each of them for different reasons, but if I had to pick a place to live, it would definitely be Costa Rica, where I am right now. I’m a sucker for warm and green, and so far I haven’t found any place with as perfect temperatures, and as green and lush as Costa Rica, not to mention the relaxed people, affordable quality health care, and low cost of living. Sure, it’s got its problems, but every place does. That said, we like change, and we certainly won’t be here forever. But for now, it’s the place we want to be.

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Pool at Hotel Bambito

After crossing the border from Costa Rica into Panama, we drove straight to Volcán, the town we enjoyed the most on our last visit to Panama, and also one of the closest to the Costa Rican border. We stayed the night in Hotel Bambito, the only place in town with a swimming pool. Our girls love to swim. Marie would do it all day if we let her. It was a really pretty indoor pool surrounded by glass windows so you still felt like you were outside. We were glad it was indoor because it was pretty cold outside – too cold for swimming anyway. They also had a hot tub, sauna, and ping pong table, all of which we enjoyed.

Meals with Friends

The next day, we met up with some friends for lunch and dinner. Both suggested the same restaurant, at Dos Rios hotel, so we ate there twice, and enjoyed the food both times. It was great to see our friends again, to catch up on what’s happened in the year and a half since we were last in Volcán.

Driving to Las Olas Resort

Jen at Las Olas

The next day, we thought we’d get a little closer to the border and go find a hotel by the beach somewhere. Our friends recommended Las Olas Resort, and gave us directions. But unfortunately, we missed the signs, and got very bad directions from several locals, which ended up taking us 1.5 hours in the wrong direction! We were all pretty frustrated at ourselves – well, Jen and I were. The girls somehow handled the extra 3 hours in the car with a very good attitude, just having fun playing together. When we got to the hotel, we found out it would be about $50 more per night than we thought because the prices on-line didn’t say it was an extra $20 per person for more than 2 in a room. I asked for a discount, it being the low season, but they wouldn’t budge. :(

Emily Learned to Swim!

Turtles at Las Olas

So, we went swimming that night, and also played a little at the beach and watched the sun set. The pools there were pretty shallow, which was great for the kids. In fact, because Emily could almost touch her toes in just about every part of the pool, she got brave enough to try swimming on her own from one end of the pool to the other, and did it! Our little girl has taught herself to swim! (Which is good because for some reason, she gets terrified whenever I try to teach her myself).

We had dinner at the resort and the girls enjoyed feeding the lettuce to the turtles in the pond and watching the parrots and macaws in the cage by the entrance.

Back to Costa Rica

The next day, we headed back to Costa Rica and immediately felt a little safer and noticed how much more green and dense the foliage was. We really like it here. :) We drove all the way to Dominical to find a hotel to stay at. Although we did stop at the beach just long enough for Marie to lose her shoe in the waves…

Pool at Hotel Ambiente

The hotel we planned on going to turned out to be be closed, so we drove around to several others, and ended up at one that was a little pricier than what we wanted (because we had to get 2 rooms instead of one, but they gave us a big discount). But it was so beautiful and we were ready to treat ourselves to a nice night after all that driving, so we took it. We stayed at Villa Ambiente, and it really was ambient (although we did have to drive through a river to get there). The architecture, furniture and decor were lovely, and the ocean view from the pool was spectacular!

We swam a little until it started to rain, then had dinner at a fun pizza restaurant in town, followed by some delicious ice cream at Ruby’s Homemade Ice Cream, owned by a sweet family from New York (Ruby is their baby). We enjoyed visiting with them, and they even showed Emily how to make waffle cones when she kept probing them for details.

To Buy a Hotel or Not to Buy

Courtyard at Villa Ambiente

Being a business man and having a mind that wants to know how things work, I enjoy talking to business owners to see how they run their operations. In addition to the ice cream shop owners, I also talked to the receptionist at Villa Ambiente (who was the only one there except the gardener) to see how things were run. I found out that it was owned by a man from Switzerland, and run by this woman and a gardener. The hotel is also for sale for 1.7 million dollars! Whew! Way out of my price range (for now), but it sure got me thinking about what it might be like to own a hotel, and how profitable a venture it might be.

In fact, I spent all week researching about buying commercial real estate in Costa Rica, how to run an effective hotel, and created a complex spreadsheet to help me analyze how profitable a hotel might be given many different variables. It’s been fun to learn about, even if I don’t end up purchasing a hotel. But I think it could certainly be a better place to diversify my savings than sticking money in stocks and mutual funds all in US dollars. At least with a hotel I’d have a little more control over the ROI. Something to think about.

Fresh Farming

Visiting the sheep

The next day we headed home, and on our way back stopped at a farm called Finca Ipe for some fresh cinnamon and honey. They even showed us the boxes where the bees make their honey and we got to stick our fingers in and taste the honey right out of the hive! Delicious! Fortunately, these were bees that didn’t sting. We got to see their other animals, too, like sheep, goats, rabbits, and chickens. The kids really loved it!

Overall, we had a great trip and it was fun to be together, see old friends, meet new people, and have new experiences together. For our next visa run, we are planning to visit our family back in Utah for a week or two, and then maybe take our kids to Disney World in Florida. We’ll probably be out of the country a bit longer for this next trip because September/October are the rainiest part of the rainy season here in Costa Rica, which I’ve heard are often just best to avoid altogether.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy the video and pictures below.

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