Costa Rica
42 essays from our time in Costa Rica, in the order we wrote them.
We're Moving to Costa Rica
Well, you already know how much we enjoyed our trip to Panama. True, that was more of a vacation-mindset trip than it was a "living in another country" trip, but we still experienced our share of culture, language, and grew closer together as a family.
Departure Date is Set
We finally picked a date to make the move abroad. We'll be leaving Salt Lake City for Costa Rica on January 6th, 2010! We have some Jet Blue buddy passes we'll be using, and we hope there won't be a problem using buddy passes for the "required" return ticket as well.
We Made it to Costa Rica!
Well, we're finally here! We're in Costa Rica, and it's warm and beautiful! I made a little video of our trip over, which you can watch below. Until then, here's a little summary of our trip so far:
A Little Update
I just wanted to keep everyone up to date on what we've been doing the past four days since we arrived in Costa Rica. We're in the perfect location for exploring the town. We're in walking distance of everything, and we have been walking a lot!
Los Chorros Waterfall and Breakdancing
This morning, we decided to fulfill Marie's biggest wish since she got here: go swimming. Unfortunately, after about a 10 minute walk to the pool, we found out that it was closed. It turns out that many shops, restaurants, and other facilities close on Mondays. And some just close whenever they…
More House Hunting
We've looked at a lot of houses for rent this week, in the small towns of Costa Rica, and have gone from excitement to discouragement and back again. Now we're just confused.
Week 2 in Grecia, Costa Rica
We have now been in Costa Rica for over two weeks! Since we got here, we haven't been doing many "touristy" things. Instead, we've been busy trying to find a place to live. And I think we finally found it!
World of Snakes
Rather than hang around the B&B today, we decided to take a short trip to the nearby World of Snakes museum in Grecia, which houses over 50 varieties of snakes, lizards, and other reptiles (as well as a couple toucans).
Our New Home in Costa Rica
After two weeks of visiting dozens of houses all over Grecia, Costa Rica, we finally picked the house we will live in for the next year. Who'd have guessed it would be the first house we looked at!
From Volcanoes to Beaches
Talk about views! We've seen the most breathtaking sites in the past few days. We decided to rent a car for a week and explore the country a little more while waiting for our new house to be ready.
Zip-line, Beach, and Monkeys
We've packed a lot of fun into the past couple days, and have even more planned for this week. We're taking advantage of our time at the beach, as well as having a car - and we're loving it!
Horseback Riding, Crocodiles, and Manuel Antonio
Our fun vacation along the Costa Rican Pacific coast is now over, but we are loving it here in Grecia. We've been without the Internet for a few days though, so I'm a little behind in writing. I'll do my best to catch up here. The last three days of our trip were spent in Manuel Antonio.
Getting Settled
We've been living in our house in Grecia, Costa Rica for over a week now and are starting to feel more settled. The plumbing issues have all been fixed, our Internet is working, and we're starting to get into more productive routines.
Exploring Nearby Nature
There is a waterfall about 15 minutes from our house by foot. The walk there is through various trails and meadows, with some nice sights along the way. We finally took the opportunity to visit the waterfall last week for the first time, and loved it!
Simple and Resourceful Fun
This week, my mom sent us a Spring/Easter package which contained some cards, candy, books, stickers, and more. We've been enjoying all that was inside the package, but we've had an unusual amount of fun with the cardboard box it came in.
A Car! A Car! My Kingdom for a Car!
After weeks of looking for cars, filling out paperwork, dealing with required lawyers, setting up a corporation, waiting for wire transfers, waiting for plates, waiting for repairs, and lots of red tape, we... still don't have a car...
Zarcero Afternoon Trip
Today we decided to take advantage of having a car (yes, we finally got one!), so this afternoon we drove to a nearby town called Zarcero. It's about an hour away from our house in Grecia, and has some beautiful topiary gardens in its central park reminiscent of Dr. Seuss trees.
Africa Mia Zoo
On our way back from Nicaragua, we saw a sign for a zoo called Africa Mia (My Africa) near the town of Liberia, Costa Rica. We didn't know anything about it, but had some extra time, so we thought we would check it out.
Crossing the Border to Nicaragua from Costa Rica
Because we're living in Costa Rica on tourist visas, we need to leave the country every 90 days in order to renew our visas. There are so many different rumors about what the actual laws are concerning these visa runs, and no one seems to know the answer for sure. (Well, many think they know the…
Monteverde Cloud Forest
The highlight of our trip to Nicaragua was actually in Costa Rica, just 2 1/2 hours from our house in Grecia. We took a detour on our way back home to see the rainforest in Monteverde. It's actually quite close geographically, but you have to drive up a steep dirt road for almost an hour to get…
Poás and La Paz Waterfall Gardens
Today we had the awesome experience of visiting both Poás volcano (the one we smell from our house), and the La Paz waterfall gardens, where we got to hold toucans, blue morpho butterflies, and red-eye tree frogs, take a ride in a painted ox cart, eat old fashioned Costa Rican treats, and see lots…
Proyecto Asis Wildlife Rescue Center
Recently, we paid a visit to an animal rescue center near La Fortuna, Costa Rica called Proyecto Asis. Our kids can never seem to get enough of animals, and this seemed like a good opportunity to not only see them, but interact with them, learn about them, feed them, and even clean up after them.…
Los Lagos, La Fortuna, and Arenal
Rather than head home after the rescue center, we decided to continue on to La Fortuna and spend a day and a night at Los Lagos, which is a hotel/resort at the base of the Arenal Volcano, with hot springs and swimming pools, butterfly and frog houses, and beautiful grounds.
Random snippets of life in Costa Rica
I have been keeping several photos and videos on my computer for the past few weeks because I wasn't sure if wanted to dedicate an entire blog post to any one of them. So I figured today I would just post some random photos and videos that show what's been going on in our lives the past few weeks.…
Interviewed by JetSetCitizen
Last week, I was contacted by John Bardos from JetSetCitizen.com, the popular blog showcasing those trying to live their lives to the fullest. I've been a fan of John's blog for a long time, and especially enjoy his interviews with perpetual travelers, international volunteers, entrepreneurs, and…
Things I Miss Living in Costa Rica
Living in Costa Rica is a wonderful experience. There is so much that I like, from the perfect weather and green surroundings, to the friendly people and the chance to learn a new language. But after being here for almost 5 months, there are a few things I find that I miss from the United States.…
First Family Visit
The past week, we've been privileged to enjoy our first visit from family since we moved to Costa Rica 6 months ago. My dad, step-mom, two brothers and a sister came and stayed with us for 6 days. It was great to see them again and to spend time together seeing this beautiful country - not to…
Second Visa Run and Corrupt Policemen
This past week we made our second visa run since moving to Costa Rica. We have to make our way out of the country every 90 days, and this time we chose to drive to Panama and visit our friends in Volcán, whom we met on our 6-week trip last year. It was quite an adventurous week, including driving…
A Visit to Panama
As I mentioned in my last post, despite having a crazy drive and border crossing experience, we enjoyed our trip to Panama. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but I've been meaning to write about the trip for several days. So here we go.
Celebrating 8 Years of Marriage
This month Jennifer and I spent three days away from the kids celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary. We went to the northwestern part of Costa Rica where we'd never been before, near the Guanacaste beaches in the Nicoya peninsula. We wanted to do some things that would have been a little harder…
A week in Jaco
Earlier this month, we decided we wanted a little beach time. With all the rain and clouds up in the mountains of Grecia, where we live, it's been getting a little cold - yes, even sweater weather at times! We decided we wanted a little warmth and sun, and surf.
Bugs, Birds, and Other Nearby Animals
I've been meaning to write a post like this for a while. Since we moved into this house, we regularly encounter new, interesting creatures. While I don't always take photos, I think I have enough now to make a decent post. I don't know the names of most of these animals, but all that you see in the…
Back in Costa Rica
Wow! It feels so good to be back here in Costa Rica! I love the warmth weather (a perfect 65-75 degrees), the lush, green vegetation and breathtaking views all around, the friendly, smiling people, the inexpensive food, the spaciousness and quietness of our rental house and the gardens surrounding…
Movin' Around
We've been doing a lot of thinking the past few weeks. We've been trying to decide where we'd like to have our baby, and where we'd like to live for the majority of next year. After looking at several different countries, we realized that there weren't a lot of options for dual citizenship in…
First Christmas in Costa Rica
If you didn't get a Christmas card from me this year, it's not because I don't love you. It's just because I'm lazy. :) In fact, we've been consciously lazy about Christmas this year, and it's been our least stressful holiday season yet! Well, maybe "minimalist" is a better word choice than "lazy".…
All Together Now
The past few weeks, we've been very busy looking for our next home, and I haven't had much time to write this blog post. I'll talk about the house hunting later, but for now, I'm going to reminisce about the fun times we had together with my mom and my sister's family when they were here for a…
Goodbye Grecia. Hello Escazú!
Well, this is it. We're leaving Grecia, which has been our home now for over a year. We've loved it here, and we'll miss the beautiful scenery, slower pace of life, super-friendly people, and our fantastic view of the central valley. However, we're only moving about an hour away, and since this is…
Puerto Viejo, Arenal, and Tamarindo
Last week we enjoyed a fun visit from my wife's parents who came down for nine days. This is the third time we've had family visit since we've lived in Costa Rica, and while we really like having visitors, we've gotten kind of tired of showing the same sites over and over again, especially when…
Local and Fun Activities
We've now been to most of the tourist hot spots in Costa Rica, including many that are less well known. But that hasn't stopped us from having fun and finding other enjoyable activities to do. During the past few weeks, we've had a great time doing more local activities and being with our friends.…
Without Internet in a Costa Rican Rainforest
Last week we went with some friends to the Osa Peninsula -- a very remote part of Costa Rica accessible only by boat where there is no Internet access, no cell phone service, and no electricity unless you have your own power source. And we had a fabulous time!
42 Things I Did in 2011
Last year, I wrote a list of 77 Things I Did in 2010. Every time I read through it, I feel amazed at all we were able to accomplish in that short year. Compared to 2010, 2011 seems less exciting and even less productive, but it's been richer in other ways. For example, this has been a year full of…
Memories of Spanish Speaking Countries
In this week's video, Emily, Marie, and Aysia share some of their memories from Spanish speaking countries. My niece recently asked us to create a video for her Spanish class in school and we thought it would be a great opportunity to share with our readers, as well.