When the journey began

Although the journey began in earnest last June, I can honestly say I’m feeling this weekend is the turning point.

My husband, Kevin, and I have been planning to move to Costa Rica. Talking, planning, looking at maps, visiting and dreaming, well, that’s one thing. Getting finishing touches done on our newly renovated home and putting it on the market in a week from now, is a whole other story. We had initially thought we’d like to move to France because I’m sick of the Canadian winters. Kevin is English and the privilege of a EU passport allows him to live and work anywhere in Europe. And with my French-Canadian background and the ability to speak French fluently, we thought it would be a great option. Until Kevin came home one day last June. He said the guys at work were talking about the best places in the world to live. One of the guys told Kevin he would move to Costa Rica. Costa Rica has always been on my bucket list to visit, but not necessarily to live! I learned Spanish for two years in high school and remember only a few words. Yet, we found ourselves researching Costa Rica. We spent hours looking into the climate, the health care, the education, the infrastructure, the ecology and the residency rules, etc. We were falling in love. We decided we should go visit to see what part of Costa Rica would suit us best.

We took a two-week holiday from September 15 to September 29, 2011. We travelled 1,800 kms, and still we only scratched the surfaced. We quickly figured out which areas didn’t suit us. Although we enjoyed the Pacific beaches, we felt the temperature was simply too hot. I fell in love with Monteverde, whereas Kevin was less sure. He couldn’t wrap his head around what we’d do there for a living. Something to do with tourism, I guess. We visited the Quaker Friends School in Monteverde and we immediately thought it would be perfect for Jude. Small classes, with really nice, polite teenagers who seemed so happy to be there. I was sold within the first 10 minutes. We left the mountainous area and continued on our trip. On our way back to San Jose, we drove up the Pan American highway through another mountainous region, north of San Isidro de General. Kevin and I liked the area, and as we drove further north, we really liked the crisp, clean air. We didn’t have time to explore the area as much as we would have liked however. The overall vacation was wonderful, albeit, we were a bit shocked with the culture difference. So much to like, yet so much to learn and get used to. Could we really make such a huge leap?

We had discussed it and agreed that if we could find some property in the mountains, with viable income opportunity, then maybe, just maybe we would consider this life change that we both longed for. We’d have to find a place that ticked all the important boxes.

That was 7 months ago…