My husband Mark and I went to Costa Rica on vacation in August of 2021. We fell in love with Costa Rica and decided to invest in a vacation home that would primarily be a short-term rental until we retired. At the time, I was growing a busy law practice and thinking I would be working for AT LEAST the next ten years. We bought a lot and built an amazing house in the Portosal Living Community near Manuel Antonio, Quepos, and Dominical.
Change of plans! I ended up suffering from some serious health issues made much worse by the stress of being an attorney and running a business, so we decided to pack it in and move to Costa Rica in order to regain our health! Our Visa is only good for 90 days, so we will be returning to California for a couple weeks in October. These are our goals for the first 86 days in our jungle paradise.
Learn Spanish: Our plan is to take classes and really focus on learning Spanish.
Start Our Food Forest: I took a 15-day class at Finca Tierra to learn about permaculture design and cannot wait to put what I learned into practice. We will plant at least 20 fruit and nut trees, plant veggies, herbs, legumes, grains and anything else that we can get to grow. We will also be building a chicken coop. We hope to get chickens in our first 86 days.
Capture Water: We live in a rainforest with so much water, but are currently paying a small fortune for water and wasting energy getting it to our house.
Learn Salsa: I love to dance and Mark loves me, so we will be taking Salsa lessons.
Learn to Surf: Mark has been surfing since he was 12 years-old. I want to learn to surf so we can travel up and down the Pacific and Carribean coasts looking for the perfect wave.
Make Friends: We have met some wonderful people in Costa Rica and can't wait to find our Costa Rica peeps.
Watch the Sun Set Over the Pacific 84 Times: From every level of our house, the view of the Pacific ocean is amazing. We will have 84 opportunities to watch the sun set and don't want to miss a single one!
Calm Down: We will start a yoga and meditation practice to help us CALM DOWN and destress. We will spend time in our balcony hammock reading and relaxing.
Rent Our House: Retiring a decade before we planned has a serious financial downside, so we plan to rent the downstairs like a traditional bed and breakfast. When we travel, we plan on renting the whole house. You can check it out at www.buenavistacr.com.
Pura Vida!