Kickin' Tires

California trip: DONE
We spent several wonderful weeks in California visiting with our dear family, close friends, and attending Starr's son's wedding.


NOW: Happily back in Costa Rica, once again living in San Isidro, Costa Rica, attempting to take care of some unfinished business.

Specifically, finding a place to call “home”.

It's a renewed, refreshed search, with more energy and confidence. After our previous searching, we have a much clearer idea the qualities we seek - AND what price is a good price. Plus we have more friends and acquaintances providing us with good leads.

Admittedly, we've learned quite a lot since we began this adventure 9 months ago.

What areas and climates do we like best? How far into the jungle is too far? How close to agricultural zones is too close? Where is the purest water and the freshest air?

What's the rainy season like? How slow is the sloth? How rare the quetzal? How deadly the terciopelo? How important are warm neighbors?

We have a pretty good feel for Costa Rica now, and we recognize our fundamental need for friends, family, and yes ... a decent internet connection.

We have not made THE Regrettable Mistake. We have not bought on a whim. No property, no car, nor any other illusion of Paradise. So many Americans jump in too fast, pay way too much money, and find themselves trapped in their hasty decision forever.

We are still busing around like we always have. Humility is priceless. Freedom is free.


We're focusing on 4 - 12 acre properties, several of which we're especially interested in, though the search continues. 

We have had so much fun tromping up and down the hillsides of rural Costa Rica on our own personal grand real estate tour.

Meeting and talking with property owners and their families has been, without exception, an honor and a true pleasure.

Life is good.

Wedel's 9 acre "Pasture with Potential" near Cenizas

Our friend Wedel thinks this 9 acre parcel might be just the one for us.

Nice rounded hilltop, 360 view of the mountains, no steep slopes, 
creeks on 3 sides.  Hey, show us more!

A peaceful view over the sugar cane field to the Pacific coastal range. 
Que bonito!

We like it. This could be home.  Let's talk.

More powerful than any lawn mower yet having the same job description.

No problem to bring water lines, electricity, and internet 
about 500 meters through the cane fields to a new home site.

ON SECOND THOUGHT: Don't they burn cane fields right before harvest?
Ouch! The locals say the smoke goes on for weeks.
Another dream goes up in smoke.

William's 12 acre finca near Christo Rey

We walk the plank to William's Island on his 12 acre re-naturalized property.
Various rare and beautiful tree species have already been planted.

Native fish have been planted in the lake. Time for feeding.

A crystal clear mountain river forms the east property line.
Across the river is a 2000 acre nature preserve.

The backyard white water river tumbles down 
from 12,000 foot Mt. Chirripo.

Saul's finca near Mollojones

Our neighbors, Neidi & Franklin, drove us
15 minutes down a muddy track to reach Saul's coffee finca.

Just a humble Tico home on the hillside. Pura Vida!

Meet Saul and Senovia.  
Saul was born within a stone's throw of his front door.
Senovia is known for her knowledge of medicinal herbal remedies.

Starr is a "let's go see" kind of gal.

By their home a sloth's been hanging out in a cecropia tree.
The ants were bugging him.

We have not been able to identify this one yet.

This is a mature Achiote (Annato) pod.
Senovia makes her special achiote paste for sale in the local mercado.

Inspired by her father's love for the finca, Andrea wants to be a forestry engineer.
So does Starr.

These bean pods are WELL over a foot long and a couple inches thick.

Saul's son Carlos describes the joys of his favorite swimming hole.

These ancient trees twine their trunks together for support.

One of the most beautiful "cataratas" we've seen in Central America.

Saul sits and admires the catarata he has loved for over 60 years.

Saul doesn't hand out swamp lilies to just anyone.

Where from here?  

Tomorrow morning we check out another possible property.  
In the meantime we have begun the process of Costa Rican Residency.

Been a long time!! Been a long time!! Been a lonely, lonely, lonely time . . . .

And for a list of good reasons. If you want the quick and dirty story it's that we've been spending Costa Rica's rainiest month of the year in the US.  Now scroll WAY down and check out a few pictures.

Where's my man??

If you're interested in what really happened, here it is:

1. In September Jeff went to the US on a consultant job while I stayed in our lovely remote tree farm rental home.
2. Internet connectivity in our remote home (did I mention it's remote) continued to decline.  From 5am to 8am internet connectivity was bad and the rest of the day it bounced between bad and non-existent, making it almost impossible to make Skype calls, send emails, do research, check bus schedules, or anything else.
3. About once every week or two the water was shut off without notice for unknown reasons - and would stay off for a day or two.  Now that was a trifle inconvenient!!  (Think drinking water and bathroom.)
4. On top of that, the very sparse bus service was causing considerable problems in getting to town - or anyplace else (for example to buy drinking water).
5. In spite of a month-long search, I couldn't find an adequate furnished place to rent in the same area. (A matter of poor timing  . . . or providence pushing us elsewhere.)
6. In the meantime, it was obvious that our home on the border of Costa Rica and Panama suffered from tons more rain and pathetically little sunshine.  We learned the locals call it "cielo roto" or broken sky.  Needless to say, my good moods were getting thinner and thinner - as evidenced by my growing frustrations.
7. The worst of it though was the unsolvable, piss poor internet reception.  It was just impossible.  I need it for research purposes - to learn more about rare tropical fruits and medicinals, and Jeff needs it for his consulting work and we both need it for Skype phone calls.   What to do, what to do . . .

In October I was scheduled to head off to the US for my son's wedding where I would also meet up with Jeff. But I really did NOT want to return to Costa Rica to the same unworkable situation.  Obviously it was time for a change.

So:

I packed up our 4 boxes of accumulated worldly treasures, preparing to leave our idyllic but dysfunctional home.  Then I called a taxi to haul our boxes of stuff to a friend's hotel for storage while we were in the US for my son's wedding.  Next I hopped on a bus headed toward the airport 6 hours away.

Halfway there I got off the bus in Perez Zeledon, Costa Rica's second largest town where we had lived for several months previously on our journey.  Checking out a few places for rent, I found one that would suffice - and secured it for our return to Costa Rica the end of October.

Our future rental has: Bus service every 15 minutes with only a one block walk; a quiet location outside of the central area; and a rental contract contingent on having GOOD internet access. I'm thinking that for a short term gig, it should work out well in spite of the hotplate and tiny fridge.

In the meantime, we can get serious about buying a car and about beginning the legal process of becoming legal residents of Costa Rica.  Not having to make visa border runs every three months would be good.

That's what's going on with us - in a tiny nutshell.  Alive, well and proceeding as "planned."  We've learned our lesson:  remote living may be awesomely beautiful - but there's more to life than scenery.  We need some conveniences and we need people.

Right now we're visiting friends and relatives in So Cal and scheduled to return to Costa Rica in a few days.  Phew!!  Now that's one TIGHT summary.  For the real between-the-lines scoop, we'll have to wait for the book to come out.

Now for some miscellaneous traveler's photographs:

Our friend Wendy spent decades managing reggae music festivals and tours.
It shows.

Wendy hosts "Arte en el Parque", providing stones, paint, and
encouragement to the children of Sabalito and San Vito.

It is considered good luck if "sugar bees" build a hive in your house.
The good news is they don't sting ... still waiting for the luck to materialize.

I want this one.

Why thank you, dear!

What an attitude! Mr. turkey thinks he runs the place.
He even has a special day coming up.

Giant Cane Toad has poison glands on his back.
Lethal to dogs, unless they know to flip him over before eating,
 but how do they learn to do that?

Dangerous looking spider loiters by our front door.

Jesse is developing an exotic fruit tree arboretum and building a solar car.
At the same time.
In his spare time.
Which is the only kind of time there is when you retire to Costa Rica.

Starr enjoying a luscious Tarap from Indonesia.

Eduardo proving that the Tarap fruit is in fact much larger than Peter.  
This fruit's friggin' delicious!!  Starr goes APE over it.

Do you know the way to San Jose? Peter does.

One of the spring-fed ponds at the botanical garden near Canaan.
Stocked with Swordtails.

Just another day in Paradise for Peter, Wynn, & Jeff.

A large thatched dome for the practice of yoga and tai chi. 
In addition to being a roof, it's also a fern nursery.

Inside the unique and inspiring structure.  
I'm thinking our future living room should look like this.

Sloth hanging out in the Guaruma tree, directly over a house for rent.

Trying on my new snake gaitors - essential in Costa Rica,
 useless at Eli's San Francisco wedding.

Eli and Jihyun celebrate their wedding in San Francisco.

Gramma Starr and Sierra meeting for the first time, and hitting it off just fine.

Your legendary travelers in Davis, CA enjoying some family time.

Proud Grampa Jeff holds sweet Sierra.

Onward, Two Little Expats, to see what life has in store next.  This search for a new home is taking longer than expected.  But we figure it's better to elongate than to truncate prematurely.

•  Pictures and captions by Jeff
•  Text by Starr