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A look back at the first six months in Costa Rica

It's pretty surreal how quickly the passed six months have gone since landing in Costa Rica. I remember arriving here on April 1 thinking to myself "is this for real or am I in some kind of sick April fools joke". Thankfully it was for real. I still wake up every day so thankful and appreciative of being where I am and being in this position. Was it easy? No. The years leading up to getting here were hard as hell, but I can honestly say, the roller coaster ride was well worth the price of admission. If I had to do it all over again I would however there are for sure a few things I would change, but fact of the matter is everything happens for a reason, and I'm here now and am finally living my best life every step of the way.


Despite being in one of the worlds happiest countries (according to some travel magazines) the first few months once I got here were a little tough. It wasn't long until we discovered we had leaky roofs on our brand new house (you may recall from a previous blog post), a process which alone took the better part of four months to resolve and believe it or not we're still waiting for our builder to come clean up his construction garbage...In the end of June I also had the misfortune of being victim of a home robbery while I was fast asleep, resulting in my passport, birth certificate, iPhone, a few watches, and some cash being stolen. It's one of those situations that you know can happen but you never think you will be the one that falls victim to it...unfortunately it happened to me. The next month and a half was focussed on dealing with the robbery, applying for a new passport and birth certificate, and beefing up our home security. While all of this was happening, we are still dealing with a very green rainy season, which means a lot of yard up-keep to try to stay on top of weeds, decide what we want to do for landscaping (which got us to decide to get all of our teak trees cut down). This process of cutting the teak and cleaning up the yard started at the end of August....and believe it or not....it's still not done. Things move so slowly here it hurts..we knew that being in Costa Rica was going to have its challenges and for me I think the biggest challenge I have been facing is dealing with the pace that things get done here...and not so much the pace, but more-so the incredible lack of follow-up from people / companies who you have hired to do some work. The tree cutting people for instance said that it would take one week....we're now going on 5+ weeks with no clear end in sight. I know that in the grand scheme of things these issues are really not a big deal but to me they are consuming a good part of my day as I worry about whether or not the work will be done before dry season comes along. And before our first guests arrive at the end of October! Here comes #costaricavacation #puravida #lovinglife


At the end of the day, the many experiences I've had in the past six months have only strengthened my desire to be here...it's just so different than the mundane rat race of a life in Canada. It's the Pura Vida life here and we are embracing it every step of the way. Next step...figuring out how to buy a car when the main hiway between San Jose and Liberia suffered a significant washout with lives lost, and now a major hiway that won't reopen for at least three months...(I was planning on buying a car from San Jose...) Life goes on, and like everything else we'll figure it out!



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