Just now at Volcán Arenal with Mom and Aunt Gay, mom’s baby sister. This was my third time at the volcano, my favorite place in Costa Rica so far. Volcán Arenal is flawless, when you can see it.
Did you know, on a clear day, you can see the top of Arenal from San Ramon, two hours to the south of it? Huge and magnificent, an incredible sight. This picture (right: you click on it to make it bigger, Arenal’s peak is smack in the middle) doesn’t do it justice. Remember the look on Sam Neill’s face when he sees the brontosaurus for the first time in Jurassic Park? That’s how I felt seeing the top of Arenal looming in the distance. Amazing.
Saturday night, after a brilliantly clear day, we got a brilliantly clear night. Several thunder rolls from deep in the belly of the beast – at first you think it’s thunder or a jet flying overhead. ‘Cept no storm clouds and no jets… Arenal, she speaks. Then display after display of fire rocks rolling down the side. We were very lucky to see that because the next two days, until our drive home, she was completely in the clouds. You just see the bottom of a hill, not even a peek of a peak.
Sunday afternoon, we did the hanging bridge tour which was lovely, but I wouldn’t do it again. It was just like the La Paz Waterfall walk without the waterfalls. In both, you walk for two-three hours through wet rainforest, mesmerized by the opportunistic life around you. 
If something dies, something else grows on it, sucking the last bit of life out of it, making the dead thing part of the living thing, thriving. Our guide pointed out that when something falls in the jungle, it’s just making room for something else. You get a real sense of that happening here, even as you are walking past. Nothing goes to waste in a rainforest.
This afternoon we drove back a different route, via Ciudad Quesada/San Carlos. Wow. This is one of the most beautiful roads I’ve been on in Costa Rica. Treacherous and curvy, mountainous, very much like Cerro de la Muerte (hill of the dead), the road to San Isidro de General on the southern Pacific coast near Dominical.
Loaded with 18 wheelers (one of
which was turned on its side after touching bumpers with a compadre) taking up more than their share of the road, adding to the thrill. But the views: mountain range after range, so green, providing incredible vistas with Volcán Arenal as the backdrop. Huge wow for me.
Where I’ve been the past two weeks is at a crossroads. A little panicky. Today, 28 Jan 2008, marks our two year anniversary in Costa Rica. It’s been heaven, we have grown to love life here. It really is different. We are different. We never expected it. At least I didn’t. Hal’s been ready for a change for some time, but neither of us would have prophesied living in Costa Rica for good. If you’d known us then, you wouldn’t have either. But here we are.
Spending our children’s inheritance, now too pitiful a sum to call "inheritance," but, thankfully, still enough to buy an income. Which we must do NOW or move in with one of you. Any volunteers? There’s just the five of us and three big muddy dogs. I’ll keep checking my inbox for the invites. In the meantime…
What to do, what to do? We’ve filled and erased three oversized white-boards with every Option & Idea we can think of, now filling the fourth. The first white-board was the most revealing.
On it, we’d listed pros/cons on going back to the states. Any business we do, especially if there were product involved, would be easier in the states. Like, Hal’s been trying to get a test copy of his book in paperback from Lightening Source. They’ve shipped out three, so far. All three lost, sent to the wrong address even though he’s emailed the exact dirección. The last copy went to Mexico due to a typo. Customer service for a product would be a nightmare from here. So, product from here? That’s out. Product in the U.S.? Doable.
Buying a business with employees in Costa Rica is out. All we hear from gringos who own businesses here are the many ways you are taken advantage of and ripped off. You have to be at your business every minute it’s open. You might as well have a job. On top of that, if you are going to own a business here with employees, you better be fluent in Spanish. As comfortable as we are with the language, we are at least a year out from being anywhere close to that. Probably ten. So employee biz here? Out. In the U.S.? Doable.
Our ace-in-the-hole plan would be to move to Gainesville, buy a business there (bar or shooting range, natch) while I spend three years in acupuncture school. That was the loosely held plan before moving to Costa Rica. We saw the end of the real estate game looming large and acupuncture is a good fit for me – I would love this career. Definitely doable.
As far as the boys go, being in the U.S. would be a good thing. They could get part-time jobs. There’s a wealth of learning opportunities in a college town for teens, including college. We could live in Gainesville for probably less than what it costs to live here. Sad, but true. Security would not be an issue there. Better roads. Cheap Triscuits. Huge cheap bookstores. I mean, the only thing we can no longer live without is an income. If having one means living in the U.S., so be it. Would it be so bad? Heck, you do what you have to.
Well, we sat with that pro/con list for a few days, pretty much avoiding the white-board, coming to grips. Realizing the pros of moving back far outnumbered the cons when contemplating income. But man, were we getting depressed. At first, the list looked inviting. A return to familiarity. To knowing how everything works. No razor wire. Within a day’s drive to all our Key West buddies. I could go to school. Teen growth opportunities…
I guess we’ve crossed some invisible line, rounded some curve, burnt some bridge… life looks different now. We so like living in Costa Rica. I mean, it’s something, alright. Breathtaking, frustrating, hilarious, no question. There’s no logical explanation. I wish I could put my finger on what has captured us so completely. Here we have a perfect reason to go "home," perfect timing, no one could fault us for going back. Turns out we’d rather eat monkey brains. Going back? Not doable unless there is flat out no other option. Erasing that pro/con list was SUCH a relief.
So we’ve filled three more white boards with Os&Is. And cartoon stick figures… Narrowing the field, we’ve been shopping biz for sale sites, calling, writing, negotiating. Owning a business in the U.S. would still be OK, as long as we didn’t have to live there. Ruminating on all this, when, last week, out of the blue, a madcap millionaire inventor we just met wants Hal to do a business with him. Then the MMI’s abogado [ah-bow-GAH-doe, attorney] invited Hal to participate in another business idea… both of which could work out. That’s sure hopeful. Meeting with both in the next two weeks… hmmm.
So that’s where I’ve been. Sorry to have dropped out of sight… I can’t do two things at once. The reality of Must Have Income Now overtook us and I couldn’t focus on anything else. But I’m back, and no longer panicked. Three days around Arenal, in the rainforest, driving over mountains, that puts things in perspective!
That we will come up with something, there is no doubt. They say the best indicator of what a person will do is what they’ve always done. We’ve always done fine. Personally, I’d like
something pretty and fun. That we can do in Costa Rica. If you could send up a little
prayer or white light, however you do it, that would be so lovely. I mean, do you really want to read a blog about life in Gainesville?
¡Hola! and welcome back. Missed you! I do pro vs. con lists when I have one of those “crossroads” experiences, too.
I’m curious: do you really think you could live cheaper in Gainesville including health insurance for all?
Another reason for not moving: “abroadingainesville” just doesn’t have the same cachet.
…Chuck
You scared the crap outa me.
Gainzvilla ? Pfffft. Another dump in the M-pyre.
Live cheaper ?
Call up Blue Cross- Blue Shield and get a few numbers then ask a bar owner in Gainsville what his taxes and liability insurances are.
Lets not forget auto insurance and electric-heating bills.
The shooting range is OUT. Remember Tamiami range at Concord mall in Miami ? ( on bird road) That was me.
Security wise I’d rather lose a few tools than worry about being nuked by some imaginary boogie_sheik who ” hates their freedumb”
Glad you came back to your senses.
Speaking of freedom ya oughta visit Cuba from here since the goof_stapo, up there, won’t allow you to 😉
Yepp. 21 years visiting here made me buy right on the lake.
Doug
Oasis of the toucans…
Toucan rescue, botanical gardens and rental cabins
cerca Tilaran
Never fear. There are people behind the curtains working very hard to make things where you are now just like things in Gainsville.
I am so glad to read that you are going to do what is necessary to stay in Costa Rica. Part of the reason I read these blogs is to find out if you and others like you can make a life there. A few years ago I bought a pretty 3 acre property with a few large waterfalls not far from San Ramon and not a day goes by that I am not scheming how I might retire early and get there before poop hits the fan here (Miami).
Gainesville?!! Pullleeeeze. his whole state is flatter and hotter than perhaps you remember. You would pine for those Costa Rican mountains, cool night air and endless beaches. Every place has its pluses and minuses and those of us who move and compare are always thinking about these things. But you already have the most important thing in your life with you now, your family. The only other things that really matter are weather, safety, beautiful scenery and friends. Are you seriously lacking any of those things there?
Pesky money. It’s the only thing that keeps me from moving to St. John.
No to beat a dead horse, but where did you stay in Arenal again? I still haven’t made any of my reservations for our May trip.
Hola Sally:
As fascinating as was your blog site before we visited, it shall be ever more so now that we also have experienced our first person sojourn in Costa Rica. Thank you, by the way, for your and Hal’s and the boys’ warm hospitality: what a gift to get to meet Saratica in person.
What the heart compels is a curiousity, yeah? I myself am in that period of heart/mind adjusting vis-a-vis Costa Rica, where I guess I’ll mull for the next few weeks and months. We expected to be magically swooned into CRs allure … even, as you know, entertained moving there ourselves with our three young sons. So, to hear our hearts so loudly thwumping with a cavernous NO, took us quite unawares.
The wanton wildness, (my catchphrase-du-jour encapsulating our experience of Costa Rica) of this beautiful, beautiful country simply felt too precarious with our three babes. The more we have researched and learned about the life threatening hazards we ourselves encountered — and escaped only by luck — the more we realize the aggressive biodiversity in Costa Rica is more than we feel equipped, mentally, physically, to handle. We’re born and bred northerners, and the tropical toxicity we experienced was, (dare the adventurer’s soul in me admit this?) too much.
We were naive: we expected to be charmed by the capuchins and toucans and macaws: we did not expect to be attacked, daily, by the thousands of other species that share the ecosystem. My body is wracked with scars. Every night, from our first in the country to the very last, I was bitten, dozens of times, while I slept, and my arms and legs have oozed pus constantly … my body will require weeks of repreive to recover.
A part of the heart/mind adjustment I’ll be doing in the coming weeks is knowing that there are people like you, people I like and respect a great deal, who LOVE Costa Rica to the exponentially opposite degree of my reticence to return.
I will be a fan forever, Sally. And I look forward to crossing paths again.
Until then,
Cindy
http://www.unschooled.ca
Well that was a bit of a roller coaster…I don’t exactly understand why but I felt a profound sadness as I read on and was anticipating you and the fam leaving Costa Rica. I was quite relieved as I neared the end and just like in a Disney film everything works out! I think you may be missing the boat a bit…you know real estate and I think should consider getting in the biz down there. Stick with what you know re-invent yourself as a Costa Rican broker, forget about what everyone else is doing or not doing…bring your truthful original style to the plate. Cindy what the heck was biting you and please elaborate on some of those adventures. I’m also a Northerner and in five years going down there have a total of maybe 6 mosquito bites, though my girlfriend and daughter get bit quite a bit more, but no more than in Maine or the Jersey shore in the summer. I was stung by a stingray once as well, kind of like a bee sting.
Yeah, Chuck, abroadingainesville? Yuck. It would have to be aghastingainesville…
Doug, yes, reality check. There were a few items I neglected to add in… I guess I didn’t consider health insurance because that would not have been affordable in any case. I’d fly back to Costa Rica for medical stuff if I could. Love the medical care here – you can afford to stay healthy. YOU had that shooting range? Wonder if Hal and the boys ever went there… seem to recall something about that. They closed the one in the keys because of the birds nesting. Like anything could nest with all those boats flying around… Toucan rescue? Do you have a website? Would love to add it to my costaricabluebook.com site and here. Have not been to Tilaran, but a drive around the lake is in my future. Have not seen a toucan here yet either… See? I can’t go – too much to do!!!
Gee, laffingbear, you are a bit of a jaded laffer. Sadly, I agree. I shall cling to the notion that this culture, with its years of moving too slowly to get anything substantial done in that direction will keep us from feeling like we are living in the M-pyre for a bit longer…
James, not lacking any of those things and I am also clinging to the notion that the universe has always opened a door, sometimes just a window big enough to crawl thru… and would the Universe have made a move to Costa Rica so relatively simple for us (vis á vis stopping our income in the states) without some equally lovely exit or staying window…? I’m going to presume not! And Gainesville is only attractive because of the acupuncture school and only for three years…
Island Chica: this time we stayed at Linda Vista but my favorite place still is the Arenal Observatory Lodge. More expensive, around $130 for three people in a room including b’fast, but if you are going to have a chance to see the peak and the fire rocks, this is the only place as far as I can see. Get a volcano view room and it’s the Arenal Observatory Lodge – there is also the Arenal Lodge, the Arenal Inn, the Observatory Lodge… blah blah blah. Arenal Observatory Lodge. The food is mediocre but you aren’t going there to eat… The food is mediocre everywhere I’ve been at Arenal.
Oh, Cindy, I hadn’t ever considered the three small children puzzle piece! There are more child friendly places to visit and live… I’m going to Tamarindo today and have met several families who live oceanside in the Guanacaste province. More information needed on that situation… You are such a funny writer, I’ll do a little post directing everyone to your blog and experience! Looking forward to hearing how it all plays out over time. You need a way to subscribe, like a feedburner little icon or a feedblitz subscribe via email box. And a better way to navigate the pages would be good. It was quite a puzzle to figure out how to start at the beginning of your costa rica trip and read each post in order.
Hi Keith, I keep thinking I should do that, too. My three holdouts are 1) I feel a little hypocritical being such a bear on real estate and then trying to sell it. I do believe anyone who has the money and loves a spot and wants to buy should buy, as long as all eyes are open. And 2) I’m not legally allowed to work here. Not only do I not want to break the law, but if I’m caught (and I have to actually be caught in the act, pretty difficult) I could be deported for 10 years. That looms large. I’ve considered a referral business, may still do that, just doing phone work and referrals… we’ll see. I do love the business and I don’t hold anything back (really?) so it’s still an option. The last one 3) is: it’s a big learning curve selling here. I’m thinking I’ll get all the ins and outs under my belt and BOOM: the bubble will burst here. But if the income we buy is something Hal can do, I will at least do referrals.
Keith, I think what was biting me was what we call up here in Canada no-see-ums … of course I only think that because, of course, I didn’t see em. The local Tico people had a word for what they thought the bites were from … I never quite grasped the word they said, but they all used that word, so I nodded and said, “Yeah, no-see-ums,” and they nodded and said “Si, thatwordinevergrasped”.
You can check out the exhaustive elaboration of our adventures at http://www.unschooled.ca. I’m sorry, for now, the only way I know to get you to the start, to read the tale in order, is to scroll bar down to the bottom of each page, and go to next page, next page, next page until you reach http://unschooled.ca/?p=17, the first post on the Costa Rica journey.
Sally, thank you ever so much for the affirmation on my writing and my blog. Gee, I’m a little bit giddy at the thought of enjoying a second featurette on A Broad’s site! Also thank you so much for the direction on the subscription idea for my blogsite. Of course I have NO idea what you’re talking about, but I have a cute little fella here who handles these complicated things for me. Keep reading, and I’ll keep finessing my blogskill.
I was getting a tad concerned that you were going to go, though if you do change your mind I’ll still AbroadInGainesville for the helluvit.
I also remember the drive between Arenal and San Carlos very well – I loved it. Maybe it was the open (formerly forested?) land. I felt like setting across the land in a covered wagon. I remember the rocky part between Ciudad Quesada and Naranjo – or maybe my son remembers it better since he yakked from all the curves. Trish is all about the beach but man did I like things from Ciudad Quesada through Arenal.
Maybe I’m mistaken, but after reading a lot of your posts I have a feeling that your family would not be staying in Costa Rica forever. Makes you wonder, should you make a decision now or later?
Um, I think we just DID make a decision. Today’s decision. Still holding firm, six days later… I’ll keep you posted.
Sally, I am glad you are staying! You are kind of our inspiration. We tried another school out for Hannah and have resigned to homeschooling again. Should of just listened to you ha? Thanks for sharing, Robbie
I’ve been trying to convince my parents to do the hanging bridge tour. I’m going to send them the link to your page and see if this will convince them. They’ll be here in a month and they’re always terrified to leave the hotel. My parents are not the adventurous types as you can imagine. Beautiful pictures by the way!
Thank you – love taking photos of all the beautiful sites here. My 77 year old mom lives here with me, she drives and everything. The hanging bridges are wonderful – perfectly safe, a lovely walk. Good luck getting them out of the hotel!!! They must REALLY love you!!!