Why on Earth we are going to Costa Rica

it looks like a fine choice

Four years ago I was planning on going to Indonesia with a friend, live there for a while and bring back to Brazil stuff to sell to pay for the trip. I was single, I was fearless and I had the money to do it.

Then I got pregnant. And I embraced the mommy life with all my enthusiasm. I knew everything would change and I wouldn´t be as free to go, but I also knew that I would keep the adventure in my life and would soon add the baby into some tripping plans.

I started to envision us going to live abroad while she was still little, I knew it would be the perfect way to teach her a second language. And we spent two months in Chile at different times and 3 weeks in Italy with our family. But I still wanted to do the full on living abroad deal.

Life took on a routine by itself and I found us rooted down to our beach town in Brazil. A wonderful place to live with or without children. In our daily lives we go to the beach very often, we visit friends, she goes to a wonderful kindergarten, we have an unconventional family (friends that we will be attached to for life), I surf, I play the guitar, and occasionally I even date.

Our perfect life has threatened my adventurous initiative. I also started to feel a bit scared of taking off with a child by myself. I´ve been postponing the dream of taking Luísa on an extended trip with me.

But fear won´t hold me back from doing this. I set to myself a deadline to make this happen: before she turns 5 we should go. It´s easier to learn a different language (or even more than one) and it´s great for a kid to move and have memories of different places to relate to. I believe living in different places helps our memory to develop.

At least this worked for me. When I was five, my family moved to another state for two years. I always relate my early memories before we moved, while we were there, and after we went back. I think having moved helped me into having a memory of my early life. Without it, I think things would have gotten a lot more blurred as in at what age I learned what (like playing with rabbits in the kindergarten when I was 4, riding the bike when I was 5, meeting my best friend again after two years when I was 7).

I want Luísa to have this physical and time difference to relate to, to remember. I want her to learn another language fluently. I want us to meet a different culture and relate to other families and see how they manage the whole educational process. I want to get away from what I´m used to see and learn more with different people. I want to see the world with my own eyes (lately I´ve been a firm believer that most of what is taught is a lie, but I won´t go into this tangent now).

Ok, so with this all in mind, there is a whole world out there to choose from. After considering a few countries, I chose Costa Rica.

People say it´s really expensive there, but as I made my researches, I´m counting on living there with something around a US$1000 a month. And if for some reason it´s more expensive, than we bounce to a nearby country.

We can spend 6 months on our savings, but I will try to make some money on line and I might find myself some work there in the tourism industry. Bottom line about our money situation is that we can stay for a while with no worries while being open and ready to take any opportunities that might cross my way.

Here are some good reasons I found to choose Costa Rica:

Nature – 25% of its area is protected, nearly 40% of the country is covered by forests (according to Wikipedia). There are volcanoes (which I love all about), stunning beaches, and a wild life to be seen.

It has no military force – This is an example the whole world should know of. I want to check in loco how this works. There must be some political intelligence behind this (although I believe politics can only perpetuate our problems, check The Venus Project to find out more on this view of a world without politics).

They have a saying “Pura Vida” (Pure Life) that they use all the time for everyone. They wish it to people or even call each other like that. It may sound silly, but I think it´s an awesome approach to life and a guarantee I´ll find friendly people.

Perfect Waves – You know I´m a surfer, right? Costa Rica has the second longest left in the world. They say your legs get tired for standing on the same wave for so long. I figured I should check this out for myself

English – although the official language there is Spanish, I´m finding out that many schools are bilingual. Tourism is the main economic source in Costa Rica and most tourists are from the US. I think I´ll get to see Luísa practicing both Spanish and English while we are there – nice.

Hot men with cute accents – do I need to say something more?

So, we are set. We will be landing in San Jose on January 17^th, in one month from now.

We will be CouchSurfing with an unschooling family near San Jose for a couple of days before we head to the Pacific Coast, where I´ll look for a town with nice waves and a nice kindergarten for Luísa.

I don´t know how this trip will go, how many people we will meet, what experiences this will bring. I´m keeping my fears to the unknown to a minimum, trusting life and that we will manage to get all right in all given situations.

Will you stick around with us to see what happens there?

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