Name ten things you would like to do if money and time were no object? Ask your partner the same question, write down your answers separately and compare your lists.

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That is what Steve and I did when we met in 2003. We compared our lists and found them to be surprisingly similar, and not out of reach. That was the beginning.

Moving to Costa Rica was on my list, Steve’s list included items that could be accomplished while living in Costa Rica, actually up and moving to Costa Rica had never occurred to Steve, until he met me and I took him to Costa Rica on vacation in 2003.

During that vacation my dream of moving to Costa Rica became our dream. We hiked the Osa Peninsula, swam in the Pacific at Manual Antonio, sipped rum drinks on our porch at the Arenal Observatory Lodge and watched the volcano’s nightly fireworks show while listening to the complaints of Howler monkeys after an afternoon rain.

Two Americans Living in Costa Rica.

We learned about the fragile circle of life in the cloud forest at Monteverde, the effects of deforestation to the ecosystem and longed for a way to make a difference in this magical land. We fell in love with the culture, the people, and the way of life in Costa Rica.

Things that seem so important in the US, what kind of car you drive, how big your house is, name brand this and name brand that are unimportant here. Spending Sunday’s with family and friends, planting trees, education, and conservation take the place of the superficial goals advertisers try to convince us are essential for happiness.

We started to seriously consider the possibility of moving to Costa Rica. How would we do it? When would we do it? What will the family say? Making a list is how this all started, right? So, we started a list.

Our first list was the pro’s and con’s of moving. The pro’s easily out weighed the con’s, so that was easy. The next list was not so easy it looked something like this:

Find a reliable source of information to guide us through the move

  1. Decide on the move date
  2. Get our girls, Madeline and Tiffany, graduated from high school
  3. Get our girls off to college
  4. Get our girls dependable cars
  5. Tell the family
  6. Get our three houses up for sale and sold
  7. Find an attorney in Costa Rica
  8. Start a Costa Rican corporation
  9. Learn about Self Directed IRA’s
  10. Set up international health insurance
  11. Decide what to do about the dog
  12. Start learning Spanish
  13. Write a will, set up power of attorney with someone in the US.
  14. Put our US assets in a living trust
  15. Get complete physicals and lab work done before quitting our jobs and losing our health insurance.
  16. Quit our jobs
  17. Sell the cars or ship one to Costa Rica, maybe even consider driving!
  18. Decide where to live and find some place to rent.
  19. Decide what to take and what to leave and how to take it, by plane, by cargo container
  20. Packing up and clearing out an entire household of stuff

There are a few good books about moving to Costa Rica, we used all of them, as well as web sites like WeLoveCostaRica.com. At one point we considered the possibility of growing teak as a source of income and we contacted Finca Leola, a company that accomplishes reforestation by using teak as the pioneer forest.

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A pioneer forest provides the shade needed by the native trees to grow. As the teak is harvested over a 25 year period, native trees are planted under the teak and at the end of the cycle, a Costa Rican rain forest is in place.

Harvesting the teak, which is not a native tree of Costa Rica, generates the funds to buy the land in need of reforestation and supports the multi-disciplinary team necessary to accomplish regrowing a rain forest.

Growing teak correctly is a major undertaking and the decided to let the experts at Finca Leola handle it. We bought 1,000 teak trees from them and will receive income as the teak is harvested over the next 25 years. However, that first phone call has lead to a great friendship with the owners of the company, Fred and Amy Morgan, and Hector Ramirez; they have been an invaluable resource for us.

We decided to set the date for the big move for January or February 2006 and began to work on our list.

One of our first projects was to get our two girls off to school. Tiffany is Steve’s youngest daughter, and Madeline is my only daughter. They graduated from Sarasota High School in 2005, and we got them off to college without much difficulty. Tiffany is in Tallahassee, and Madeline is in Orlando. We found two dependable cars for the girls, and they seem to only need repairs when Steve is in Florida!

Before we put the houses up for sale we needed to let our families know what we were up to. Being logical people, we figured a Power Point Presentation(PPP) would be a good way to explain it all, put it in writing, ensuring that everyone got the same information at the same time.

The PPP included information about Costa Rica, our plans, goals, how, why and what we planned to do. In August 2005 we gathered the local family members together and broke the news to them.

I emailed the presentation to out-of-state family the same day to avoid any crisis that could be caused by gossip. The family’s response was not what could be called warm and friendly. My daughter said, “Mom, my friends think you guys are hippies! Are YOU?”

Steve’s mom exclaimed, “Why are you taking my baby from me, he hated the out doors until he met you!” Not true. Steve’s sister, Donna, expressed her disapproval by avoiding us the entire month before we left, so she wouldn’t have a breakdown and refused to say goodbye.

Steve’s other sister, Debbie, was supportive, and was our buffer for the rest of his family. Thank you. My sisters were happy and looked forward to having a free place to stay on their next vacation. My Dad wanted to move with us, but couldn’t get his new wife to leave the country.

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Steve’s two daughters, Mallori and Tiffany, were tearful, they tried desperately to be happy for him, but were dreading the thought of their Dad being so far away.

People ask us how we like living in a third world country? Is Costa Rica a third world country? What makes a country third world? With a literacy rate in the upper 90’s, health care for everyone, the longest life expectancy of any country in the world, a country that uses only wind, water or geothermal energy for power, and free college education Costa Rica can’t be third world.

The turmoil eventually settled down, and people got used to the idea. Although we still felt tension around some family members. The real estate market in Florida was going crazy, and we decided to quit our jobs in order to get the houses on the market as soon as possible.

I spent the last 13 years working as charge nurse in the newborn intensive care unit at our local hospital. Steve served in the Air Force for 12 years, was stationed in Turkey and Greece and was active during the first Gulf War.

He worked the last 9 years for the local grocery store chain as a mechanic. We quit on Labor Day 2005 and spent the next few months, getting the houses on the market and preparing for the move.

We found an attorney who helped up set up a Costa Rican corporation. We moved some of our retirement funds into a self directed IRA, so we could use that money to fund part of our corporation. Things were starting to fall into place. It seemed that what once seemed so impossible was becoming possible!

Starting to pack was a reality check. What are we doing? Maybe we really are crazy? Are we really leaving our life in the USA? Leaving the family and friends that were only a phone call away?

Taking time to regroup, we refocused, talked to our Costa Rican friends, looked over our PPP and got back to the list. What should we bring? How should we bring it? We looked at the options and eventually decided to take what we absolutely needed on the plane, and pay the extra baggage charge.

Our Golden Retriever, Chloe, was our next big decision. Chloe is afraid of thunder, has a sensory problem that makes her go through doorways backwards and frequently got lost in our backyard.

Should we bring a dog like this to the jungle? In the end, we couldn’t bear to give her up, so we crated her up, gave her some Xanax and brought her with us. She has made the transition to life in Costa Rica gracefully, and most of her psychological and sensory issues have resolved.

Even the dog is less stressed out in Costa Rica.

She made friends with Negro, the dog that came with our farm. Negro taught her to herd the cows, wallow in the mud, and swim in the river. She is happy being a real working dog. It was no problem bringing her into the country. We decided to fly on Martin Air, they allow the most baggage, and have a climate controlled area for pets. When making reservations, they made sure there was room for the dog before they booked us on the flight. We ended up bringing 16 – 70 pound bags and the dog, we paid $825 extra for the luggage and the dog.

We packed and stored other bags to be brought on subsequent trips. Tools, good linen, dishes, silverware and kitchen gadgets are some of the things we brought on our first trip.

We took out a major medical health insurance policy with a $10,000 deductible. To be valid you must remain out of the US for 6 months per year. Until we get residency, we will have this to fall back on if we come down with a major illness.

Next we needed to decide where we wanted to live. In the summer and fall of 2005 we traveled to Costa Rica, to look for a place to rent. Over the last 12 years we had traveled to many locations, but we found ourselves being drawn to the Volcan Arenal area.

We found a house to rent in Cuidad Quesada about a one hour drive from La Fortuna. Our new friends, Fred and Amy Morgan lived in the city, and encouraged us to start out in this community, to learn the language and get acclimated to the culture and way of life in Costa Rica.

They helped us find a Spanish teacher, Sylvia. Sylvia was their maid, but our teacher. Sylvia came over 2 days a week and helped us get around town, run errands, drilled us in Spanish and facilitated our immersion into the Costa Rica culture. Thank you Sylvia!

On February 14th, 2006 we said goodbye to Florida and hello to Costa Rica. Our friends Hector and Christine Ramirez found us a perfect piece of land near La Fortuna with unbeatable views of Volcan Arenal. They helped us through the property buying process in Costa Rica.

At this time our plans for this 26 acres of paradise include carefully planned reforestation, building 5-7 up-scale cabins to sell and will provide rental management for the owners.

We will maintain the land surrounding the cabins. It’s a condo concept, but with cabins. The community property will include the barn, garden area, trails, fishing pond and nature areas situated on the property.

The list continues…

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Written by Steve and Debbie Legg

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