Costa Rica and More!

It's been awhile since I've posted here but the past few weeks have been very busy and very wonderful!

We just got back from four weeks in Costa Rica and it was an amazing trip. We've been to Costa Rica many times and if you read our bio you know we're planning to retire there. If anyone is interested in going to Costa Rica and if we can be of any help, please do not hesitate to contact us. We spent the first week housesitting for friends in Quepos, a small town next to the national park, Manuel Antonio. From there we drove south about 40 km to Dominical where we had reserved a cabin right on the beach for two weeks. Now this cabin was right on the beach, the ocean was our front yard! We had a wonderful time there, going for our early morning walk on the beach, going back to the cabin to rebound, yes, we took our rebounder with us, and then having our delicious green smoothie/pudding. The fruit is so wonderful there and so inexpensive, we ate like a King and Queen!

We met so many wonderful people in this area, everyone was so friendly and helpful. We've been looking for a retirement property in Costa Rica for a couple of years now and, once again on this trip, much of our time was spent with realtors looking at all sorts of possibilities. Nothing really seemed right until we were shown a piece of property called "Little Orchard". It just seemed so right for us so we decided to put in an offer. Everything fell into place so perfectly and barring any unforeseen issues, we will be the proud owners very soon. We are very excited and are planning to move there in October 2008 if all goes as planned.

Another thing that really impressed us about this area were the people we met. There is a real community of like-minded people there. We met a number of organic farmers, a couple of raw-foodists, we spent a day hiking up a mountain to "The Cave", a very special spiritual place under a waterfall, where we spent the day just enjoying the energy and the new friends we met there. It was quite a hike, about two kms, but definitely worth it. It's very close to where we'll be living so I can see us making that hike quite regularly. We were huffing and puffing and had to stop quite often to catch our breath, and our guide, a teenage boy, wasn't even breathing hard!

The last week we spent three nights at a place called "Pacific Edge", just a lovely place with a fabulous view overlooking the ocean and beach for many miles. At this point we had everything done as far as acquiring the property, so we could just kicked back and relaxed. We were there three days and then headed to San Jose for the last three nights. We spent quite a bit of time in downtown San Jose, something we had never done in the past, and really enjoyed it. It's a very busy, congested city and I wouldn't go out of my way to spend a lot of time there but it is interesting and as long as you aren't in a hurry its fun. While in San Jose, we visited Casa Canada (Canada House) and everyone there was very helpful. If you are ever thinking of buying property in Costa Rica or moving there, I highly recommend using their services.

Well, this is getting pretty long so I think I'll leave it at that for today. I'll tell you tomorrow about what kept me so busy last week.

Sending you love, joy and peace.
Yvonne