We Have Landed...AND....We Love It....

                                                                                               

"The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Create It"

                                                                                            Abraham Lincoln

We Have Arrived Safely With ALL our Suitcases!

Hola from Atenas, Costa Rica!  Roxi and I have arrived and we cannot believe we have been in this beautiful country for over three weeks.  As the saying above indicates, "the one way to predict the future is to create it" – and we are creating a whole new life internationally.  Not that our “old” life was bad, it wasn’t, but how exciting to have an opportunity to do what we are doing as “happening senior women”.  I like the “happening” part of our identifier….can’t quite believe we fall into that “senior” category yet.  Never!

We have had many pleasant experiences and associations already.  The people of Costa Rica are so kind, warm and helpful.  In spite of not knowing the language except for a few basic greetings, they bend over backwards to help us communicate.  We will be starting to learn Spanish beginning July 18 – two hours per week with lots of homework.  Our teacher comes highly recommended and starts with the basics – guess she knows how we gringos can butcher the language, so starting with the basics will be good.  She charges $30 for a two-hour session for both of us – we’ll see how it goes.

The House of our DREAMS - Got It!!!!

Here's our DREAM Home
in Vista Atenas!!!

Many of you have asked about our living arrangements and whether we found that DREAM house in Atenas yet.  We did!!!!  Our realtor, Isabelle Jones, from Go Dutch Realty helped us snag this lovely home - we looked at eight rental properties and this one had our name on it!  Unfortunately, we cannot move in until August 31 because it is rented until then.  However, the owner (from Arizona), agreed to rent it to us long-term.  The funny thing is that I saw this home many times over the last several months and was salivating over it, but knew it was out of our price range and was only available as a short-term rental.  Low and behold, timing was just right and she decided to rent it long-term with a one-year contract.  Aren't those "sisters in transition" lucky?   It is a furnished two-bedroom, two bath home with a guest house and private pool.  Did I mention a view, too?  And gated?  Although the monthly rent may seem high (and it is) at $1,600,  we think it will be well worth it - we are only $100 over our budget for our home.  Will we live in this home longer than a year?  We hope so!  This expense is obviously our highest expense, just as anyone's mortgage or home rental is typically.    More home pics.

From the Living Room Looking Out

And Look At What is Outside!!!

But...Where Are We Living Now?

Our Apartment (bottom level)
 in Hacienda Atenas

We needed an apartment for two months...and one was available with our name on it (of course)!  We are staying at  Casita Mango, about two miles from the center of Atenas - and paying $850/month.  The owners, Pete and Stef live on the premises in their own beautiful home and share their lovely pool with us.  See more on this property.

What Have We Been Up To?

Well, believe it or not, we have accomplished quite a bit in a very short period of time.  We have submitted all our paperwork to ARCR (Association of Residents of Costa Rica) to help guide us thru the process to establish residency.  They’ve been most helpful and the paperwork is now in the hands of Immigration.  We are told you could be approved within 1 month, 2 months, 6 months, 1 year or longer.  We’re hoping it’ll be less than that, of course!  Once we are approved we will be able to secure local public medical insurance (Caja) for about $50/each per month.  One interesting task on the day we turned in our papers for residency, our attorney took us to the police station to get fingerprinted, which is a requirement before getting your residency approved.  But, we had to have four photo's of each of us (similar to passport pictures) to submit to the police.   Well, right outside the police station, before being frisked, we stepped over to a side wall where a true entrepeneur was at work, snapping pictures and printing them right then and there for just $8 - did I say this was a mug shot?   Oh, that can't be right....anyway, $8 later we had our four pictures in hand ready to enter the police station.   This police station - which seemed to date back to the 50’s in looks and operation had a very small room with about 8 clerks tackling the recording of your information.  After 30 minutes of logging in information by hand, asking questions, looking at our passports, looking at our paperwork, looking at the computer, and discussing in spanish with their peers, we were done - oh, did I mention how much "stamping" goes on here in Costa Rica?  Every piece of paper has to be stamped, then re-stamped and maybe another stamp for good measure. 



Ex-Pats Sharing Lunch After Church
(Roxi's on the left)

We opened bank accounts.  We’ve got a post office box.  We have a cell phone (for use in Costa Rica only).  We have gone to church – once a month they have bilingual church – as well as to “English” church on Wednesday nights.  We've been to the US Embassy already (to get Roxi's social security paperwork for residency purposes). We attended a two-day seminar in San Jose sponsored by ARCR on living in Costa Rica.  Although good, we could not wait to get back to our home in Atenas and away from the rush, rush of San Jose!

Sea Bass at Guanacaste Restaurant

We explored three grocery stores so far (and yes, purchased from each).  We've been out to several restaurants, too - our favorite is called Guanacaste, an open air, outdoor setting  - they absolutely have the best grilled sea bass for $8....and yes, that is where we will be taking all our visitors who come to Costa Rica!  
 

Yours truly (Judy) relaxing!

We swim about 4 to 5 times each week - someone's gotta do it!  We’ve  been exploring the downtown area to become familiar with our new community.   We have been caught twice in a huge downpour – once without umbrellas!  Roxi has read four books already.  We’ve been to Kay’s here in Atenas twice; she’s from the States and her  restaurant is a gathering place for ex-pats.  They have a lending library with 1000 books!  And we thought we'd run out of books - we’ll have reading for years to come, thanks to Kay's.

Roxi with our friends Judy & Don
(showing us the ropes)

Look at those colors!!!

We’ve explored two different feira’s (farmer’s market) – our very own in Atenas and one in Grecia, about 20 miles from Atenas.  Fresh fruits, veggies & flowers!

People Connections

Wow, we have already met a ton of people in Atenas - mostly ex-pats at this point.  Just like in the United States, people are recognizing us as “the sisters” (in transition, of course).  Our friends, Don & Judy introduced Atenas to us and we are not disappointed; they have been so helpful in paving the way for us in settling in here in Costa Rica.  We hope we can pay it forward for others as so many have done for us!

Lunch in Grecia with Shirley and Mary
(those ice tea drinks were to die for)

Thru church, we’ve met others, too.  Shirley and Mary took us under their wing for an outing to Grecia last week.  We were anxious to see Grecia as we had read so much about the community….but to get there you must cross “scary bridge” – yes, that is what everyone calls it.  Although I don’t have a picture, it is a small, wobbly bridge that really is a little "scary" to cross over -  and you don’t want to look down – it’s a long way to the bottom of the ravine with massive flowing water.  We are going to Sarchi on Friday with 10 women (look out Sarchi) for a little painting class (look out art teacher), then lunch, then maybe a look-see at their rocking chair factory - they have the best rocking chairs here. 

Lunch in Alajuela with Pete & Stef

Pete and Stef, our new landlords at the apartment, have been wonderful in helping us network and connect in the community.  Stef is trying to "recruit" Roxi and me to help with their big Chili Cook-Off fundraiser in February.  Accountant Roxi and Fundraiser Judy will likely step up!!!  Right now we are looking for a vehicle.  I test drove one about a week ago but it was over our budget.  We are either catching rides into town with Pete, Stef, friends or a taxi.  Taxi from our apartment into town is about $5 and we get Walter or Adolfo - both speak English to help us gringos.

A Few Observations

• It’s more expensive here in some respects than what we thought.  Going out to lunch or dinner, for example, could run $15-20 for two (meal and drinks).  Kinda like back home.  Can be less depending on where you go. 
• Groceries in the store tend to be higher than what we anticipated, but feel that we can lower our costs once we get settled into our home and get in a routine.
• Farmer’s Market is fabulous and offers great fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc., and very reasonably priced.  For example, a small pineapple was 60 cents.  Bag of 7 chili peppers was about $1.  A bag of small red onions was around 60 cents.  There are many items we haven’t a clue what they are, what they taste like, how to cook them – we’ll learn!
• A large majority of vehicles are diesel and it is $6/gallon, but regular gas is a little cheaper.
• There are tolls to be paid when on some of the “main” highways here in Costa Rica.  For example, for us to go to San Jose (about 35 minutes away) we go thru three tolls - for a total of about $2 each way. 
• One way Taxi trip into San Jose is about $60 (yes, you read that right), but you could take a bus for only about $1 or so. 
• From the San Jose Airport to Atenas, a taxi is about $40 to $45....this will be how our visitors will get to us.

Do We Really Love It Here?

Outside our Apartment
(sharing the land together)

We absolutely love it here so far, in spite of our little creature "friends".  Here's our one complaint - we hate when night falls because the beauty of Costa Rica cannot be seen (but the sweet sounds from birds still can).  Night falls here around 6pm each night, 365 days a year.  Hard to get use too...but we are managing!  We rise early each morning to enjoy the the beauty as the day unfolds.  Everyday we say "we can't believe we did this" and continue to feel fortunate that we could.

Hey readers - I have been posting several pictures (a little more regularly than my blog post) on my Facebook page.  If you'd like to "friend me" (Judy Timson), then you can see more pics and comments on our daily life.  I will try and post a little more frequently on our blog (so it won't be too long like this one), but you know, we are so busy living the pura vida life - who has time to sit in front of a computer - ha!

Please join our blog as a follower (upper right-hand corner) and feel free to forward these blog posts outward.  We love your comments and appreciate your support.   

Judy and Roxi
Costa Rica Sisters in Transition
Judy's email:  jteci@yahoo.com
Roxi's email:  roxidixon@yahoo.com