The Countdown Has Started
We have less than a month before we load the 40 foot shipping container with everything we want to take with us to Costa Rica. Every thing must be packed carefully, more so than a move to the next town. The container will be on a ship that could incur rough seas so breakage is a real problem. I will pack the household goods, John is tackling those things that reside in the garages and barn. We both have a big job ahead. All boxes must be inventoried and numbered as we have to pay import taxes on it all.
We have sold a ton of stuff; this will be a much lighter move than any moves we have had in the past.
The car we bought for Costa Rica will go into the container last so it will be the first thing off the container when it arrives in CR. The guy we have hired that lives in Costa Rica, Kevin, will make arrangements to have the car inspected, licensed and fees paid to ready for our pick up. Kevin will also arrange to get our goods loaded into a truck to take down to southern CR and up the mountain to Serenity. The fee he charges is well worth it.
We will camp out in our Michigan house for a month, finishing up details, visiting people & selling things that didn't fit in the container plus John has a big project at work to finish. We will have 2 suitcases and 2 boxes of stuff to live 6 weeks with, 4 weeks here at the house and 2 weeks more in CR. We are trying to get by with minimal things but need some cooking and eating utensils and other important daily use items.
Our flight out of here is Jan. 13th, 2013 at 6am. We will stay in the San Jose area that day and night
so we can get a fresh start to head to southern Costa Rica and not arrive in the dark to the house we will be renting in Serenity Gardens Eco Village. We will be some of the first residents; we know the house we will live in, been past it several times.
If you look closely through the palm trees you can see a house off in the distance. That is the house we will be living in while our house is built. The house has two streams along the property, this one pictured and one closer nearby coming from another direction.
The rental house is next to two beautiful rocky streams and a lovely landscaped area; I am expecting to be quite content. Each day will seem like a vacation! Always thought it would be nice to live next to a stream or river. I have our grippy water shoes ready for river walks! The rivers and streams in CR are not cold like here in Michigan, the water feels nice.
View from what will be our closest neighbor's veranda. The house in the background is the house we will be temporarily staying in.
The house we are renting is unfurnished so we will be anxious to receive all our goods. We can live in it the whole time our house is being built just the next village road over, real close so we can keep on eye on the project.
This is a view from the road next to our temporary house.
This is the Octagon house, our nearest neighbor.
As you can see from the pictures, Serenity Gardens is not some crazy place some have pictured we are going to. Granted, it is remote and a bit of a climb to get to but once the village starts to fill up and the community center finished, it will feel like a real neighborhood. Just different. And we always have Osa Mountain Village (the sister community) to visit. Almost all the villas in OMV are sold and filled with lovely people, many of whom we have met and email back and forth with. As the crow flies OMV is not far from Serenity. What makes it a bit of a drive is going down our mountain and back up the mountain OMV sits on. But they are in the same mountain ridge.
