Four Days of Retirement in Costa Rica

We are retired!

I am sitting on the front porch of our rented house looking out to lovely landscaped gardens of fruit trees, ornamental plants such as croton, hibiscus, drancena, palm trees, gomphrena and more all bordered by a stream and river. The river in back of the house has rapids and waterfalls. Been too cool to go swimming in the swimming holes created by the rocks but sure is something on my “do to list”.

Side of our rented house, beautiful gomphrena grow constantly

But I am getting ahead of myself...

Day One

Left freezing Michigan (I do love Michigan, really! It will always be my home state) at 2:30am, our friend Tony drove us with his wife Kay getting up with us to make coffee and tidbits. Kay would have gone with us to the airport but no room in the car as we had 2 large suitcases, 3 large boxes (paid extra for these) and 4 carry-ons. First plane went well but connecting flight put us behind schedule by 4 hours due to the original and its replacement plane having mechanical problems. To top it off we couldn't leave after 3 hours of delays because 4 people went outside for a smoke and since their luggage was on the plane (and they didn't board with us) we couldn't take off until their luggage was located and removed according to TSA regulations. They were thrown off the flight. There was a collective sigh when pilot announced we were taking off without them.

Even though we arrived in San Jose very late, Kevin (our guy coordinating our move and residency) took us to the bank and phone store along with showing us the way to our hotel and where to find dinner. What a guy! We still accomplished all we had planned for the day, amazing!

Day Two

Had a leisurely outside breakfast at the hotel and then left for southern Costa Rica. Stopped for lunch at a “soda” after driving for a couple hours. “Sodas” are family owned small restaurants with outside covered eating areas. We took a chance at picking one and came up with a winner! For 20.00 bucks we had our largest meal of the day, too full to eat another bite.

Is this too busy? You decide...

As we were driving along the Pacific coastal highway, we drove right by a big size sloth creeping out into the road. John (who never has turned me down for a request to turn around) said we were in too much of a hurry to stop and take pictures! Pictures of a sloth crossing a highway and possibly helping him cross without getting hit!!! What happened to retirement!?!? I just prayed for the little fellow to have someone else stop (they did) and haven't let John forget since that we missed a chance to take pictures of a sloth crossing the road!

Would have posted a picture of a sloth crossing the road here

As we arrived to a nearby coastal city to Serenity, we called Randy, the guy preparing the rental house and letting us in, that we were an hour away from arriving as we needed to buy groceries and climb the mountain. When we arrived his workers were scrambling to hook up plumbing, fix door latches, wire lighting and clean the floors. They were here another 3 hours finishing up. Guess we could have stopped for that sloth!

Day Three

More relaxed than other two days, have stayed at Serenity investigating our property, checking out a house being built across the street from us, visiting the building of the Community Center, walking along the biggest river to a gazebo down the trail and talking with people. The caretaker of Serenity, Aldemar, has been most helpful. I think he would give us the shirt off his back. We have to be careful what we ask or he would do just that with a big smile. Aldemar is a bachelor with a ready smile. When he heard we didn't have coffee mugs he brought us two, not just any knock around mugs, but probably his best mugs. When he heard we needed a broom he brought us a broom/mop. I keep asking if these things are just extras and he smiles and says, 'yes, yes!'' I am not convinced, a bachelor in a small house has extra stuff to lend!? And to top it all off he has two puppies that just love my attention, sleep in my lap and would stay here if he didn't carry them home. (He lives up the hill from us.)

 Trail down to river and gazebo

A very nice walk along river leads to a Gazebo

We have a greenhouse right across the street, about 60 feet away. It is full of lettuce, Malabar spinach, herbs (like basil, parsley, cilantro and sage) and green tomatoes. There are chickens (both layers and meat birds) right in back of our house. Two very noisy roosters made sure we were up at the crack of dawn. And I must say, sleeping on a blowup mattress sucks! Can't wait for our stuff to arrive. (John just brought me a bite of what we both thought was lettuce. Yiks! It bites! Must be lettuce looking mustard!)

 Our rented house

 

Today we picked a shopping bag full of mandarin lemons, several oranges and a sweet lemon, (don't know yet what that is like, Aldemar told us it was a sweet lemon.) We made lemonade with the lemons and sugar cane juice.  If you have never had a mandarin lemon and wondering what it is, let me say you would never go back to meyer lemons if you could use a mandarin instead.  They are simply wonderful! 

Unfortunately we don't have good phone service or internet. There is someone working on permits for towers but it is still in the works. I had to find a hot spot to send this to you. So no Vonage, no cell phones unless we go higher up the mountain (at our property it worked) and no internet at the rental house; which is a little lower elevation than our property and a lot lower than some other places in Serenity. Checking our texts once a day to keep up with emergencies and building process info.

 

Just got a text that someone living on our mountain complained towers are ugly so they have to do a government study and resubmit for permit.  Sounds like a long time coming...

Our hands were so dry and cracking in Michigan and already soft and supple, after just 2.5 days. I keep telling myself the humidity is “moisturizing.” I have freezy curly hair. Didn't want you think it was perfect here.

Day Four

Today we met with the prospective builder. He has built villas at Osa Mountain Village, Serenity's sister community. He is anxious to get his foot in the door at Serenity so willing to bend over backwards on price, service and promptness. He wants to start next week but we are still waiting to get our house plans back from the municipalities.

Heard today by email that our ship is detained another 1.5 weeks, too much cargo traffic. I gotta get used to that lovely air mattress, haven't yet.  Arrival for Costa Rica is slated Feb. 7th!! 

Love from Costa Rica,

Diane