Costa Rica
Costa Rica was the beginning of our grand adventure. In October of 2017, we flew off to a 2 month housesitting gig in the small town of Matapalo. Matapalo has a 12km stretch of beautiful beach that, so far, is fairly undeveloped by the tourism industry. Possibly one of the last untouched beaches in Costa Rica.
We finished our first 2 month housesitting job and immediately got hired to housesit a couple doors down on the same beach. All in all, we spent 4.5 months hanging out in this perfect paradise. We had monkeys visiting our house daily by swinging in the trees and jumping on the roof. We had frequent sightings of sloths and toucans, plus turtles and more!
It was the perfect landing place for us after such a crazy whirlwind of selling all of our possessions, finishing renovating our house and wrapping up our life in Canada. If you are interested in reading about the beginnings of that story, click here.
Although heavily touristed, Costa Rica has one of the worlds richest biodiversities on the planet. The flora and fauna are absolutely out of this world, and is a must visit for nature lovers, bird watchers and botanists alike!
This collection of blog posts outlines our experiences of arriving in Costa Rica, plus those of staying in Matapalo. Arriving in the tropics during the rainy season was enlightening to say the least. Chris had never experienced rain like that, and we also survived our first major earthquake!
All in all, Costa Rica was a great introduction to Central American life and we loved our time there! These posts are all from my Just Some Wandering Blog and are a mix of destination guides, thoughts and feelings about our letting go process and day to day events of our life on the beach.
Traditional Living in costa rica - part one
The bus ride was a typical one, driving quickly down paved highways, weaving along the coastline of the Gulf of Nicoya, until all of a sudden we took a sharp, right hairpin turn onto a gravel road. After 2 hours on the road, we were finally headed into the mountains. Immediately there was a sign that said Monteverde 35km. I commented to Chris that surely it can’t take 2 more hours to go 35 kilometres. However, I was sorely wrong!
(A blog post from Jill’s blog Just Some Wandering)
traditional living in costa rica - part two
We awoke at about 8:30 the next morning to see blue sky and sunshine peeking through our bedroom curtains. I jumped out of bed and ran straight to the double front doors and swung them open. Spread out before us was a magical green carpet, rife with plants of every description, birds flying this way and that, hummingbirds drinking the nectars of the flowers, and a slight breeze carrying unbelievably sweet smells which floated across the landscape.
(A blog post from Jill’s blog Just Some Wandering)
Busing to Samara – Costa Rica
We arrived in Samara at around 3:00pm, 9 hours after we had left Monteverde that morning. The bus dropped us off on the street, basically right at our hostels front door. We spoke quickly to the owner, and found out the price. Good enough! We had arrived. No more stinky, sweaty buses…….it was time to get this birthday celebration on the road!
(A blog post from Jill’s blog Just Some Wandering)
La Casa Naranja – Arriving at night to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
I have to say though, at this point, I was a little sceptical that we would find this place at all. It was dark and raining, and we were supposed to be looking for an orange house down a dark alleyway.
(A blog post from Jill’s blog Just Some Wandering)
A Visit to Samara, Costa Rica – Destination Guide
We spent 6 days in Samara, located half way down the Nicoya Peninsula. It had a great chill vibe, and a funky beach town atmosphere!
(A blog post from Jill’s blog Just Some Wandering)
Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica – Destination Guide
As we were only staying for 2 nights, our main priority was to go to Manuel Antonio National Park. Chris had yet to see wild monkeys, and I knew that this was the place to be guaranteed a sighting.
(A blog post from Jill’s blog Just Some Wandering)
Troubles in Paradise!
Now, as you can imagine, having water coming into a house provides more then just drinking water. It provides water to wash dishes and to wash ourselves, but MOST importantly, it provides precious water to flush the toilets!
(A blog post from Jill’s blog Just Some Wandering)
Experiencing a 6.8 Earthquake!
In the end, and after all is said and done, and as a lover of experiences, I have to say that I am glad to have experienced this one! I have never been afraid of anything like this, I figure nature will do what nature will do, we really have no control anyways, but it’s nice to actually know what really goes on, and honestly, it wasn’t that bad.
(A blog post from Jill’s blog Just Some Wandering)
thoughts on being busy
Now that I am over 2 years down the line from this post, I laugh at some of the sentiments in this post. However, I also have to honour that it is exactly where I was at the time, and it’s nice to look back and realize just how much I have grown through this process.
(A blog post from Jill’s blog Just Some Wandering)
Some Observations of Costa Ricans…..
In Costa Rica, it truly is the land of Pura Vida. People have TIME for each other. It isn’t normal to just say hi quickly, and then be on your way. What’s normal is stopping, and actually talking. Looking people in the eye, and asking them how they are doing, asking them how their day was or is. Taking the time to connect with each other and respect and appreciate each other.
(A blog post from Jill’s blog Just Some Wandering)
Like what you see? Visit the Countries tab to see more!
