Costa Rica Cost of Living Update: Trawick COVID insurance to visit Costa Rica for 90 days—$40 to $60

I remember first moving to Costa Rica, coming off a stressful job and looking for a moment to exhale. It’s easy to assume that having a moment to breathe and the stillness it brought was a sign of laziness or boredom. I’ve heard that a lot over the years.

But stillness does the opposite. It gives clarity, and clarity feels like momentum. Not the speed of a racecar driving around a track, but more like a moving walkway at an airport, quietly standing next to your carry-on while looking down at the food court below.

Our fourteen years in Costa Rica have taught us how to live life. Simply. Honestly. Living abroad and adapting to a different culture is one of the biggest adventures anyone can have in their lifetime. You can no longer approach obstacles with the same rigidness you had before. Instead, you learn to be flexible and bend in the wind like a willow branch.

When COVID hit, I got extremely sick after a flight back from the States. Rob raced me to a hospital in Liberia, and true to my husband, we didn’t have enough gas in the tank. We barely coasted to a gas station where I whispered to Rob the location of all the passwords to our computer. It’s weird the stuff that goes through your mind when you think you’re dying and your husband barely knows how to open his email account.

After I recovered, I had problems with my lungs, especially during the rainy season. Each full breath felt like a struggle, and walking the mountain became a Herculean feat. Costa Rica was on lockdown, and we weren’t allowed to leave the country without risking losing our residency. We couldn’t get home to see our aging parents when they needed us the most. It’s all I thought about during those walks. Of all the things you try to plan for, this wasn’t in the Pisani’s Costa Rica Escape Manual.

But in the mess of that year, good things started happening. Our Pacific Heights lot which has been problematic for 14 years, finally got a water letter. Without it, you can’t get a building permit. We put it up for sale on Happier Facebook and it is now in escrow. We also own another property that has a view of the long-anticipated Flamingo Marina. It’s located in a struggling development called Rincon Largo where water letters are still not available. We ultimately want to build Happier House Dos there, or in another growing development. The future is wide open and I know something great is about to happen.

During this year, Rob and I felt forward momentum again. The same feeling we had when we quit our jobs and moved to Costa Rica. We started daydreaming about other adventures that were waiting for us. But the toughest thing about new adventures is letting go of the old ones. It’s always difficult leaving your comfort zone. Some days I wonder what it would have been like if I stopped moving and stayed in one place. But I’m an insufferable dreamer and refuse to believe that there is a cap to the people you’ll meet or the happiness that fills your heart.

Our plans have shifted but the goals remain the same, live freely, happily, and continue writing about all of it. I would love to spend time in Ireland. Or Switzerland. Split our time in Costa Rica with other places around the world. But most importantly, we need to be around for our parents.

Our goal is to become snowbirds, spend much of the year in Costa Rica and some of our time elsewhere. I’m not sure how this plan will work, but I’m flexible, bending each day, letting go of the old, and making room for the new. Holding onto The Happier House made this plan impossible. Selling it was the right choice. It gave us the freedom and finances to jump onto another rollercoaster ride.

So now we are on a quest to get this water letter for our Flamingo Marina lot. It will take many trips to the municipality, many more odd encounters with people who insist they can help us but can’t. It’s one piece of a puzzle that can have us building again. There was a time when I gave up on that dream and I felt this loss was just part of the story. But maybe getting a water letter to that lot will be the biggest surprise of all. Or maybe we will find a completely new community eager to work with those crazy Happier people.

I’m strapping into this rollercoaster and ready for the rickety ride it will take me on. We are back to owning only a handful of belongings. And a cat. We are taking Sabertooth with us wherever we go. She is hard to strap in but I couldn’t leave her behind. She’s as much a part of the story as anything else and a piece of Costa Rica that we’ll take with us.

The lesson I learned this year is that you can’t plan for everything, and letting go may be the only way to get your momentum back. I can feel the lightness and freedom to travel down another road. One that I’m sure will be dirt, on top of a mountain, surrounded by the things that inspire me the most.

And like Rob always says, “How bad can it be?” Only this time we made sure we will be traveling on a full tank of gas.