Wednesday, May 28, 2025: We are moving to Costa Rica for a year. The primary reason for our choice to live in Costa Rica is to visit our youngest son Adam and his Nicaraguan family at least 4-5 times over the year (June 1, 2025 – May 31, 2026). They live on Ometepe Island in Nicaragua, just over the Costa Rican border. From where we’ll be staying on Lake Arenal, it will be about a 4 1/2 hour trip one way by car to Ometepe. That of course is assuming a smooth and fast border crossing and the ability to get a car on the ferry to Ometepe in a timely manner.
We have rented a house in a gated community near Tronadora on Lake Arenal for the six-month period from June 1-November 30. We have an option to extend the lease to March 15, 2026. We can then opt to rent somewhere else in Costa Rica, or possibly stay in the home’s casita for the time when the owners are visiting the house. We wanted to see how we liked it before deciding to stay until March 15.
I had told Mike before the election that if the worst president on earth was elected, that I would absolutely want to live outside the country for at least 75% of his four-year term.In other words, we’re boycotting the U.S.A. It became immediately clear that billionaires would be corruptly lining their pockets and that a massive wealth transfer would take place from the poor and middle class to the upper 1%. I became determined that I would not stay in this country to pad those greedy bastards’ pockets. Also, all it takes is reading the book On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder to see that this country is headed to autocracy. That is the main factor that nudged us to make the move now.
The deadline we gave ourselves to move finally pushed Mike to retire. He’s 71, so his retirement has been long-promised and much delayed. As of May 1, he went on an hourly schedule (as needed) and as of May 30, he’ll be officially retired. He has arranged to be able to do some consulting with his company from Costa Rica, but it will be a small amount of time.
We have a general plan of where to move after our first year abroad, but as that may change, I won’t reveal full details now. All I know is that I hope it will involve at least some time in Europe and then a possible permanent move to Mexico or a part-time home in Greece or Spain. I definitely don’t have any plans to travel within the U.S. in the next four years. If our government continues down the path of outright fascism, I hope to sell our house and never return here to live.
It is Mike’s choice to live our first year abroad in Costa Rica, which adjoins the southern border of Nicaragua. I’m personally not that thrilled about it as heat and humidity are not things I enjoy; neither are bugs, poisonous snakes, bullet ants, and other unpredictable wildlife. Costa Rica is a different ballgame altogether with all of its adventure sports and active volcanoes. It is also one of the more developed of the Central American countries, and in some ways it seems rather Americanized. The sovereign state is a presidential republic. It has a long-standing and stable constitutional democracy and a highly educated workforce.
Costa Rican Colones
According to Wikipedia: Costa Rica: The country performs well in comparisons of democratic governance, press freedom, subjective happiness and sustainable well-being. It has the 36th freest press according to the 2025 Press Freedom Index (the U.S. is now 57th). With uninterrupted democracy dating back to at least 1948, the country is the region’s most stable. The country spends roughly 6.9% of its budget (2016) on education, compared to a global average of 4.4% (The U.S. spends 5.9%). Its economy, once heavily dependent on agriculture, has diversified to include sectors such as finance, corporate services for foreign companies, pharmaceuticals, and ecotourism. It is also a major tourist destination in the continent.
Costa Rica experiences a tropical climate year-round. There are two seasons. The dry season is December to April, and the rainy season is May to November. March and April are the hottest months in the country, while December and January are the coldest. However, there are rainy days in the dry season, as well as weeks without rain in the wet season.
Last time we went in January of 2023, we opted to try numerous adventure sports such as ziplining, tubing, and superman ziplining, as well as walks over hanging bridges and guided wildlife walks. I’m at the point in my life now where I don’t feel the need to do any more ziplining, but I’m still game for river tubing and hiking.
After having been there before, and especially after having fallen in love with the Tilaran area near Lake Arenal, I feel excited about the move. Of course seeing the Nicaraguan family is the main reason for the choice, and it will be wonderful to visit more often as the children continue to grow over the course of a year.
In addition to visiting Adam and family numerous times, we plan to fly home for less than 2 weeks in early October for our granddaughter Allie’s second birthday. Other than that, I don’t intend to come home at all. Mike may consider coming home to help his sister clean out their parents’ house in Vienna in February or so.
In addition, we would like to visit Panama in the fall of 2025, and Guatemala and Belize in the spring of 2026. That will allow us to completely explore the remainder of Central America other than Honduras, which I have no desire to visit. Our plan is to return home on May 31, 2026 and then leave again within two months, hopefully to the Scandinavian countries of Finland, Norway and Sweden. Our goal is to be home again in November and December of 2026, to vote in the midterm elections and to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with our adult children who are stateside. We hope to take off again for most of the entire year of 2027.
While we’re gone, our son Alex and his family will live in our house. Thus whenever we come home, we’ll be able to visit that family. If at some point they decide they no longer want to live here, we will consider selling our house.
We hope that both our daughter Sarah and Alex & family will come to visit us in Costa Rica. Of course, whenever we return home, we’ll make sure to see our daughter Sarah who now lives in Richmond.
Here are some posts about our previous trip to Costa Rica.
- anticipation & preparation: nicaragua & costa rica
- border crossings, beach wanders & ziplines near playa hermosa, costa rica
- adventures at hotel hacienda guachipelin
- parque nacional volcán tenorio & the río celeste
- a stop in tilarán, costa rica for a “cafecito”
- monteverde: a cloud forest immersion
- san josé, costa rica & homeward bound
I may start a new blog about our year living in Costa Rica, so stay tuned for more information.
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All the best. Looking forward to reading about your adventures in Costa Rica.
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Thank you, Sheetal. We’re here in Costa Rica now, and settling in nicely. 🙂
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Awesome!! Keep the spare room ready 🤣 Maggie
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Thanks, Maggie. We certainly will! 🙂
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How fabulous – you made it out! Enjoy your expat life.
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Thank you, Annette. Living abroad has its own set of challenges, but it’s also a great adventure that pushes us out of our comfort zone!
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I know you have strong feelings on the subject, Cathy, and we have an increasing number of Americans who feel the same coming here to live. There are obvious advantages to you in choosing Costa Rica, and I hope you’ll be happy there xx
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For sure I do have strong feelings about it, Jo. I’m lucky that we have the means to escape because I couldn’t stand living in the midst of the political chaos that is unfolding daily in the U.S. There is such cruelty by this administration and a definite slide into authoritarianism. I never imagined I’d see anything like this in the U.S. I hope everyone outside of the U.S. boycotts everything American, just like we’re boycotting our own country.
I’m sure there are lots of Americans trying to move to Europe; I would prefer to live in Europe, but it is so far from family. Plus there is the 90-day visa issue. Costa Rica has a 180-day tourist visa and since we’ll be leaving the country often for Nicaragua and even going home in October for two weeks, it shouldn’t be an issue. Our one year in Costa Rica was Mike’s choice because it gives us the chance to visit the family in Nicaragua often. Knowing something is only a year in duration makes it easy to handle, Jo. I did it in China, Korea and Oman and all of those had their own challenges. The weather here for me is the biggest challenge; Mike is more tolerant of heat & humidity; for me it means I could never live here longer than a year.
Anyway, we’ll see how it will all work out. So far, we’ve eased in to the first week; I actually am finding I love the rain. Rainy season here is May-November; every day there are afternoon storms which bring in cool air and breezes. Next week, we hope to get out and explore the surrounding areas. This week has been all about getting settled in and getting things we need for a long-term stay (#1 task today is going to Liberia to get big floor fans!).
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It’s an adventure too, Cathy. I envy you that aspect and I know you’ll make it work. There’s a new baby in our family causing lots of excitement at the moment. Lauren’s sister has been living with her boyfriend for a few years now. He ran the London marathon last year and proposed to her in public afterwards. Now they have first baby and he’s gorgeous. Babies bring so much love with them. Here’s to happiness xx
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It’s a big step, but you’ve obviously thought it well through. Best of luck with the move!
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It is a big step in a way, but also we still have our house, which we can sell if we want to move permanently. And we can return there any time. Luckily having our son and family living in the house makes it easier to do. Thanks for the good wishes. 🙂
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How wonderful! Congrats to Mike on his retirement! We considered retiring to Costa Rica for a hot minute but that wasn’t meant to be. Instead we moved back to Los Angeles where I grew up, where we met and got married. And I’m pleasantly surprised how much I like it. Interesting what time away and a different perspective changes things.
I don’t blame you at all but it is my hope that our democracy isn’t dead. I guess we’ll see. And I guess I’d rather be in a bright blue state while the worst so-called president ever destroys our country. I look forward to reading your blog from Costa Rica. It is so beautiful.
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I’m sure you love the nice warm weather in California, Toby. And at least it’s a liberal state. I hope that democracy isn’t dead, but every time I see these masked ICE agents kidnapping people off the streets, that scares the crap out of me. That is authoritarianism of the highest degree. And the constant ignoring of court orders. On the other hand, I’m cheered by the signs that people are resisting. I think of our move as a full-on boycott of the U.S. And I will keep speaking out online.
I hope you continue to enjoy your new life in L.A. At least you don’t have to shovel snow there! 🙂
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Best wishes! I hope it all works out for you and that you get lots of visitors.
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I hope we get some visitors too, Carol, but I hope not too many as apparently the owners of the Airbnb have spies around to report if we have other people in the apartment! It’s crazy b/c on Airbnb it says the place sleeps 8, so why should they care? Anyway, we have this place for 6 months and will move to another place for the second six months. It’s easy enough to do here, especially since we already bought a car.
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