Living in Costa Rica retirement relocation tours.

When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going

Even I have had enough discussion on what to do in Iraq. President Bush must be utterly full up with suggestions. One of the comments during a discussion about the war among ambassadors and army brass has stuck with me: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” As President Bush is exploring the various roads to success in Iraq, I wonder if that phrase has applied to my own life. Many times I didn’t know where I was going until I was almost there. More often than not, I have lucked out. (Or is it lucked in?) My coming to Costa Rica and the moves I have made since I’ve been here have been pretty much unplanned.

As my retirement approached, I did consider what I was going to do. I knew that continuing to live in the United States was not financially feasible unless I moved to a small town totally off the beaten path and therefore where rents were reasonable. I like a city. Like most people in the U.S. I knew little about Costa Rica, but when one of my poker pals told me her uncle had moved here and was very happy, I decided it wouldn’t hurt to visit. But first I spent a month in Mexico on Lake Chapala with a friend. I did not feel at home there.

I made three visits to Costa Rica and on my third one, as I was walking to catch a bus in Escazu the day before I was to leave, I saw a young woman come out of a house and get into a Volkswagen. She waved to her friend in the house and called, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” As she said that I felt a wave of envy wash over me. I wanted so to be able to say, “I’ll see you again tomorrow.” Again and again. That’s when I knew that I was moving to Costa Rica.

Any move means an adjustment period with discomfort and disappointments as well as the joys that come with the breakthroughs. This is especially true in another country where the language and culture are different. I have had my share of both. From time to time I have felt like the ‘ugly American.’ My physical therapist, Karen, recently gave me the comforting opinion that Ticos generally like gringos because we come here not to take but to add to the economy by buying or renting property and giving people work. She also said that as patients we work harder, have a positive attitude and do our homework. (I am not sure that with that last statement didn’t have the hidden agenda of getting me to work hard on my broken wrist.)

Once arrived, I moved a number of times. I saw my last apartment because I was looking at it in order to recommend it to a possible someone else, but it had picture windows and a balcony and I decided I wanted to live there myself. When conditions became unlivable in that apartment, my new friend Alexis said we were going looking.

After more than a dozen years in Costa Rica, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I know that if I returned to the States the adjustment probably would be more than I could handle.

Meanwhile on Sunday at the Little Theatre’s Blanche Brown Theatre there was a benefit concert by the Costa Rican string quartet, El Ebano. It was for the Angel of Love Foundation’s Tom and Norman Home for abandoned old people, a cause that Don Paco Havener has supported for many years – and he himself just celebrated his 88th birthday. One of the pieces Ebano, played was entitled “Military March,” but violinist and spokeswoman Mercedes Rodriguez said they didn’t like that title so they were not calling it that and were looking for another name. I thought, “March of the Penguins?” but didn’t suggest it. I also thought, how wonderfully Costa Rican.

There have been two big displays of fireworks in Sabana Park this past week and my bedroom balcony has a ringside seat. I remembered that my other apartment on the hill also had a great panoramic view of the fireworks in the same location. No military fireworks, but a celebration of the coming holidays. Once again I have lucked out — on all counts — in Costa Rica.

Jo Stuart is the author of the popular book about life in Costa Rica entitled, “Butterfly in the City.” To order a copy of her wonderful book please contact her at: jostuart@amcostarica.com