My first look at Costa Rica was through honeymoon-tinted sunglasses.
I was in love, and ready to fall in love with the country.
The road out of San Jose was curvy, shockingly green, and filled with mom-and-pop stores.
Notably absent: big box retailers and road rage.
Our destination was a 107-mile straight shot from the airport to the coast, a little jewel of a spot, and I was ready to plop my behind into the warm Caribbean water.
What I wasn't ready for was the 5-hour drive it took to get there.
Costa Rica does not have huge interstate highways.
In fact, the roads are notorious for being in poor repair, and barely marked. |
| What IS this even?! |
But the tradeoff? More than made up for it.
We drove through a twisty mountain pass and a cloud forest that looked like it came straight out of the Jurassic.
Everywhere we turned, something was fruiting or flowering or both.
Those tropical plants from the garden store were there, in their native habitat, and they were HUMONGUS. I mean SERIOUSLY. Who knew that the variegated croton is actually a TREE?!
"This feels good. I could live here," I said to Husband, as we inched along behind a truck carrying a load of coffee cherries.
"I could too," he said. "This reminds me of home when I was a little boy."
And so it came to pass, two future expats in Costa Rica started asking questions and hatching ideas.
We had been in the country a grand total of 20 minutes.
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