The summer before my senior year we were living by the lake in my hometown of Bellingham, WA. I had traveled outside of the US with my family but never lived anywhere else. Four weeks before I was about to start my senior year, my parents sat down my 14-year-old brother and me to tell us we were moving to Costa Rica.
Crazy news, but my mom has always wanted to move, so I wasn't as surprised as you might expect.
After packing most of our stuff in a storage unit and finding new homes for all our cars, four weeks later we were driving to the airport at 1 am with 14 bags, a family of four, and a golden retriever.
After checking our bags it was a breeze as our dog Tia is the most chill dog out there and we had no trouble with her. She was registered as my emotional support animal so she could sit with us in the cabin. She laid at our feet for both flights. My mom gave her some sleep medication, which probably helped.
Upon arrival, we lived in an airbnb for the first couple weeks to get settled and find a place. My brother went to a school called Tide academy which is an alternative school with extremely small class sizes and laid back curriculum. He went to school four days a week four hours a day.
I went to a school called Costa Rica International Academy which was more of a classic American style high school, but still with very small class sizes compared to what I was used to.
This is a photo of me at the top of the balcony of our first Airbnb in Tamarindo, wearing my school uniform. It was in apartments called Villa Verde.
Monkeys were everywhere at school...
In our new home, my mom's job was to find a more permanent place to live while my dad worked on buying a car.
I flew on this tiny airplane with my dad one weekend to San Jose, the capitol city of Cost Rica to translate for him while he looked at cars.
My mom found us a dreamy house that we would later learn wasn't necessarily in our ideal location. However it was a gorgeous view, and very comfortable.
Oh and did I mention, my brother brought his own mini trampoline with him to Costa Rica?
My dad found us an awesome family car that could handle the rough mud and dirt for our weekend road trips around the country.
The first after school activity my brother and I signed up for was surf camp.
It was a great learning experience for both my brother and I, but despite looking super good on a surf board, I decided it wasn't my sport. ;)
Costa Ricans take independence day almost more seriously than Americans. They are a very peaceful and progressive country, despite all the hardship they have been through politically. On independence day, school is cancelled because all streets are blocked by parades.
The thing I miss most about Costa Rica was the tropical fruit. Despite the fact that food we were used to was extremely overpriced in Costa Rica due to import taxes, the endless supply of pineapple, watermelon, mango, and lychee made it all worth it.
My mom had a hilarious idea to carve fruits instead of pumpkins for Halloween.
My favorite new skill I learned in on this adventure was getting my dive license. We everything from sharks to turtles to manta and eagle rays.
This is the common traditional costa rican dish called a casado. The amount of times I ate this for breakfast lunch and dinner...
But I miss it so much.
In order to escape the unbearable heat of the desert coast, we often escaped to the rainforest of Arenal or Rio Celeste.
The wildlife in these regions is incredible. I felt like I was in a zoo because of the endless amounts of animals there were to see.
It was always so much fun to go on night tours to see the crazy nightlife.
The spiders were a little creepy though, and very dangerous! This orange spider has enough poison to kill 25 men!
When traveling, one easy and one way to support the country is by volunteering at a dog rescue. It is fun and adorable.
There was so much else to Costa Rica and our adventure, if you are thinking of visiting or moving don't hesitate to contact us! I would love to share more about my experience!
The capuchin monkey says goodbye and thank you for reading!
Be sure to check out the episode on Life in Costa Rica!
Bye for now!
Milan
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