We alternated our winter vacations between Hawai'i and Mexico. Never did decide which we liked the best-though after he caught a rough case of Montezumas Revenge, be eating and drinking in a little town outside Puerto Villarta, I think he leaned towards Hawai'i.
A place we talked about a great deal was Costa Rica. The idea of a fairly close, inexpensive tropical country where the expat could live nicely on retirement wages really appealed to us both.
Russ especially liked some of the national policies, such as no standing Army since the late 1940s, national health care and education.
I had the good fortune to spend time in Costa Rica in 2006 and fell in love with the country, the people and the customs.
People are polite there. Politeness is instinctive in the culture of the Tico. Inquiries about your reason for being in the country, what you have done, what you want to do, how much you like what you have seen, how cute your granddaughter is, how tall your daughter is and how well you rested were common during our stay.
Many Norteamericanos go to Costa Rica for dental work and cosmetic surgery. I am one of them. In November, 2008, I am going to have extensive dental work done. For some reason, this year I lost 3 teeth and had 2 root canals. While I do have dental insurance, it was quickly eaten up after the first root canal, examinations, cleanings and so on. The second root canal was totally out of pocket. They were over $1000.00 each, not including the crown which priced out at about another thousand dollars each. The pulled teeth were only about $150.00 each, but I was left with gaping holes in my mouth and looking at a total cost of over $12,000.00 for the implants and crowns and bridges I needed to get my teeth looking normal.
There are lots more fun things I can think of to spend that much money on, if I even had that much money. I thought I would, until the economy took a dump and plans to sell my house became nothing more than a dream.
So I decided to check out Costa Rica for dental work. And I am going to do it. Along with the dental stuff, I'm taking a week of intensive spanish, which includes salsa dancing in the afternoons, as well as outings to local dives to show off our dancing and linguistic abilities.
On top of that, I was asked to house sit by a woman I met in an online forum about Costa Rica, so I have a place to stay for free, near the bus line into San Jose where the school and dentist are. Things seemed to just fall in place for me.
I travelled a lot by myself when I was a young adult. The early 1960s were notorious for teenagers and young people in their VW's, heading down the highway to the next concert or place to hang out, beach or cabin in the mountains where everyone crashed on the floor.
I travelled when I had one child too. We went everywhere together in my VW Bug, top down, surfboard sticking out the back. This was pre seatbelts and I am appalled at the thought that we both could have been tossed easily from the car in an accident.
As I got older, had more children, got an actual job that I had to show up to every day, traveling ceased to be as important as it was. The freedom of the road didn't call to me too much, though the kids remember times we'd just get in the car and go someplace for the weekend, sleep in the car and explore a new city or new beach. We even had a truck and camper for six or seven years and went all over the Northwest, as well as a long and fun filled trip to Southern California.
I remember all those travels and wonder what it will be like to be by myself again. I don't mind my own company, I like to read and listen to music, I'm taking my computer and hope there will be internet access for me, but if not I can always write or watch movies on the computer. Where I am house sitting, there is no TV and thats ok with me as I don't watch much TV now-I was hooked during the run up to elections but that's over and the TV has been quiet here at home for almost a week.
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