Boy meets girl. They fall in love. They get married. With a spoon of perseverance and a cup of love, they gradually build together a life they call their own. Where will life take them next?
That was our life in Bangalore. Our journey of life crossed over different cities in India. But Bangalore is where we started spreading our roots deeper and wider.
Then, one fine day, an opportunity of living in Costa Rica knocked on our life. We had never considered living outside of our home country. But Costa Rica appealed to us. We started evaluating how to respond to that knock. Because our response could uproot our life from Bangalore. The more we read and the more we saw videos about the Pura Vida, the more we became intrigued about living in Costa Rica. Here are our top 5 reasons why we moved to Costa Rica.
1. Green country
Costa Rica holds the reputation of being a green country. Even in this modern world, when most countries are battling with severe carbon footprints. What sets Costa Rica apart from the rest is the amount of planning and effort that go in to make the best use of its natural resources.
More than 50% of Costa Rica today is forest cover. This number used to be around 20% not too long ago, few decades back. Basically, Costa Rica is one of the few tropical countries that have managed to reverse deforestation.
More than 90% of energy in Costa Rica runs on renewable resources. Costa Rica is currently aiming at carbon-neutrality and 100% renewable energy by 2021.
2. No military force for 70 years
We are from India and are aware of the amount of money our country has to spend on army, navy and air force to protect its citizens. India is also one of the few countries in the world that are armed with the devastating nuclear power. We are conditioned to believe that government expenditure on the defense of the country is a necessary investment. From a global point of view as well, most of the prominent nations invest heavily on their military forces.
On the contrary, Costa Rica is one of the 23 countries in the world that do not have any military presence. When I first learnt about it, I felt it was too good to be true. But Costa Rica indeed does not have any military force! The then President José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica had abolished the military practice after their win in Civil War of 1948. In today’s world, here is a country that does not believe in war. A country that supports peace and conflict resolution without violence. How Utopian is that?!
Who protects the country then?
- Fuerza Pública that works directly with Ministry of Public Security
- Unidad Especial de Intervencion (UEI) that works with the Minister of the Presidency
- The country also maintains alliances with other countries like United States who are expected to assist them in times of crisis, if any.
3. Education and Healthcare
With the huge savings made by withdrawing military, Costa Rica allocated the funds towards improving the two metrics that measure social development – healthcare and education.
Both private and public healthcare boast of modern infrastructure and facilities and skilled practitioners. In fact the country is even popular for something called ‘medical tourism’. It is where tourists come for medical treatment for cheaper cost yet better or as good quality of care as back home.
With a large network of private and public elementary schools, high schools and universities, the education system is among the best in the region. The literacy rate of the country stands at a sweeping 94.9%, way higher than the average for Central America, 79.4%.
Costa Rica’s spcial security system provides free access to public healthcare and public education to all its citizens and residents.
4. Nature galore
When we considered moving to Costa Rica, we beamed at the idea of getting easier access to traveling across Latin America and Caribbean. And Costa Rica by itself seemed to hold a lot of promise.
Have you seen Costa Rica on the world map? I mean, the size of it. Yes, this country is no more than a tiny dot on the world map. Yet, it houses six percent of the world’s natural biodiversity.
1254 km of Pacific coast on the west and 212 km of Caribbean to the east pack between them verdant mountain ranges. Home to six active volcanoes and dozens other dormant/ inactive ones, the country is flowing with lakes, rivers, streams, waterfalls and thermal hot springs.
More than 900 species of birds have been recorded across the country, many endemic to the region. Wildlife is also pretty common. Sometimes you do not even need to look beyond your backyard in order to spot birds or animals! Also, there are sloths! Remember that hilarious character from the movie Zootopia? This country has those animals for real!
So, all these acted like a bait to lure the traveler souls in us.
5. Pura vida
Several Happiness Index calculators rate Costa Rica as one of the happiness countries in the world. This includes a Rank 1 on the Happy Planet Index rankings. Supposedly the people in Costa Rica live by the motto of Pura Vida, that is, pure life. ‘Pure life’ is the literal English translation of the Spanish phrase Pura vida.
Pursuit of pure life. Isn’t that a global challenge among today’s urban youth who continuously struggle to strike a balance between ambition and peace of mind? How does Costa Rica seem to have it sorted? What exactly is Pura Vida? We had to discover that for ourselves!
On board that long haul flight
A country that does not believe in the theory of war. A country that invests instead in public healthcare and education. A country that is continuously winning over environmental threats that currently infect the whole world. A country that has ample travel opportunities. A country that values the quality of life over everything else.
With all these pointers, we painted a picture in our minds about moving to Costa Rica. To us, living in Costa Rica looked like a dream. Before we knew it, we had already boarded that long haul flight, with no return date in close sight. Yes, we gave in to the temptation and moved to Costa Rica.
P.S: Is life in Costa Rica actually the dream we imagined it to be? After all, we are no full-time travelers. So, how did the Costa Rica expat life unfold for us? To know more, wait for the next posts in this series! 🙂
yes i want to live this type of life style. i live with family very peacefully