Fred and Mary Holmes' Web Site

After the trip with George Lundquist we were pretty certain that we wanted to move to Costa Rica. But before we could there were a couple of things we needed to do to get ready.

First we had to convince our daughter, Jonna, that she and Mary could deal with being separated for long periods. I think she understood that we had to do something to downsize our lives or we would have to work forever, but I think she was a little unsure about Costa Rica, it being a foreign country and seeming a long ways away. In reality it is only a four hour flight away, actually closer than we would be if we moved someplace in the US that was cheaper than Dallas.

 So we arranged a trip for her, Mary and me to show her our country of rainbows and in January of 2005 the three of us went to Costa Rica. We stayed at the Pico Blanco for a couple of days, visited the La Paz waterfall, and had our fingerprints taken for our residency process. Just one more step in a long process I will explain later in a separate post.

We had pretty bad weather the first few days, cold and rainy, but when we went over the mountains to Puriscal the weather turned sunny and warm. We stayed with Bob and Patsy at the Las Alturas de Puriscal and Jonna finally began to see the reasons we wanted to move there. The views were magnificent and the weather very nice. I think the clincher was the trip to Quepos. Patsy drove us and off we went to the beach

Jonna really likes beaches and the beach at Quepos is wonderful, smooth sand, warm water and breaking waves. We stayed at the Costa Verde Inn and went on a canopy zip line tour. Although it rained hard and was pretty humid, we had a great time. Patsy and Jonna rode the boogie boards and we shopped at the beach and then stopped in Quepos for more shopping. Quepos is a three hour drive from Barbacoas, but is on pretty good roads most of the way, so it was a pleasant trip and Jonna was beginning to see the attraction of Costa Rica as a retirement home for us.

By the time Jonna’s trip was over she wasn’t exactly jumping for joy, but she could see the value living in Costa Rica would mean for us. The people were friendly, beaches close, weather balmy, and the cost of living was very reasonable. This turned out to be a good trip for all of us, for we certainly wanted her to be more than just reconciled to our move. We wanted her to understand that this was more than just a move for financial reasons but the beginning of a grand adventure and she was an important part it.

I think this trip accomplished that.