Today we went house shopping–at the shipping yard. When we decided to build with recycled shipping containers, the price range we were looking at was between $2,000-$3,000 per container plus about $600 for shipping. With the trend of this building style growing in Costa Rica we soon came to find that containers were more like $4,100-6,000–not including shipping. Needless to say,  a bit of a damper on our plans. But the New Yorker, go-getters that we are, Justin and I decided to take it upon ourselves to scout some more options. Even though we don’t speak Spanish (yet!), the day after we arrived in San Jose, we drove around to different shipping yards and did our best to inquire about containers for sale. At the first yard we went to we were turned away at the office. As we began to walk back to our car, one of the truck […]

After a red eye flight, we arrived this morning in San Jose, Costa Rica. Our first order of business was to purchase a vehicle. We came down with a budget of $16K with the hopes of getting a solid pick up truck. Extensive research showed us that pick-ups are pricey and seriously hold their value down here. The Costa Rican’s  work hard and take care of their possessions. Our American culture can learn a lot from them. Our dream truck has been a 4-door Toyota HiLUX. Which is a Tacoma with a diesel, turbo engine. They don’t make them in the U.S. and they are badass. They are definitely out of our price range as even a model from the early to late 90’s are sold here for upwards of 17K, and we really want a newer vehicle. We want an diesel engine because they run a lot longer. However, […]

We had to get a road built in order to access our land. Here’s a little clip of the brand new road getting cut. Our friends took this for us while we were still in the states packing. Amazing to already see progress and new pathways being forged.

Hey there! This is a fly over video of our new property. About 1 acre in the small hill village of Playa Hermosa just 5 min a beautiful beach with the same name. Playa Hermosa is between the surf town of Dominical and wildlife reserve of the “Whale’s Tale” in Uvita. Justin shot this video using his Phantom Quadcopter equipped with a GoPro3. Some cool things about our new land. 1. There is a creek running at the western perimeter. After looking at the topography map, we realized that the creek is named Quebrada Sargento, or “Sergeant Creek.” Needless to say, a pretty auspicious place to drop down some roots. 2. We are located in the province of Puntarenas. The canton (county) just bordering us to the north is named Aguirre. Justin’s mother’s maiden name is Aguirre. Another awesomely serendipitous namesake to note.