We made it!!!  (Okay, so I’m only, like, a month overdue for a “we made it!” post, but better late than never. I’m apparently more consistent at social media than writing.)

The last few months were ridiculously chaotic, crazy, stressful…and totally worth it. We finished the renovations on the house, put it on the market, and sold it. We closed on the house on April 30th at 9 a.m., and we got on a plane that very night and flew from Denver to Costa Rica! It was one of the craziest days of my life, without a doubt.

By the time we left Denver, everything we owned fit in eight suitcases. We sold our house, both our cars, most of Brian’s artwork, and most of our worldly possessions. There are a handful of things that our family and friends are hanging on to for us for good measure, including some personal mementos and some artwork, but overall it’s pretty darn minimal. (Many things went to Brian’s parents, and I have a sneaking suspicion that some of those things would come back to us if we ever decided to move back. It is part of his mom’s master plan because she misses us already. Smart lady.)

We spent almost a week in San Jose, Costa Rica (the capital) to get some things together. We bought an SUV in San Jose (a 2006 Nissan Xterra that we really love). Our dogs came down on a flight about four days after we did. They did not appreciate the trip, and I don’t blame them. Poor furbabies. But they have settled in beautifully, and they’re enjoying their new home. They also enjoy all the extra belly rubs that come with having us both around all the time. Once we had the dogs and they had a day to recover from their flight, we packed our life into our SUV, and we headed south. (That car is just big enough for the two of us, two dogs, two dog kennels, and eight bags. Pretty cozy.)

We planned to spend our first two and a half months in a little town called Ojochal on the Pacific coast of southern Costa Rica and then check out somewhere in Panama or Nicaragua. However, after just one short month in Ojochal, we have fallen in love, and we have decided to stay until next spring. We will be in our current place through the end of July, as originally planned, and then we will move to our new rental house (which is about ten minutes closer to town than our current place) at the end of July. Having only eight suitcases to pack should make moving day pretty easy!

Our current house is fantastic. It is located in the hills above Ojochal, in a only slightly tamed jungle area.  (And it has a pool!!!) It takes us about ten minutes to get to the highway, as we’re set a bit back up in the hills, but from there, the closest beach is about two minutes away. My favorite beach is about ten or fifteen minutes away — miles of beautiful soft sand beaches, gentle waves, warm water…and almost no one else there. I don’t think I’ve seen more than ten people at a time at any given beach. It’s wonderful.

There are so many things to share, I can’t do it all in one post. I will be posting more regularly going forward so that I can share some of the great stories that are happening. Our Internet access at our current house has been almost completely useless, which hasn’t been very conducive to doing anything useful online. Mostly just Facebook and whatnot on our phones. But the local Internet techie guy came out last week and made a change, and it has really improved things! Not lightning speed, but usable. I am pretty psyched about that. So, look for more updates soon. In the meantime, catch some of our everyday tidbits on social media, both on my Nomadic Nikki accounts, or on our personal accounts if you’re friends. (Facebook and Instagram tend to get the most action, FYI.) For links to my various Nomadic Nikki social media accounts, check out my Social Media page.

For now, suffice it to say that we are very happy. All the craziness has been worth it, and we’re grateful that we took a chance and made this (seemingly slightly insane) step in our life. Big thank yous and gratitude to all of our family and friends who supported us and helped us make this happen. We love and appreciate you guys so much.

Pura vida!
Nikki, Brian, Buddy, and Nita