THE FLIP FLOP LIFE

As 2023 comes to an end, it feels like the righ time to think about our second year in Costa Rica.

If 2022 was the landing year, 2023 has definitively been the consolidation year. Most of the paperwork is now done, we have not moved for a year (yipiiiiiiieeeee) and we have had steady flow of paid work as well as -sought after but- unpaid jobs.

The start of the year sought the end of the paperwork!. We got our Costa Rican ID and with that we could finally open a joint bank account, get the Costa Rican driving license (Frank) and open a post-box.

We also found a fantastic long-term rental house, which fulfilled all our requirements: it is in the middle of the jungle, it is quiet, surrounded by wildlife and has good internet!. As an extra bonus, it has a network of paths to walk Kika, access to a swimming-pool and it is not far away from the beach, a good supermarket and a pharmacy.

Once settled, we could finally focus on work. The fact is that 2023 has been a busy year. Perhaps too busy. I (Cris) have continued with the studies at Harvard -this year I took Wetlands Science and Policy and Land Conservation and Nature-Based Climate Solutions-; taught Introduction to Circular Economy at Lund University; wrapped up the project on the transformative capacity of Small Island Development States with a couple of articles; did two super rewarding consultancy jobs for UN-ECLAC on sustainability gaps in tourism in Panamá, Dominican Republic and Costa Rica; published the final report of the Blue Economy of Ibiza and Formentera project and started volunteering one day a week in the Jaguar Rescue Center.

Yep. As I said “too much”. In fact, I ended up working 6 days a week for several months.

Lesson learnt. At least I have now tried to plan to work next year “only” 5 days a week, including the time for the Harvard studies. Let us see if I am able to maintain it. No promises.

For Frank´s consultancy business, it has been a slow year which ended on a positive note. As Frank writes: “The continuation of my commission for Lund University took a long time to establish and turned out to be a lot smaller than expected. Another setback was that it became clear that there is no ( paid ) demand for the type of database services that I am offering. It is a real bummer, but there is little that I can do about it. So, in the spring I decided to reorient to consultancy services regarding funding. Over the past few years, while building my network in nature conservation, I noticed that funding turned out to be the number one problem in nature conservation. So, I have been quite busy collecting data about funding organizations and – not surprisingly – put them in a database. The database is growing by the week and my work is starting to get noticed. It will take a long time before that turns into paid commissions, but there still is time. Until then, I will probably start working for a friend’s database company. It will start in the new year, and while it is not particularly nature conservation, it has some projects related to sustainability and I am very much looking forward to collaborate with him”.

On the life-beyond-work front we have (also) been quite busy. We started to grow our own veggies with a moderate to low level of success. It is not only that we want to do it organically, it is that growing organic veggies in the tropics adds a whole new level of difficulties – too much rain or too little – plus a myriad of bugs and fungi that attack the plants.

So, after less than a year of nurturing our veggie garden, we can proudly announce that our yield has been seven (TA TA TAAAAAAAA…!): eight cherry tomatoes ;-). Yep. Not joking.

I, OF COURSE, gave up.

But Frank -persistent as he is- is still fully committed to the veggie garden. He is now trying a new batch of tomatoes and fruits with new planting strategies.

We also continued our quest to explore the surroundings in search of a nice plot to buy. We like the area where we are living now a lot, so we have focused the search in this area. The problem is that it is also an area that is expensive and growing too fast, so we might need to widen our search a bit.

And Frank has continued his projects with the camara-traps (with some nice catches), started a worm hotel and a tree nursery and volunteered for an NGO in Ethiopia. But, I guess that he will write about this himself.

I also re-started to volunteer at the Jaguar Rescue Center (JRC) in October. This time I am just working one day a week at the animal clinic. I cannot say loudly enough how much I enjoy it, and look forward to the JRC day. I have a lot of fun, I learn a lot and, what is best, I do not think a single second about anything else. It is just me and the animals. The work is a bit different from the one that I was doing in 2020 as a general volunteer. There is still a lot of cleaning involved -as the cages need to be cleaned at least once per day- but it is also about helping with cures, medication, surgery and rehab and preparing the meals. I have the chance to see and learn from wild animals that we usually do not see, either because they are nocturnal, or arboreal or just too evasive…and that is incredibly rewarding. I always come home with a million daily adventures to share with Frank.

Plus, I get to meet other people. I mean “in person”. Not like “in zoom” as the rest of the week. And that is also super nice.

We have also had our nice share of social life. We meet regularly with our old friends here and we had visits from friends coming from Europe. We have also new neighbors with whom we get along very well (both working in conservation). But we still miss friends and family. That is probably one of the few drawbacks of being here. Fortunately, we traveled to Europe this year and had the chance to meet many friends and, of course, our families!

So, all in all, it has been a very good year!

And what is best, is that the prospects for the new year are even better. Probably a new commission for Frank, a super exciting new project for me, and more time to enjoy life here!

Merry Christmas a a wonderful New Year for all!