THE FLIP FLOP LIFE

We posted few posts in 2022, even less in 2023 and not a single one in 2024. It seems to say it all. It does and it does not. It seems to say that our project to start a new life in Costa Rica was not working out. It is the case that it hasn’t worked out as we hoped, but that has only become gradually clear throughout 2024. In 2022 and 2023, we were in full swing to make it work. Even in 2024, it has been a matter of sheer coincidence that we did not end up buying a piece of forest with a wonderful view near Cahuita. So the trend in our postings does not tell the story of how our project did not work out.

To me, it simply says that we, or let me speak for myself, I had lost the inspiration. There were plenty of things to blog about flipping our lives around, but I wasn’t interested in sharing through a blog anymore. For a month in 2023, I felt inspired to take on vlogging, and made some raw recordings, but then it dawned on me … it seems great, but it still takes buckets of time, and I didn’t want to spend it on such things anymore. I still don’t want to but I have an urge for blog closure, so here it goes.

How did the project come to its end?

Well, basically, life’s setbacks happened a bit sooner than we were hoping for. From the very start we saw two big reasons to return to Europe. One was that we couldn’t make it financially. As you can read in the December 2023 post, financially, it went sometimes really well and sometimes less well for Cristina, and overall lousy for me. What didn’t go well at all was the feeling of insecurity during times that there was no income or very little prospect. So, in the course of last year, Cristina accepted a job in Spain.

The second reason we saw from the start was family circumstances. I don’t want to write about it in a public blog, so I will leave it at: they simply changed sooner than we were hoping.

The third reason that we are returning to Europe was a result of the other two combined with work trips. Last year, we lived on separate sides of the Atlantic or otherwise in different countries for about five months, and with a very sparse social life here in the forest, that really is no fun. Adding to that was that friends and family visited Cristina in Valencia, which made me home sick.

Next on the list, is that we discovered that really good medical help is quite far away. Not all equally far, but depending on what is needed, it could be as far away as a five hour drive to San José.

Last but not least, and stupidly practical: the power and internet connections in the area where we live, are good when they work, but has too many glitches and black outs to do remote IT work such as that I am doing. I had one call about a possible collaboration with a company in Europe. 20 Mins before it started the optic fiber stopped working and our Starlink connection, which we had as back up, is not suitable for long live video connections. During the 40 minutes call there were 5 freezes. That doesn’t sell well.

Worse, even if we were not dependent on our landlord and could install all the power back-ups that we wanted, the situation was not likely to change because the optic fiber provider seems more interested in selling more subscriptions than keeping the existing ones. And even if they did, trees fall down all the time.

How does it feel to have to leave Costa Rica?

It sucks and I feel sad about it, obviously.

I am going to miss the forest, the people, the climate, the seas, the animals and the birds, and the pura vida life.

Do I see upsides to going back to Europe, Valencia to be more precise? Sure.

I’m geographically closer to friends and family. Although a heads up to them: it’s not likely that I will visit a lot more often because instead of flying across the Atlantic, I now am going to use trains ( and who knows even Flixbus ) to get across Europe. It takes about the same amount of time and only half as much money – and right now, I don’t have a lot of money to spend on traveling.

I will also be closer to city life and culture. Valencia apparently is a great city for that with it’s architecture, museums, restaurants, bars and cultural festivals. On top of that, it even has cycling lanes and cheap public transport. Also, I can do a lot more with my LEGO hobby, maybe even join the local club.

Do these upsides mean that I look forward to going back? No, not really. Like I said, I will miss it here. I already missed it after the one sabbatical year. The fact that the alternative is not that bad doesn’t mean that I look forward to going back.

Does it feel like defeat, having to return to Europe? I could say yes, especially because of the financial reasons, but I won’t. I probably could have done more to find work or have drawn my conclusions about the impossibility of my plan sooner. On the other hand, it is silly to compare what happened with what could have happened, because what could have happened didn’t happen and could also have happened in a different different way. So, one can’t compare.

Anyway, I don’t feel defeated. Life and the universe threw me things in a different way than I hoped. That happens all the time and one simply has to deal with it. We’re moving back to Europe, and I have moved to a different business plan for my income, but the original reforestation plan still stands.

The reforestation project

If you have been following this blog, you might be interested in what happened to the vegetable garden and the reforestation plans. Well, the vegetable garden never stood a decent chance in the location where we live because it didn’t get enough sun and the few vegetables that I tried were meant not only for more sun, but also for a different climate. Basically, they all got eaten before they could grow big enough. The pineapples, or at least the last batch, are doing well but I won’t see them bearing fruit. The only vegetable that did relatively well were the bell peppers, but they for some reason tend to suddenly ‘dry out’, believe it or not.

Regarding the reforestation plans, I ended up with a collection of about 60 saplings (young trees). Some of them, I planted in open spots in the forest where we live. It is unbelievable how many trees fell down in the past two years. It’s how tropical forests rejuvenate themselves apparently ( although I am still wondering if the rate is increasing because of the longer dry periods that have been happening the past years ). It’s not that the forest needs any help to fill in the open spots, but I gave it a hand anyways.

Other saplings are finding their way to a plot that a friend of us bought, and to Finca Las Hormigas, a permaculture farm where I started doing volunteer work. One of the first trees that I seeded is a mango tree. It is now about 2 meters high and may end up in a prominent place on the farm. It would be my honor. Most of the saplings probably won’t live very long. It’s simply how it is with trees: the older they get the more likely it is that they grow even older. It means that their life is fragile at the beginning. So, if one or a few of them do grow into big trees, then that will be my reward.

I grew the trees just to get some experience with that. Our big plan was to buy a piece of land with a bit of forest to enjoy and a lot of grass land to reforest. Unfortunately, through a year and a half of scouting in the area where we live, we found out that plots are either sold for ridiculously high prices or they are too remote.

However, no money was spent and the reforestation plan is not abandoned. After all, Spain has plenty of empty and dry land that could do with reforestation. In fact, it may need it more than Costa Rica.

Dejá vu

Early January we gave notice to our landlord and the care takers of our finca. They completely understood and were sad to see us go, as we were sad to also have to say farewell to them. Since giving notice, we’ve spent our spare time trying to sell or otherwise get rid of stuff that we cannot or do not want to bring to Europe. It is amazing how much that turned out to be: a bamboo bench and chairs, a laundry machine, a vacuum cleaner, a car, the metal roof for our car that we had installed last year, a gas stove, two heavy duty office tables, two office chairs, two displays for our laptops, two dry boxes, a pressure cooker, a drying rack and a handful of banana boxes of small stuff.

Just like when we left Sweden, we have been busy cleaning these things, taking pictures and putting them on sale in second-hand market websites. Fortunately, it was a lot less work than in 2021 and fortunately, almost all these things sold fast. I guess it is one of the upsides of remote living. It’s expensive to acquire stuff and to get it over here, so people recognize a deal when they see it.

Most of it was second hand when we got it, but it’s still crazy though, we bought and got rid of stuff when we came to and left Sweden, now we have repeated that in Costa Rica and then we’re going to do the same in Spain. Well, … that is still six weeks away.

So long and thanks for all the fish

I try to enjoy the enjoyable things while they last. Never say never, but never take anything for granted or given. But it’s hard, especially when the end of something good is in sight. I have tremendously enjoyed my time in Costa Rica, and for me the trick is to add and realize that I am lucky enough to be enjoying it still. … with toucans and howler monkeys announcing the end of another beautiful day in the rainforest, the olive-backed euphonias chirping away in the tree next to our house, and the spooky-melancholic whistle of the great tinamou somewhere in the jungle.

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PS what will happen to the flipflop.life ? Well, if it is only up to me, it will exist until the next time the Wayback Machine will copy the site after Cristina declares her last post.