A Typical Day in Paradise

We've been here in Costa Rica for 11 days now, and we are starting to settle in to a routine that will likely see us through to the end of the trip.  I thought I'd share a typical day (which we also share with two furry friends, the dog and the cat owned by the gardener, Jaime, who lives on the property -- they are frequent guests). 

We wake each morning more or less with the sunrise -- around 6 AM.  First step for the day is to start the pot of excellent Costa Rican coffee and sit in a chair overlooking the valley, reading the newspaper on our Ipad/Nexus.   After a bit of that, its time for breakfast al fresco (lots of great fruit around -- strawberries and pineapple in particular) and then a walk.

The walks are quite vigorous as we live in very hilly neighborhood that is at altitude.  Probably up and down

roughly 1000 feet each day in total.  Pretty strenuous.  Then Paul typically follows up with an exercise work out before settling in to work.

Working from Costa Rica is turning out to be pretty easy.  With Skype we can stay connected by phone or video and Paul's work usually doesn't require more than internet access.  About the only think that gets lost is his ability to be physically present for some meetings -- which is a cost but more in the nature of "out of sight; out of mind" than in actually missing any critical events.

Meanwhile Katy is spending the days reading, or learning Spanish.  She plans to do some painting too -- though she hasn't started that yet.

We break for lunch and then again for cocktails as the sun sets around 545 PM.  Dinner is either out at a local Tican restaurant or cooking in.  Fridays is market day for the farmers, so tomorrow we plan a nice meal at home with whatever we get fresh in the morning.

In the evening it gets dark -- very dark.  One of the few flaws we've found is the lack of bright lighting in Costa Rica.  So we read a bit, or watch a video on the computer and then its early to bed -- usually by 10 AM -- and start it all over the next day.

Of course, we vary the routine.  This Saturday we are going to go and look at some houses -- just on speculation -- to see what's available.  Yesterday we went down to the shopping mall in Escazu.  But by and large, its a nice, quiet existence.