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Finding our Shangri-La

My wife, Caryl, and I, retired US military, spent our first military assignment, in the 1970s, at Fort Gulick, the Caribbean side of Panama. Native Illinoisans, we learned to love all the tropics had to offer — although we never really adapted to the heat. At the end of our tour, we drove back to the States from Panama — a 10-day trek. We drove through most of the Central American countries, but only one really impressed us. We agreed that Costa Rica would be worth another visit. We didn’t realize that we would be driving within two miles of where we’ve been settled in Costa Rica for the past 12 years.

It took us 37 years to get back to Costa Rica — even for a visit. Life got in the way. In February 2011, we finally found time for a threeday tour to view retired life in Costa Rica. During the two years prior to our visit, we traveled to all the retirement states of the union, including Hawaii, but couldn’t find what we were looking for — a year-round temperate climate, an easy pace of life, a pastoral setting with views, with access to a major city. In all fairness, parts of Hawaii offered these but it was just too far from the US mainland.

Sunset from our apartment

The tour guide for our visit was George Lundquist, now retired, who went out of his way to show us the good, the bad, and the ugly of retired Costa Rica and various parts of Costa Rica. We visited with expats who had lived here for a couple to many years and got their valuable input. In addition to recommendations of where and where not to live, we had our own preferences. For us, the coast was too hot, San José was too busy, and much of the country was too far away from San José’s major medical facilities—not needed then or currently, but high on our “must-have” list.