Q&A: AMANDA COXWORTH

NAME AMANDA COXWORTH

OCCUPATION SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

CITY TAMARINDO, COSTA RICA (PREVIOUSLY CANADA)

How did you end up living and working in Costa Rica?

It was my husband's idea! Though we weren't married at the time. It was a dream of his to move to Costa Rica to live and work and it didn't take much convincing for me to join him. We travelled here on vacation in 2015 to check it out and absolutely loved it. Our jobs gave us the ability to work remotely and we moved here with our dog (very important detail!) from Canada on a six-month ‘trial’ at the end of 2017. Fast forward just over four years later and we're still here, married with a second dog, a home, a steadily growing Spanish vocabulary and recently, our first child, who is now a dual-citizen for Canada and Costa Rica.

What can’t you travel without?

My Kindle! I've always been a huge bookworm, and on top of that I tend to get very impatient while travelling from place to place – nothing helps a long airport line or delayed departure go by faster than a good book. That being said, my first trip with our now seven-month-old will probably change this answer – I will have to get back to you on that one!

What do you do when you’re not working?

An underwater proposal

I'm an avid scuba diver! Costa Rica has some amazing dive sites very close to where we are living. We frequently see manta rays, reef sharks, octopus and more. My husband actually proposed to me underwater here at our favourite dive site.

Favourite ‘off the beaten track’ spots in Costa Rica?

We had an incredible mini-holiday at a place called El Castillo, which is a small town right near the base of the Arenal Volcano. It's about 45 minutes from the more popular ‘volcano viewing’ city of La Fortuna. We stayed at an AirBnB with the most incredible, unobstructed views of the volcano, hiked up into the hills behind the house every day, birdwatched for toucans and took a beautiful tour of Lake Arenal with a local boat owner.

Where in the world would you travel to right now if money and time weren’t an issue?

Egypt! Fun story: due to my dad's job and an extended business trip, my family lived in Egypt for two years when I was a child. I have been itching to return ever since and it's been at the top of my bucket list. I want to see all the main sights, but I also want to return to (if they're still there) my old house, school and neighbourhood. I also would not leave until I had the chance to go scuba diving in the Red Sea.

Tell us about your upcoming travel plans

Right now my hope is to return to Canada for a visit soon, as we have not been back home for over two years. After that we'd really just love to continue exploring more around Costa Rica. It's a small but diverse country and there are many areas we'd love to explore. And then who knows, we might be able to swing by Australia in the near future – it's been two and a half years since I've seen the rest of the Inspiring Vacations team in person!

MAIN IMAGE: Amanda is a keen scuba diver