How you do anything...

...is how you do everything.

Everything you do matters

Harv Eker likes to say: "How you do anything is how you do everything."

At a basic level, your actions determine who you are (or, arguably, who you are determines your actions).

Therefore every little thing you do makes you more like that action

Why so I say this?

Sins - God's Perspective & Man's Perspective

Well, Rebecca and I have been going through catechism at church, and I am learning (or at least more fully understanding) interesting things about sin:

1) We sin pretty much constantly.
2) All sin is equal to God - we have put our own hierarchy on which sins are not too bad or really bad.

For example, not reporting when you are undercharged at Wal-Mart is stealing. So is taking a pen home from work and never bringing it back. So is robbing a bank. In God's eyes, you are stealing in any of these cases.

We tend to make excuses for situations like the first two or think they are "no big deal".

The Little Things Make a Big Difference

So if we want to be people of integrity, we need to demonstrate that everywhere.

If we want to help people, that should start with those we are closest to.

Every little decision you make to take action (or not take action) takes you farther down that path.

I know I have done - in all likelihood - millions of things that I wish I had not (or wish I had in the case of omissions). They did not lead me to become the person I want to be.

For instance, I haven't murdered anyone physically, but I have murdered people in my heart. That is just as bad in God's eyes.

Help!

Unfortunately, it is much easier to see someone else's inconsistent actions than your own. If you are married, you may have noticed that your spouse is painfully good at pointing out some of your faults :)

If you really care about the people you are close to, you can help them out by very gently letting them know if you see them do things that you know are not consistent with the person they want to be - help hold them accountable.

Let me stress that you want to talk about this beforehand with them and make sure they will be receptive to your help :) Otherwise, it call easily come off as overly critical or naggy.

Everything we do makes a difference - let's help each other start acting like it.

Costa Rica summary

What I left out of our detailed description of the Costa Rica trip was a summary of our Costa Rica experience and how we feel about having land down there.

What I Liked

1) The natural environment. At our lot, the water has 50% fewer contaminants than Evian. Everything is raised "organically" - just because they don't need to use chemicals, etc. All of the food we tried really tasted great. Costa Rica protects the natural environment so that everyone can enjoy it.
2) The people. Everyone was incredibly friendly. Apparently it is a fairly conservative Catholic country and they even like Americans. Can't get much better than that for international investing.
3) The way of life. Costa Rica is very laid back and family-oriented. I can't think of a better culture to spend time relaxing in (not that I know that many cultures...).

Why We Want to Live There

1) It's Costa Rica! I have yet to meet anyone that visited Costa Rica and did not like it. If you are one of those people, I would love to hear why it wasn't for you.
2) The natural food (and water). See above.
3) Plan B. In case something goes wrong in the states - economically (Social Security crisis, anyone?), socially, politically...who knows. I just like having someplace I can go if necessary.
4) The climate. Although it is slightly humid for my tastes, it is not bad. Anyplace that you can essentially go without heating or air conditioning year-round and still be comfortable is my kind of place!

As with anyplace, it is not perfect - the roads leave a lot to be desired, cars are very expensive because of duties/taxes, etc. I strongly recommend checking it out sometime. We might even have a rental villa that we can give you a deal on :)

To find out more about the properties that we invested in, check out: http://www.best-costa-rica-real-estate.com. Unless you want to spend a lot of time learning the culture and finding someone down there you really trust to help you, I think Ventana del Pacifico is a great place to buy (I suppose that's obvious since we bought property with them).

If you are serious about learning more about Costa Rica real estate, I am also happy to answer any questions I can about travelling down there, etc.

Pura vida! (means "pure life", the unofficial motto of Costa Rica)

Costa Rica - Day 5 (and 6)

What an adventure we had today!

Cristal Ballena to Palmar Sur

We had another great breakfast and then hopped in the taxi to go to the local airport in Palmar Sur. From there, we would fly to San Jose in order to fly back to Kansas City first thing tomorrow morning.

I mentioned in the last post that our taxi driver promised to take us by and see some crocodiles and turtles. Well, we drove through the rather run-down town of Cortes (apparently it used to be the major Pacific port for the southern part of Costa Rica, but that changed once they built the bridge across the Rio Terraba for what is now the coastal highway.

Anywho, all of the sudden we just turned into a driveway along a row of houses with the announcement - "this is it." We got out, walked under the carport and through the covered storage area where they had coolers for fish. Apparently they throw the fish scraps to the crocs and turtles when visitors are there. They ask for a donation (our taxi driver had said maybe 1000 colones ($2)), which seems reasonable. Hey - gotta make a living somehow, right?

Here is a nice little video of them dumping the scraps into the water. How would you like to have that off of your back porch?

Notice no railings or anything. Presumably the kids around there are quick learners. Even though the crocs are well fed, I think they view everything that comes off the porch as food, so don't fall off!

We also saw a croc over on the bank next to the porch (probably 10 m away) with its jaw hanging straight down. One of the people that lived there tried to explain to us that his jaw was broken, probably in a fight with another croc (our driver helpfully interpreted for us). Nothing kept the crocs from coming up the bank and onto the concrete porch from the side, either. Again, don't think I would really want to live there...

We had a good show, so we gave the owners $5 when we left, and headed on our merry way to the airport, glad to have had a very interesting experience!

Palmar Sur

We got to the "airport" in plenty of time and were just waiting for the flight to get there. We were supposed to be there by 10:00 in case of an on-time 10:30 departure. I think we got there about 9:40.

While we were waiting, I noticed a starfruit tree between the covered waiting area and the runway (it was just to the right and a little behind the 2 boys in the picture). There were a lot of fruits on the ground and on the tree, so it was clear to me that noone was harvesting them regularly, so I went over and picked a ripe fruit and starting munching on it. Did I mention I love Costa Rica?!

Patrick (from the developer's office) was on our flight (the only one to San Jose each day), and told us after he got there that the plane had left San Jose around 10:00 and should be there around 10:40, which was closer to on-time then usual, apparently.

After a while, the ticket lady was explaining a situation to me in Spanish. What I got out of her explanation was that the flight had been cancelled because of something.

After talking to Patrick, we learned that a plane had crashed at the end of the runway. (The pilot was fine - he walked away - it looked like the plane had just tipped over on the side of the runway, I am guessing on takeoff.) The airport would therefore be closed to all flights for the rest of the day as the civil aviation authority came down to investigate.

"So what do we do?" we asked Patrick. Patrick advised that he was trying to charter a plane at a nearby gravel airstrip because he had a 1:30 flight to catch out of San Jose to Canada for meetings. He said that we could hitch a ride with him, and he didn't want any money.

Well, after about 15 minutes, it was clear that he was not going to be able to get a plane. So he was going to head home to try and rearrange his flight schedule. Since our flight was the next day, Patrick said we could take a taxi - it would take about 4 hours. He asked a local taxi driver how much it would cost to go to San Jose and Patrick translated $200. Since the airfare was $172 (which should be refunded), that was not too bad.

To San Jose via Taxi

So Patrick hitched a ride with us back to the guest house, and we headed off down the road at about 10:45 to San Jose. Patrick had advised us that we had essentially rented the taxi driver for the day, so we should feel free to stop for a restroom or restaurant break as frequently as we needed to. Once we got on the road, we decided that we just wanted to get there, then we could have an early dinner there.

Although the speed limit on the coastal highway was typically 80 km/h (50 mph, though people would often go 100 km/h), on the roads through the mountains - the vast majority of the trip - the speed limit is usually 50 km/h.

Our driver would regularly exceed the speed limits, and in his high-centered Toyota Hilux 4x4 crew cab, we moved around a lot. We learned that our abs were somewhat sore from our zip line adventure yesterday, and the bracing was giving them an additional workout.

We were making decent time until Cartago (about 20 km from San Jose). Traffic was stuck there, and I don't think our driver knew the area very well. He made a couple of calls, got out of the traffic, drove around for a bit, then ended up in the same line of traffic except like a mile farther back.

He stopped to ask a pedestrian, and it sounded like traffic was not moving AT ALL, nor did it look like it was going to. Then he talked to another driver, and followed him out of traffic and into neighborhoods. Eventually we made if to where a bunch of people were gathered and as we drove across the bridge, we saw A LOT of muddy water flowing very rapidly (picture isn't great, but hopefully you get the idea).

I think the flooding was why traffic was not moving and would probably not be moving anytime soon.

After stopping to ask several more drivers, we ended up on backroads through industrial areas and back out into the country, then got to a small town up in the hills. We took a right, and all of the sudden we were on this really nice paved road.

This wound through the hills around the back side of San Jose. To make a long story short - after stopping to ask around 20 people total, we finally made it back into San Jose and back to our hotel. We got there at 4:45, so it ended up being about a 6 hour trip (apparently the detour took about 2 hours).

People were very helpful in providing directions - not one person that he tried to stop refused to help (try stopping random people in the US for directions). It may have helped that the taxi "badge" on the truck had the Osa province on there, so people may have noticed that he was a long ways from home.

When we got there, he told us how much it was - I thought $210, but when he wrote it out (good idea he had there!), it was $220. Well, since we had not planned on paying for our return trip with cash, we were not absolutely positive we had enough. (We could have always had him take us to an ATM if necessary.)

ASIDE: This is a good place to mention that you really don't need to change your US dollars to Costa Rican colones if you visit Costa Rica. I believe everyplace will accept US dollars. Maybe sometimes you don't get the best exchange rate, but at worst you take a 3-4% hit - most credit cards charge 3% now for foreign currency conversion. We did take a lot of smaller bills, though (Pat - thanks for that advice), because you get your change back in colones. If you give them a $20 for something that costs $5, you get $15 back in colones, which can be inconvenient.

We had a lot of $1 bills left (that explains why), so picture us standing at the back of his truck counting out all of these ones (in piles of 10) to pay this $220 bill. I think we paid about $60 or $70 in ones, the rest were larger bills, thankfully. And we ended up with $22 left over!

We felt really bad for our taxi driver because he still had a 4-6 hour trip ahead of him, mostly in the dark since it would be dark around 6. I would NOT want to do that drive in the dark (not really in the daylight either, but definitely not at night). I guess he made some pretty good money for the day, though.

We got settled in our hotel and walked down to Antonio's Italian Restaurant, which was highly recommended by the hotel clerk (Fernando) as a nice place to eat. It was VERY good food, although it was a little funny to have the Costa Rican staff serving Italian food. Very good and authentic, though. Then we came home and went into a food induced coma in order to get up for our early flight in the morning (the cab is coming at 4:30 am).

Costa Rica - Day 6

Not much to report here. I liked this sign in one of the shops. Apparently ED knows no borders.

We wanted to get some duty free stuff at the airport - coffee for family and us, and at least some sort of Costa Rican liquor (my idea). The Cafe Britt stuff that they had at the airport was really good. They had lots of different varieties - it wasn't all that cheap as far as coffee goes (they had a 8 12-oz bags for $39 special), but it is EXCELLENT.

As far as I can tell, Costa Rica only exports two types of liquor - rum and coffee liqueur. So I got some of each for good measure. (On the US side of customs where we were packing the liquor into our checked bags, we ran into a guy that brings an extra cooler with him going down in order to pack everything in coming back. He recommended using the coffee as padding for the liquor. He seemed to be pretty good at this...)

Rebecca was thrilled to be back in Kansas City, as you can tell by this photo.

Costa Rica - Day 4

This was our first full day on our own (no part of the development stay) and also the first full day without Nate (he went back to San Jose yesterday when we headed to Cristal Ballena).

Morning at the Hotel

Today we certainly did more activities than any other day in Costa Rica. We got up early to start a walk around the hotel's rainforest path (about 1.25 mi) at 6 am. Although they had guided tours available, Rebecca doesn't really like guides (goes along with her general aversion to people she doesn't know), so we just did it on our own.

We did not see any wildlife (except for the huge spider and web outside of the rainforest), but really enjoyed just walking around in the rainforest. In retrospect, I think it may have been good to have a guide because they know where to look for animals, but there just may not have been many out because of the rainy season.

We got back to the hotel about 6:45a, and since breakfast did not start until 7a, we decided to hop in the pool to refresh ourselves before showering and heading down for breakfast.

The complimentary breakfast was awesome - I especially enjoyed the fresh fruit. That has to be one of my favorite things about Costa Rica - that fact that (almost) all of the food is extremely fresh. They use a few packaged things (like flour, sugar, etc) but not nearly as much as we do in the states.

Design Meeting

After breakfast we had a meeting with the Ventana del Pacifico house designer. (As you can tell, we really planned on buying property as we already had a meeting set up with the house designer.) We had been told by someone else that had bought property (but not yet started the design process) that you had to have one meeting with the designer on site and the rest could be handled remotely.

The meeting took less than an hour (Patrick had told us this yesterday, and the short time surprised us), and the purpose was to 1) know which lot they were designing for, and 2) understand what we (the owner) wanted in a house.

We gave him some details, but mainly general ideas of what we wanted in a house - mainly a lot of outdoor (still under roof) space with a very open feel. I don't want to bore you with details, so we will leave it at that.

He did say this was going to be fun - he really hates ones where the people already have an exact floorplan picked out that does not really take advantage of the lot. Especially as most floorplans are designed for flat lots, and very few Costa Rican lots are flat.

We realized that we could have done this meeting remotely, but I feel that there is real benefit in a face-to-face meeting so that the designer understands the owner as much as possible (and vice versa). We look forward to getting the first draft of the design in about a month!

Hacienda Baru

After another light lunch (and a small nap), we prepared to go on a canopy tour at Hacienda Baru. We had scheduled a time the day before - the tour cost $35 per person (I thought that was fair for 2 hours hiking through the rainforest and sliding around on zip lines), but the taxi cost $50 there and back.

A very worthwhile trip - because it was the beginning of October (a month when then tourist industry is almost shut-down in southern Costa Rica), we were the only 2 on the tour. We saw bats, a couple of 2-toed sloths, a 3-toed sloth, a poison dart frog, a couple of toucans, and lots of leaf-cutter ants.

While we weren't way up in the trees usually (the exception being on one platform 120 ft above the ground) the zip lines across a valley were really an incredible experience. For some it wouldn't have been that exciting, but we really enjoyed it.

And the weather was beautiful - usually it rains in the afternoon in the rainy season, but it was actually cloudy all morning (with a little rain) and the sun came out for a beautiful afternoon.

On our way back, we chatted with our young taxi driver a bit. We had mentioned that we had bought some property while we were there, and he mentioned that he was thinking about getting into real estate (as a realtor, we gathered). He asked if we knew people in the states that were interested in buying property. We said we certainly knew people who would be interested in taking a look (ourselves included). I gave him my contact information (he did not have an email at the time), so we will see if I get an email (I sure hope we do!)

He also asked if we had a ride to the airport. We did not - he said he could take us and show us a place with hundreds of crocodiles and turtles if we were interested. It was behind the house of people he knew.

We came back to the hotel after that, hopped in the pool for a bit, then showered and relaxed before dinner. Mmmm....dinner...

Again great dinner with great food, and we avoided the mistake of having coffee before bed...