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INSIDECOSTARICA
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Sunday 03 October 2010 |
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Costa
Rica Is
Paradise
For
Snowbirds
HeraldNet.com
-
Retirees
often
make a
move.
They
seek sun
in
Arizona
or
California.
Some go
for a
slower
pace and
small-town
atmosphere
in
Eastern
Washington.
Lorna
and
Darrell
Smith
didn’t
follow
the
crowd.
For
their
retirement
home,
they
made an
uncommon
choice —
Costa
Rica.
Some
dark day
in the
coming
months,
do a
Google
search
for the
“best
climate
in the
world.”
One
place
that
will pop
up is
Atenas.
The town
of about
5,000
people
is on
Costa
Rica’s
Pacific
slope,
about an
hour’s
drive
from the
Central
American
country’s
Pacific
beaches.
“We
spend
about 10
months
of the
year
there.
Our goal
is to be
here
during
the
summer,”
Lorna
Smith
said
Wednesday
at a
coffee
shop on
the
Everett
waterfront.
The
Smiths,
both 59,
have
enviable
homes in
both
places.
At the
Everett
Marina,
they
stay
aboard
their
42-foot
wooden
boat,
the Miss
Nikko
’71, a
converted
fishing
vessel
they
have
owned
for
about a
decade.
And
after
selling
a home
on five
acres in
Snohomish,
they
built a
new
house in
Atenas,
their
tropical
paradise.
They
fell in
love
with
Costa
Rica
after
traveling
in
Mexico.
Attracted
to both
Latin
American
culture
and the
area’s
natural
attributes,
Lorna
Smith
describes
Costa
Rica as
an
“ecologically
rich
area.”
She and
her
husband
are
biologists.
“Costa
Rica is
so
biologically
diverse,
with its
plants
and
animals.
It’s a
meeting
place of
northern
and
southern
influences,”
she
said.
They mix
professional
expertise
with
pleasure
in their
surroundings
by
leading
bird-watching
tours in
Costa
Rica.
Through
a
business
called
Birding
on a
Budget
Costa
Rica,
they
take
small
groups
into
highlands
and lush
forests
to see
chestnut-mandibled
toucans,
scarlet
macaws
and
violet
sabre-winged
hummingbirds.
Most
prized
among
bird-watchers
is the
resplendent
quetzal,
found in
areas
called
cloud
forests.
“That’s
one of
the
birds
everyone
comes to
see,”
Lorna
Smith
said.
“Costa
Rica has
almost
900
species
of
birds,
more
than the
United
States
and
Canada
combined,”
she
said.
Before
retiring
in 2007,
the
Smiths
worked
in
Snohomish
County’s
Public
Works
Department.
Darrell
Smith
was a
Stillaguamish
River
steward;
Lorna
supervised
an
environmental
review
section.
Both had
been
with
Snohomish
County
more
than 20
years.
Because
he is a
military
veteran,
Darrell
Smith
has
health
benefits
although
he
hasn’t
reached
65, the
qualifying
age for
Medicare.
Lorna
Smith is
frank
about
another
reason
they
left the
United
States.
“Health
care —
everyone
in Costa
Rica has
medical
coverage,”
she
said.
“For $40
a month,
Darrell
and I,
as a
couple,
have
complete
coverage,
prescriptions
and
hospitalization.”
Patients
there
have
long
waits
for
elective
surgery,
she
said,
“but if
your
life’s
on the
line,
it’s a
good
system.”
Both
speak
Spanish.
Lorna
Smith
learned
the
language
in
school
and her
husband
taught
himself.
With
their
move,
they had
no
choice
but to
become
fluent
Spanish
speakers.
They’re
involved
in
efforts
to
preserve
habitat
for the
endangered
great
green
macaw.
In
northern
Costa
Rica,
private
land
owners
are
working
to
establish
a
national
park by
raising
money
through
about a
dozen
small
tourist
lodges.
Their
Rainforest
Biodiversity
Group
promotes
a “bird
route”
for
eco-tourists.
“Our
largest
groups
are
eight to
10
people.
It’s
often
two to
six
people,
a
family-size
of
group.
And we
often
end up
like
family,”
Lorna
Smith
said.
Birds
are the
big
attraction
for many
visitors,
but with
five
grown
children
between
them,
the
Smiths
also
take
visitors
to Costa
Rica’s
famed
surfing
beaches.
“When
the kids
come, we
have
birding
and
surfing
vacations,”
she
said.
When
they’re
ready
for a
vacation
from
their
vacation-like
paradise,
their
boat and
Everett’s
mild
summers
beckon.
This
year,
they put
a new
electrical
system
in the
vintage
boat.
Other
summers
they
have
motored
up to
Canada’s
Gulf
Islands
and
beyond.
By
mid-October,
they’ll
be back
in their
Costa
Rican
home. It
overlooks
the
Tarcoles
River,
where
18-foot
crocodiles
are
tourist
attractions.
When in
Costa
Rica,
the
Smiths
miss
Northwest
salmon.
Here,
they
miss
feasting
on
tropical
fruits.
“Atenas
is a
very
friendly
town,”
Lorna
Smith
said.
“Frankly,
we never
looked
back.”
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