CNN
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When Kema Ward-Hopper and her then-fiance Nicholas Hopper, each from the US, determined to get married in Costa Rica, that they had no concept that they’d find yourself relocating there a couple of years later.
However a collection of devastating occasions led the couple and daughter Aaralyn, now 15, to a brand new life within the Central American nation’s very personal “blue zone,” one of many areas of the world the place folks reside longest and are the healthiest.
Ward-Hopper, a well being and life coach, was recognized with breast most cancers a couple of months earlier than their marriage ceremony in 2016.
“[I had] began therapy and every thing,” Ward-Hopper tells CNN Journey. “Should you see footage from my marriage ceremony, I didn’t have hair, and I didn’t actually seem like myself. However I used to be sick.”
Whereas she hadn’t been feeling nicely earlier than they traveled to Costa Rica for his or her large day, Ward-Hopper seen a change in her vitality ranges in the course of the time that they spent there.
“I simply felt the most effective that I had been feeling since I’d been recognized,” she says. “Once we acquired again.
“That feeling good… I believed that I used to be getting higher. But it surely actually appeared prefer it was environmental, as a result of after a couple of week, I used to be feeling dangerous once more.
“In order that was the primary indicator that there was one thing particular about Costa Rica.”
Ward-Hopper went on to have a unilateral mastectomy earlier than present process reconstruction surgical procedure and the household, who have been primarily based in Houston, Texas, tried to return to regular.
Nonetheless, they suffered one other main blow when their residence was destroyed by a Class 4 hurricane in August 2017.
“I had the surgical procedure after which Hurricane Harvey hit Houston,” she says. “And we ended up shedding our residence. So it simply appeared like a whole lot of dangerous issues [happening] again to again to again to again.”
After struggling to discover a new residence, the couple realized that there wasn’t something holding them to Houston anymore, and determined that it was time to maneuver on.
“My husband was like, ‘Effectively, let’s simply go away the nation,” provides Ward-Hopper.
They initially mulled over relocating to 4 potential locations – Ghana, Sweden, Mexico, and naturally, Costa Rica.
“Costa Rica ended up profitable out over the opposite locations that have been on our record,” provides Ward-Hopper, explaining that they have been impressed by the nation’s well being care and training system, in addition to the environmental protections in place – Costa Rica is the first tropical country to have reversed deforestation.
“Ever since we left there from our honeymoon, we simply felt like we wished to get again there and simply really feel good,” she provides. There’s one thing energetic about being in Costa Rica.”
Ward-Hopper goes on to elucidate that the nation’s proximity to the US – Costa Rica is lower than 4 hours from Houston by airplane, was a significant component of their resolution.
“It simply felt so serendipitous,” she says. “I really feel like if we had chosen one of many different areas, we might have carried out far more analysis and preparation than we did for Costa Rica.”
In 2018, round eight months after deciding to make Costa Rica their new residence, the household left Houston to start out afresh in Pueblo Nuevo, a neighborhood positioned within the Nicoya Peninsula, one of many world’s blue zones, together with Loma Linda in California, Italy’s Sardinia, Japan’s Okinawa and Greece’s Ikaria.
“My husband and I got here first and we have been right here for six weeks with out my daughter,” says Ward-Hopper, explaining that they’d signed a lease on a property a buddy had discovered for them.
“It was like a second honeymoon.”
The couple spent their time tending to their backyard, assembly the locals and getting used to their new environment.
“We have been within the jungle,” she says, recalling how they needed to adapt to the sounds and creatures that got here with their new setting.
“It was an journey. My reminiscence of that point may be very fond. By the point we got here again with our daughter, it was peak wet season. In order that was an entire journey in and of itself.”
As they’d entered Costa Rica on a vacationer visa, the couple have been solely permitted to stay within the nation for 90 days at a time, and would frequently return to the US to resume their visas.
Fortunately, Ward-Hopper already spoke Spanish earlier than they arrived, whereas her daughter had some information of the language, which helped the household to transition extra rapidly.
“I don’t know that we might have gotten a few of the offers that we’ve gotten had we not had the flexibility to speak,” she says, including that her husband, who runs a logistics enterprise, has been studying Spanish throughout their time there.
Because the household settled into life in Costa Rica, Ward-Hopper, who describes their first yr within the nation as “one lengthy studying expertise,” was significantly struck by the nation’s robust sense of neighborhood.
“I had an concept of what I believed neighborhood was, however that was fully obliterated once I acquired right here and skilled true neighborhood,” she says.
“The locals have been useful whether or not they knew you or not… It was wonderful. The neighborhood actually regarded out for one another.”
In line with Ward-Hopper, Aaralyn tailored in a short time and loved with the ability to spend a lot time on the seaside and occurring “numerous hikes.”
“My husband and I each commented that she was capable of type of have a childhood like we had within the 80s and 90s,” she says.
“With the ability to go outdoors and play outdoors of the watchful eye of your mother and father.”
The household additionally discovered that they felt extra energized, which Ward-Hopper attributes to entry to recent fruit, greens and complete meals, in addition to cleaner air.
“The well being advantages of the blue zone, I feel, present up later in life,” she says.
“However now we have seen that we really feel higher once we’re right here. Our cardiac well being and lung well being appears to be higher.”
In August 2019, Ward-Hopper realized that she was pregnant along with her second youngster.
“It was a bizarre flip of occasions,” she admits. “I didn’t anticipate to get pregnant.”
When the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, shutting down a lot of the world, the household have been granted permission to stay in Costa Rica on their vacationer visas.
Ward-Hopper welcomed her son Nicolai at their residence in Pueblo Nuevo in April 2020.
Other than not with the ability to have prolonged household along with her on account of border restrictions, she says that giving beginning in Costa Rica turned out to be a beautiful expertise.
“The beginning of my son was type of like a meditation,” she provides. “Every part was so intentional… I want I may have had the expertise with my daughter.”
Sadly, Ward-Hopper’s sister handed away instantly a couple of months later.
Because of the issues round border restrictions on the time and the truth that Nicolai was born in Costa Rica and would have been unable to go away at that stage, Ward-Hopper made the tough resolution to not return to the US to be along with her household.
“That was additionally a very laborious level in our journey,” she says, earlier than recounting the way in which the local people rallied round them to guarantee that they “felt cherished and supported.”
“That’s the type of neighborhood that we reside in,” she provides.
The household of 4, who’ve since moved to a bigger home in Nicoya, are actually settled in Costa Rica and their lives couldn’t be extra completely different than they have been in Houston.
For Ward-Hopper, among the best issues in regards to the Costa Rican way of life is the way in which during which kids are embraced in just about each facet of on a regular basis life.
“I really feel like within the States, you are feeling strain taking your younger youngster out to dinner or one thing,” she says.
“Right here, in case your child needs to play and stroll across the desk, then they let you know to go away them alone and allow them to. So it’s simply completely different.
“They love kids. And I don’t essentially know that I felt the identical when my daughter was little.
“It’s a really household oriented nation. Households undoubtedly [come] first.”
Ward-Hopper, who has been “most cancers free” for a number of years, has tailored to a slower paced way of life and realized to not “be so uptight.”
“Within the US, every thing is tremendous quick,” Ward-Hopper says, noting that she’s needed to be taught to cease apologizing each time she’s a couple of minutes late.
“You understand the saying, ‘Should you’re on time, you’re late.’ However right here, that’s not the case.”
The common life expectancy in Nicoya is alleged to be round 85 years and the area has various centenarians.
“They’re [the centenarians] pleasant to speak with,” Ward-Hopper says, noting that she’s all the time touched to see the way in which during which the native households handle one another, with the outdated caring for the younger, and the younger caring for the outdated.
“The aged are part of caring for the youngest technology – their grandchildren, or their nice grandchildren, as a result of they’re in such fine condition,” she says.
“And it’s that method as a result of they’re hardworking folks, they usually stroll a whole lot of the locations they usually eat very well.
“So I feel all of these issues contribute to their lengthy life. Additionally they reside with the land and never despite the land.
“So that they don’t attempt to take away all the nature in order that they will exist. They only type of exist with the character. A minimum of the place we reside.”
Whereas Ward-Hopper says that there are limitless advantages to dwelling in Costa Rica, she stresses that it’s not essentially extra inexpensive than the US.
“Costa Rica is the most costly nation in Latin America,” she says. “However I additionally suppose that is dependent upon the way you’re making an attempt to reside.”
Ward-Hopper factors out that the price of dwelling in areas of the nation the place there’s a “excessive ratio of expats to locals” might be across the identical because the US.
“The place we reside, it might be far more costly, [to have the same] high quality of life dwelling again in Houston,” she says.
“So for us it’s extra inexpensive, it’s getting dearer as extra folks transfer to Costa Rica.
“However there are nonetheless locations you possibly can go and reside cheaper. But it surely’s distant from the most well-liked spots.”
Even after a number of years of dwelling within the nation, Ward-Hopper says she’s nonetheless as amazed by its unimaginable nature as she was to start with.
“I’m so grateful, as a result of I used to be fearful that every one it will turn into simply the norm,” says Ward-Hopper. “But it surely hasn’t but… We’re nonetheless seeing new creatures this a few years in. In order that’s enjoyable.”
Ward-Hopper and her husband and daughter all turned everlasting residents of Costa Rica after the beginning of Nicolai, who’s a Costa Rican citizen.
Though they don’t have any need to return to the US, Ward-Hopper misses her “buddies, household, and Amazon,” and yearns for a conventional US winter each occasionally.
“When Christmas rolls round, generally I simply wish to placed on fuzzy socks and an enormous hoodie and curl up someplace cozy with a mug of scorching chocolate whereas it’s chilly outdoors,” she says. “However that doesn’t occur [here]. It’s a scorching Christmas.”
And whereas they’re comfortable to remain the place they’re in the interim, the household don’t essentially plan to stay in Costa Rica indefinitely.
“I feel Costa Rica will probably be [our] residence base, however we do have plans to journey and expertise different elements of the world,” Ward-Hopper provides, explaining that they’re contemplating spending time in Colombia and Brazil.
“I assume we’re extra nomadic than stationary, however Costa Rica seems like residence.”