When Kema Ward-Hopper and her then-fiancé Nicholas Hopper, each from america, determined to get married in Costa Rica, that they had no concept that they’d find yourself shifting there a couple of years later.
However a sequence of devastating occasions led the couple and their daughter Aaralyn, now 15, to a brand new life within the Central American nation's personal “blue zone,” one of many areas on the earth the place folks dwell the longest and revel in better well being.
Ward-Hopper, a well being and life coach, was identified with breast most cancers a couple of months earlier than her 2016 wedding ceremony.
“[I had] I began therapy and every part,” Ward-Hopper tells CNN Journey. “When you see pictures from my wedding ceremony, I had no hair and I didn't actually appear like me. However he was sick.”
Particular place
Though she wasn't feeling effectively earlier than touring to Costa Rica for her massive day, Ward-Hopper seen a change in her power ranges throughout their time there.
“I felt higher than I’ve since I used to be identified,” he says. “After we returned.
“That feeling of well-being… I believed I used to be getting higher. Nevertheless it actually appeared prefer it was environmental, as a result of after a few week, I felt unhealthy once more.
“That was the primary indicator that there was one thing particular about Costa Rica.”
Ward-Hopper underwent a unilateral mastectomy earlier than present process reconstruction surgical procedure and the household, which was based mostly in Houston, Texas, tried to get again on observe.
Nevertheless, they suffered one other blow when their house was destroyed by a Class four hurricane in August 2017.
“I had surgical procedure after which Hurricane Harvey hit Houston,” he says. “And we ended up dropping our home. So it appeared like loads of unhealthy issues. [happening] again to again, again to again.”
After struggling to discover a new house, the couple realized there was nothing conserving them in Houston anymore and determined it was time to maneuver on.
“My husband mentioned, 'Effectively, let's simply go away the nation,'” Ward-Hopper provides.
They initially thought of shifting to 4 potential locations: Ghana, Sweden, Mexico and, after all, Costa Rica.
“Costa Rica ended up beating the opposite locations that have been on our record,” provides Ward-Hopper, explaining that they have been impressed by the nation's schooling and healthcare system, in addition to the environmental protections in place: Costa Rica is the primary nation tropical that has reversed deforestation.
“Since we left there on our honeymoon, we felt like we needed to return there and really feel good,” he provides. “There’s something energetic about being in Costa Rica.”
'Fortuitous' motion
Ward-Hopper goes on to clarify that the nation's proximity to the US (Costa Rica is lower than 4 hours from Houston by aircraft) was a significant factor in her resolution.
“It felt so serendipitous,” he says. “I really feel like if we had chosen any of the opposite areas, we might have carried out much more analysis and preparation than we did in Costa Rica.”
In 2018, about eight months after deciding to make Costa Rica their new house, the household left Houston to begin over in Pueblo Nuevo, a neighborhood positioned on the Nicoya Peninsula, one of many world's blue zones, together with Loma Linda. in California, Italy. Sardinia, Okinawa in Japan and Ikaria in Greece.
“My husband and I arrived first and have been right here for six weeks with out my daughter,” Ward-Hopper says, explaining that that they had signed a lease on a property a good friend 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,” he says, remembering how they needed to adapt to the sounds and creatures that got here with their new environment.
“It was an journey. My reminiscence of that point may be very nice. After we returned with our daughter, it was already the excessive wet season. So it was fairly an journey in itself.”
As a result of that they had entered Costa Rica on a vacationer visa, the couple was solely allowed to remain within the nation for 90 days at a time and usually returned to the U.S. to resume their visas.
Fortuitously, Ward-Hopper already spoke Spanish earlier than they arrived, whereas her daughter had some information of the language, which helped the household make the transition extra shortly.
“I don't know if we might have gotten among the offers we acquired if we hadn't had the power to speak,” she says, including that her husband, who runs a logistics enterprise, has been studying Spanish throughout his time there.
When the household settled in Costa Rica, Ward-Hopper, who describes his first yr within the nation as “a protracted studying expertise,” was significantly impressed by the nation's sturdy sense of group.
“I had an concept of what I believed a group was, however that utterly disappeared after I acquired right here and skilled actual group,” he says.
“The locals have been useful whether or not they knew you or not… It was superb. “The group actually seemed out for one another.”
New acquisition
In response to Ward-Hopper, Aaralyn tailored in a short time and loved having the ability to spend a lot time on the seashore and go on “loads of walks.”
“My husband and I commented that she might have had a childhood just like the one we had within the '80s and '90s,” she says.
“With the ability to exit and play with out the watchful eye of your mother and father.”
The household additionally discovered they felt extra energetic, which Ward-Hopper attributes to entry to recent fruits, greens and entire meals, in addition to cleaner air.
“I believe the well being advantages of the blue zone manifest later in life,” he says.
“However we’ve got seen that we really feel higher once we are right here. Our coronary heart and lung well being appear to be higher.”
In August 2019, Ward-Hopper came upon she was pregnant together with her second little one.
“It was a wierd flip of occasions,” he admits. “She didn't count on to get pregnant.”
When the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, shutting down a lot of the world, the household was granted permission to stay in Costa Rica on their vacationer visas.
Ward-Hopper welcomed her son Nicolai into her Pueblo Nuevo house in April 2020.
Except for not having the ability to have household together with her on account of border restrictions, she says giving start in Costa Rica turned out to be a beautiful expertise.
“The start of my son was like a meditation,” he provides. “It was all so intentional… I want I might have had the expertise with my daughter.”
Sadly, Ward-Hopper's sister handed away all of the sudden a couple of months later.
Resulting from issues surrounding border restrictions on the time and the truth that Nicolai was born in Costa Rica and wouldn’t have been capable of go away on the time, Ward-Hopper made the tough resolution to not return to the US to be along with his household.
“That was additionally a very tough level in our journey,” he says, earlier than recounting the way in which the local people rallied round them to verify they “felt liked and supported.”
“That's the sort of group we dwell in,” he provides.
The household of 4, who’ve since moved to a bigger house in Nicoya, are actually settled in Costa Rica and their lives couldn't be extra totally different than in Houston.
For Ward-Hopper, among the finest issues concerning the Costa Rican life-style is the way in which kids are embraced in just about each side of each day life.
“I really feel like in America you’re feeling strain to take your little child out to dinner or one thing,” she says.
“Right here, in case your little one needs to play and stroll across the desk, then they inform you to go away him alone and let him. So it's simply totally different.
The household is first
“They love kids. And I don't essentially know that I felt the identical manner when my daughter was little.
“It’s a very family-oriented nation. Households positively [come] first.”
Ward-Hopper, who has been “most cancers free” for a number of years, has tailored to a slower life-style and discovered to not “be so tense.”
“In America, every part 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 recognize the saying: 'When you're on time, you're late.' However right here that isn’t the case.”
The typical life expectancy in Nicoya is claimed to be round 85 years and the area has a number of centenarians.
“They’re [the centenarians] They’re beautiful to speak to,” says Ward-Hopper, noting that she is all the time touched by the way in which native households take care of one another, with the elders taking care of the younger and the younger taking care of the outdated.
“Older persons are a part of caring for the youthful era: their grandchildren or great-grandchildren, as a result of they’re in superb form,” he says.
“And it’s because they’re hard-working folks, they stroll round loads and so they eat very effectively.
“I believe all of these issues contribute to his lengthy life. Additionally they dwell with the land and never regardless of the land.
“In order that they don't attempt to get rid of all of nature to allow them to exist. They merely exist with nature. Not less than the place we dwell.”
Whereas Ward-Hopper says there are infinite advantages to residing in Costa Rica, she emphasizes that it's not essentially extra reasonably priced than america.
“Costa Rica is the most costly nation in Latin America,” he says. “However I additionally suppose that will depend on the way you attempt to dwell.”
Ward-Hopper notes that the price of residing in areas of the nation the place there’s a “excessive ratio of expats to locals” might be about the identical as in america.
“The place we dwell, it could be rather more costly, [to have the same] high quality of life residing in Houston,” he says.
“So for us it’s extra reasonably priced, it’s turning into dearer as extra folks transfer to Costa Rica.
“However there are nonetheless locations you possibly can go and dwell cheaper. However it’s removed from the most well-liked locations.”
Even after a number of years of residing within the countryside, Ward-Hopper says she continues to be as amazed by its unimaginable nature as she was firstly.
“I'm very grateful as a result of I used to be frightened that each one of this may grow to be the norm,” Ward-Hopper says. “Nevertheless it's not like that but… We nonetheless see new creatures after so a few years. So it's enjoyable.”
Ward-Hopper, her husband and daughter grew to become everlasting residents of Costa Rica after the start of Nicolai, who’s a Costa Rican citizen.
Though they don’t want to return to the U.S., Ward-Hopper misses her “buddies, household and Amazon” and longs for a conventional American winter from time to time.
“When Christmas comes round, typically I simply wish to placed on fuzzy socks and an enormous hoodie and curl up someplace cozy with a cup of sizzling chocolate whereas it's chilly exterior,” she says. “However that doesn't occur. [here]. It's a heat Christmas.”
And whereas they're joyful to remain the place they’re for the second, the household doesn't essentially plan to remain in Costa Rica indefinitely.
“I believe Costa Rica might be [our] base of operations, however we’ve got plans to journey and expertise different elements of the world,” provides Ward-Hopper, explaining that they’re contemplating spending time in Colombia and Brazil.
“I suppose we're extra nomadic than stationary, however Costa Rica looks like house.”