Thank you for stopping by!!
We are 2 retired, black expats from California who are living in Costa Rica. If you are a first time visitor -- this is our 3rd year in Costa Rica and we live on a coffee farm in the beautiful hills of the Central Valley. We're enjoying our new life here and we'll be blogging about daily life in Costa Rica.
We launched our new website "That Bella Life" and "The Bella Blog" on January 1, 2019 and we're super excited to introduce you to our new look. The site is fully responsive with mobile devices, making it easy to navigate on a wide range of web browsers and portable devices.
You will find a variety of other content here as well, including:
Travel Destinations:
We LOVE to travel!
As we journey to exciting new destinations our goal is to "go off the beaten path" and mix with the locals to experience their culture and also to connect with expats (where we can) and share both experiences with you.
First up - we'll be heading to Peru for 2 weeks this February. Peru is a fascinating country with an ancient history and many natural and cultural treasures. There is the world famous Machu Picchu, Cusco, the Sacred Valley and the Inca Trail along there are lots of archeological ruins to explore and let's oh, let's not forget about Peru's world class cuisine! Peru has an Afro Peruvian culture a few hours from Lima.
Here's a little tidbit about a hotel that we are looking into booking.
Hacienda San José, a sugar plantation, was built in 1868 in El Carmen, Perú and lasted until a rebellion of more than 300 African slaves took place in 1879 . The plantation owner was hacked down like sugar cane by machete wielding slave rebels on the principal stair entrance. Descendants of these slaves still populate the area known as the District of El Carmen.
And.....guess what else? There are slave tunnels under the hacienda!
"After entering a secret staircase you will descend into an underground system of tunnels stretching almost 35 kms and connecting the hacienda San Jose with 5 other haciendas and the old port of Chincha."
We are also planning to spend the 2019 Christmas holidays in the progressive city of Montevideo Uruguay.
We'll be announcing our complete travel schedule later.
Interviews:
Included in our new Bella Interview Series we're adding more black expat interviews because we have found it to be a very helpful way to share experiences, and let's face it, there aren't nearly enough of them! In my opinion, if you are contemplating making a move to a country outside of the US, access to interviews can be extremely helpful. Younger African Americans are traveling more these days and retired African Americans have finally begun to consider living abroad! We hope we can inspire you to see the world.
Relocation:
When we moved here in 2016 I could find only a handful of information on the relocation process. I found only one other website that talked about living in Costa Rica from the black perspective, so I made it my goal to fill that void.
On this site you will find 2 pages completely dedicated to relocation. In addition, I am building a resource list and currently have several contacts who are experienced in either real estate or who have property to rent. They can assist you in finding temporary and/or permanent housing to rent or to buy. At this time, I do not have options for everywhere in Costa Rica, but I have a few of the major areas covered. You can also contact me here or on our Facebook page if you have questions.
Other Topics:
In addition to expat life in Costa Rica, I'll include other popular (and sometimes unknown) travel destinations as well as affordable retirement locations. I will include topics I consider vital to our very existence, like healthcare, haircare, fashion, art, food etc. Just because we're expats doesn't mean we lose interest in the world around us!
Next Steps:
Be sure to check out our video channel and subscribe to our new youtube channel. I have already uploaded some videos I think you will find helpful.
Subscribe to the blog so that you don't miss a post. You can filter out only the areas of interest to you.
See you back here soon!!
Questions? Anything I missed? Leave me a comment below.