The   Bella  Blog

Hope you are all doing well. This year we spent the holidays in Playa Jaco. NYE video below. I have another video to post catching you up on other things and..... I have even more videos that I will be posting starting next Sat Jan 8 So Stay Tuned!!! #ThatBellaLife #BlackInCostaRica #BlackExpatsInCostaRica

Good Morning As you may know, I have been working EXTREMELY hard (a big part of the reason I have been missing on this site) putting together our new internet radio station. I think you will enjoy the music mix as well as the talk shows we provide - many of which will be of help to those who are considering moving abroad. In the beginning we will cover, Costa Rica (our home base) as well as Mexico, Panama, and Tanzania E Africa. Our plan is to expand to include more location

Hello everyone - I know it's been a minute since I have posted but I wanted to stop in today and let you know that I am still around. With the whole "covid" situation, life has changed a bit for us here in Costa Rica, as I know it has for you in the states (and elsewhere). We have not done any travel outside of Costa Rica, which saddens me -- and our travel within the country (although allowed) has been curtailed due to driving and curfew restrictions. We've been doing a lot

Ok y'all, I'm back with a new video! Finally got access to my editing tools. This video is from our last visit to Puerto Viejo (June 2021). We went to Puerto Viejo to attend a wedding and stayed at the beautiful (new) Umami Hotel Garden Spa. In today's video we are on a walk to find breakfast on the beach and ran into a very knowledgeable local who taught us a thing or 2 about medical plants! Many of the them just looked like weeds growing along the road but turns out that th

When we decided to move to Costa Rica, our original plan was for 6 of us (known then as The Aspiring Expats), to settle on the Caribbean Coast. We were to buy land, build and live in 4 sustainable living, self-sufficient off-the-grid container homes with a common area hub in the center, with plans to expand into a larger container community at a later date! Five Year Look Back August 3, 2015 At our last several weekly meetings, we have been discussing housing options using al

Please join us in beautiful Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica on May 13 - 16th for the 1st Annual Black Expats in Costa Rica Meet Up Bridging the Cultures is our Theme for this year All the info is below Please Click #thatbellalife #blackexpatsincostarica #retiredblackexpats #retiredblackexpatsincostarica #blackincostarica #bridgingcultures #blackexpatslivinglifeabroad

It's no secret --- Costa Rica is NOT known for it's cuisine! I have nothing against rice and beans, and after living here for 5 yrs, I've certainly had my share. Gallo pinto is fine (gallo pinto is a mix of beans, rice, Salsa Lizano, chopped onion, chopped red bell pepper, and chopped cilantro. Usually served alongside a fried egg, ripe plantains, white cheese and homemade tortillas or a piece of toast). Casados are fine too (casados are always offered at sodas (a local resta

Below is a recent interview we had with expats, Penny & Paul McPherson, as we sat down to discuss their travels and their life in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica!! Be sure to check Penny out on IG #plantbasedpennylife Big Thanks to Paul & Penny!!! #ThatBellaLife #BlackInCostaRica #BlackExpatsinCostaRica #BlackExpatsLivingLifeAbroad #PlantBasedPennyLife

In case you were wondering... Stay Tuned #thatbellalife #BlackExpatsAbroad #BlackExpatsInCostaRica #BlackAndRetiredInCostaRica #BlackHairCareInCostaRica

Today is September 15th It's Costa Rica Independence Day Some of you may remember this video, which we posted back in 2018 on our old vimeo channel. Now that we have moved from Grecia, it's fun to look back on those days, so, from time to time I'll upload one of the old videos and repost it to our new Youtube channel -- and you can also view it here. I think this will be helpful to our newer subscribers -- and for those of you who have been around for a while, you might like

It all started with the concept of hygee. But, what is hygee? Pronounced hooga - hue-guh): a concept of living, derived from the Danish word “hygge”. ... It was created as a concept and lifestyle by the Danish in the 18th century and is now a fundamental part of their culture. The hygge concept cannot be translated to one single word but it encompasses a feeling of cozy contentment and well-being through enjoyment of the simple things in life and as the Danish put it “the goo

Hope you are all doing well. We are in week 5 of self isolation here in Costa Rica. We're working on a video to update you on what life has been like for us. So stay tuned! In the meantime, here are a couple of items I'd like to share with you. The first is written by a proud Tica who writes about how Costa Rica is handling the crisis and below that is an excellent video showing the comparison between NY and Costa Rica. So happy we are here! I hope you will take time to look

I like to shop, but this is not exactly what I meant by being fashionable! However, while we were in town on Wednesday we stopped into the farmacia and they had masks back in stock, so we bought 2 each. One is the cloth syle and the other is the N94 (they did not have the N95 but we were told that these do pretty much as good of a job). I have to admit, neither is very comfortable to wear. Thank goodness we do not go out that often! A properly fitted N95 mask can be extremely

Although we had a pretty frustrating several days last week, the end of the week turned out to be much, much better. Thursday was an absolutely gorgeous day. I even hung some clothes out on the line to dry in the Costa Rica sun. Really! I mean who gets to have such a beautiful view? I am always in awe of the beauty here. On Friday, I also picked up our homemade holiday tamales! Yum! Tamale Making - A time-honored and delicious holiday tradition in Costa Rica. For generations,

I know it's been a minute since my last post. There has been a whole lot going on. I will fill you in on some of it in our next video "Things Change" - Our 4 yr Costa Rica Update. Look for that in the next few weeks. In the meantime, the rainy season is just about finished for the 2019 season (Yay) and with that will bring strong winds till sometime in January (Ick). By the time the dry season comes around, our backyard looks a hot mess - to put it bluntly. Much of the house

I sat down to breakfast in Grecia with 2 of my favorite people, Adero & Noah. They are from New Orleans and have been living as expats in Puerto Viejo. When we first moved to Costa Rica we were pretty intent on living in Puerto Viejo. It was the place we loved the most (and still do) when we visited in 2015. We were smitten by the laid back Caribbean vibe, the music, the beautiful beaches, the people, and of course, the food (with the Caribbean influence the food is very diff