So we've taken the next big step. We just purchased our Airline tickets to Costa Rica.
I made a bit of a mistake though. in my excitement I didn't do my research. This is a warning to you all out there that its best to do lots of research. But with that said, airlines change the prices of their tickets almost Daily... I booked a flight for Thursday the 27Th for myself as I am also flying back to Portland in the first month to finish up a course I'm taking in Structural integration. After which I get busy and wait a day and then attempt to book my fiances flight. The prices change and now its about 150 dollars cheaper to book the flights on the 28Th. I go back and check my flights and they are also no longer the cheapest and I would have saved myself the same 150 dollars booking it on the Friday also. This is worse then gas price fluctuations! So I play with it some more and get busy and come back the next day. so we're talking a matter of 48 hours and I live with the fact I'm going to have to pay 300 dollars more for all these flights and attempt to book the flight for my fiance. The price has jumped again! now its 300 dollars more then what it was just over 48 hours ago... This is CRAZY! how can things change so much so fast... We're not flying away for 6 months? perhaps the increase in gas prices are now being passed onto consumers and I should actually feel good that I purchased my 4 flights for a great deal.... I'll try and tell myself that anyway!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Frozen in Thunder Bay
So we've been in Thunder Bay Ontario for the past 4 days and man is it ever cold! Sure makes me wish we decided to head to Costa Rica a little sooner!
We're here visiting Alana's Family and trying to convince them to all come down in Decemeber over the holidays to have Christmas Costa Rican Style. I think for the most part we have all them exicted for the prospects of Turkey in Tamarindo! I don't know how they live up there in the far far north with the endless winters of snow and -27 wind chill. It seems like most of them sit inside for the winter and take up the sport of drinking and eating. It almost makes me want to come here and start up a health and education clinc for exercise, weight managment and health in general. I woulnd't be surprised if Thunderbay recives the most unhealthy city in canada award.
I wonder if things would be the same if they had the climate of Costa Rica? HMMMM...
We're here visiting Alana's Family and trying to convince them to all come down in Decemeber over the holidays to have Christmas Costa Rican Style. I think for the most part we have all them exicted for the prospects of Turkey in Tamarindo! I don't know how they live up there in the far far north with the endless winters of snow and -27 wind chill. It seems like most of them sit inside for the winter and take up the sport of drinking and eating. It almost makes me want to come here and start up a health and education clinc for exercise, weight managment and health in general. I woulnd't be surprised if Thunderbay recives the most unhealthy city in canada award.
I wonder if things would be the same if they had the climate of Costa Rica? HMMMM...
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
One step Closer to Tamarindo
So its somewhat more offical now, we have sent in a deposit! We're 1000 dollars invested into going to Costa Rica in Decemeber 1st 2008.
Its funny how people never really beleived us when we first told them. But once you have a deposit down, it starts to click in how serious you really are. There tone starts to change and they acually ask serious questions about the situation. I guess most people love to dream, but dreamings for sleep time, we're living! So now we're one step closer to Living in costa rica!
On the business front, the sales a little closer to being done, We had some snags in communications with our potenial buyers, but after a phone call things were smoother over and our issues are somewhat resolved. This shows me that nothing beats the personal touch. Costa rica is all about the personal touch!
Its funny how people never really beleived us when we first told them. But once you have a deposit down, it starts to click in how serious you really are. There tone starts to change and they acually ask serious questions about the situation. I guess most people love to dream, but dreamings for sleep time, we're living! So now we're one step closer to Living in costa rica!
On the business front, the sales a little closer to being done, We had some snags in communications with our potenial buyers, but after a phone call things were smoother over and our issues are somewhat resolved. This shows me that nothing beats the personal touch. Costa rica is all about the personal touch!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Where oh where should we go?
So we decided it would be great to go somewhere warm as I've never been south of Texas in my whole 27 years of life.. sad I know.
At first we thought it would be a good idea to go visit a travel agent and tell them what we wanted and see what they suggested. Our first stop was Flight center. Filled with friendly nice staff they were of little help. Basically all they did was hand us brochure after brochure and sent us on our way. After the 2nd Brochure all the resorts blend together and we had no clue what made any of them better or were any closer to deciding where to go. So we went to our good friend Google. Google is the answer to everything after all! Basically I wanted to go somewhere that had a little adventure and Alana wanted to just sit on the beach and relax. So we found a website called trip advisor, a great resource for travel anywhere in the world. it has lists of hotels, B&B's and so on for any town or region you could ever think of.
So after some searching on Google, we came across Costa Rica as a possible vacation destination. It had it all, Beach, Volcano's, Cloud forests, and more! It was a third world country but it didn't have the same issues that most other Latin counties in the area had. No army for war, a strong economy where even though the average wage was 1.5o an hour, everyone still had a job! We could rent a car, drive where we wanted and stay places here and there and get our adventure and our beach on! Perfect we thought!
At first we thought it would be a good idea to go visit a travel agent and tell them what we wanted and see what they suggested. Our first stop was Flight center. Filled with friendly nice staff they were of little help. Basically all they did was hand us brochure after brochure and sent us on our way. After the 2nd Brochure all the resorts blend together and we had no clue what made any of them better or were any closer to deciding where to go. So we went to our good friend Google. Google is the answer to everything after all! Basically I wanted to go somewhere that had a little adventure and Alana wanted to just sit on the beach and relax. So we found a website called trip advisor, a great resource for travel anywhere in the world. it has lists of hotels, B&B's and so on for any town or region you could ever think of.
So after some searching on Google, we came across Costa Rica as a possible vacation destination. It had it all, Beach, Volcano's, Cloud forests, and more! It was a third world country but it didn't have the same issues that most other Latin counties in the area had. No army for war, a strong economy where even though the average wage was 1.5o an hour, everyone still had a job! We could rent a car, drive where we wanted and stay places here and there and get our adventure and our beach on! Perfect we thought!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Doing something new.
I read a passage from a book yesterday and I thought it was kind of fitting. Its from a man named Robin Sharma who wrote "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari". He's trying to show people that this world we've created has taken us away from our true selves.
"Most people spend the best years of the their lives in places of the known. They lack the courage to venture out into foreign territory and are frightened to leave the crowd. They want to fit in and are afraid to stand out. They dress like everyone else, even if doing so doesn't feel right to them. They are reluctant to listen to the call of their hearts and try new things, refusing to leave that shore of safety. They do what everybody else does. In doing so, their once-shining souls begin to darken. Success lies in being true to yourself--and living life on your own terms."
"Most people spend the best years of the their lives in places of the known. They lack the courage to venture out into foreign territory and are frightened to leave the crowd. They want to fit in and are afraid to stand out. They dress like everyone else, even if doing so doesn't feel right to them. They are reluctant to listen to the call of their hearts and try new things, refusing to leave that shore of safety. They do what everybody else does. In doing so, their once-shining souls begin to darken. Success lies in being true to yourself--and living life on your own terms."
Thursday, March 13, 2008
How it all Started - The business sucess
I should start at the beginning of this whole situation that has brought upon this desire and ability to move "overseas". Everyone always says they're jealous and would love to move south and live the "pura vida" in paradise, but when it actually comes down to it, 99.5% of people would never do it. Is it because they're afraid, lack the finances or is it just a fantasy like that threesome they've always wanted, but will just never be pursue. I've been told some fantasy’s should just stay fantasy’s? What do you think?
One year and 13 days ago to be exact, we launched a website for our business. Over the previous year My fiancé (Alana) had been working for a horrible man. Even though as she began working for him and his sales doubled and tripled overnight he refused to offer her a raise. He wanted to expand and have Alana do everything, and still refused to offer a raise. Because of this Alana had refused to take on the extra work and he had threatened to fire her. She said “fine” and walked away. He never fired her, but all respect for both parties was lost and a bad situation got worse. Seeing all of this I suggested she start her own business. Her boss's success had relied on a website that was ranked high on search engines and my fiancé who has excrement customer service and sales. I figured we had the most important half of the business (My Fiancé :-)) so this could totally work! A beautiful professional website was built and launched on May first 2007 and our business was born. At first things were slow and Alana still worked at her old job. I would answer phones whenever I was home and pass her on the messages by texting her phone. She would then take a "pee break" to call clients and make sales! Eventually her pee breaks turned into a major bladder infection and she was fired in May.
Our business started out on page 72 when google first ranked it in March. Over the next few months through my own research on search engine optimizing our website flew up on the keywords I targeted. And wham! All of a sudden we were on the first/second page for a number of keywords. The phone calls started flooding in. We never expected things to progress so quickly. We were totally unprepared. In September we hit a sales record of just over 20,000 dollars. We quickly paid off all our debt (over $40,000), bought a new LCD TV, new furniture, a car and decided to take a 2 week trip somewhere warm.
One year and 13 days ago to be exact, we launched a website for our business. Over the previous year My fiancé (Alana) had been working for a horrible man. Even though as she began working for him and his sales doubled and tripled overnight he refused to offer her a raise. He wanted to expand and have Alana do everything, and still refused to offer a raise. Because of this Alana had refused to take on the extra work and he had threatened to fire her. She said “fine” and walked away. He never fired her, but all respect for both parties was lost and a bad situation got worse. Seeing all of this I suggested she start her own business. Her boss's success had relied on a website that was ranked high on search engines and my fiancé who has excrement customer service and sales. I figured we had the most important half of the business (My Fiancé :-)) so this could totally work! A beautiful professional website was built and launched on May first 2007 and our business was born. At first things were slow and Alana still worked at her old job. I would answer phones whenever I was home and pass her on the messages by texting her phone. She would then take a "pee break" to call clients and make sales! Eventually her pee breaks turned into a major bladder infection and she was fired in May.
Our business started out on page 72 when google first ranked it in March. Over the next few months through my own research on search engine optimizing our website flew up on the keywords I targeted. And wham! All of a sudden we were on the first/second page for a number of keywords. The phone calls started flooding in. We never expected things to progress so quickly. We were totally unprepared. In September we hit a sales record of just over 20,000 dollars. We quickly paid off all our debt (over $40,000), bought a new LCD TV, new furniture, a car and decided to take a 2 week trip somewhere warm.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Moving To Costa Rica
I'm a canadian moving to Costa Rica in Decmeber 2008 to a town on the pacific coast called Tamarindo. This blog will be about why I choose costa rica to live, my trials and tribulations and so much more!
First off, let me intoduce myself for those of you who don't know me.
My name is Bryon and I'm a man of many trades. Traditionally I'd say I'm in the Holisitc healthcare feild but over the last year, my fiance and I (her name is Alana) have built and sold a company for a pretty penny. This is how we are fiancing our trip by the way. Back to me though.. I'm 27 years old, born and Raised in the Greater Toronto area and for the last 7 or so years I have lived downtown the cold, all black wearing and emotionally void, road raging city of Toronto(its not that bad of a place, really) I love adventre and exploration of all that life has to offer.
If that doesn't make you want to read more then I don't know what will! :-P I'm also a little sarcastic if you haven't figure out alread. But hopefully you like a little sarcasam and we'll get along great! :-)
So sit back, enjoy the reading and maybe I'll let you come visit me in Costa Rica for a week!
First off, let me intoduce myself for those of you who don't know me.
My name is Bryon and I'm a man of many trades. Traditionally I'd say I'm in the Holisitc healthcare feild but over the last year, my fiance and I (her name is Alana) have built and sold a company for a pretty penny. This is how we are fiancing our trip by the way. Back to me though.. I'm 27 years old, born and Raised in the Greater Toronto area and for the last 7 or so years I have lived downtown the cold, all black wearing and emotionally void, road raging city of Toronto(its not that bad of a place, really) I love adventre and exploration of all that life has to offer.
If that doesn't make you want to read more then I don't know what will! :-P I'm also a little sarcastic if you haven't figure out alread. But hopefully you like a little sarcasam and we'll get along great! :-)
So sit back, enjoy the reading and maybe I'll let you come visit me in Costa Rica for a week!
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