Embracing Pura Vida: Lessons from My Costa Rica Work and Travel Holiday

November 10, 2023

I should probably start by saying that working from another country, especially one that’s not as developed as the country you live in (for me the US), is probably for the faint of heart. It’s geared for an adventurer…and I love an adventure.

I love traveling, it’s something my husband and I have in common. We often say we are not happy unless there is an adventure or a vacation on the books. Traveling is how we benchmark our life and how we reward ourselves for the hard work we do every day. So traveling is an important part of our family and our relationship.

From the beginning of our relationship, we knew that travel was going to be a major part of our life together. 

Now we travel with our kids.  Even when they were babies, we took them all over the world. They are amazing travelers. Ellis, our oldest is 12 now, she could manage her own luggage by 3.  Loading it up on the scanner, taking her shoes in security, all cool as a cucumber, while full blown adults are melting down from the shuffle. 

In walks a goal – Costa Rica work and travel holiday.

About six years ago, in 2017, once our youngest Aveleen was 3, out of diapers and super portable. I sprung a new goal on Mike – a month long trip, a work and travel vacation. I wanted to go to a spot for more than just a holiday, I wanted to experience it day to day. Be there long enough to understand the nuances of the culture, learn about the people and appreciate them. 

Now notice I’m categorizing it as a “trip”, not just a “vacation” or “holiday”. Because having to work when you travel is not exactly a holiday, even in Costa Rica. You can do vacation-like activities, but you’re still responsible for working. As much as I wanted to, I didn’t just spend all day at the beach. 

My goal was to roll this experience out in 2020. My initial travel destination was Tulum Mexico. I was minutes literally away from clicking ‘book now’ and reserving an Airbnb, enrolling my kids in language school for the summer and working remotely. 

Aaaand then you know, the universe imploded with COVID and that dream was laid to rest for a while. 

So the winter of 2023 rolled around and we decided it was high time we had a real adventure again.

Mike was ready to take a short sabbatical from work. We had successfully weaned off the kids off all inclusive resort vacations. Spent the previous two years acclimating them to climbing mountains and snorkeling without tour guides. The whole family was primed and ready for this longer style adventure. 

Why did we choose Costa Rica for our work and travel holiday?

I would totally do it again. I learned a lot while I was there AND I feel like I scratched the itch of needing to go someplace for a month…at least for now 😉.

I returned with a lot of gratitude for the things that I have. Gratitude for your normal is  one of the most powerful outcomes of an adventure vacation. You put yourself out of your comfort zone, and find a new comfort in the known of normal. 

But enough with self-indulgent recipe blogger style backstory. If you want to hear ALLLL the gorey details you can listen to our family podcast we recorded on the go while traveling Costa Rica. It put my audio editing skills to the test!

What did I learn working and traveling in Costa Rica for over a month?

I am an electricity addict.

Yes, I am addicted to electricity. And I 100% take for granted that it’s always going to be there. I can count the number of work delaying power outages I’ve experienced in my 40 years living in Missouri on one hand.  I can also count on one hand, no, I might be more than one hand, the number of power outages that I had when I was in Costa Rica. 

I heard this could be a thing. But I didn’t quite understand how it was going to impact the flow of my day. For tasks like writing, a power outage wasn’t so bad, if my laptop was fully charged. (The act of charging my laptop every night became extremely habitual because I could only work until my laptop died.) But I had a number of meetings belly flop due to power failure. Luckily everyone understood and life went on.

The Internet there is awesome. 

The internet was great everywhere I stayed. Surprising for me because the internet in Mid-Missouri is a solid C. We have a little house on the Lake of the Ozarks where the best internet was the hot spot on my phone up until 4 months ago. So working remotely was a total bust. 

Back to the power addition though, you have to have power to have internet.

One night in Costa Rica a storm knocked out power until 3 pm the next afternoon. So after spending from 4-5 am watching the monkeys outside my window jump from tree (pretty magical) I sat down with my three quarters charged laptop and I worked until it died. At which point I loaded up my mobile office and children to walk up the dirt road until we found a coffee shop with a generator.

I wasn’t alone in my Costa Rica work travel holiday.

I learned that there’s actually a lot of other people that are doing the exact same thing.

See, up until ‘the power killing storm’, I did most of my work at home. I think the universe planted the storm to make me go out and see all the other humans in a similar journey to mine. (And that I’m not alone in my addition to power 😂!) While I was at the coffee shop, the power would go out intermittently, and everybody would be kicked off of their virtual meetings and we’d just jump back on when the power came back up. 

The power addition was a lesson in patience and forgiveness. I value flexibility and it made me lean into that value in a way I haven’t had to before. Forgiving myself for feeling frustrated for my lack of progress on a task and forgiving the universe for putting the need to be flexible in my face. Which leads me to my next lesson learned…

Traditional work schedules are not a mandatory thing to get great work done efficiently.

(And they suck.)

I am beginning to believe the traditional ‘go into work at 8 and leave at 5’ actually hinders your ability to get work done efficiently. The days I woke up with the sun and worked out then started working by 6:30 am and went surfing around 11 were pretty magical. I’d come back from surfing and work until around 6 pm and  those were some of the best days. I had a lot of creativity I could dedicate to writing and doing creative work.

I think it was the break and the exercise in between. And on those days, even though I worked, I still felt like I was on vacation. Because I took the time in between for myself and with my family. 

Before we left to work and travel in Costa Rica I promised myself I would take the time that I needed for myself and not feel guilty about it. To give myself the privilege of leaving when my work was done, not tie myself to a desk for 8 hours a day because that’s what I’m ‘supposed to do’.

The work ethic I was raised with is still there but the constraints I was raised to believe are things I’m working on letting go. I want to produce amazing work, but I believe I can do it differently than the traditional work week. (Which is why this summer MayeCreate transitioned to a 4 day work week, hear all about that transition here.) 

I feel better in a non-traditional work pattern.

My neck hurts less.

My job plants me in front of a desk all day. I’m pretty sure humans are NOT made to sit at a desk all day.

For years I’ve said that I have a “Tuesday hangover”. I feel pretty good on Monday after a weekend of movement. But I arrive at work Tuesday morning with a neck and headache accompanied by brain fog. As the week goes on, the head/neck situation escalates and  I’m in the chiropractor by Thursday. 

While working and traveling in Costa Rica, I didn’t have access to a chiropractor and I didn’t feel like I needed to find one. I think it’s because I moved more on the daily and allowed myself the flexibility in my day. Plus I didn’t sit in a chair 40 hours a week. 

And I know what you’re thinking right now. “Why the heck don’t you just do this at home then if it makes you feel so much better?” 

Well, I’m trying.

Now that I’m back in Missouri, I do feel myself slipping back into the pattern of the traditional work week. But, even now, some of my most productive days are the ones when I take some time for myself in the morning, reading or listening to a podcast. Work until lunch and take the dogs on a walk.  Then go back to work until the kids get off the bus at 4. Because I allowed myself space in between for my brain to rest. So I am trying to continue to work like I’m in Costa Rica, even while I’m at home. But I do feel myself slipping into the old patterns that I know don’t serve me well.

There was actually plenty of time for everything.

Now, having said that, Mike did not spend all day working, he took a sabbatical from work. He read, journaled, starred at birds and kept the kids functioning and entertained. So I had a very supportive adult in the home, I wasn’t single momming it and working from home, like most summers. (I could do a whole podcast about that.) Mike was an amazing backup dancer and our kids were super helpful as well. 

I actually like the seasons.

But traveling off season is pretty common for the Pitts family. We consider ourselves inclement travelers. Because we go places when other people don’t…which is how we can budget traveling as often as we do. We went to Chicago in February🥶. I don’t know if that was the best decision. But we had a grand old time in Chicago. And it was really affordable. Same for Ireland, we went in February the storms were on point and the pubs filled with locals!

We always travel in the off seasons, almost everywhere we go. And this was no exception. 

Daylight is amazing.

What do you need to pull off a Costa Rica work travel trip?

Let’s say that you’re gonna do this thing. Maybe it’s on your bucket list and you’re trying to convince your partner…all right. There were a few things I feel were instrumental in making this trip a success. 

A good workstation. 

I feel like people neglect their workstation in general. And by workstation I mean your computer, monitors, keyboard, mouse, microphone, and video camera. I can’t tell you the number of offices I’ve walked into and wondered how they ever get anything done on their little laptops with track pads and only one monitor. Many of my employees have three or four monitors (I’m using three right now). It makes such a huge difference in efficiency, when you can see multiple things at once. 

Efficiency is the name of the game, friend.

The same is true when you travel, if not more so, because you need to be able to sit down, set up your workstation and work from wherever you’re at. It needs to be easy to use, and something that you can set up quickly. In my opinion, even while traveling to maintain normal-ish productivity levels you need an extra monitor, an actual mouse, and an external keyboard. 

I like a lightweight laptop with a touch screen. Mine only has a 13” screen so a travel monitor is a must. My travel monitor also has a stand that doubles as a case and it sets up fast, like click-click-done. It doesn’t need external power; it plugs right into my laptop, which has some pros and cons. A pro is that you don’t have to find extra outlets to be able to power your monitor. And when the power is out it still works. Only con is that the monitor pulls power from the laptop which drains the laptop battery faster. 

To keep a semi-ergonomic workstation, I need to have a separate keyboard and mouse so I can prop up my monitors to eye level. 

Take note of what a good workstation is for you. 

And then plan on finding lightweight, easy, compact things that you can pack and bring with you. Then you can keep up your efficiency and spend less time dedicated to work on your trip and more time having fun!

A communication plan. 

If you work with a team or clients you’ll need a plan to communicate with them while you’re on the go.  Let them know when you’re working, when you’re not working, and set boundaries for yourself ahead of time. 

My team is half remote. We’re used to regular check in meetings and there were still times when communication was harder than it should have been while I traveled. Partially because it was summer and we were all vacationing, and in different time zones.

Even the best laid plans can go a miss but a plan to start with will make for far smoother sailing.

Boots on the ground.

You need people at home you can call on when you need them…unless you’re just leaving, and never going back, bringing your dog and everything you want to keep in your life with you. 

For those of us just on a trip planning to return to the mainland, even while we’re away we still have responsibilities back at home. I felt very grateful for my team at home who helped take care of my life while I traveled.

Kerra got my mail and sent me emails when I had bills that were due. My neighbors, brother-in-law and sister-in-law watered my plants for me. Ernie bought in the bag of dog food I had on auto order and forgot to cancel. 

When our flights were canceled and the delegated dog sitters couldn’t take care of the pups my brother and friend Dave had to step in and make sure the dogs were cared for. Whew, it took an army of boots back home to allow our family of four to leave for a month!

Outline the things you need help with then figure out your primary and backup boots on the ground before you leave so you can call for help when the need arises.

Delegate an emergency contact.

What if something were to happen to your pet? Or a water leak in your home or office while you’re away?

We had a water leak at the office and I was so thankful to have Stacy as my emergency contact to help me sort through it and get everything situated. Without her at home willing to do that for me, and knowing that that would be her responsibility, that would have been a really difficult situation because I can’t really solve a water leak in Mid-Missouri when I’m in another country. 

I’m super glad that we went, I will totally do it again some time. 

And just a reminder…if you just really want to live this Costa Rica trip and hear all of our misadventures as a family, we recorded a podcast to document our travels through Costa Rica.  Definitely give it a listen if you plan on working while traveling with kids in tow.  The kids are pretty outspoken with their opinions of our own misadventures!