How Do You Choose Your Vacation Location?

How do you choose where to go on a trip? Do magazine articles with their glossy photos grab your imagination. Can you suddenly see yourself on that beach, in that bikini, with that guy/girl?

How about word of mouth? Well that’s how I decided in 2012 to go to Costa Rica… the words and feelings from several mouths.

Initially I had planned on going to Ecuador since I was reading a lot of good things about it… heat and cheap, which is kind of my base line. But things kept happening to make me seriously look at Costa Rica.

1. A woman I work with who had just come back from there all afire about its many charms, specifically about the Jaguar Rescue Centre on the Caribbean Coast. She was so in awe of what Encar, one of the founders, has done to help wild animals in distress. My love of animals had me thinking about the possibility of volunteering, especially after I did some google research about it. In one word the consensus was glowing.

2. Few weeks later I ran into a random woman on the sea wall who also knew of the Jaguar Rescue Centre and gushed that Costa Rica was literally her favourite place on earth. Damn.

3. A few weeks later I ran into an old friend and her family at the Trout Lake Farmers Market and while we were having lunch together we started talking about Costa Rica and lo & behold – their daughter spends 3 months of the year there with her girlfriend on the Pacific coast. It was great hearing Claire talk about how much they enjoy the country.

Ok, who am I to resist all those signs? Within weeks of the first conversation I had booked my flight and 3 weeks at Jaguar Rescue Centre. And since I hate to waste an airline ticket, I booked 2 week at another wildlife rescue centre in the La Fortuna area, Proyecto Asis.That would leave me one week of beach laziness before going back to the salt mines.

Well it turned out amazing, life changing, inspiring etc etc. Everything you hope for a trip but don’t always get. The fates got it right that time, for sure! Check out my posts about my adventures in Costa Rica… maybe they will inspire you to buy a plane ticket there.