By Isabelle Jones

Steve Jobs affected our move to Costa Rica much more than I would have ever thought. Losing Steve Jobs recently and the release of his biography has affected so many of us in many different ways. As a very private icon, his death has allowed more personal details revealed about him than ever before. 

I worked for Apple Computer for 14 years so Steve Job’s death made me stop and really think about the impact, inspiration Apple had on the world.  I resigned from Apple in 2003 to finally pursue our goal of moving to Costa Rica and we have never regretted it.

We first took a vacation in Costa Rica while I was employed by Apple in 1991 and immediately purchased a small vacation bungalow in Manuel Antonio, just because we so fell in love with the natural beauty and warmth of the country and the people of Costa Rica.  We literally made the decision as we were leaving on our last day (not something I’d recommend to my clients). 

Though, with all the trials and tribulations, we’ve never regretted our decision.  It gave us the opportunity to meet incredible friends and own a vacation place until we could make our move.  We had 3 young children at the time and it wasn’t feasible to make a permanent move to Costa Rica yet.

Apple always encouraged and demanded hard work but rewarded its employees greatly.  Capitalism at its finest.   As I’ve heard on the various news reports recently, Apple was a “family”.  I have to wholeheartedly agree.  At Apple, you were given the freedom, independence with the expectation of risk-taking but had to quickly learn to swim or sink.  

This is what gave us the confidence to move to Costa Rica. It was the “right” time for us, our oldest 2 children were out of high school and our youngest who moved with us here was almost 12. Most family and friends supported us in our decision but some did wonder if we were crazy. For us, it was time to take the chance and pursue our dreams or just quit talking about it.  There have been challenges but we have never regretted our move to Costa Rica.

Isabelle Jones, your Atenas real estate agent who has helped hundreds of expats retire to Atenas. Isabelle has an immaculate track record of happy clients. If you plan of moving to Costa Rica and you are looking for a laid back lifestyle that Atenas can offer and a Costa Rica real estate agent who really cares about her clients, contact Isa as we all call her to see her Atenas listings for sale.