One crisp, New England October day back in 2003, retirees Sylvia and Dennis Green jam-packed their trusty Toyota Tundra pick-up with their most essential personal effects and set forth on what would turn out to be the road trip of their lives. Their destination? A new life on the southwest edge of Nicaragua’s pacific coast.

For 12 adventurous days and 11 exciting nights the couple drove southbound from the home they had known for 30 years, clocking a total of more than two-thousand miles, spanning 5 countries, through unfamiliar terrain, not speaking a lick of Spanish.

One can’t help but ask: how did they do it? Quite simply: a dauntless attitude and good tires! After the amount of map studying the Greens did to get ready for their road trip, they probably could have qualified to teach North and Central American geography.

The couple also took lengthy preparation to close the book on the previous 30 years by putting their home up for sale and slowly selling off all their unnecessary stuff. They basically threw “a year-long yard sale,” as Sylvia puts it. All in all, it was a year spent pairing down and gearing-up.

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What’s the secret to reaching 50 years of marriage?

Many couples claim to never go to bed angry to make a marriage last.

Others joke that his and her bathrooms are what keep the knot tied. While I sat down to tea and biscuits with Ed and Agnus Brady at their home in Rancho Santana, the first secret to their 50-plus years of matrimony was as apparent as the Pacific is blue: reduce argument time.

If you think that’s tough, you might change your mind once you meet Agnus, with her broad smile and kindly Irish presence, or Ed, with his whisper-for-a-voice and quick-wit.

These two have been familiar faces around Rancho Santana, every January through March, for nearly a decade now, qualifying them as true Rancho Santana Pioneers.

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All the arguing about healthcare is frankly confusing to me. All I know is I want to be financially at ease about taking care of myself and family no matter what happens.

And when a mob begins to argue with itself, it’s best to quietly leave the room. More air to breath, and less noise usually leads you to a much better place.

It’s happening. For years an underground trend of sorts has been quietly taking shape (while Congressional members yell at one another) where Americans who are willing to expand their horizons will save money and live with less healthcare worries.

For about a decade now, people in the U.S. have been traveling abroad for healthcare, where American trained physicians are giving them top quality care (all in English) in stellar medical facilities in Central America.

But only in recent years has this option of “globe trotting for treatment” really been catching on – in 2008 nearly a million people traveled to other countries for surgeries, treatments and various therapies.

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Thank you for visiting the Rancho Santana website.

I encourage you to read some of the letters I recently wrote which are below. As you read them keep in mind that I invite a few people to join us for a “chill weekend” on a regularly basis, where we pick you up and take care of all the details for you from airport arrival to departure. If you’re interested in a visit, feel free to contact me.

Or if you’re not ready to come down but would like to receive letters from me about what’s going on at Rancho Santana and the Southern Pacific Frontier sign up here to have my letters delivered to you.

Hope to see you soon,

Marc Brown

Is Doug a fool? Let me explain.

As a former computer software employee, I traveled up and down California and the Pacific Northwest route. During my travels I’ve found that Seattle has much more in common with Canada’s Vancouver than it does with Los Angeles. In fact, Seattle has more in common with Vancouver than any other city in the United States, as well as all of the Americas for that matter.

My point is simple: The essence of a geographic region transcends its borders. Miami and Boston are entirely different lifestyles. To live the ex-pat life you must find 3 key factors: beauty, interesting culture, and affordability, rather than finding the right country. Daily lives are not lived in a “country.” You live in your immediate surroundings.

“Country” is too big of a term.

Take Doug (the questionable “fool”), who moved to Costa Rica for the famous beauty of its Pacific coastline. Doug has more in common with me than he does with coffee growers in the far away mountains of central Costa Rica.

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As an ex-pat who has been “living the life,” I was happy to know that last when I wrote about Doug – in this article – it was so well received.

Specifically, I wrote about the reality that people who live in border areas have more in common with one another than they do with their own respective “countrymen.” Los Angeles and Seattle are two entirely different worlds, whereas; Seattle and Vancouver are very similar. You get the point: it’s about the neighborhood. Living is local.

What I didn’t know (until several of people wrote and informed me) was that Costa Rica’s Guanacaste region that is right next door to us here at the Ranch, and famous for its beaches, was actually part of Nicaragua well into the 1800s! No wonder it all feels the same…

This got me thinking. So much of life and the future is tied to the local history of a place. The real deal is the “on the ground” reality that makes and shapes things. So what is the history of Rancho Santana? That’s what you really should know. In fact, the history of this place is one of the key reasons I decided to stay here and raise my family here. And yet, I don’t think I’ve shared it with many folks…but it’s truly important. In fact, it’s critical. So here goes.

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The stock market crash and Tiger Woods share a common theme: public perception was once more fooled. Things are not what they seem. The gap between perception and reality can be wide. Very wide. Media v. your own eyes. Follow the crowd and then you get suckered punched. WHAM!! POW!!

Take last night, I ate outside the Ranch’s gates in a new joint called Isabelle’s. It’s about 5 miles before you reach the Ranch’s main entrance. It’s a seaside country type of place, just off the dirt road. You feel like Johnny Cash is going to walk onto the porch and strum. And a single entrée of five lobster tails, caught just hours earlier along with rice and fresh veggies costs $9. Yes, 5 for $9.

This all seems normal to me, but my guests from the States are complete awe of the experience. Isabelle, of course, owns it and runs a clean well-lighted place. Pride keeps the tables clean and the concrete floors swept. No franchise merchandise. No teenage kids unconnected to her family work there. There is a face to this restaurant. A soul. And you know it and feel it. My friends’ eyes, taste buds and wallet all “get it.”

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