Simplified Wealth; by Barry Oliver

Growing up in Southern California, some private education, Master's Degree, Deloitte & Touche, etc......whether I wanted to admit it or not I was a Yuppie and my Dad told me so....condo, beamer, trendy gym, vegas trips, 6 figure salary, happy hour on Thursday, always broke and in debt.....but what did we talk about at all of those 'gatherings'? Cars, money and career...nothing more...how shallow? how boring!!!!

When I told my father, who grew up on cotton farm and chicken ranch in Louisiana, I was moving to Central America he almost burst out laughing and figured I would not last more than 6 months. I truly wanted a different life style...simple and wealthy.

Within a month I had sold my condo and beamer and had 2 garage sales and was on a plane to Central America. Everything I owned fit in the Isuzu Trooper I bought. All my clothes, 2 surfboards, mountain bike, boom box, cd's and a toaster. I rented a small house near the beach. My bathroom shelf inventory...razor, deodorant, toothbrush, tooth paste. Shower inventory...soap. This served as my shampoo and conditioner as well.

My Costa Rican wife and I built our own house, mostly just the two of us....while she was pregnant right up until the day before our daughter was born and then again two days after she was born. I kept asking her why we were doing all this work when we can just pay someone else less than a dollar an hour...she kept saying, "It's good for the soul." Sure enough when we were done and I looked at the whole thing I just got that feeling, "Wow we did that." Again, it was simple. Just 700 square feet but it was all we needed. Then we added 2 rooms and 500 square feet and now have one room that is completely empty.

We have no cabinets in the kitchen as all the plates and glasses fit in drying rack. So it's easy....take out of the drying rack, eat, wash and put back in the drying rack. The toaster is a frying pan....

The simple part was easy to figure out....just get rid of everything. The wealthy part, well that has its own meaning to be determined by each user.

I quickly learned what I call the 90/10 rule. In southern California while parked at a stop light to turn left I noticed all the fancy cars turning in front of me and that only 10% of the drivers were smiling. In Nicaragua without all the great wealth that number jumps to 90%. My conversations with my new friends never entailed homes, cars or money but family, friends and interesting stories that made me laugh.

I quickly figured out what wealth meant to me.

Wealth is not determined by how much money I make in a year.

Wealth is determined by how much time in a year I spend with my child, wife and friends. How many puzzles I complete with my wife in a year, how many chess games we play, how much vacation time we have, how many walks on the beach not seeing another person, how many candle light dinners (sometimes mandatory with the power outages). How much time do I spend mountain biking through mist covered mountains through tunnels of trees littered with monkeys. How many family bike rides with Angela sitting right on the cross bars, how many family hikes looking for monkey's and butterflies. How many days spent playing on your own desolate beach, how many days surfing perfect waves with just your friends, how many waves boogie boarding with your daughter in warm water, how much time river shrimping with your whole family, how many days taking your daughter to work every afternoon and on important client meetings. How much time spent listening to music. Reading a book on average every week, playing tennis on your friends clay court, raising 75 head of cattle with your wife's family, raising your own chickens and pigs with your daughter, moonlight crabbing, early morning turtle patrol, building your own house, cutting your own wood for the bathroom countertop and posts,......

Traveling...in one year going to Dubai, Amsterdam, London, Calgary, Miami, Atlanta, Panama, San Diego, Houston, Costa Rica, Italy (twice)

Bottom line......How much time do you spend with a big fat smile on your face? If it is 90% or more then that is being wealthy!!!

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Next on my list of must see destinations in Nicaragua is San Juan del Sur.

This town of approximately 20,000 residents in located along the southwest Pacific coast of Nicaragua just north of the Costa Rica border. The center piece of the former fishing village is its beautiful horseshoe bay filled with small yachts, sail boats, fishing boats and the occasional cruise ship. The white sand beach makes a half circle around the town and is great for leisurely walks, exercising or a quick dip in the water.

One of the major attractions of San Juan del Sur is the easy access it provides to many of Nicaragua’s finest beaches and surfing destinations. Nearby are such popular beaches as Playa Madera, Remanso, Popoyo, Gigante and many more. There is occasional surf in town near the river mouth on the north side of the bay, but it is rarely anything to write home about. The surf in the region of the country is helped by nearly year round off shore winds as a result of the weather patterns caused by Lake Nicaragua.

I found San Juan del Sur to be the perfect blend of relaxation and civilization. Prior to my time in San Juan del Sur I had spent a month in Playa Negra in Costa Rica, and while the surfing and the scenery in Playa Negra was amazing, I actually missed the idea of being able to walk to a variety of restaurants, bars, stores, etc. San Juan is not too big yet it is not too small. Some of my town favorites included delicious dinners at El Colibri, sitting at almost any of the beachfront palapa bars sipping strawberry daiquiris while watching the sunset or enjoying a football game at Big Wave Dave’s.

San Juan del Sur also has a great variety of places to stay. Your options range from such upscale accommodations as the Piedras y Olas Pelican Eyes, Morgan’s Rock and Park Avenue Villas to budget hostels such as the Costa Azul or Casa Oro. Another nice option is La Posada Azul near the beach in town.

For me, San Juan del Sur offered the perfect location to venture off and visit as much of Nicaragua and Costa Rica as possible. It is a mere half hour to 40 minutes from the Costa Rica border and Costa Rica’s northern peninsulas are visible from parts of town. When I return to Nicaragua I will once again make San Juan del Sur my home base.

Life is always an adventure in Nicaragua and Costa Rica

I used to call travel in Central America an adventure but now I think it is more of a mission. We spent 2 hours at the border Friday. Then I paired up with another 4x4 for about an hour to pull out the Nosara bus that was stuck on its way to Nicoya. I then hoped on my Mtn Bike about 30 km from our place. I guess I am not in as good shape as I used to be because it soon got dark....well pitch black. As I was going down a steep hill my wheel got stuck in a tire track and just like that I was skiing down the gravel with the left side of my body.....my iPod got stuck between my hip and the gravel, see attached pic. Even after last week's debacle where it was submerged in the river behind San Juan it took a lickin' and kept on tickin'......the left earphone got knocked off my head and the right earphone was still blasting Gone Away by The Offspring.....my left arm.....well it just doesn't like skin because for the 3rd time in less than 6 months it tried to get rid of some more. The handlebars were tweaked and the Tico walking up the hill next to me was saying something, probably something like 'Que Gringo mas loco,' but I had to get right back on the bike and shag off the pain.



10 minutes later we had to cross Rio Montaña and while we were waiting for my father-in-law to show up with the quad to take our bags across I was speaking to the neighbors and when it was too late I realized I was standing on a stinging ant hill and lost some of the skin on my right ankle....I began jumping up and down and threw off my shoes screaming.....I think the neighbors were saying something like 'Que Gringo mas loco'.....what should have been a 5 hour trip turned into 6:30am until 6:30PM.....

The next night my wife's cousin got his big hauling truck stuck in Rio Montaña and we had to pull him out with my father-in-laws big hauling truck but it wouldn't start so we had to jump start it with the Cat which I had to drive. I said I couldn't but my brother-in-law said I had to and I better learn fast....he gave me a 30 second lesson....see attached pic....and we jump started the truck and pulled out the other one stuck in the river.



In the mean time our phone line went dead due to a fallen tree and the internet service went out in the area as well.

A TRUE MISSION.
Be Well,
Barry