Eric Ricaurte

The Costa Rican Dream Eric Ricaurte

Costa Rica's lush tropical rainforests, peaceful reputation, and mild Latin flavor have lured many tourists to venture outside their bubbles and pursue a pseudoadventurous vacation. For these travelers, a visit to Costa Rica most often includes a cloud forest-haze-induced daydream of giving it up all back home and relocating to the "Switzerland of Central America" as an expatriate, semiretired entrepreneur. Such is the case for three thirtysomething small-town Germans who dream of a life in Costa Rica after their first visit and decide to invest in a jungle lodge. When the plans for the new lodge begin to go sour, they decide to move to Costa Rica, recover their investment, and jump right into the dream they concocted amid a cold south German winter. The reality, however, is nothing as pleasant as they imagined. Low on money, they fight to open a lodge in a foreign jungle. The intense tropical conditions, along with a complicated legal system and labor force, will test their personal limits and friendship.