Hey, did we tell you that we went on a trip to Spain? Ok, we may have mentioned it. While we were there, we noticed a few things that set the Spanish apart from Americans. They walk a lot, eat mostly whole foods, stop in the midday to relax and have a small snack, and treat meals like social events. All in all, they seem to be much healthier and much more “in the moment” than we are.
Lifestyle changes
When we got back in from Spain, we brought a few things with us. Since returning, we have tried to stay away from processed foods whenever possible (in the United States, completely eliminating processed foods is pretty much impossible, but we’re doing what we can). We have started baking bread for sandwiches and eating more fruit and vegetables. Now that the weather isn’t trying to fry us on the sidewalk, we’re trying to walk more, although walking around the neighborhood is different from walking to a restaurant or through an amazing museum. It feels more like exercise, rather than just a healthy way to get from point A to point B.
Exercise? Never heard of him
This healthier lifestyle is one of the things we are most looking forward to when we start nomading. A few months ago we watched a documentary on Blue Zones. Blue Zones are five areas on the world with the healthiest and longest living populations. The secret to their longevity differs slightly depending on the zone, but they all center around building movement into the routine of daily life, eating natural foods that grow in that area, and participating in the social fabric of the community.
One of the points from the documentary is the American philosophy of “no pain, no gain” when it comes to exercise. Americans go to the gym or run around the neighborhood and check our “exercise” box on our to do list. Blue Zone residents walk as their primary means of travel, chop wood, tend to gardens, and handle household chores. And they don’t consider that exercise. It’s just living.
Goal: Centenarian
The concept of Blue Zone lifestyles appeals to us because nomading only works if we are healthy enough to keep traveling. We’re going to explore anything we can do to keep ourselves fit, mentally sharp, and able-bodied well into our golden years.
Our hope is that living without a car (as often as possible) will force us to add walking into our daily lives just like the centenarians of the Blue Zones. We know that we need to exercise daily to remain healthy. The math shows that 20 minutes of walking around a track and twenty minutes of walking to the beach both burn the same number of calories. But in the former, we end up where we started and in the latter, we end up at the beach!
Our trip into the Blue Zone
When we were looking to book our next vacation, we knew we wanted to try vacationing in a Blue Zone. The Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica is one of the five Blue Zones in the world, and it also happens to fit our nomading criteria. So, we chose it as the location of our next trip!
We chose a town in the Nicoya Peninsula called Mal Pais. Our criteria: someplace with reasonably priced accommodations and walkable access to the beach and restaurants/stores. Mal Pais is a fishing village turned surf mecca of about 1500 people. There is a fishery nearby that sells the day’s catch right off the boat, so fresh seafood will be on the menu daily! The beach and tide pools are a little over half a mile away and the main part of town is a 10-minute walk. We will probably rent some ATVs to explore areas that are outside of walking distance, but we are starting to define “walking distance” as much father than we did even a year ago.
The trip takes place in February, and we are already starting to plan all the things we want to do and see as we explore this new area. As with all our vacations, we will be evaluating Costa Rica as a potential location to add to the nomading list when we start traveling full time. So far, we like what we see.
Chasing a vanishing way of life
Sadly, the five Blue Zone areas of the world are starting to decline thanks (or no thanks?) in part to the influx of western food and culture and some may be gone within the next generation. At this rate, we may have to go farther than we thought to escape the fast food, consumer-driven world we are trying to escape. The search for paradise is a tough job, but someone has to do it!
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