Opening our new inn in Costa Rica

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This weblog will provide a bit of background on Rachel and me and the opening of our inn. It will take you from brainstorming to the formation of a more official plan to open our inn, it will continue through its progress as we design it and prepare for our opening, and hopefully through our adventures as innkeepers.

Some background on us:
Rachel is a registered nurse, specializing in pediatrics. She received her degree from Rutgers University and has worked at Robert Wood Johnson and St. Peters Hospitals in New Brunswick, NJ, Newark Beth Israel Hospital and most recently at J.F.K Medical Center in Edison, NJ. While she is an excellent nurse, often being promoted over more senior staff, she never enjoyed the work and has been counting the days until retirement since she graduated college.

I (Matt) spent some time in Costa Rica as an undergraduate at a field course studying primate conservation. After college I went to work at a lab in hopes of getting into graduate school even though my grades were less than stellar. Long-story-short, I have been in school for almost three years working on a PhD in Physical Anthropology, with a focus on wildlife conservation. I have recently been having trouble getting my program to understand exactly what conservation is, so I decided now was a good time to take a leave of absence to explore my options.

In the midst of this all we began discussing the possibility of opening a kosher inn in Costa Rica. We know there’s a demand for it, and we had always discussed this being our eventual plan. The more we talked about it, the more of a reality it became, as we came to ask ourselves “what are we waiting for?”

We put up a website about the project and we started telling some of our friends about the idea, unsure what our families think, with some reservations about how to broach the subject. When we finally told them we were surprised by how well both sides took the news. Whether it was disbelief that it would actually happen or everyone being genuinely happy for us remains to be seen, but I am fairly certain it was the former. Hey, it gives everyone a perfect vacation destination, how could it really be that bad? Plus it means no more night shifts for Rachel and she will be much happier now that THAT is through.



Matt
Click here for the Orchid Lodge's Website
Click here to read our blog - documenting the opening of the first Kosher hotel / inn / bed and breakfast in Costa Rica

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Comments

[Andrew]

Great!
Hey Matt! I just happened to stumble upon your blog. Sounds terrific. Keep in touch! --Andrew www.AngelValleyFarmBandB.com www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/AndrewNCostaRica