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After three long days of bus travel from Utila, we made it to Costa Rica. Initially, we thought we'd gloss over this beautiful country because it is more expensive than others in the region. However, we were lucky enough to have found a house sit for 2 1/2 weeks in Platanillo where we would look after a 5 month old puppy named Jack. We set this house sit up through a website called Trusted House Sitters which helps potential house sitters find accommodation in return for taking care of people's homes and (usually) animals while the homeowners are on holiday. Casey and Dan, the couple we were house sitting for, are a couple from the States who have been travelling for a few years and have settled down in Costa Rica with their rescue pup Jack. Originally, we found it difficult to find a house sit because we were new to the website and let's face it, a young travelling couple doesn't exactly scream out reliable and responsible despite the fact that we are those things in addition to being trustworthy and loving animals. But Casey and Dan understood where we were coming from plus and they wanted someone younger who
could keep up with energetic Jack. Thus we got our first house sitting gig. Hopefully, it won't be the last.
Although, it would have been far more convenient to fly from Honduras to Costa Rica it would also have been more expensive so we decided to bus it even though that meant 3 straight days on the bus. Central America is small in comparison to Canada but it takes a lot longer to drive anywhere; the roads twist through the mountains forcing vehicles to slow down even when they don't want to. The travel went fairly smoothly except for the part where Ashley was sick and Dan wasn't feeling 100% but we made it across all the necessary borders without any hassle.
Costa Rica is a beautiful country to visit and our time here has made me more curious about the rest of the country. There's always something fun/adventurous/outdoorsy to do. As we mentioned earlier, we probably wouldn't have come to Costa Rica on this trip because it's slightly more expensive than the rest of Central America but having a house sit where we didn't have to pay for accommodation for 2 1/2 weeks offset the cost a
bit (and it probably made us feel like we could spend more in other areas.
If you don't have a lot of money to spend on a trip I would definitely recommend trying to set up a house sit through a website like Trusted House Sitters. Some of house sits posted are just for the house but most involve taking care of animals also which is a consideration depending on how much you think you'll be out and about. Another consideration is location. Lots of the posts we've seen say that the house sitters will have access to a vehicle like in our case, we were able to use Casey and Dan's motorcycle. If the house is in a remote area, make sure you are willing to rent a car in case there isn't one for you to use. We paid $100 for a one year membership to the website but that cost more than makes up for itself if you book a house sit for a couple of weeks or, even better more than one house sit in a year.
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Claudia Mom
non-member comment
Wise Move
It's like you got a holiday on sale by doing a house sit! Great move. Thank you for the very special Mom's Day card.