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Discover Local Customs Cultural faux pas adds some spice to this couple's cruising life.

Discover Local Customs Cultural faux pas adds some spice to this couple's cruising life. By Josh Holloway There are many ways to immerse yourself in a new culture. Some people read books. Some hire guides. Others unknowingly commit minor social crimes and wait for the consequences to be explained to them in a crowded hut. Cultures can clash over something as simple as a beach barbecue — one never knows if the sticks on the sand may be needed for a different purpose. The Meeting Hut Incident A hush consumed the entire maneaba, a Kiribati meeting hut. My lovely wife, Heidi, and I sat crisscross on the dirt floor, fidgeting awkwardly, keenly aware that all the villagers were staring at us in disapproval. A few moments earlier, Heidi and I had been chatting enthusiastically about our previous day’s fishing catch, and how we had enjoyed cooking it up over a beach fire in the nearby cove. A villager had asked, “Where did you get your wood?” “From the be...
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Cost of Living in Costa Rica (2026): A Real Family Budget — No Sponsored-Resort Nonsense

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend gear we actually use and abuse. Thanks for supporting Nomadventure! Four winters in. Still not sure if we're thrifty or just feral. Cost of Living in Costa Rica (2026): A Real Family Budget — No Sponsored-Resort Nonsense By Nomadventure  |  Updated April 2026  |  9 years of actual receipts Short answer: A family of five can live in Costa Rica for $1,500–$2,500/month — if you live like a local, embrace gallo pinto as a lifestyle, and resist the siren call of the $18 avocado toast at the expat café. We've been wintering in Costa Rica since 2016. Nine seasons. Long enough that our kids speak Spanish with a Guanacaste accent, we know which roadside vendor has the best papayas (three for 1,000 colones, or about $2), and we've had opinions about bus routes that no sane tourist has ever formed. ...
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Chapter 1: Raw Fish — The Key to One Woman’s Heart

A Serialized Pacific Voyage  ·  Nomadventure.org If Honeymoons Were Like This, They Wouldn't Be a Thing — Heidi Chapter 1 ← Home ⚓ Next Chapter 2 → A note on how this story is told: Heidi documents our life with a small voice recorder held just below her chin. She has always been the one with the presence of mind to capture things as they happen — recording moments, preserving details, keeping a running archive of memories I would otherwise let slip away. This account is mine, but it exists because of her voice. The alarm on my wristwatch sounded at five o'clock, and my eyes shot open. I had been waiting all night for this moment. This is either a sign of deep personal purpose or operating off the rails, depending on how you feel about pre-dawn spearfishing. I had been doing it every morning for months — rolling out of the hammock I attached to the rear of...
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Chapter 2: In Which a Sunset Ruins My Reasonable Life Plans

A Serialized Pacific Voyage  ·  Nomadventure.org If Honeymoons Were Like This, They Wouldn't Be a Thing — Heidi Chapter 2 ← Previous Chapter 1 ⚓ Next Chapter 3 → A note on how this story is told: Heidi documents our life with a small voice recorder held just below her chin. She has always been the one with the presence of mind to capture things as they happen — recording moments, preserving details, keeping a running archive of memories I would otherwise let slip away. This account is mine, but it exists because of her voice. There is a specific kind of evening in Maui that should probably come with a liability waiver. The sun drops into the ʻAuʻau Channel in a slow, indulgent blaze. The trade winds ease off just enough to feel like forgiveness. And somewhere in that light, whatever reasonable instincts you had been using to navigate your adult...
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Chapter 3: Eight Thousand Dollars of Fiberglass, Termites, and Optimism

A Serialized Pacific Voyage  ·  Nomadventure.org If Honeymoons Were Like This, They Wouldn't Be a Thing — Heidi Chapter 3 ← Previous Chapter 2 ⚓ Next Chapter 4 → I found her on a Thursday, at Keʻehi Boat Harbor, on the western edge of Honolulu near the airport — a part of town where the boats are older, the slips are cheaper, and nobody is trying to impress anyone. She was sitting in her berth with the settled resignation of something that had been waiting a very long time and had stopped expecting rescue. A Pacific Seacraft 25. The boat was designed by Henry Mohrschladt and first built in 1976 — the same year the original Rocky won the Oscar for Best Picture, which tells you something about the era. Only 157 of them were ever made. The hull was hand-laid fiberglass, modeled after the double-ended workboats of the 19th century, the kind of vessels that hauled cargo a...
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