Every year, 76-year-old Etel travels from Argentina to Costa Rica to spend several months with her daughter and grandson in Mal País. What began as a family visit has become a life-changing tradition, where nature, community, and the peaceful rhythm of the Nicoya Peninsula inspired her to rediscover a passion for painting after nearly 30 years.
Once a year when spring begins in Argentina, 76-year-old Etel packs her suitcase and begins a journey of thousands of kilometers to Costa Rica. Her destination isn’t a vacation resort or a bucket-list adventure. It’s family.
Etel lives in Mar del Plata, Argentina, where she has built her life, raised her family, and spent decades working. But for the past thirteen years, another place has become part of her annual rhythm. Her daughter, Andrea, made Santa Teresa her home more than a decade ago, searching for freedom and a different way of life. Before long, Costa Rica also became a place that Etel looked forward to returning to each year.
Her first visit was in 2013.
Coming from a large Argentine city, she found herself surrounded by something completely different. Instead of busy streets and constant schedules, there was ocean, jungle, rain, wildlife, and a slower pace that invited her to simply enjoy each day.
Visiting Family in Costa Rica Every Year
Today, she spends several months each year in Mal País, usually arriving around September to celebrate her grandson’s birthday on September 24 before enjoying the quiet months that follow.
Watching her grandson grow has become the greatest reason for making the long journey each year. “A mother’s love is one thing, and a grandmother’s love is another,” Etel says.
While family is the reason she comes, these extended visits have given her something unexpected as well.
“I taught my children to be free,” she says. “Their arms should become their wings.”
Letting her daughter build a life on the other side of the world was never something she feared. Instead, it opened the door to experiences she never imagined having herself. Returning to Costa Rica each year has allowed her to watch her grandson Zephyr grow, spend meaningful time with her daughter, and become part of a community that now feels warmly familiar.
How Annual Visits to Costa Rica Changed Her Life
One of the greatest surprises came during the pandemic.
In 2020, travel restrictions left Etel in Costa Rica for nearly nine months. While her daughter, son-in-law, and grandson traveled to California for a period of time, she remained in Mal País, staying with her new friend and extended family member, Mari, Zephyrs´ great- grandmother.
During her extended stay in Mal País, her close friend Mari became a room mate as well as an important part of her journey. “Marí helped me understand that each human being has their own path,” Etel says. ¨my friendship with Mari has been a true gift¨.
With long, quiet days surrounded by nature, she picked up a paintbrush.
It had been almost thirty years since she had painted.
The last time she completed a painting was in 1991. After the death of her father that year, she quietly put away her paintbrushes and never imagined she would paint again.
Nearly three decades later, in 2020, her brother passed away. Etel held a simple farewell ceremony for him on the beach at Mar Azul in Mal País. Surrounded by the sound of the waves, the beauty of the coastline, and a deep sense of peace, she found a new sense of strength in her heart that inspired her to start painting again.
Without formal training or artistic ambitions, she simply started capturing what she saw around her—the sea, the changing sky, rain clouds rolling over the hills, and sunsets reflected across the Pacific. Nature became both her subject and her inspiration.
“I paint the sea, the sky, the sunsets,” she explains. “This place inspires me.”
Since then, every visit has added new paintings to her collection, each one capturing a moment that caught her attention during her stay.
For Etel, these months in Costa Rica are not about escaping life in Argentina. They are about adding another chapter to it.
She enjoys returning home to Mar del Plata, where her son Diego, friends, and everyday life are waiting for her. Then, when the time comes, she makes the journey back to Costa Rica, where family, familiar faces, and the natural beauty of Mal País welcome her once again.
Along the way, she has also formed friendships with people from many different countries. Although she doesn’t speak English, she has learned that kindness often communicates more than words.
“There are feelings that allow you to connect with people, even when you don’t speak the same language,” she says.
At 76, Etel believes life is still teaching her something new every day. She speaks often about gratitude, adapting to new places, respecting different cultures, and allowing each person to follow their own path.
Her story is also a reminder to parents and grandparents whose families have chosen to live abroad.
Distance doesn’t have to mean disconnection.
A visit can become more than time spent together. It can become an opportunity to experience another culture, build new friendships, discover new interests, and perhaps even reconnect with passions that have quietly waited for years to be rediscovered.
For Etel, these visits have become part of who she is now.
Argentina will always be home.
But every year, for a few months, the beaches, sunsets, and peaceful rhythm of Costa Rica offer another place where family, nature, and creativity come together.
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