Couple Escapes To An Exotic Life
Suzanne Wilton, Calgary Herald
Four years ago, just as the
city's economic boom gained
steam and sent house prices
skyward, Dave Dolezsar and his
wife Monica quit their lucrative
oilpatch jobs, sold everything
and left Calgary in search of
paradise.
They found it in the small
Central American country of
Costa Rica, where the couple and
their two young children live in
a home overlooking the lush
central valley and two of its
active volcanoes. They pick
mandarin oranges and avocados
from the trees that grow in
their yard and watch armadillos
and toads the size of footballs
amble across their country
property.
The family is to be featured
tonight (July 04) on CTV's
Travel and Escape in a series
called Exotic Lives, which will
highlight a number of Canadians
doing what most of us only dream
about. Each hour-long episode
presents two stories of people
who have packed it all in to
make a home in a new country,
embracing different values,
cultures and a fresh way of
living.
"A show for armchair dreamers
and wannabe adventurers, Exotic
Lives is all about people who
reinvent themselves and dare to
open a completely new chapter in
their lives far from home," says
a spokeswoman for the series
produced by Matter of Fact Media
Inc.
While the Dolezsars have
certainly found a new beginning,
there are some things that never
change no matter where you go.
Dave still works nine to five in
Costa Rica, as an industrial
engineer with Intel, and life is
no less busy, especially with
two small kids -- Cassandra,
almost five, and Ethan, 2 1/2 --
not to mention a bed and
breakfast to run.
Nevertheless, the couple says
that their life is still exotic.
"Everybody has a difference of
opinion on what an exotic life
is but I'm working very hard to
make sure I'm living a life that
makes me and my family happy.
I've made a lot of sacrifices
for this so if I'm not living
it, I'm doing something wrong,"
says Dave Dolezsar, 39.
The couple fell in love with
Costa Rica while there on
vacation about eight months
after their first child was
born.
Dave always had the itch to live
somewhere else and had already
travelled the world, picking
apples in Ireland and working on
fishing boats in New Zealand.
But his wife Monica was
reluctant to leave her Canadian
life behind -- until their visit
to Central America.
"While we were there I found a
piece of property for sale and
asked my wife if she thought she
could live there and I got a
maybe. Well, I had never gotten
a maybe out of her. Four or five
months later we were down here.
We quit our jobs; we sold our
house, bought the place and
moved down here."
With baby in tow, the Dolezsars
bought a resort in a remote
jungle location on the beach.
But Dave soon found himself
working harder than he ever had
before trying to achieve success
in the tourism business, unable
to shake the hard-working North
American mentality.
"I had visions of learning to
surf, of bringing my kite gear
down and spending all of my time
on the beach. But I only went to
the beach surfing once," says
Dave.
"It definitely wasn't what I was
expecting, but that's not
necessarily a negative thing."
With Monica soon expecting
another child, the couple
decided to move closer to a
major urban centre where they
could find better access to
medical care and private school
for their daughter -- a higher
quality of education Dave says
they could not have afforded in
Canada.
Paradise isn't without its
pitfalls, however. There are
days when the electricity
suddenly and mysteriously goes
off, sometimes six times, and
common cooking ingredients here
can be difficult to find there.
And what is a minor
inconvenience here, such as a
broken-down appliance, can be a
major headache in Costa Rica, a
developing country with an
economy built on tourism.
Still, Dave says the family has
no plans to return to ordinary
life in Canada. In fact, it's
all he can do to keep his feet
planted in Costa Rica.
"I've been here for four years
and I was looking for my next
big adventure about three months
after I got here," Dave, adding
he has no ill-feelings toward
his home country.
"But right now, my life has
fallen in love with where we
are. And when I start to get a
little crazy, she says, 'Can't
we just enjoy this for a couple
of more years?' "
"I'm looking, she's relaxing." |
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