Jason and Jessica Hill gave up a million-dollar future and the life of Mad Men to move to Costa Rica, become wedding photographers and live “la pura vida”, as Jessica explainsI was born in Toronto, Canada and grew up in Montreal, moving back to Toronto after university for work. Jason was born and raised in Yorkshire, England. He moved to Canada about 8 years ago and we met in Toronto.
We worked at rival advertising agencies, and we had both climbed the corporate ladder for close to a decade. Jason was the Associate Creative Director at Crispin Porter Bogusky’s newly opened Toronto office, a very well regarded ad agency, and he had won numerous international awards for his creative work. I was an Account Director at Zulu Alpha Kilo, a new firecracker of an ad agency. We had just married and our jobs were certainly not 9-5pm. We were always at work – breakfast, lunch and dinner and sometimes on weekends too. There always seemed to be a new campaign coming up or crisis that needed to be solved. I was attached to my iPhone 24/7, answering emails at stupid hours of the day and night. We never got to see each other.
We had planned an amazing 3-week honeymoon to India. We were so excited to go, but due to a “scheduling error” someone more senior had booked the same time off as me. They got to go on their trip and I had no choice but to stay and man the fort during the Christmas holidays. We knew then that we needed to make a drastic change.
So we started planning. Photography had always been a hobby of ours and we thought we could do this for a living, what with Jase’s art direction background and my organisational skills. We were going to become wedding photographers in Costa Rica.
We rented out our house, put all our belongings in storage, sold our car, and quit our very cushy well-paid jobs, to the complete shock of many of our co-workers and friends. We were making pretty crazy money, more than a quarter of million dollars a year, and we were going to throw it all away for love (or at least shooting people in love on their wedding day). It was a huge change. But we were so excited, we didn’t care that we would be going from a very comfortable life to making no money until we got the new business up and running. We wanted to be happy and we wanted to actually be together as opposed to never seeing each other.
Thus our company A Brit & A Blonde was born. We wanted a name that really was us, and that was memorable and fun. Jason plays the role of the Brit and I am very happy to play the part of the Blonde - a super savvy, smart blonde, that is!
We had been to Costa Rica five years before on an adventure holiday and had an incredible time. So we knew a bit of what to expect, but certainly coming on holiday compared to coming to live here is completely different. We decided the best thing would be to go straight to Spanish school. It was wonderful; we each had our own teacher and would spend about five hours every morning at school. It was intense but we learned lots in 4 weeks.
We had to also find a place to live, which was a bit of a challenge. But we enlisted the help of a real estate agent and she was wonderful, even though we were just looking to rent, not buy. She helped us find the perfect place and walked us through getting a bank account and all that bureaucratic stuff. What we did learn afterwards was that we really lucked out, since here in Costa Rica, you actually don’t need any sort of certificate to become a real estate agent.
With so many expats looking to move down here, there’s a big demand for real estate but you need to be careful who you hire to help you. If you go to the local hairdressers for a haircut and they hear you’re looking for a place to live, they’ll provide you with their makeshift business card that says they’re a real estate agent – no joke!
We live in a town called Santa Ana. It’s about 20 minutes or so from San Jose, the main city in Costa Rica. Santa Ana is very picturesque, the weather is fantastic and the people are beyond friendly. With the help of our agent we managed to find a stunning bungalow. It belongs to an artist who is originally from Buenos Aires and he has incredible art all over the house, an industrial-style gas oven in the kitchen, fantastic furniture, a wonderful CD collection and a killer sound system. We could not have dreamed of a better place for us to live.
Funnily enough there are some interesting similarities between life in the UK and life in Costa Rica – it also rains quite a bit here, although most mornings start off beautifully sunny. The sense of humour and playful banter that goes on between the guys is very similar to Britain. Just translate any conversation between some of the local lads here and you would swear you were back in the UK.
Costa Rica also is fascinated by football. Whenever there is a game on, you can hear all the cheers and boos in the streets as the whole country watches. They know all the British players as well - they are avid fans of the sport. Shockingly they also do amazing fish and chips here! Who would have thought?
We don’t miss much, mostly the TV: there are not too many channels here in Costa Rica that are in English. Most are Spanish, and the programming is not the best. Thank goodness for the Internet, though, because we are able to watch and catch up on most shows. So if Jason chats with his sister in Yorkshire who mentions a fab new TV show that just started, he is able to stream it here. He also really misses Gregg’s pasties and keeps saying he wants to open an outlet down here just to be able to eat some!
The one thing we don’t like here is the state of the roads. Some are difficult to even describe as roads, they’re more like a collection of rocks and mud in a sort of clearing that happens to link to another town.
The craziest road we’ve driven is en route to Monteverde, which is a cloud forest. You’re going up, up and up around a mountain, but it’s a sheer cliff with no boundary on the other side, just a drop to your death. The “road” is extremely rocky for about 2 hours or so. The government wanted to pay to have it paved, but the residents of Monteverde were against it – part of the charm of Monteverde is in the travelling to get there, apparently. It is all part of the adventure!
We have also gone across some pretty frightening bridges, where the truck has made all the passengers get off and walk across first before they drive over it. The bridge looks so precarious, like it’s about to give way at any moment. As you run across it, you’re just crossing your fingers and toes hoping you make it across. Again, it’s all part of the great adventure!
The Costa Rican attitude is “pura vida”. It has a deeper meaning that is difficult to explain in English, but the essence is pure life, and Ticos (the local name for Costa Ricans) live by it daily. They have a very relaxed and stress-free approach to everything, something we’re still learning. It seems so strange but knowing how to unwind and relax really is an art form.
On a typical day we wake up bright and early to our stunning view and have a delicious breakfast outside on our big outdoor patio. We chat and read our Kindles (it’s difficult to find English books here). Then we pack up our camera bags and travel to the area of our next wedding. Since the roads not the greatest, you never know when you might be detoured for a mudslide, a fallen tree or rock or something else – we always travel to the wedding destination the day before the actual day. There’s no need for any undue stress!
We’ll arrive and scout out the location to find some amazing areas to take our bride and groom to the next day. Then we’ll have an early dinner in a great local restaurant and get prepped for the wedding.
It’s so fantastic that our job essentially allows us to see so many different parts of this amazing country. One day we could be shooting a wedding in Arenal, where there is still a massive active volcano. It’s incredible to see at night if it’s erupting. The next week we could be shooting a wedding in Santa Teresa – which is a super laidback hippie surfing town on a great beach. Then we might find ourselves in Manuel Antonio – which is the home of Costa Rica’s biggest National Park. The animals and birds that you can see just strolling through the park are beyond incredible. The inspiration for gorgeous wedding photos is absolutely endless. We don’t have to contend with any low-ceiling, no-window drab reception hall with tacky chair covers. Costa Rica is our backdrop and it doesn’t get more stunning than that!
People here are some of the friendliest we have ever met – they truly bend over backwards to help you out any way they can. We’re still learning Spanish – that will be an ongoing process for a very long time. As I am writing this, we just got a call from one of our good local friends Oscar, letting us know to put on channel 7 to catch one of the big football games of the year. He didn’t want us to miss out on what everyone will no doubt be talking about tomorrow.
We have also met many, many expats who have similar stories to ours, in that they used to do something completely different in their former lives and packed it in to live a simpler life here in Costa Rica. It’s so wonderful to hear all the different stories of what brought people here and to be around people who have the same interests that we do. Many of the wedding planners here in Costa Rica are also expats, so we have become great friends with them as well, which is really nice.
We love our neighbourhood. Every Sunday we head to “la feria”, which is the weekly farmer’s market just down the road from us, and we buy locally-grown fruits and vegetables, the freshest produce we’ve ever seen. After you’ve tasted a pineapple in Costa Rica, I think you’re ruined for life. There’s no way you could ever have a pineapple again back in England or Canada, since it’s so fresh here, literally right from the farmer.
We’re still learning to adhere to the “pura vida” mentality but since we are still a new business there is a lot to do – I joke that we are the biggest workaholics in all of Costa Rica. But we will be happy to lose that title over the next year as our business becomes more established. n
www.abritandablonde.com
