Kim and Carmel Hoyer traded the cold of Canada’s Rocky Mountains for the year-round spring of Costa Rica’s Central Valley and discovered pura vida, a way of life they had never known before.

Pura vida, or pure life, is Costa Rica’s official motto and succinctly captures the carefree, laid back Costa Rican lifestyle that attracts so many expats to its shores.

“These people have really figured out the human being part of life,” said 47-year-old Kim Hoyer. “Pura vida is very unique to the Costa Rican culture and is a major reason we chose to live here.”

Weather is the other important reason the Carmels brought their four children to San Ramon, a city of about 10,000 people in Costa Rica’s Central Valley, about an hour northwest of the capital city of San José. At an elevation of nearly 3,500 ft., San Ramon is spring-like year-round, which was very appealing to a family that braved the cold of Canada’s winters for decades.

Kim and his 44-year-old wife Carmel were raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, about a seven-hour drive east of Calgary. Both graduated from the University of Regina, Kim with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and political science and Carmel with a degree in history.

They met and married in Regina in 1996 and three years later decided to move to Calgary. After working mainly with non-profit organizations in Regina, Kim made a major career move and started his own business helping companies turnaround or jumpstart their businesses. Carmel, meanwhile, received her certification for massage therapy and began to practice her new profession.

Kim’s business prospered in Calgary and the family soon grew to include daughters Mila, Evie and Rayelle and son Zane, who now range in age from 13 to 6.

The idea of living abroad began to bubble up in 2008 when Kim was sent to Costa Rica by one of his clients to assess the available infrastructure in the country for the manufacture of the company’s kayaks.

“As soon as I got there,” Kim said, “I was in love with the place. It was just the perfect blend of Canada and the U.S. and Mexico. Kind of all the best parts of all of them.”

It took them, though, another seven years to make the leap into the world of living abroad. Once they made their decision things moved very quickly.

“We sold our house much faster than we thought we would,” Kim said, “so we found an airline seat sale, sold about one-third of everything we owned and put the rest into storage. Carmel did some online research and found San Ramon and off we went.”

Besides a great climate, the family chose San Ramon because it is very popular with expats, which would help ease them into a completely new culture.

“We found our first house to rent online and moved last fall,” Kim told us. “San Ramon has one of the best climates in the world. It is in the 70s pretty much year-round, so there is no need for air conditioners or furnaces. There is a rainy season from about late spring to early fall.”

Experienced as an entrepreneur, Kim quickly set up two online businesses to support the family. WPDoneForYou.com is a one-stop WordPress hosting, search engine optimization (SEO) and security website. For website operations, he partners with an online expert who lives in Vernon, British Columbia. His other business leverages Kim’s years of business consulting experience.

FactorXSolutions.com is all about teaching people how to start and run a business,” he explained. “There are courses on how to start a business, either online or ‘bricks and mortar;’ sales and marketing courses; and, also, personal development courses to help entrepreneurs overcome their fears about starting a business and help them stay motivated.”