See, I'm the opposite of your wife. I'd rather have a house overlooking the mountains and valleys and coffee farms. Those rural towns are a lot more peaceful for me, but I'd also be ok with perhaps splitting my time between a loft in the city or a beach house. The best part is having those options without needing to be a millionaire.
I've already been working on some plans with my friend and partner in the mountain towns of Costa Rica for a retreat house or farm tours, so I'll at least have a place to go anytime I feel like getting away. It's a start.
I'm with you, though access to a metropolitan area is pretty important when you expat. I was told repeatedly that I should live in Santiago when in Chile, at least for the first two years. I like the city, as far as cities go, but I really didn't want to live there. Instead, I found a nice farming town that's small enough but large enough, and an easy commute to a city with everything we could need. Other factors got in the way of that attempt, but I'm still working on it.
Yeah, give me a rural community anyday.
The particular area where my partner lives has a population around 30,000 - so it's not too small. The surrounding towns are a lot smaller, but the distance between them is short, so there's probably close to 60,000 people across a span of maybe five to six miles along the route and some of its branches.
I would be close enough to these towns and with my friend and his family, and they do get American visitors fairly frequently who do business with some of the coffee farmers and cooperatives.
I appreciate your insight, though. You can never have too much information and guidance when it comes to making plans about moves like this.
Within an hours drive is vital if you are looking to do business and go through immigration steps like I have. Yesterday was a perfect example, I had to go to immigration to take my next step in permanent residency and they said, "sorry your papers are not complete yet". I was pissed but what can I do? Try again next week is the only option.