Picture a place so green you’ll need new words to describe all of the different shades. A place with a thousand kinds of butterflies and half again as many types of orchids. A land where staying healthy is less a matter of doctors’ visits and medication than of living simply in healthful surroundings.

Imagine a stable democracy where foreign business is encouraged even as the environment is protected. A country with near-universal health care and one of the highest literacy rates in the Western Hemisphere. A place where you can get away from it all without giving up your creature comforts, where your can enjoy birdsong in the morning and yet still access your inbox and the rest of the world (only if you want, of course!).

The small but fertile nation of Costa Rica has been called many things: the Green Republic, the Switzerland of Central America, a Central American success story.

Costa Rica has an immensely appealing combination of the exotic and the familiar-primordial rain forests and modern urban centers, jaguars in the jungle and house cats in the suburbs. It’s a far-off land less than three hours by air from Miami, an international destination with a decidedly local feel, a sophisticated place where life is still fueled by basic human warmth.

Tell anyone you’re on your way to Costa Rica and they’ll sigh with envy. If they haven’t been here, it’s high on their list. If they’ve already visited, they feel they’ve discovered gold and want to hurry back to mine that vein. Those ready to take the next step—to morph from visitor to resident—will discover a more complex alloy, as real life is always richer than fantasy.