People ask me this a lot. How did you get into this? How did the company start?
The short answer is that I jumped.
I made the decision to move to Costa Rica and I went. This wasn't my first international relocation. By that point I had lived in three other countries. But this time was different because I didn't have a system supporting the move. No employer. No package. No one who had done it before me who could tell me what to expect.
I figured it out the way most people do. One question at a time, one source at a time, sorting through information that often contradicted itself.
What I didn't anticipate was how much that experience would shape what came next.
I Have Always Been Able to Do This One Thing
I can take a large amount of complicated information and make it digestible. I don't know exactly where that comes from. It's just how I've always processed things.
So once I was settled and active in expat forums and Facebook groups, it felt natural to start answering questions. Someone would ask something I had already worked through, and I could break it down clearly. So I did.
That became a habit. The habit became a commitment. And before long I was spending around 20 hours a week researching and answering questions for people I had never met, in groups where the conversation moved on the next day and no one remembered what you wrote.
Then the Questions Started Repeating
After enough time, I started to notice patterns.
The same two questions kept coming up, over and over, from different people in different situations.
The first was some version of: where are the Black people in Costa Rica?
The second was about fit. Which area of Costa Rica is right for me? For my family? For my budget and the way I want to live?
Not a general answer. A real one, specific to their actual situation.
Those two questions came up constantly. And I kept answering them one person at a time, in comment threads that disappeared into the feed by the next morning.
At some point I stopped and asked myself: wouldn't it be great if there was an actual service that helped people narrow down which part of Costa Rica would best fit their lifestyle, their budget, and their preferences?
That was the moment Melanin Tours was born.
The Gap Was the Business
What I'd been doing informally was something people genuinely needed. Structured help. Real guidance. Someone who could take their specific situation and help them figure out where they actually belonged before they made expensive, hard-to-reverse decisions.
No one's providing that in an in-person and personalized way. Not for this audience. Not with this level of specificity.
So I built it.
Melanin Tours started as a way to help people figure out which part of Costa Rica fit their life. That's still the foundation. The services have grown significantly since then. We now support clients through the full relocation process, from early planning through residency, housing, and being on the ground. But the core question has never changed.
Which part of this country actually works for the way you want to live?
Why the First Conversation Is Always Complimentary
We offer a complimentary 15-minute consultation to anyone who reaches out.
I remember what it felt like to be at the beginning of this process. Researching something major with no clear starting point. Not knowing which questions to ask or who to trust with the answers.
If 15 minutes of a real conversation helps someone get oriented, that matters to me. Whether they work with us afterward or not.
The people who reach out aren't impulsive. They've usually been thinking about this for a long time. They don't want a sales pitch. They want someone who'll be straight with them about what this actually involves.
That's what the first conversation is for.
If You Are at the Beginning
If you're in the research phase right now, the most useful thing you can do is get clear on what your life actually needs before you make any major decisions.
Not which destination is trending. Not which beaches look best on video. What your daily life needs in order to work, and whether Costa Rica can realistically deliver that for you.
These are good places to start:
Where Should You Live in Costa Rica
How Much Money Do You Need to Move to Costa Rica
Living in Costa Rica as an American: What to Know Before You Move
And when you are ready to talk it through, book your complimentary 15-minute consultation here.
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