How moving from the U.S. to Costa Rica's 'blue zone' transformed this family's life forever
CTV
When Kema Ward-Hopper and her then-fiance Nicholas Hopper, both from the U.S., decided to get married in Costa Rica, they had no idea that they’d end up relocating there a few years later.
When Kema Ward-Hopper and her then-fiance Nicholas Hopper, both from the U.S., decided to get married in Costa Rica, they had no idea that they’d end up relocating there a few years later.
But a series of devastating events led the couple and daughter Aaralyn, now 15, to a new life in the Central American country’s very own “blue zone,” one of the regions of the world where people live longest and are the healthiest.
Ward-Hopper, a health and life coach, was diagnosed with breast cancer a few months before their wedding in 2016.
“[I had] started treatment and everything,” Ward-Hopper tells CNN Travel. “If you see pictures from my wedding, I didn’t have hair, and I didn’t really look like myself. But I was sick.”
While she hadn’t been feeling well before they traveled to Costa Rica for their big day, Ward-Hopper noticed a change in her energy levels during the time that they spent there.
“I just felt the best that I had been feeling since I’d been diagnosed,” she says. “When we got back.
“That feeling good… I thought that I was getting better. But it really seemed like it was environmental, because after about a week, I was feeling bad again.
