生活是片沙滩--海边沙滩生活（上）Life is a Beach -- Living by the Seaside (Part 1)

Boats, sunsets, and lapping waves. This is beach living. We have no typical day here. We never know when we're going to be working or playing or making our work our play. Think you can only spend a week here? Think again. Today, we're checking out a luxurious little island in the Bahamas where it's just you, the sand, and the surf. If there's someone on one beach, you just go to another. You don't have to share sand space with anyone. Plus, the crown jewel of the Caribbean with some of the most incredible snorkeling in the world. Down here, work is synonymous with fun. And then, the alluring beaches of Bocas del Toro where the water never dips below 82 degrees. This is exactly why we moved here. These dream locations will make you want to come back again and again and maybe never leave. Just 260 miles off the coast of Florida is one of the world's best-kept secrets. White sandy shores and crystal clear waters encompass the Bahaman getaway of Staniel Cay. This sleepy little island is only a mile long and sits in the middle of the Caribbean in the heart of the Exuma chain. It takes some planning to get here, but with 10 beaches and only 120 residents, every day can feel like your own little escape. If there's someone on one beach, you just go to another. You don't have to share sand space with anyone. For such a tiny island, the adventures are endless, from snorkeling through underground caves at Thunderball Grotto to swimming with sharks to dining at the famous Staniel Cay Yacht Club. It might be one of our top picks for beach living. We have no typical day here. We never know when we're going to be working or playing or making our work our play. But having time with the kids is more important than anything else. Give this to Maymay. Coral Lowe and her husband, Brian, ditched their hectic lives in the States to give their kids a life of adventure. An adventure is exactly what they found here. My mom was a schoolteacher in Florida, and she decided to move us all to the Bahamas to live like this! Here in the Bahamas, it's always flip-flops and shorts, about 80 degrees average. Brian and Coral built their house overlooking a famous spot among the locals. This is Thunderball Grotto. A lot of movies have been shot here. It's about 1,000 feet from my front porch. Thunderball Grotto is pretty much our backyard. For people wanting to live the beach life but wonder how to make it work financially, it just takes guts and a little ingenuity. Brian and Coral quickly realized their crystal blue oasis could be a huge tourist attraction. With the only working airport on another island five miles away, they hit the transportation jackpot. All right, everybody, welcome to the island shuttle. By starting the first Staniel Cay water taxi. We started off with our water taxi that services all of those different islands that are in the area. Brian and Coral's airport-to-island taxi was an immediate success, and with more tourists discovering tiny Staniel Cay, another opportunity quickly knocked. Perfect. Because the island had no hotel, they turned their home into one. We have different rental cottages, Serenity Cottage and Serenity Dockhouse. We're in the process of building another property called Landlow. It's pretty much almost complete. This was supposed to be a one-year project. It's taken a lot more time than we thought. Here in the Bahamas, things take a lot longer than you really think they're going to take. And with no cars on the island, golf carts became the final item on Coral and Brian's tourist checklist. When they rent a golf cart, they can go to the different beaches. It gives them the opportunity to explore the island and really see everything. You're able to get your boat, you're able to get your wheels and your accommodations, and we include it all. One-stop shop. The island itself is only a mile and a half long and a mile wide, so there are no, in a sense, businesses here. So basically, most of the businesses here are run out of your home. This is our command center. This is where everything happens. It's a family-run business from top to bottom. I have my mom that helps me with all the e-mail communications. We got an inquiry this morning, Coral, for Wednesday and Thursday, very last minute. Let me just pull up the schedule for this week and see what's going on. It's virtually impossible to have a set schedule. We make a list, and it can change in the blink of an eye. Balancing work... This is Wheels and Ways. Come back. ...and a household of 8 gets busy. But in the Bahamas, it has its perks. Once the guests are taken care of where they need to be, then we have that moment where we can just say, let's go play. Equivalent to a coffee break. These sharks are nurse sharks. They're harmless, basically. The cool thing about them is they're one of the only sharks that can actually sleep. They don't have to stop moving. This is part of our playground, which is the coolest playground in the world. Our normal 9 to 5 does not exist. We used to have that back in the U.S., and we don't have that anymore. It all flows together. People say all the time, man, you guys live in paradise. We do. We live in paradise. Coming up, a couple of beach bums take their love of beer to the most tranquil island on Earth. We realized we were onto something. Brewing beer was our way to create something unique and different, as well as stay in St. John, the place that we love, what we call home. But first, Staniel Key is famous for the nurse sharks swimming around the beach. But what other animal likes to take a dip with tourists in the Bahamas? What animal likes to swim with tourists in the Bahamas? A few bucks is all it will cost to catch a water taxi to Pig Beach. No one knows how the pigs came to live on the island, but the little oinkers are sure to make visitors smile. Next up, what locals claim to be the most tranquil island on Earth, we're heading to the illuminating waters of St. John. It may be the smallest of the U.S. Virgin Islands, but if you're looking to spend your savings on an escape from civilization, this is where you put your money. Purchased from the Dutch in 1917, St. John is perfect for an East Coaster's last-minute adventure. It's in the Eastern Time Zone, and you don't need a passport, so no international travel headache. It is only about 19 square miles. It's very small, about the size of Manhattan, and we only have 5,000 people that live here. With over 35 beaches around the island and an underwater national park, St. John is a snorkeler's dream. In fact, over 75% of the island is protected national park, and any land that's available costs double of what you'd pay in the States. So you would think St. John would come at a premium. Surprisingly, it's relatively inexpensive to enjoy a few days of R&R. The only trade-off to this Caribbean escape is that it's so remote, modern conveniences are harder to come by than on a big touristy island, including good beer. But for beach bums Chip and Cheech, the exclusive life on St. John sounded like heaven. Moved down here with hardly any money. We had no jobs, we had no apartment. We found a person that was willing to rent a sailboat out here in Cruise Bay for $250 a month. The only thing missing, good beer. So they figured out how to capitalize on it and stay for good. So we decided we're gonna start brewing our own beer. We looked at each other and said, let's do this, we're all in. These former college buddies became the inaugural island brewmasters, bringing a much sought-after beverage to the thirsty residents and tourists of St. John. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it. And started the very first microbrewery in the U.S. Virgin Islands. We realized we were onto something. Brewing beer was our way to create something unique and different as well as stay on St. John, the place that we love, where we call home. We put our life savings into the brewing company, which wasn't a lot, but it was enough to buy some brewing equipment. We shipped it down, didn't have much left over, so we had to actually use the shipping container that we brought our equipment down in as the brewery. In order to build a proper brewery on St. John, it would have cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. By converting these shipping containers, we built the brewery for just under $10,000. We're always trying new beers out, we're trying new recipes. They've even figured out a way to include some of the exotic flavors from the island into their brews. Any idea that we come up with, we want to try it. Tropical mango is our first beer, it's our flagship. It's a mango-infused pale ale. Our ginger beer is a classic Caribbean ginger beer. So this is a toasted coconut we've been brewing, huh? I think that it shouldn't be overly hoppy so that the coconut can come through a little bit. Let's give it a go. Oh, yeah. All you really need to start a business on St. John is a good idea and the support of the community and the people. In fact, every watering hole in St. John now carries Cheech and Chip's beer. From restaurants on the sand... It's the absolute best beer on the island, not to mention it's the only craft beer. ...to bars on the water. Here on the islands, it's word of mouth. That's your best advertisement here, it's the coconut telegraph. We started with one employee, and now we're up to 18. Every time I need a refill, I don't even have to go to shore, and here they come out with the dinghy. All right, there you go. Permission to come aboard? Yes, sir! All right, let's pop a couple cold brews. Pass them around. They're the best, they're the master blasters. When we walk around town and see people drinking our beers or they recognize us because they know us as the beer guys. Ready for a keg? That's what I feel is success. I love you! There's guys, cheers, thank you very much. It never feels like work. To us, it's what we do and what we enjoy. Down here, work is synonymous with fun. Damn, this is a really nice day today. This is why we live here. It's the middle of winter. It is cold and miserable everywhere else but here. Cheers, buddy. Coming up, no cash necessary. A backpacker's utopia where trading swim trunks for tacos is perfectly acceptable. And then we're heading to a little beach oasis in the middle of the jungle. But first, what nickname did tourists give the exotic island of St. John? Tourists and locals alike affectionately call St. John the love city. They say just one day in this romantic oasis and you'll know why. It's the friendliest and most peaceful of all the Virgin Islands. Just a short four-hour flight from Miami is the incredible Bocas del Toro, Panama. Boasting some of the world's best beaches, this Caribbean paradise has a little bit of something for everyone, whether you want to hit the surf or just soak in the sun. With more than 350 islands dotting the coast, Panama is on island time all the time. The average work week is less than 30 hours and businesses shut down at noon for a little afternoon siesta. Living in Bocas del Toro, work doesn't control our daily lives. It doesn't consume our daily lives. We can take a few hours off and go hit the beach. Water's 82 degrees all year round. It's like Hawaii, but much less people. This laid-back lifestyle sounded like the perfect place for Jeff and Justine, who decided to ditch their highfalutin jobs for a life of bikinis, beaches, and booze. We're living in San Diego, California, overworked and unsatisfied. We moved to Panama... To open this. Got one Baja taco combo. And now they're doing things their way as their own bosses at their beachfront taco shop. This is a map of Bocas del Toro. Mainland Panama is down here. Only a couple miles off the coast of Panama. There's about eight islands, and this is Bocas town. This is where our restaurant is right here. Buenas, amigo. Hi, pescado. Hey. It's a beautiful, small community here, so everybody knows each other. It's kind of like, I would say, a U.S. in the 50s or the 60s. Bocas makes it easy and affordable for tourists to visit, because here, tourists pay pennies on the dollar for the same type of accommodations they can get in the U.S. They use the U.S. dollar here. Expenses were cut in half. A five-star hotel starts at $150 a night, or visitors can live it up on the beach in a rustic tent lodge for $60 and let the waves drift them off to sleep. Our house is a treehouse, basically. We're on stilts. It's very simple. Surrounded by tropical plants, birds, howler monkeys. Very peaceful. Bocas had everything this couple wanted, except their favorite food. When we moved to the island, there was a major void for quality Mexican food, so we decided to do it ourselves. We had a lot of Californians here, a lot of surfers, and Mexican food is surf food. And so we bring a little bit of California, a little bit of Baja California to our customers. We started scouting out locations. Monoloco Surf School just happened to have a little opening where there used to be a coffee shop. It was the perfect space for us. We got one Baja taco combo. To get Taco Surf up and running, it didn't take us a lot of time. It took us three weeks. I have the chicken quesadilla. It's not like the States. Having a small restaurant, you're allowed to sell beer and wine, so we didn't have to jump through the big hoops and get an expensive liquor license. There you go. Probably a third of what we would have paid in the U.S. to operate a small restaurant. The food here at Taco Surf is like primo. It's really good. I come here about four times a week. I don't mean to, but it's so good. Some people put their first dollar bill up on the wall. After we sold our first burrito, we put our California license plate on the wall. Did we make the right decision moving to a small tropical island? We touch this sometimes and say, yes, we did make the right decision. It's going to be $25 even. And get this. You can barter for anything in Bocas, even your meals. ¿Cómo estás? Quiero cambiar la ropa por comida. They'll literally trade their board shorts in for a couple tacos out the door to get them back to Panama City. So Jeff and Justine opened a thrift shop where surfers can trade in their swim trunks for a sweet glass of sangria. Oh, it's cute. It's very flowy. Bocas del Toro is a backpacker town, and a lot of people, they come here right before they go back home, and they have a lot of clothes, a lot of items that they want to sell. Bikinis always sell. So I'll take this. Great. I was thinking about $40 food credit. Would that work for you? But I'll use that T-shirt, and we'll get vegetables. Exactly. Or fish. Can we build our menu around that? Gracias. We're using lionfish, and we also have red snapper and mahi-mahi. Amazing taste, buttery, flavorful, especially with our homemade marinades. Good vibe, nice chill, good people. It's all you need. This is exactly why we moved here to Bocas del Toro. A restaurant full of people, great music, good drinks flowing. We're blessed to have so many amazing people around us and meeting new friends every day. Coming up, we're headed to a fantasy green that'll seduce any beach-loving golfer. A day in my life here is a little slice of heaven. But first, everything is an adventure in Bocas, including travel. So what's the most popular way to get around the islands? What's the most popular way to get around Bocas del Toro? The answer is B, water taxi. Since Bocas is made up of nine little islands, the only way to explore it is by boat. We could definitely get on board with that lifestyle. Our last stop takes us down to a tropical hideaway in the jungles of Costa Rica. Costa Rica's laid-back lifestyle is good for the mind, body, and soul. In fact, people here live up to a full year longer than in the U.S. So not surprising that many tourists come down to visit and never return home. For David Kunweiser and his wife Sabrina, they are living their life to the fullest. A day in my life here is a little slice of heaven. I prepare a nice meal and really disappear into the landscape. I grew up in Manhattan Beach, California. Worked for a large architecture firm. I left behind the corporate world. I moved to Costa Rica, and I built this. I was a young architect in a big corporate firm with 160 architects all scrambling in a rat race next to me. And I didn't have any time for family, and I certainly didn't want to fall into that rut. Working in corporate architecture, drawing bathroom details and stair railing details, I realized that this is not really where I want to be. I said to myself, I just want to design a beautiful building. After years of designing bathrooms for other people, David ditched it all for the sunny shores of Costa Rica to build 12 of his own inside a six-story tree house in the middle of the jungle. I wanted to create something transparent because there's so much beautiful wildlife here, and I wanted to really experience it. There's three bodies of water. The reflecting pool in the front, the pool, and the jacuzzi on the sixth floor. Our villa is located in the south-central region of Costa Rica's Pacific coast in a small national park area called Manuel Antonio. They call this road the Monkey Road because there's certainly more wildlife than there is humans. We have about 180 species of birds, 130,000 acres of reef. You'll be looking right out your window, and you'll see things you can't believe. Costa Rica is the perfect place for a weekend jaunt or a place to retire because you can live with a view like this for as little as $2,000 a month and work on your golf game every day. This area is protected, and thank God, because it's so gorgeous. You don't want to see a big golf course here. But I happen to like golf. I'm passionate and excited about it. With the nearest course hours away, David used a little ingenuity and found a unique way to practice his golf game. There's a term here in Costa Rica in the construction industry. It's called McGeever, which basically means jury rig whatever you've got to do to get it done. I wanted something more interesting to hit than just the ocean. It's a platform built upon plastic barrels. We have an astroturf on top of it. We are using a fish food golf ball. You can call it a chum ball. The golf balls actually disintegrate, and the fish eat them. I miss the green, and I feed the fish. Home is here with my family. I've truly replanted myself, and my roots are deeper here than ever. By taking the biggest gamble of all, by moving to Costa Rica, it brought my life to a whole new plateau.