- Andi, 46, and Rick, 44, left their comfortable Oregonian life for Boquete, Panama
- The couple moved to Boquete two years ago with their teenage son Cole, 14
- The former computer wiz and firefighter are now the owners of a coffee farm
- Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild airs tonight on Channel 5
A family who left their old life behind to start a coffee enterprise in the middle of the Panama jungle feature on Channel 5’s Ben Fogle: New lives in the wild.
In tonight’s episode, Oregon family Rick, 44, and Andi, 46, and their son Cole, 13, reveal how they traded their comfortable life for the jungle to run their own coffee farm.
Andi, 46, has ten degrees to her name, and has been successful at several different careers – including being a scuba-diving instructor, dog-trainer and computer analyst.
However, although the couple, who met in 2006, were earning around $100,000 (£76, 700) a year in Oregon, they didn’t have time to enjoy their lifestyle.
It was only when they went on holiday to Boquete, Panama, that they fell in love with the country and decided to buy a home which came with 1000 coffee trees.
At their new abode, the family run a coffee farm where people can sponsor a tree and receive the beans at the end of the year.
When they left the U.S. two years ago, Andi and Rick packed everything they could into a shipping container and had around $50,000 (£38, 300) in savings.
Andi joked that she was only allowed to take ‘one item from our kitchen’ for the big move, but did not reveal what she chose.
‘We gave up a lot of luxuries to make this move and brought what we thought was important and couldn’t be replaced,’ the mother said.
Andi’s parents and older brother, family pictured, died in a car accident when she was just four-years-old. She witnessed her parents die and was in hospital with her brother
Andi as a child with her two brothers Gary and Robert. Gary died in a car accident when Andy was four. He fell into a coma after the family was in a car accident caused by a drunk driver
Andi explained how although their life in the U.S. was stable and they had good jobs, it was too ‘easy to be extremely busy.’
‘We worked so many hours so we could have so much money and have all these things,’ she said.
‘We had new cars, a pretty good house, everything that we wanted but we kept working and working.’
However, there was a deeper reason as to why Andi wished to start a new life. When she was four-years-old, she watched her mother and father die in a car crash after the family was hit by a drunk driver at Christmas time.
Pictured: Andi and Rick’s property in Panama. The couple bought it for £100,000 two years ago. The sale included a thousand coffee trees
Andi (pictured) explained to Ben (right) that her family’s livelihood depended on their farming and that there wasn’t much money in coffee which is why the offer the sponsor a tree service
‘I remember trying to wake my parents up and then being in hospital with my eight-year-old brother Gary who was in a coma,’ she explained. ‘He never woke up.’
‘There’s so much out there that my parents didn’t get to see so I was determined to see it all.’
‘I’ve lived that life. I’ve been to 20-30 places, had probably 17 different careers that I was good at. I’m always searching for something perfect.’
Moving to Panama has also helped Rick’s health as before he struggled sleeping and was in constant pain with his back.
‘I was in the fire service for around 20 years and at times it was the dream,’ he explained.
‘I’d work 24 hours on and 48 off, meaning you’d injure your back and have a couple days to get ready for another shift but never to heal properly.
Andi added: ‘He also had a sleep disorder where he’d wake up all the time. He’d only get about three hours sleep a night. It means you’re not a rational husband or dad because you’re always sleep deprived. Rick would be grumpy in pain all the time.’
‘But here he’s sleeping 8-9 hours and can walk without wobbling. Rick can even lift things and actually enjoy life again.’
The couple’s teenage son Cole has also benefited from leaving the states and starting again in the jungle.
When Ben asked him what he misses the most the teen said: ‘I mostly miss the fast food. I really only had one friend in school and I was bullied in most of elementary school.’
Andi held several jobs such as being a dog trainer, a scuba-diving instructor (pictured), and she also worked as a computer analysts and a webmaster for the government
‘I have a disorder, I can’t remember the name of it,’ he explained. ‘People made fun of me in the U.S. but the bullying here has recently stopped and I have two friends now.’
‘Lots of people are different in this school than in the U.S. where people were usually acting the same.’
Cole’s mother Andi also told Ben about how her son has been happier in Panama, explaining that he used to come home from school upset.
‘He was different from other kids and they made it obvious that he was,’ she said. ‘We used to have a rating scale of the day from one to ten. In America it was seldom above a three. Here it’s a nine.’
Pictured, an aerial view of the house next to the coffee trees in Panama where the family now live and work. The shipping container they used to move has been converted into an extra room
However, the family reveal that their new life hasn’t always been easy and that they’ve had some ups and downs.
‘We’ve gone three days without power in past and now have generator to keep the farm and two-bed house running in power cuts,’ they said.
The couple also explained that their new lifestyle can be worrying as they don’t have a ‘steady, healthy paycheck’ coming in each month.
Work on the coffee farm is hard work and the couple prepare more than 4,5000 kilos of fruit during the season.
‘We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t enjoy it,’ said Andi. ‘There’s no money in coffee. It wasn’t going to pay the bills so we had to do something different with the cameras.’
‘Every year we learn something new. 10 years ago coffee in panama wast affected by fungus called rust – but due to climate change it now is.
Ben Fogle, pictured, tried to help the couple with their business and used the coffee machine at Andi and Rick’s house in Panama
Andi and Ben, pictured, harvested some coffee beans that will then be processed and roasted in order to be sold
Off to the coffee trees. Andy and Rick (pictured) show Ben what it takes to make good coffee
‘You can only manage it. A neighboring farm got hit and they have no leaves this year. If rust took over here we’d lose our harvest.’
In one scene Rick and Ben go to the jungle to find and repair his water pipe and have to use machetes to cut their way through the jungle.
‘If we were in the US or UK then we’d probably turn the water off but there’s no valve here so we do everything wet,’ explained Rick.
The former firefighter also revealed that there’s ‘not a day’ that he doesn’t think about his old life.
He said: ‘I truly miss it. I miss the regular pay check, the people I worked with, the fun and excitement of the job,
‘The first year here was stressful. Getting residency, figuring out how things work and learning the true cost of things. But now I’m starting to feel like we might pull it off.’