Costa Rica native starts a new life in Centennial Hills

Andrea Chaves moved to Summerlin a little more than a year ago but relocated to Centennial Hills because she wanted more space.

"It's really nice . Everything is so close and so new and pretty," she said.

Chaves is used to big changes, though. Originally from Costa Rica, she attended the University of Arizona as an exchange student and never left.

"I always knew I wanted to go somewhere else, just experience something different," she said. "Out of the whole family, I'm the only one who left and doesn't live there. Everybody else stayed there."

She earned her master's degree in industrial engineering from the school, where she met her boyfriend. She works as a technology consultant and spends most of her time traveling for work, and she said she is lucky that she can basically live wherever an airport is nearby. She followed her boyfriend to his jobs in Denver and Los Angeles and now Las Vegas.

"Home is here and home is in Costa Rica, where my whole family is," Chaves said. "I just got a house so I'm settled, but home is also where the family is."

She and her boyfriend were in the car driving to his interview in Redding, Calif., when he got a call from his current employer, where he got the job. They turned around midway through the trip and headed to Las Vegas in August 2011.

The largest percentage of people who moved to the city in 2011 were between 25 and 34 years old, totaling at 28.1 percent, followed by 45 to 54 years old at 22.3 percent, according to University of Nevada , Las Vegas Center for Business and Economic Research's data. The smallest age group of newcomers was between 35 and 44 years old, at 6.9 percent.

While her boyfriend started work, she continued to commute from Denver, and she moved to Las Vegas in October 2011.

"The first time I came to Las Vegas was the weekend after I came to the United States, and I remember going there and thinking I don't think I could ever live there ," she said. "Now here I am, seven years later."

She said it was hard when she was traveling back and forth from Denver to get comfortable with her new home.

"It took a while to adjust . At first I didn't really know any people," she said. "Here, it's hard to meet people because everyone's schedule is so random."

But she was proactive and joined groups on meet up.com to connect with people with similar interests, and she said she has made real friendships.

"Meetup, all the people I met through there have been really nice," she said. She planned to attend a holiday party with them Dec. 1.

Moving to Arizona helped her prepare for the move to Las Vegas, she said.

"It's about the same ," she said. "They're both really hot in the summer."

She said she had a physical reaction the first week she arrived.

"After a week, I was freaking out because my skin was getting scabs. I moved during the winter so it was very cold for me," said Chaves, who was used to Costa Rica's warm, humid climate. "I'm still not a big fan of the summers ."

She enjoyed Denver and said she misses the outdoors groups and people. She misses the snow, too, she said.

She picked Denver because she had been there once with her family and loved it then, too.

Traveling home to her family in Central America used to take a long time, she said. She tries to visit for two weeks at least once a year.

She plans to spend Christmas and New Year's with her extended family in Costa Rica, but she still wanted to get in the Las Vegas holiday spirit by decorating and hanging stockings.

Her family also flies up to stay with her now that she has a larger home. There are direct flights to Panama from Las Vegas, but the flight is still long enough that she tries to book her flight weeks in advance.

She has made friends from across the country and world through her travels, she said, and Las Vegas is a great place for her to meet up with them because they will often have layovers here. She does not think it would have been as easy for her to move away from home if she was limited to mailing letters; technology has helped her stay connected.

The fact that Chaves was drawn to Centennial Hills is not unique to many newcomers, said Realtor Leslie Huntington.

Huntington is the branch manager at Coldwell Banker in Centennial Hills and said as soon as she shows potential homeowners how much house they can get for their money, they are hooked. She said 70 percent of her clients are moving because of military relocation and are new to the valley but settle in the northwest because it is relatively close to Nellis Air Force Base.

She said newcomers are most concerned with schools, shopping and commute time.

"I think it's because it's relatively new, and that's a bonus," Huntington said. "It's removed from traffic and off the Strip."

She said business has been booming in the last several years because military members are returning from war and looking to settle with their families near Nellis .

Contact Centennial and North Las Vegas View reporter Laura Phelps at lphelps@viewnews.com or 702-477-3839.