A woman's high school teacher played matchmaker and set her up with her brother-in-law while she was travelling Costa Rica.

Ellie Gervais, 25, decided she wanted to travel and booked to go to Costa Rica in September 2021.

Just weeks before she was due to go, she bumped into her old humanities teacher, Jessica, 40, at the supermarket.

Jessica told her to meet up with her husband Jona’s brother, Pablo, 26, a surf instructor.

Jessica - who met Jona, 39, a woodworker, while she was travelling in Costa Rica 20 years ago - told Ellie "I bet you’ll get along with Pablo" – and sent her number to him to get in touch."

Two weeks after arriving in Costa Rica, Ellie received a text from Pablo asking if she wanted to "hang out" in October 2021."

Ellie accepted and the pair spent the day surfing and exploring the beach - hitting it off.

The pair became a couple, have been inseparable ever since and are thankful to Jessica for connecting them.

Ellie, an intuitive eating councillor, originally from Durango, Colorado, US, said: "I ran into my high school teacher at the grocery store and told her I was going to Costa Rica."

"I remembered she had spent some time out there and met her husband there."

"She said ‘I have a brother-in-law who is around your age, I bet you’d get along’."

"A few weeks after getting there, Pablo text me and said ‘if you want to hang out I can show you around?’"

"He picked me up on a motorcycle."

"He took his helmet off and I thought he as the most beautiful man I had ever seen in my life. He had this sparkle in his eyes."

"Ever since then we’ve been together."

Pablo, from Nicoya, Costa Rica, said: "I was in love with her after the first day."

"I knew she was my soulmate."

"I’m very grateful to Jessica."

"We can be together for the rest of our lives."

Ellie added: "It turned out the place I had rented was the town over from where Jessica had met her husband 15 years ago."

Jessica posted Ellie’s number in her family group chat - to tell them she knew a student travelling over.

Ellie flew out to Costa Rica in October 2021 but didn’t hear from Pablo until two weeks later.

Pablo said: "Jessica gave me the number but I forgot to call. Then a few weeks later I picked up the phone and saw the messages."

The couple arranged to meet and went surfing together at a nearby beach, and ending up spending the whole day together.

Ellie said: "It felt like I was meet someone I’d known for a long time."

They were quickly head over heels for each other and Pablo asked Ellie to be his girlfriend in November 2021.

Ellie said: "I texted Jessica to let her know then. I said ‘thank you so much for introducing us. We’re totally in love’."

"She was so happy and said 'I knew you two would hit it off'."

"I definitely didn’t expect this."

Since meeting Pablo, Ellie has stayed in Costa Rica with his family and has learnt to speak Spanish.

She said: "It’s a life I’d never have imagined for myself."

"It feels like magic. It feels like story."

Pablo and Ellie are now working on a visa for Pablo to return to the US with Ellie – so he can meet her family.

She said: "I can’t wait to show him a Colorado Christmas."

"We have a lot of fun."