Hi I am a newbie, Exploring Costa Rica

Hello louise71594.

Welcome to Expat.com

Thanks.

Karen

Hi Karen

Louise,

Congratulations on making the decision to live in another country.  I have to tell you that it takes a different breed of people to do that, especially if you are considering relocating to a third world country, where challenges are far greater than in an industrialized country.

Living in Costa Rica is not easy, nor is it cheap. There is a lot people who do it, but there is also a lot of people who return home with broken hearts, and empty wallets. So the first piece of advice I can give you is to be extremely careful and gather as much information as you can. Certainly, starting in this blog is a good idea. There is a lot of people with very good advice an experiences to share. But it does not matter what people tell you, you will not understand it until you are here.

I am both a Costa Rican and a US citizen, and went to law school in both countries. My US wife and I relocated to CR about three years ago. I can tell you it has not been easy. It has been fun, but challenging.  We have seen a lot of people succeed and make it ok, but as I said, some people cannot do it.

The amount of information that you need to gather is so great to cover in one post, so I suggest asking some specific questions about what you want to learn.

For instance, something that I am curious about is your employment options. Are you considering getting a job in Costa Rica. Can you telecommute for work in the US? What type of work do you do? Depending on your job, you may be able to either work here or work from here. Certainly, that is something to consider when making your budget for living in Costa Rica.

Outlier Legal Services wrote:

Louise,

Congratulations on making the decision to live in another country.  I have to tell you that it takes a different breed of people to do that, especially if you are considering relocating to a third world country, where challenges are far greater than in an industrialized country.

Living in Costa Rica is not easy, nor is it cheap. There is a lot people who do it, but there is also a lot of people who return home with broken hearts, and empty wallets. So the first piece of advice I can give you is to be extremely careful and gather as much information as you can. Certainly, starting in this blog is a good idea. There is a lot of people with very good advice an experiences to share. But it does not matter what people tell you, you will not understand it until you are here.

I am both a Costa Rican and a US citizen, and went to law school in both countries. My US wife and I relocated to CR about three years ago. I can tell you it has not been easy. It has been fun, but challenging.  We have seen a lot of people succeed and make it ok, but as I said, some people cannot do it.

The amount of information that you need to gather is so great to cover in one post, so I suggest asking some specific questions about what you want to learn.

For instance, something that I am curious about is your employment options. Are you considering getting a job in Costa Rica. Can you telecommute for work in the US? What type of work do you do? Depending on your job, you may be able to either work here or work from here. Certainly, that is something to consider when making your budget for living in Costa Rica.

Thanks for your feedback...

To answer some of your questions....To start, No we will not be looking for employment in CR...We are not relocating there either;  our plan is to possibly spend some time there (anywhere from 2 weeks to a month) but no more than 3 months..

We would living on a budget of about $3800 per month, but that is yet to be determined. I could possibly find myself unemployed in about 5 months (lay off) due to healthcare reform, and I thought that we would be the perfect opportunity for us to visit and spend some time away abroad.  I am actively seeking new employment so should I be so lucky to land a new job before by current job ends, then of course that dream of visiting CR would be put on hold, however, I call this our plan B if we are able to visit.

So the only work I would be doing from a laptop would be blogging about our experiences while staying in CR...With that being said, location is definitely key for us, because we either going to rent an apartment, house or just stay one of the smaller intimate hotels, but if we are planning to stay more than a few weeks, renting a private home or apt would be much more affordable, however, it would need to be a good location.

Some of our friends and family think we are crazy to just drop everything and stay in a third world country for a month or two, but as I told my hubby, if we don't do it now, when?  We have no young children to be concerned about, my hubby has a health condition but he can still travel, and if I do find myself laid off from work, that would be the perfect time.  Heck that could even go on my resume to fill in any gaps of unemployment LOL!

My hubby is so serious about it, he wants to attend one of the language schools while we are there, and that too is a big draw for us as well. 

I hope this answers some of your questions.

Louise,
Thank you for sharing that information, it is a good place to start.
First all you mention, that your husband has a health condition. In that case, the best thing you can do is to remain close to the central valley. The main hospitals are in San José, and although CR is a small country, it takes a long time to travel to San José. CR does not have the interstate system that the US has. People has lost limbs and lives just because they do not make it on reasonable time to San José. I have seen it happen first hand. Depending on your husband's condition, you may also want to be close to an airport in case you will need to transfer him to the US for an emergency.
Guanacaste, has a CIMA hospital (you will hear a lot of people talk about CIMA here) plus it has an international airport. Depending on your husband's condition, Guanacaste can also be an option for you. CIMA is a chain of private hospitals headquartered in Mexico. They have two locations in CR, one in San José and close to Liberia in Guanacaste. People like it because the hospital is clean, they speak English and they provide good customer service, contrary to the public hospitals (CCSS or Caja) that for the most part looks like a Russian hospital in the 70s. CIMA is only able to provide so much care, if the condition is critical, the patient will need to be transferred to a CCSS hospital.
Finally, you should also consider obtaining international catastrophic insurance. Check this site out http://www2.sevencorners.com/insurance-for-travelers/
So, to finish with this part, I suggest staying in the central valley and possibly in the Guanacaste area.
Moving along, as you mentioned, you are only planning to stay here for a few weeks, so I am not going to elaborate into employment. Rather, focusing on your budget, $3800 USD, will get you a long way. Depending on your needs and preferences, $500 - $1000 will get you a good place to live. You mentioned in another post that it is important for the two of you to experience the local culture. I suggest looking into towns like Barva in Heredia and Orosi in Cartago. They are very nice and very Costa Rican. They are safe (please be aware that crime happens everywhere) to walk around, they have restaurants and shops and plenty of amenities to make your lives comfortable. They are in the outskirts of the city but not secluded. Furthermore, these places are not necessarily too expensive to live.
If you would like to have some of the amenities and services that you get back home, I suggest looking into Escazú, but in Escazú center. Escazú is a county in San José, it has developed a lot, and there are a lot of reach people  and expats living there, but (this is an important but) there are a lot of areas that remain traditionally tico, such as the center of town, with traditional shops and eateries, and if you would like something more fancy, it will not be too far away.  Generally, Escazú tends to be a lot more expensive than in other areas, but if you look carefully, you will be able to find some affordable places to live. I suggest looking into zucaes.com and encuentra24.com.
Regarding language schools, well, the best school is the street. I suggest not hanging out with US expats, which is difficult, but, you should read Costa Rican newspapers, listen to radio in Spanish, and watch TV in Spanish, go to the local butcher and the farmer's market. If you want to do a language school, do it in the US prior to getting here, just so that you can get your feet wet. But once you are here, try to interact with ticos. If you go to a language school you will not find ticos there, you will find gringos trying to learn Spanish as well. And then, you will want to hang out with them and have dinner with them and then you will be speaking English again and not Spanish. Certainly, make some US acquaintances  here so that you can get conformable and learn from their experiences here, after all you will have something in common with them which is living in another country,  but if you want to learn the language, you will need to avoid expats.
I hope that you will not lose your job, but still hope that you will be able to make your trip. It is a great experience, and as you noted, you will hear a lot of people telling you that you are crazy, and maybe they are right. Sometimes madness sets you free.
My wife had a good job with the US government, and when we told our friends that we were leaving the US, people told us that we were crazy. I was born here, so I guess it was not as crazy for me. But, when you move to another country, you realize that you were living in a bubble, in this case the US bubble. I do not know your political affiliation, but whatever it is, it is not applicable here, leave it back home, bring your values, they will be useful. When you move to another country, you will need to do it with an open heart and an open mind,  you will need to be adjustable to change. And when you adjust to a new life style and culture, you then realize the bubble you were living in, and that somehow you did not fit in, and then it feels good to be out of your comfort zone.  So yes, your friends will tell you that you are crazy, but it is because they are afraid of change, they love their comfort zone; you don't, you are a from a different breed of people
I hope this information helps. Please let me know if you have further questions.
Just if you are wondering, ticos is short for Costa Ricans.

Outlier

Wow! first let me just thank you for talking the time to write such a thorough response to my post.  I really appreciate it.

The info that you have provided is great, as I am preparing to create a online folder to house all of it and other info I get as I do my research.

Yes you are correct in saying that many people will tell us that we are crazy.  The top response we receive is Why would you ever want to spend that much time in a third world country, only rich people can afford to do that!  yes that is what we hear most, and I pretty much shrug it off, but it is interesting.

When my husband and I first began talking about it, we also thought at one time, this is nuts, only the wealthy can do this, but thanks to the internet, when I began to research and read blogs such as this, it became clear that we as middle class americans can do this to. 

As my husband would say, we should stop watching House Hunters International so much, but many of the Expats on that show are of upper middle class or higher income, LOL! and in most instances that is true, but as I told him, a girl can dream without the big bucks.. With that being said, it has always been a desire of mine to spend time in another country, and when I met my husband 21 years ago, we had the same desire.

I will do more research on the areas that you mentioned (considering my husbands health condition), that will play a major role in our decision as far as where to stay.

I am also looking at volunteer opportunities or the spanish language schools that are in CR..However, you are also correct in saying that the best spanish schools are the "streets"..I met someone in Mexico while on vacation who was from Los Angeles, and he spoke spanish fluently, and he told me and my husband, he was originally from Canada, moved to LA about 20 years ago, and learned spanish living in a predominantly Latino neighborhood.

I know I will have many more questions for you, so stay tuned...

Thanks again

louise

I hope you are doing well. How is your research on Costa Rica going? Let us know your comments or questions regarding your research.

It's great that you have such a positive attitude. I hope you & your husband stand firm against the naysayers if your job situation allows you two to make the trip. A lot of people in the US imagine Costa Rican residence means living in a banana leaf shack in the rain forest! Some adventurous souls may actively seek that, but it's hardly an everyday reality for most of us--or for our Costa Rican neighbors

My advice for a short, but not too short, live abroad experience in Costa Rica: Rent a furnished cabina/cottage on a larger property somewhere in the Central Valley for a month or more.3 months would be good, because tourist visas last for 90 days. Many vacation properties are like this, some owned by ex-pats who also live on site. These locations provide something in between a hotel and a house (or apartment) of your own. The longer your stay, the better the rate is, usually. You can browse options on the web sites of AM Costa Rica or The Tico Times or right here. Also, VRBO & Homeaway web sites offer rentals like these. Some hotels also offer this option & give a better rate for longer stays. (Be aware that Jan thru March is high season, better deals--but more rain--at other times of the year.)

If you do it this way, you can still schedule a few days here and there in other locales--visit the beach or the cloud forest, etc.

I agree with the earlier post about staying near the Central Valley if medical care is important. And buying travel insurance that will cover any developments. My family has found Costa Rican health care to be fantastic, but we use private doctors & hospitals, mainly Hospital Clinica Biblica. The CIMA hospital near Liberia mentioned in the other post could also work, if you're determined to stay near the beach most of the time.

Do you want to stay in luxury or are you willing to live with a Costa Rican family for a month? If it is the latter, I would highly recommend a Spanish school for a month where you would stay with a Tico family while attending school a few hours a day. Then for the next month or two you could rent a house somewhere in the Central Valley. One school that has a branch on the beach and near San Jose is called COSI and I can recommend them.

If you're only going to be in Costa Rica for a short time and you have nearly $4k/month to spend (that's a FORTUNE for a Costa Rica trip!), be sure to visit Arenal Volcano (town of Fortuna) for 2-3 days and think about a couple nights stay at Los Angeles Cloud Forest. That is, if you like nature. PM me if you want more info.

I once quit my job and moved to Costa Rica for 6 months and it was the best time of my life, then came back to the US and missed Costa Rica so much that I moved back again for another 4 months or so. So I do understand your desire to do something like this. It's not nuts, it's a grand adventure!

I recommend the Moon Handbook travel book on Costa Rica to get a good idea of what Costa Rica is all about. And of course this and other forums. Also if you enjoy reading about other cultures get a copy of Culture Shock: Costa Rica. (Culture Shock is a series of books that tries to show how each country's culture is unique and how the people may behave differently than in your country. It's a good way to get a handle on how it may be different in  Costa Rica than what you are used to in the USA or Canada or wherever you are from.)

The language school tie-in is good advice, especially for Louise. I read some of her other posts after replying here...& it seems she is keen for immersion in Tico life.

I second Samramon's recommendation of Moon Handbooks, with the caveat: double-check information on restaurants & hotels, etc. because it can be somewhat outdated even if the most recent edition is in hand--in my experience. The background information in Moon with respect to Costa Rican culture & history is excellent, however.

Right, NEVER rely on ANY tour guidebook for important info like when the bus leaves or where you pick it up, etc. Those things change, so always either call or go to the bus station to ask about the ride you are planning to take. Often you can buy tickets ahead of time too which is a good idea.

Hotel prices and restaurant prices are always subject to change and I have noticed that almost ALL  Costa Rica travel books have lower hotel prices than what they currently charge. Maybe they give the travel guide people a lower quote because they know it will be printed and people will be more likely to come based on that lower quote! That said, if it's off season you can always negotiate based on "it says here in the book...". That may not work but it's worth a try.

Dear Louise,

I would just give you one advice.  Come to Costa Rica and rent a place for 6 months. Try it out, get your information right here. 

Don't sell everything and move at once.  We are all different and who knows maybe you will love it.  Please don't expect to live like you do in the US.

I'm Canadian and I've been here for 27 years and I'm not considering going back to Canada.

Gini

Bring lots of money with you, the groceries here are the same price as in Canada.  If you are paying the electric bill where you are renting here "bring more money", the cost of electical power is astronomical.