Costa Rica

[teakwood]

After my posts in the logging section, some negatives thoughts over Costa Rica, some guys wrote me pm's asking about CR. I don't want to hijack the "post what you currently cutting" thread anymore, so here it goes:

Costa Rica is beautiful, peaceful and politically stable, your investment is secure. Perfect for people who want to retire here and enjoy paradise, and we have a lot of foreigners retiring here. that's the expectation when you come here and it's true but you also need to know some negative things about CR. CR has become very very expensive the last 20 years and it's not stopping, the most expensive Latin country there is, don't be amassed when you pay more for grocery's than in the states, fuel is 1.1$/litre, a bottle of water 2.3$, property and construction prices are bananas 

I will follow posting and explaining but need to go working, fall some teak trees, see ya

[mike_belben]

Yeah thats how it goes.  The only way to go somewhere cheap is to get in on the ground floor when a place is still a wild and dangerous frontier.  You get a discount for taking your chances and a bonus equity growth if you live long enough for it to be tamed.  the transplants start flooding in and making everything expensive so the only way to gain by that is to be selling something transplants dearly love.  Land, services and maybe trinkets.


How often does someone get killed within a 10 mile radius of you?

[HemlockKing]

Sounds about on par with Canada in terms of prices. You got any favourite photos of the ol CR you think is worth sharing(landscape pictures) ? 

[Raider Bill]

I've been to CR several times with the last being 2003.
Always went for the white water rafting which is world class.
I noticed even back then how much it was changing and how the prices were climbing. 

[metalspinner]

I loved our visit to CR. All the locals were very friendly. I keep tells my my wife that's where I want to retire. 

We spent our time in the Arenal region. Incredibly beautiful. 

[SawyerTed]

It seems every generation searches for a place to "get away from it all".  My children's generation (Millennials) seem to have found Costa Rica.  My daughter spent several weeks there to attend a wedding.  Not sure how you do that but she managed it and travelled all over the country.  My wife's cousin's children have been splitting time between Colorado and Costa Rica, skiing and surfing.  Not sure how you do that either but they manage to do it.  

The Eagles said it best, "Call someplace paradise You kiss it goodbye"  Same thing has happened with various other locations.  The NC Outer Banks come to mind as do certain locations in Florida, Hawaii and so on.  The very things that make the places desirable to visit, make those places desirable to visit and visitors want infrastructure, conveniences and on and on.  It is a vicious cycle that leaves places less desirable over time IMO.  I don't even want to go to anywhere between Corolla, NC and Whalebone Junction, NC anytime between Easter and October.  

[farmfromkansas]

I looked at prices of real estate several years ago, and found land was more expensive in CR than where I live in Kansas.  Land has gone crazy here since, but what do you do.  I don't want to sell, just buy more, and it is getting very difficult.  They say that as a farmer, you need 2 sections to make a living.

[newoodguy78]

Not to derail the topic, how many acres in a section?

[Resonator]

640 acres. A section is 1 mile x 1 mile square (rural county roads are usually laid out in a grid of sections.) EDIT: 1/4 of a section is 160 acres, a quarter quarter is "a forty".

[newoodguy78]

Thank you 

[Nebraska]

Nope not quite a "quarter" is 160 acres half mile by half mile. A forty is 1/4 mile  by 1/4 mile.   Land around me has gone crazy if you have 2 sections here you're worth over 10 million.

[newoodguy78]

 :P

[beenthere]

Yup, 16 forty's in a section.

[Resonator]

Farmers only spend big money on 2 things, iron and dirt. ;D

[Percy]

 

The Eagles said it best, "Call someplace paradise You kiss it goodbye"   

A lyric guy!! Cool analogy

[teakwood]

How often does someone get killed within a 10 mile radius of you?

Last two years, almost one per month. sounds awfully high but actually it's very quiet here. these crimes are all score keeping between the narco families, they steal drugs from each other or from themselves and you know what happens then, they will get ya, sooner or later. it's kinda strategic place here, land and water transport of drugs and money so they installed themselves here, but if you're not into this business you don't have to fear, i feel save here and would choose it again. some thief's and lowlives are around but that's normal everywhere in the world.

CR is most beautiful and great for retirees, but if you need to make a living here it's hard, the taxes went up crazy over the last years, the government is highly indebted, lots of corruption, infrastructure is critical, ....
we have over 300k public employees compared to 2.5M private working people, they do squat and earn 1.5-4 times what an honest job brings, have all the benefits, retire at a early age, get 10 times more pension, you name it. CR has over 300 govern agencies or ministries, that is way to much, bureaucracy is at another level here.   A big problem in CR are the unions, they are very strong and harm the country, we had a 4 month stike because all the teacher wanted another extra candy above their already stupid high benefits. they call it fight for their rights, what a choke.
CR needs to get a credit every year, just to pay the 13st month salary to all of them. 
I think we will have a crisis like in Greece here soon, where the government goes bankrupt.

CR was the most advanced latin country 40-50 years ago, great health system, education, no army, but that is long gone now. Lots of lazy union workers, lots of "poor" people waiting for covid money, lots of drug employees, lots of corruption     

[Dakota]

We enjoyed our trip to CR three years ago.  The thing that struck me was that everywhere we went, all the businesses and houses had bars on their doors and windows.  Gotta be a reason for that.

[mike_belben]

Sounds familiar!

[farmfromkansas]

I had to put gates on the farm yard to try to keep the thieves out.  When we went to Jamaica years ago, all shops had gates they locked up across the fronts and padlocked shut.  Houses had bars, and the resorts had security personnel with AK 47's patroling the perimeter.  Makes you wonder what is going on there.  Cool thing is about Jamaica, no mosquitoes anywhere we went.

[metalspinner]

 :D At least there were no mosquitoes! :D

[teakwood]

I had to put gates on the farm yard to try to keep the thieves out.  When we went to Jamaica years ago, all shops had gates they locked up across the fronts and padlocked shut.  Houses had bars, and the resorts had security personnel with AK 47's patroling the perimeter.  Makes you wonder what is going on there.  Cool thing is about Jamaica, no mosquitoes anywhere we went.

It's not that bad here, we have guards in banks and some bigger businesses like walmarts and co. , but not machinegun or pump action guarded. the houses mostly have bars and in the cities even electricity fences

[Greenie]

Sinaloa Mexico - love the place! Camped on the beach for 4-8 weeks for a number of years. Mexico isn't Costa Rica but there are some similarities.
Food and energy costs are as high if not higher than the US. Quality of goods like appliances is poor. Mail delivery is slow and sometimes incomplete.
Teachers are very unionized - often at the expense of the students. Teachers and other unionized workers may close down critical highways where even ambulances with critically ill patients aren't permitted to pass.
Americans are accustomed to walking into a car parts store and usually leaving with the desired item in hand - this is the exception rather than the rule in Latin America.
Even if one is conversant in Spanish inflection (in depth, revealing conversations) are fraught with problems which will cause numerous issues that can cost money and raise blood pressures.
As much as I love Mexico after 2 months I'm ready to return to the US.
Anyone considering making a move of this caliber ought to spend a lot of time living there first.

[aigheadish]

My wife and I went in early 2019 and Costa Rica was beautiful. We stayed in the middle of the country, in Canaan, on the way to Cerro Chirripo. We didn't know any Spanish and it was much more a culture shock than we expected due to not wanting to stay in the more touristy areas. The roads, driving, and pedestrians do crazy things (motorcycles passing semi-trucks on the shoulder while people walk on the shoulder too!). The lack of street signs made it challenging to understand where we were, literally our first turn out of the car rental joint was the wrong way and we were immediately lost. Rather than drive Rt. 2 down the middle of the country we drove for a couple hours before we saw the Pacific Ocean and I knew we'd (I'd) messed up. Everyone also suggested getting a gps with the rental, which turned out to be less functional and more confusing than I expected as well. 

The fences and bars and gates and stuff made me a bit nervous but upon driving through San Isidro de El General, a decent sized city, at night, where there were lots of people milling about and a big soccer game happening, showed me that things were relatively safe. While things, in the city (both San Isidro and San Jose) weren't quite as clean and organized at what I'm used to around here I never once felt like we were in danger. 

Regardless of any of that everyone didn't seem upset and were patient with our lack of Spanish speaking (we kind of tried but it probably came out very poorly), and folks were very friendly. I found costs of food to be quite inexpensive, we had a couple meals that would have been 3 times more expensive in my neck of the woods, groceries and beer were also inexpensive for us, but maybe that's changed a bit. We did have a more expensive meal in San Jose, but that was still only like 50 bucks. Our rental house was comparatively expensive as kind of anywhere else we've gone. 

All in all, it was a nice trip but I don't know if I'd go back. I've gone to a couple foreign countries now and the stress of not speaking the language is challenging to me. It was very neat to see and I'm very happy we went but if there's a next time we may do a few days in a more touristy spot then a few days in the back country.

[teakwood]

Teachers are very unionized - often at the expense of the students. Teachers and other unionized workers may close down critical highways where even ambulances with critically ill patients aren't permitted to pass

So not just in CR! Probably a Latino problem.