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I really think you and your family will love living in CR and CR will love you right back just from some of the posts you have written. My passion for CR has not faltered in 26 years and although the social and literal landscape has been somewhat altered, CR’s spirit remains the same. How can I stop loving CR just for that? Now who hasn’t changed a bit throughout the years 🙂 Doing your homework, knowing yourself and being flexible goes a looooong way when relocating anywhere…
Seems we have a pretty good discussion going on here, and as I had thought… it would be darn near impossible to get a real number without a true baseline. I’d add 7 to the list of folks that came and went in the past four years.
Two were dreamers that didn’t think out the move or the change in lifestyle. Sold everything in the states, built the big castle and moved in. They found they were too “isolated”. Nice folks that get points for doing something that most people only dream of. They gave it a shot and for that they will never be sorry. They made the mistake of not becoming part of the local Tico community, had they done so I strongly feel they’d still be here and thriving. As much as two people can be in love… it’s tough living alone in the castle on the mountain.
One was a “business” man that thought he could reinvent the wheel and make his millions cutting up farms into lots in the middle of nowhere. Nothing more came of his plans but a nice gate and another dirt road to nowhere. The folks that bought in to his dream will be waiting a while for that clubhouse, pool and spa to be built.
Another was a middle aged women coming out of a bad relationship (or perhaps was on the run) that came here to retire without a clue. Her spanish was limited to greeting you good morning. She made no effort to learn and stayed for about two years before heading home. I lost a bet on her, I figured she’d be gone within one.
Then there is the older retired gentleman with a small pension that thought he’d come to CR to find love with a 21 year old Tica. Nice guy, bad idea. You don’t even need to be told how this one worked out. It may work out for some guys, but this guy wasn’t one of them. Last I heard he was back in the states living with family looking for work. At least he’ll have some GREAT memories!
Another falls into the health issue move. Medical problems that needed more attention and time then living here could provide.
My last one was a nice fellow that seemed to have it all going for him. Young, energetic, artistic, had a nice art work business going. He fell for the dream and was living it. Got married to stay, that didn’t last. Seems he had too much time on his hands and developed bad habits. He fell out of favor with everyone and lost it all including his mind. A real shame.
I also know of about 15 people that have made the transition and for now are quite happy. Most are folks that sampled the waters first. Some rented and live part-time before making the move, something recommended so often to folks looking to make the move to a new location. Others own a second home in CR and live here part-time before making the dream a full-time reality. They test the waters and develop a true open eyed love for the country and the people making the full-time transistion much more sucessful.
The ones I find most sucessful are the ones that do their homework and respect CR and the people realizing they are the newcomer or guest. They have realistic ideas about CR, the good and the bad. They know that CR is not the States or their homeland and THEY have to adjust, not the other way around. They have friends in both the local and expat communities and treat each the same.
There’s a million stories about folks that come and go…. and we haven’t even touched on those on the run from the law or other problems that cycle through the country! That’s a whole other story! 🙂
on the 40% thing QUOTE: “For you others thinking about living here, there is an important statistic. About 40% of those who move to Costa Rica leave within one year! Why? There are a lot of reasons, but my hunch is that people were just not prepared for the REAL Costa Rica, for there is a vast difference between the “tourist” Costa Rica and the one in which you will live.”
I appreciate that many people say it but just because they say something doesn’t make it true. Especially after the lies we have been repeatedly spoon fed over the last seven years I would have hoped that people will question more…
They all say that Atenas has the best climate in the world – and it is beautiful – and most attribute that to the National Geographic Magazine but NOBODY can prove that the National Geographic Magazine has ever claimed that so I have to assume that like many things here, that was also pulled out of thin (but warm) air.
Trustworthy people making any kind of claim will substantiate that claim by quoting a reliable source.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comGiven the “40% within one year” quote I’d say that’s a bit high. I’d think that most folks that relocate to CR do so with enough information and determination to last more than a year. The 40% might be true over some time horizon, but I don’t think we’ll ever get a true number that is defendable. An educated guess perhaps?
Whatever the number actually is and whether or not we will ever know for sure, this is information which I realize may not even be pertinent to my personal situation…or to anyone else for that matter. Like crime statistics, there are so many variables that have to be applied to each individual and that individual’s risk of exposure to the negative side of the equation, that it may be a useless piece of information.
I only referred to the 40% number which I have read at several online sources as a possible mitigating factor to the great quantity of expats who say they are moving to CR. I hope it is close to 40% after two years as this will cull out the wheat from the chaff so to speak.I’m enjoying this discussion. Whether the 40% figure of expats returning home within a year, and whether they are all Americans or not is immaterial to me. What these posts show me is how important it is to make sure that you know what you’re getting into and why before making this kind of move. I think a lot of people fail to realize that the country, that any country, is at least as much the people who live there as it is a collection of climate and natural features. I just personally hit a roadblock while negotiating online with a Tica who owns a bed and breakfast where supposedly I would be staying for a month while doing some art for her establishment. For some reason she appeared to take offense with me when I became more specific about what I would need if I was going to stay in her place for a month (a contract, privacy, peace and quiet and a decent room with a private bath, etc.) Perhaps I came across as a spoiled Canadian with a sense of entitlement, but for me these are basic considerations that I need to have in place if I’m going to provide decently crafted paintings and not turn into a nervous wreck. We were going to be trading my art (about $3500 Cdn worth of paintings) for free lodgings, which meant she would be getting a discount of perhaps two-thirds (This I also told her). Now, I understand that most Ticos hate confrontation and in stead of telling you to f*** off they will simply ignore you till you go away. After several weeks of this treatment, I cancelled.
Now, several questions come to mind here: was she going to try to get as much as she could out of me, assuming that all NOrth Americans have diamonds dripping out of their rear ends (well, this one doesn’t. I’m working poor.) Did she feel that I was demanding too much? Did she take offense when I reminded her (only once, mind you) of what a deal she would be getting? Did she assume that I was after her for marriage or whatever? (I certainly am not, btw) Did she take offense upon clueing in that that is not in the cards? Who knows? And I’m not worrying about it, but I am taking from this salutary episode a hint that when you are dealing with a different culture even the best intentions can fall flat. Fortunately my Spanish is good so we managed to communicate well enough. But perhaps my use of Spanish carried a tone (unbeknownst to me) that she found a little bit imperious or insulting? I will likely never know until I have made the same mistake a few times over I suppose. But this is one of many examples of the kind of patience, and self-examination that is required if you are going to live in a different country.
As to whether I will ever live in CR or not the jury is still out, but I still plan to visit, a few times if possible. Right now I rather like where I live, Vancouver, which in many ways is going through a similar kind of transition as Costa Rica as we are accommodating thousands of new residents from different countries, and guess what? They all love us for our natural beauty. And real estate has hit the stratosphere. I could go on… Pura Vida!Could someone tell me where “The US will put immigration controls in place within the next ten years so that people will have to apply to retire outside of the us – FOR YOUR PROTECTION” came from? If this is in fact true and supported by a credible source, then our plans will change.
I don’t believe this is a fact grb1063 – BradBard does have some very intersting and often radical points of view but unfortunately it would not surprise me in the least if this did indeed happen.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comAs much as I distrust my government and lament the absolute lack of common sense in the typical american voter, I just cannot see anything like an emigration control policy ever coming about here in the U.S. My generation, the boomers, is the largest single block of voters right now. We represent a huge bulge of voters and there is no way any government is going to pass legislation which is contrary to such an essential freedom as emigration represents to a retiring demographic. To suppose such a thing could happen is pure fantasy.
Now, the taxman could always stir up all kinds of mischief in this area and make it a losing proposition to remove any assets to an offshore location. It’s almost enough to make a Ron Paul supporter out me, a long time liberal democrat.Well, so far we appear to have a list of fifteen people or families who have left Costa Rica for any reason whatsoever. Since I personally know at least thirty people or families who are here, it appears that the forty percent number is an overstatement. The fifteen departeds constitute 33.3% of that population, not forty. And since I know only a small percentage of all the expats now living in Costa Rica, it would appear that the forty percent is an even grosser overstatement.
The best conclusion I can draw from all this is that whoever came up with the 40.0% figure was talking through his or her hat.
And, by the way, if Atenas has the best climate in the world, why do all the houses built for expats feature central air conditioning?
“To suppose such a thing could happen is pure fantasy.”
Are you reading the news?
“Essential freedom?” Have you seen what GWB has done for our freedom over the last few years?
Under the pretext of retaliating for 9/11 we invade Iraq? A country that had nothing to do with 9/11? Is that “pure fantasy?”
And you think that the politicians are listening to the voters? Is that why we’re still in Iraq? Because MOST voters have made it known that they do not want to be in Iraq? [ http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm ]
And you don’t believe that there have been any serious irregularities with the last two elections in the USA?
And you know that our President is listening to his own experts when he completely ignores the reports from all of his own intelligence services. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/12/04/BL2007120401026.html?hpid=topnews
With all due respect, you are asleep and or living in a “fantasy’ world.
Take a look at http://www.infragard.net/ where you can see how they are recruiting business people to spy on you?
You know that they have also recruited 20,000+ religious leaders and trained them to be ready to persuade their flocks to turn in their guns when required. That should be interesting.
You can believe it or not, but the US administration knows that there will be bi fu…. civil unrest in the US in the near future, surprise surprise, which is why they are building detention camps.
Did you read ’10-Year U.S. Strategic Plan For Detention Camps Revives Proposals From Oliver North’ at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=DAL20060228&articleId=2045
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration “Clearly the detention centers are not meant to just stand there empty. Thanks to 2007’s greatest failure—the Democratic Congress—there is to be an “Extremist Beliefs Commission” to secure inmates for Bush’s detention centers.” http://www.vdare.com/roberts/080103_democrats.htm
“The Washington Post reported on February 15, 2006 that the National Counterterrorism Center’s (NCTC) central repository holds the names of 325,000 terrorist suspects, a fourfold increase since fall of 2003. A Pentagon official said the Counterintelligence Field Activity’s TALON program has amassed files on antiwar protesters.” http://shadowgovernment.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/halliburton-confirms-concentration-camps-already-constructed/
Did you read former Congressman Dan Hamburg’s recent article written with Lewis Seiler published on Monday, February 4, 2008? As you can see from the article below http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/04/ED5OUPQJ7.DTL if you have expressed an anti-war opinion, it is quite possible that you could be on that list…
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Rule by fear or rule by law?
“The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.”
– Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943
Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of “an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs.”
Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.
According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of “all removable aliens” and “potential terrorists.”
Fraud-busters such as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, have complained about these contracts, saying that more taxpayer dollars should not go to taxpayer-gouging Halliburton. But the real question is: What kind of “new programs” require the construction and refurbishment of detention facilities in nearly every state of the union with the capacity to house perhaps millions of people?
Sect. 1042 of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), “Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies,” gives the executive the power to invoke martial law. For the first time in more than a century, the president is now authorized to use the military in response to “a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or any other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order.”
The Military Commissions Act of 2006, rammed through Congress just before the 2006 midterm elections, allows for the indefinite imprisonment of anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on a list of “terrorist” organizations, or who speaks out against the government’s policies. The law calls for secret trials for citizens and noncitizens alike.
Also in 2007, the White House quietly issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51), to ensure “continuity of government” in the event of what the document vaguely calls a “catastrophic emergency.” Should the president determine that such an emergency has occurred, he and he alone is empowered to do whatever he deems necessary to ensure “continuity of government.” This could include everything from canceling elections to suspending the Constitution to launching a nuclear attack. Congress has yet to hold a single hearing on NSPD-51.
U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County) has come up with a new way to expand the domestic “war on terror.” Her Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (HR1955), which passed the House by the lopsided vote of 404-6, would set up a commission to “examine and report upon the facts and causes” of so-called violent radicalism and extremist ideology, then make legislative recommendations on combatting it.
According to commentary in the Baltimore Sun, Rep. Harman and her colleagues from both sides of the aisle believe the country faces a native brand of terrorism, and needs a commission with sweeping investigative power to combat it.
A clue as to where Harman’s commission might be aiming is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a law that labels those who “engage in sit-ins, civil disobedience, trespass, or any other crime in the name of animal rights” as terrorists. Other groups in the crosshairs could be anti-abortion protesters, anti-tax agitators, immigration activists, environmentalists, peace demonstrators, Second Amendment rights supporters … the list goes on and on. According to author Naomi Wolf, the National Counterterrorism Center holds the names of roughly 775,000 “terror suspects” with the number increasing by 20,000 per month.
What could the government be contemplating that leads it to make contingency plans to detain without recourse millions of its own citizens?
The Constitution does not allow the executive to have unchecked power under any circumstances. The people must not allow the president to use the war on terrorism to rule by fear instead of by law.
Lewis Seiler is the president of Voice of the Environment, Inc. Dan Hamburg, a former congressman, is executive director.
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It’s way past the time to wake up people!!
You are preaching to the choir about the illegalities of the recent right wing flexing of its muscles. And you get no argument from me regarding the political stupidity and receptivity of fear mongering of the average american citizen. Where we part company here is at the point where you see massive incarceration of american citizens who wish to leave this “paradise”. First of all ,that ain’t good for business. And even if the government had the political will to withstand a firestorm of civil unrest, it does not have the resources with so much having been spent and being spent in Iraq.
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