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I’m flattered to think that I may have inspired someone to view Costa Rica as I see it. After looking at the pictures on Martin’s site, I now remember that he and I were in an e-mail fest before I made my first trip down there in February 2005. After seeing the pictures before that fateful trip, I declared to my husband that that was how I wanted to live — totally integrated into my environment and taking advantage of all the good things available in CR, rather than pining for what I was leaving or had left behind. Costa Rica has much to offer in the way of feeding your imagination and your soul if you let it, not to mention how well your body will be fed. Clinging to the gringo standards of mass commercialism and industrialized packaged food will negate what is awaiting you here — one of the most rewarding experiences for me is shopping where the locals shop — in the big farmer’s markets where you get to intereact with the farmers who grew your food and engage in little chitchat about that monstrous head of lettuce or that psychedelic red watermelon. Costa Rica is indeed a feast! Come on down and find a place at the table.
They are no longer living in Costa Rica. They moved back to the States, Tennessee maybe, because of Martin’s health concerns.
Yes, she would lose her survivor’s benefits if you were to marry. The amount is sufficient for pensionado status for the two of you, but you would have to be married, but if you were married and she lost those benefits then perhaps she wouldn’t have the requisite income to qualify for pensionado status for herself, much less the two of you. In a married couple, he who has the majority of income is the person who applies for pensionado status, and the other person becomes the “dependent.” I know. I just went through this, and it was my income that qualified us (although my husband has income too) so the application was in my name and my husband was added as a dependent. But yes, as Scott suggested, you need to speak to an immigration lawyer. My advice is based on recent personal experience.
I would be interested in being able to get high quality supplements when I move permanently to Costa Rica. The Macrobiotica in San Ramon carries most of what I take, and flax seed is ubiquitous but don’t know it it’s organic or not. I will probably buy a 4 – 5 months supply of all my junk — C, E, D, IP-6, Krill Oil, B-complex, Magnesium, Salmon Oil, Evening Primrose Oil and a few other things, then order from Vitacost and have it sent to my step-daughter’s so she can haul it all down when she comes to visit. What I don’t want to have to do when I’m in CR is drive a long distance to get this stuff, so the idea of a website from which to order does sound good to me, too!
Now if only I could see to type!!! LOL I’m sure somewhere in CR they ARE selling feet from something or other.
I don’t know how current this e-mail addy is, but you can give it a try. sduplantier@netscape.net Their names are Steve and Cathleen Duplantier. I think she’s had MS for nearly 15 years. He is her primary caretaker and they moved to CR to get out of the heat of Louisiana where he was a professor. If that e-mail doesn’t get to them, let me know and I will try another route.
With the exception of having to buy olive oil and other condiments in a super market, I can pretty much get by with shopping at the local farmer’s markets, which also have fish and chicken and eggs. I guess I’m lucky that I never developed a taste for packaged or processed foot so there’s no food item that I really miss in Costa Rica — in fact, I find that the plethora of good fresh things to eat is simply overwhelming and I can’t get enough of them. Your granddaughter will love Costa Rica because there is plenty to eat without having to eat something with a face!
Hola Mary Ann: I don’t have an e-mail address for this couple, but I can probably round one up in a day or so. I’m not sure that the wife is capable of using a keyboard as her hands are somewhat distorted, but her husband would probably respond to you. They found an excellent physicial therapist in San Ramon and a good massage therapist, and they feel that the level of care for her condition is as good if not better than that which they were getting in the States. And at considerably less expense. They built in a development called Angel Valley — they are immediately adjacent to this development http://www.rancholobo.com but their property is not part of this development even though they are just a few hundred yards down the road. There are lots left in Rancho Lobo and it is a great community — some of the residents have major health issues but for the most part we are all pretty active 50+ somethings!
San Jose will be too hot for you if you have MS. There is a couple who built a home near me and the wife is wheelchair-bound with MS as well. They investigated many places in Costa Rica and finally settled on a community outside San Ramon where the temperature rarely gets above 78 in the day or below 60 at night. They built a very open home with plenty of space for the wheelchair. Still she wears one of those ice pack vests. The reason they built a house is that they couldn’t find one that could accomodate a wheelchair.
They’re overweight because they are eating all the stuff you just listed — the good old Standard American Diet which is the absolute worst diet and has given us the dubious distinction of having the highest incidence of obesity, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc. of any country in the world! Yes, as Lotus said, you ARE a good ol’ boy! jejeje
In Sarasota, Fla the Winn-Dixie I went to had security guards — two roaming the store and two posted outside with assault rifles! Scary place to shop, I’ll tell ya.
mmmmmm, I can’t imagine that it covers anything if you’re outside the US. I have to call them today about another matter, so I will ask, but Medicare just couldn’t be that generous! I shudder to think about paying all that money for insurance, especially when you can get heart surgery for about $5000! Insurance companies being what they are, I don’t trust them — after all they are in the business of collecting premiums, not paying claims, and the minute you have something serious happen to you, you could have no coverage at all. I’m going to start a medical fund when I am in Costa Rica and put a few hundred each month in there to cover a big medical expense, even though I’m planning on getting insurance after I get my cedula.
David: Are you SURE Medicare will cover anything outside the US? It was my understanding that there was no coverage at all for Medicare recipients who need treatment and who reside outside the country (unless of course you go back to the States). As for catastrophic health insurance, I know someone who had several cancer surgeries and then had follow-up radiation — most of the expenses he paid out of pocket and the cost was somewhere around $12,000! In the States that same treatment would’ve approached a hundred grand. And I read somewhere that the cap on medical expenses for some policies issued in CR is around $18,000 for a lifetime of medical services. Even the most catastrophic illness has a pricetag of a bargain basement in Costa Rica — don’t know what your premiums would be for a catastrophic policy, but you might be better off just setting aside a sum equal to the premiums to pay for medical care yourself.
I don’t drink milk per se, but rather use it to make kefir, which is fermented milk, high in protein and calcium along with multiple strains of good bacteria that boost the immune system. One of the local farmers in Costa Rica gave my neighbor a glob of kefir starter, which she then passed on to me (although I’ve been doing this for years and already had the starter in the States). Seems like a lot of dairy farmers in Costa Rica are into making kefir. As for Dr. Weil, I usually agree with him but not on this issue because the health problems he lists accompany the consumption of pasteurized and homogenized milk — the problems are much rarer when using raw milk. http://www.mercola.com/2004/apr/24/raw_milk.htm
http://www.mercola.com/forms/kefir.htm
