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I live at a beach in Miami but at sea level. After 3 years, I am tired of the heat.

1) at 300 feet altitude, it is still friggin hot and humid.
2) Bugs are fact of life south of the 25th parallel but near the beach around the 10th parallel, you are going to see some mammoth sized insects and at high population levels .
3) Dengue is much, much more prevelant near beaches at low altitudes.
4) crocodiles
5) air conditioning is expensive
6) there is much less infrastructure along Costa Rican coasts. Medical care is part of this calulation.
7) coastal towns are so much more shabby looking that the mountain towns in Costa Rica.
8) Gravity. Pollution from the interior travels down stream and empties into the ocean.

I love the sea. I love beaches. I am an avid sea kayaker. When I want to paddle my kaytak, I can simpley drive th ehour or so to the Pacific from my mountain property. No need to live at sea level in the tropics.

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I brought my sisters to CR for a short visit. Although they never spoke it, I had a good idea what they were thinking when they saw the towns and many of the small homes in disrepair. The lower economic level in which most Ticos live is simply not as widespread and evident in the mid west where my sisters live. They are not accustomed to it.

Despite the incredible beauty of the land of Costa Rica, many North Americans just cannot see past the relative poverty and cannot imagine living in a country surrounded by that poverty. CR is a great place to visit, but they wouldn’t want to live there. I believe many North Americans fear poverty as if it were a contagious disease.

I do not glorify poverty as a wonderful thing. It is not. But at the same time I don’t focus on it as I used to do. Perhaps I have become somewhat jaded to seeing it or maybe I am putting a spin on the situation, ignoring the ugly so that the beauty isn’t overcome and spoiled. It takes a certain callous and pragmatic world view to live contentedly in a place where most people are not as well off as you.

Edited on Jan 28, 2009 14:05

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The patient will survive? There are levels of survival, some of which are worse than death. Too many Americans believe erroneously that we are an exceptional people and incapable of failure as a coutry. That is a form of cultural bigotry and nationalistic in the extreme. I have always been leary of flag waiving patriots no matter what country they call home. Many of these people are the first to put on a uniform and start killing for that flag of theirs.

We are no better and no worse than the rest of the world population when it comes to “guts and honor”. And many other cultures and empires have fallen into the dust never to rise again. It is naive to believe that could never happen to us.

I am saying here that having a plan B is the prudent thing to do as our country begins to fall over the edge.It is much more sane than declaring that you will go down with the ship when you are not even the captain of that ship.

Edited on Jan 28, 2009 10:41

Edited on Jan 28, 2009 10:44

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Scottbenson is talking about the quality of life in Costa Rica. He states some truths but despite the many things CR has in common with other latin countries, there seems to be a significant difference.

Like David, I also know of Ticos who moved the the U.S. for a short time and then returned to Costa Rica. I lived in Miami for 30 years and I only met ONE Tico in all that time. Compare that to inumerable Nicaraguan, Cuban, Puerto Rican and other South and Central American communities represented in Miami with permanent residents. The few Ticos who leave home tend to return quickly.

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What a simple plan: serve more, have honor, work hard. What has the average American worker been doing the last 40 years? The U.S. still has the most efficient work force. What good has it done him? Nothing has changed in the American character. In fact, it is the American character which has brought this mess upon us. And you seem to under estimate the seriousness. Forty percent of the world’s wealth has vanished in the last five quarters. This is unprecedented. You have no historical back drop in order to make a comparative analysis.No foreign nation is destroying us. It comes from inside our own culture.

I applaud optimism when it is directed towards individual aspirations and outlooks. Affecting the welfare of an entire nation and culture is beyond the parameters of an individual’s efforts. Take care of yourself and maintain your morale and your dreams and if the country in which you reside is not conducive to those ends, move on.

Costa Rica was my plan B long before the current crisis came along. It is even more attractive now than it was three years ago when I began.

Edited on Jan 28, 2009 04:40

Edited on Jan 28, 2009 04:44

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You must be a relatively youthful person so full of enthusiasm and confidence in people. Optimism can be useful when there is at least a modicum of pragmatism. Unless you have experienced the world as it goes through a crisis of the magnitude expected this time around, you have no way to know how much grit and guts will be required nor any way to know if your neighbors have what it takes to come out of this mess in better shape than they went in.

This crisis will probably end one day. The Dark Ages did. But there is no guarantee it will end. And nobody can say with any certainty as to when it will end. In the meantime, it doesn’t hurt to keep a plan B at hand JUST IN CASE the optimistic version doesn’t work out as planned.

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“With no new building going on and a continuing population growth – at some point……..”
Perhaps rioting?

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It’s not a life and death matter here, of course. We are just chewing that fat, so to speak, on a matter of mild interest.

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Then you believe everything they wrote about their world without asking for any substantiating details? I amnot wishing ill to anyone here. It is just that I don’t know them and I would want something more than what the article gave us as to how it is done.

Edited on Jan 26, 2009 07:28

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Jeez..take a breath. I am only curious as to whether or not we are reading about lives lived in harmony with the rest of the world, or lives lived under the legal radar and at odds with the rest of the world. You can keep your privacy but if you parade around with a colorful flag proclaiming all is beauty and peace, I will want to see your credentials.

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The domino effect. We have only seen the first few dominos topple. Imagine one of those domino set ups where one row branches off into 5 rows, each of which branch off into their own 5 rows…and so on and so on. If you don’t stop the first several dominos from falling over, you end up with a cascading and unstoppable event. I get the uneasy feeling we are witnessing the onset of what the Chinese curse referred to as “interesting times”. Call me a nutbag but I am starting to read up on survival gardens just in case.
Costa Rica has a year round growing season.

Edited on Jan 25, 2009 17:13

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It is my generation, the boomers, who felt we were owed a living. We are done with our time running things. Now we will, if we can, fade into retirement.

Talk to young people in college right now and you will get a different picture. They seem to expect hard times because they are already finding out that there are no jobs for them after graduation. Yeah, Costa Ricans may have seen their hayday of tourism come and go by the end of last year. And that might be the LEAST of their problems.

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You are being quite optimistic. I work on a daily basis watching the S&P500. Techincal indicators are giving some depressing direction potential. The stock market preceeds the rest of the markets by about 6 months. If we see a precipitous fall of the DOW in the next few months, the rest of the world will have its fall about the end of 2009.

The rescue plan is seen as woefully insufficient by many economists. Five to six trillion dollars is the predicted cost of getting out of this mess. If that amount is not available quickly, and then applied intelligently, then we simply do NOT get out of this mess for a generation. Kiss Costa Rican tourism goodbye.

Edited on Jan 25, 2009 11:39

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I would just love to read how many of these people who are not retirees are providing for themselves in Costa Rica. Scott has let us know how he has done it. What is the big secret about personal finances that so many people won’t even give out the most general and basic description of what they do for money? If it is a legal endeavor, let’s hear about it. I am curious.

If it is not legal, then don’t bother posting how you are enjoying the “pura vida” and giving the impression that anyone who wants to come here and enjoy it can do so. I don’t want to see any more gringos down here skating under the radar and possibly screwing it up for the rest of us who are here following the legal path to residency.

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Chasing down dreams can be challenging. The more work and commitment involved, the more satisfing and the more commendible. However, the article leaves me with the impression that the young couple had enough money so that any choices made about living in Costa Rica could be changed as easily as a tour schedule. I didn’t sense any commitment or risk in their actions. Instead, I seemed to be reading a travel brochure or a short essay by a college couple on how they spent their summer vacation.

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