A Dull Roar - Moving to, Retiring in, Living with Costa Rica

Top Ten Tips or Rules for Driving in Costa Rica

2019-07-27T15:46:00.002-06:00

The zero-th rule / tip is to never assume that drivers in Costa Rica behave like drivers do in the States, Canada, Europe, etc. The drivers here simply do a lot of unsafe stuff. This, in spite of them having to pass fairly extensive written and practical tests. It really comes down to a lack of enforcement of the rules of the road (see bonus "tip" #11).

1. When they turn off even a high-speed highway, they often slow to a crawl.

2. They rarely pay attention to stop signs, but do respect traffic lights (mostly).

3. Motorcycles will pass you on either side and use the space between lanes freely.

4. A left turn signal is ambiguous. It could mean they are actually turning left or it could mean they are telling you it is safe to pass (you can easily see where this could be a problem).

5. Double-yellow lines are ignored. Ticos will pass anywhere and often do on blind curves, so be especially alert at every curve.
6. They continue to add passing lanes on two-lane highways but few Ticos actually know the etiquette of using these (slow traffic right), so be alert.

7. There are at least three types of police, the only one you need to pay attention to is Transito Police. Believe it or not, it is illegal for them to chase you or pull you over from their car, so don't worry about passing one in front of you or if one is following you. You DO have to stop however if they are at the side of the road and wave you down. They probably just want to check your ID and car papers, although some set up radar speed traps.

8. Driving at night is hazardous for lots of reasons, not the least of which is there is no enforcement for using high beams or big LED flame throwers on cars that can blind oncoming drivers.

9. Even on well-paved roads, keep your eyes out for big, deep potholes, animals on the road, pedestrians walking on the shoulder, cars or trucks blocking a lane, the list goes on and on.

10. If you have to ask for directions, ask multiple people, because even if one person doesn't know the way, they will likely tell you something anyway. It has to do with Ticos' deep reluctance to not say "no" to someone or to disappoint them.

Bonus Tip 11. A big part of the reason Ticos are not such safe drivers comes down to the almost total lack of enforcement of the traffic laws by the Transito Police. They can dish out fines here, but your chances of getting one are rather slim.

They do set up speed traps and occasionally you see them parked at the side of the road, out of the car, waving people down at random. One of the big limitations they have is that, believe it or not, in Costa Rica, the transito cops (or any other cop) cannot by law pull you over from within their car. That's right. The cop behind you with the flashing lights, you can totally ignore. Do not pull over.

Bonus Tip 12. If, heaven forbid, you do get in an accident ... do not move your car even if it is causing a potentially hazardous situation. You must wait for the police to show up (call 911) so they can ascertain what happened and how may be at fault.

In the end, staying alert with a sense of expecting the unexpected pays off when driving here in Costa Rica. Try to enjoy the slower pace, shine on the few rude drivers, be prepared to get lost at least once (a day) and enjoy the awesomely beautiful scenery the country has to offer!

My Long Anticipated Confusing Premier Visit to a Caja Doctor in Costa Rica

2019-02-11T15:47:00.000-06:00

We've been paying into Costa Rica's Seguro Social system aka Caja (KA-HAH) for at least 8 years now. It's Costa Rica's version of universal health care, cemented into the government and culture since the 1949 revolution. You want residency here? Then you are going to have to pay into Caja and keep it current or you won't get your residency renewed.

It has a lot of nice features, such as low-cost, free everything without co-pays or deductibles and the price is worth it even if you only use the emergency care. It's the best emergency care we have in San Isidro despite a few private urgent care clinics around.

However, it comes with costs besides the premiums (ours is about $80/month for the family, thanks for asking). You need patience and a lot of time on your hands and it doesn't hurt if you have someone on the inside to help navigate the maze. I've already outlined one failed attempt to use the system several years ago, but here I'm going to hit the highlights of my own personal, successful use of it to get treatment for my hypertension.

Phase I - Getting a Caja Appointment and Interim Meds

This mini-saga began in January 2018. This episode was an apropos setup for the entire Caja story (which isn't yet finished). It began by visiting our private family doctor (who also knows the Caja system inside and out having been one of the rotating directors for the local hospital) and a brief exam to verify my high blood pressure.

He then called a friend who runs the night shift at the hospital pharmacy to get me a one month's supply of the medicine I'd been taking up to that point that was helping but later turned out to not be effective enough.

He also wrote an order for an appointment with the Caja cardiology department, which I accomplished first with relatively little pain since the line was uncommonly short. They gave me a receipt with "Feb" in big letters and I was (naively) pleased that it was only a month away.

The next day I met the night shift guy at 6 AM in the emergency room and he accompanied me to the back door of the hospital pharmacy and told me to wait outside. Ten minutes later he returned, without the meds, but with a question about why there was no case file number on the prescription. I explained how I'd gotten the order and mentioned that I had an appointment in February, to which he asked with surprise, "This year?"

He went back and got me a month's supply of the drug and I went home and checked the appt. receipt and, sure enough, it was for Feb 2019.

Phase II - The Cardiology Appointment

Phase I seems like yesterday now, but at that time I really wondered if I'd remember my appointment 13 months later. I did. I went today about 20 minutes early. I knew there would be puzzles to solve, though I didn't know what they would be, so I gave myself extra time.

The first puzzle was to figure out why the consulting room doors in cardiology were closed. Was the department open? Should I just wait and see if someone comes out and calls my name? I had verified I still had an appointment on their new online system, which confirmed that I did.

There was a kiosk/window with a short line in front of rows of chairs, but no identifying sign except "Gastroenterología" on the side door. Yet, it was all that was available, so I stood there hoping to find someone with an answer.

It was a short wait since a passing clerk offered to look at my paperwork and said indeed this was the right line and she went in to "process" it. After she handed back my papers, I selected a seat but in moments was called into one of the three consulting rooms.

After a few minutes a doctor showed up. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was having a bad day, but he seemed surprisingly annoyed at me even being there. He asked if I had an electrocardiogram, an echocardiogram and a blood test. Of course I didn't as this was my very first visit to address the issue.

The lowest point was when he nearly thumped his chest basically saying "Soy especialista" (I'm a specialist) and I don't have time for this stuff. He brusquely brushed off a few other questions I had but he did wrestle his computer and Caja software into giving out prescriptions for a better drug, an order for lab work and three more appointments.

I'll sum up what I thought of his attitude with this gif clip of Danny DeVito in Matilda:

Yeah, just like that. Seriously, he was very unprofessional in this interaction not to mention Un-Tico-like as well.

Phase III - To Be Continued ... Into Next Year!

The assisting nurse pulled out and sorted six pages of documents from the printer and I got a brief explanation of what they were: Three one-month prescriptions of the same (presumably better) drug, a blood test order and appointments for the ECG, the echo and the follow-up.

I took those to the little window again, which generated more shuffling, typing, mousing and waiting. They returned to me the appointments. The first was in early December for the ECG. Fortunately, this year! It's followed just four days later by the echo and finally the follow-up consultation in January of 2020.

I was at least thankful that they could issue the appointments on the spot so that I didn't have to stand in the general appointments line again, which today was SRO.

I actually had a few more questions, such as why if my first appointment is 10 months away I only got prescriptions to cover three months, but I held onto those as I was about to consult with a real expert when I got home, namely our Tica neighbor who was watching over my invalid mother-in-law while we made our journey to town.

It's Not All Bad News, They Are Improving ...

She explained that I didn't have to wait in the god-awful pharmacy line at the hospital to get the prescriptions filled. They can now be filled at our local EBAIS clinic 5 days a week (I'd picked up a week's worth at a private pharmacy before we returned so I'd have a buffer though) and they could be renewed up to my appointment times by an EBAIS doctor. So, why three and not one prescription sheet? Neither of us know the answer to that.

Picking up prescriptions at EBAIS is a relatively new and welcome feature as is a new online appointment system that didn't exist when I made my first appointment. There is also no more renewing the special Caja ID card (called a carnet), since they now tie your Caja record to your residency cedula (ID card). We also enjoy a brand spanking new emergency wing at the hospital, so progress is being made and there haven't (yet) been any huge premium increases.

So, really I'm not complaining, just noting some of the surprises, twists and turns. I'm hopeful the new medicine (free!) is going to be effective without uncomfortable side effects. In the meantime, it's buckle up and wait, wait, wait.

Hopefully, someday, this will be a thing of the past

Peaceful Tranquility for Adventuresome Travelers of Costa Rica's Serene Southern Mountains in Our Artistic Cabina

2018-11-12T11:59:00.000-06:00

About three years ago we got the bright idea (it seemed at the time anyway to be bright) of adding a small cabin to our property here in Costa Rica's La Zona Sur for would-be guests, family and friends in particular. Click here for the AirBnB listing.

We worked on it only during our summer months the first couple of years from about January to April. This year, we felt we were close enough to completion that we could make firm invites to people to visit and enjoy the seclusion of our hideaway cabin during their stay. Some friends did accept and were to arrive mid-February.

The Big Push

Thus, mid-November we made the "big push" to get it all in order figuring an early start would get us done about the middle or end of January. Who knew that we'd be putting on the finishing touches right up until dark the day before our guests arrived! These last few months were a slog at times with long hours about six days a week. Other projects were put on the back burner during this time that we're only catching up on now.

Four tropical-themed mosaics grace the outside walls

We brought in electricity (which we didn't have except from a small generator during previous seasons), wired the place, brought in water from our second spring, added windows, gutters, an outdoor kitchen, outdoor toilet and shower, tower and tank for the shower and so on. As we crossed off another task on our to-finish list, we added two more right up until the final weeks.

Mosaic Worth More Than Cabin

Outdoor kitchen and cabin

As you can see, a major part of the project were the mosaics on all four exterior walls. I know I'm biased, but I think this is some of my wife's best mosaic work ever. Much the content is taken from our farm and neighborhood including the jaguarundi on the back wall that she spotted one day walking the dogs.

If you have followed my wife Tamara's past mosaic projects here in Costa Rica, you know how time-consuming these can be. Given what she normally charges for commissioned projects of this type, they are worth more than the cabin itself!

Sprint to the Finish

Besides last touches and cleanup, the final biggest task was the finish floor. This was a nail-biter as I had to wait for the flooring to arrive from San José as it was not in stock at any local building materials store. When it arrived, I realized we hadn't ordered enough adhesive, but luckily I found one more gallon at another building supply store that they didn't even know they had until I scanned their shelves, which are partitioned off from casual customers.

The entryway and our little Tica dog Lily

At last, it's done, finito, completed and already we've had two guests and another has booked the cabin for after we listed it on AirBnB.

It's a glamper's dream with its own outdoor kitchen and plenty of flora and fauna about in a very secluded location. In our neighborhood you can see coati, possums of various types, hawks, tolomuco, toucans, armadillos, Mot-mots, tanagers by the dozen, jaguarundi, tepezquintle and many more critters.

Future Plans

Naturally, there is always room for improvement and we definitely have those mini-projects in mind but at a less frenetic pace.

The next major improvement will be a sitting deck over the adjacent quebrada from which guests can enjoy the sunset and sounds of the brook and night birds during Costa Rica's emerald season.

More About the Cabin

By the way, with an additional air mattress on the floor, this cabin sleeps four.

There is an outdoor kitchen with a sink, gas burners, silverware, pots and utensils. We even throw in a traditional Costa Rica chorreador for your morning coffee. WiFi and strong cell signal are available.

Outdoor (flush!) toilet and shower

This hideaway is a short 2 km drive from the Pan-American highway and just 15 minutes to San Isidro de El General by car, a town of 50,000 population. There are many outstanding tourist sights in La Zona Sur including pristine Pacific beaches an hour away.

Please come and stay soon during your holidays to enjoy our fresh, cool weather and the many sights, birds, plants and wildlife of our wonderful Talamanca mountains in La Zone Sur!

Is Costa Rica Residency or Citizenship Worth It? Take Two, Part Two

2018-08-15T11:37:00.000-06:00

The Alternatives to Costa Rica Residency (Besides “Expating” Somewhere Else)

This is part two of two posts on the ways of obtaining residency in Costa Rica and whether, for you, it is even worth pursuing. Part one is here.

This post deals with possible alternatives to going through the time and expense to get residency or the possibility of obtaining “super-residency” aka Costa Rica citizenship.

The So-Called Perpetual Tourist

Perpetual tourism is the practice of taking advantage of Costa Rica’s relative lenience when it comes to tourist visas, especially compared to most other Latin American countries. People choosing this route, of which there are thousands, make border crossings, usually to Panamá or Nicaragua, every 90 days.

Costa Rica does not, as many other countries do, limit the number of times you can do this in a year. However, entry or the length of stay is solely determined by the immigration officer at the border.

There are four groups of countries designated by Costa Rica Migración of which the first two groups do not require a pre-approved visa to enter the country. People from those countries who can get a visa at the border, e.g., citizens of Canada, the U.S., the EU plus many others, would be candidates for perpetual tourism.

Perpetual tourism is very much a hot button issue with many local expats, especially for those who have obtained residency here. They resent it, they decry and condemn the practice as “illegal” when it fact it is not. It is risky, however, as you could be denied entry or, as sometimes happens, you are given only 30 days on your passport.

Although PT is not technically illegal, there is a legal requirement to show that you have pre-paid passage back out of the country. Many PTs fake this with flight reservations that they have not paid for yet and fully intend to cancel. There’s even a website explicitly for this purpose.

I won’t judge the practice except to say it was never under consideration for us. The border crossing every 90 days or less would drive me batty and it would be, IMHO, too risky for anyone owning property or running a business here, but to each his own.

It’s also not cheap, in terms of the time and expense of all those border crossings but it does add flexibility to life. You do avoid the whole CAJA thing that I covered in Part One of the overall discussion.

Remaining in the Country for 20 Years

If you can prove you have lived in Costa Rica for 20 years, you are eligible for citizenship if you can pass the other requirements of citizenship (e.g. clean police record, birth certificate, passing the naturalization tests). I readily admit I’m fuzzy on the details of this because I don’t think it applies to many people, but I know people who have done it.

I know another person who has been a PT for 15 years now and plans to take this route.

I’m not sure of the details, though, such as whether the 20 years has to be contiguous, if it’s OK to have put in those 20 years under only tourist visas or even whether you could have been an illegal immigrant (say, you simply overstayed your initial tourist visa for 19 years and 9 months). I am pretty sure that there is no requirement that you obtained any type of residency along the way as that would imply that you would use the 7-year rule to obtain citizenship instead.

Costa Rica Citizenship

I discussed what citizenship is and its advantages in a previous post also. There are several ways to qualify for citizenship via residency, 20 years in-country, marriage or birth of a child all of which have different timelines.

In the case of marriage, after two years married to a Tico/a, you would be eligible to obtain citizenship. Having a child in CR gets the child citizenship, but not for the parents. However, they can jump straight to Permanent Residency. If you want residency by having a child born in Costa Rica, I recommend starting here.

In the latter case, the parents fall under the same requirement for qualifying for citizenship that most others do: 7 years in-country (not calendar time) or 5 years if you are from Latin America.

Unless you are over 70 years of age (they upped the age limit this year from 65), or obtaining citizenship by marriage, you must also pass two naturalization tests, one for social studies (civics, history, economics, culture) and one for Spanish proficiency.

The 7-year rule does not apply if you are filing for citizenship via marriage, but it will as of today probably take about 4 years to obtain it due to the 2-year qualification wait on the marriage and the new 2-year maximum limit (they'll take all of that) on the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE) processing the application. Note that gaining citizenship has nothing to do with Migración.

Another Non-Resident/Non-Citizenship Alternative

Of course, you could simply enter Costa Rica and never leave. This method would appeal to those who want to live totally off-grid. I think it would not be difficult to accomplish, especially if you didn’t care about banking here or driving here legally. I think that you could even qualify for citizenship under the 20-year rule, but I'm guessing on that point.

There are lots of places to hide and you could even avail yourself of CAJA in emergency situations by just acting like a dumb non-Spanish speaking tourist. No one there is going to care about your visa. They will charge you for care but will not stop you from leaving the hospital either with the bill unpaid.

What Good is Residency?

The three main advantages, in my opinion, of residency are 1) obviating the need for 90-day border runs, 2) obtaining a cédula (national ID card) and 3) being able to get a CR driver’s license. It’s also a path to citizenship, which obviously does not appeal to everyone, but it does to me.

Having a cédula means a lot of financial transactions are open to you without having to establish a corporation in order to make you a “person.”

Corporations are messy, expensive and taxed annually now. Every time you need to make a transaction in its name (e.g. opening a bank account), you need a special document from the National Registry known as a personería jurídicathat expires after 30 days and is usually kept by the party you are doing business with anyway. That’s a hassle and costs money.

If you want to pursue citizenship and not wait 20 years or marry a CR citizen, then any other type of residency starts that clock ticking toward citizenship.

The downside, especially compared to being a PT, is having to pay CAJA. Also, you will still be viewed by Ticos as a foreigner because your cédula is of a different format. More on that in a bit.

What Good Is Citizenship?

I’ve covered what I think the benefits of citizenship are in an earlier post, but my list has grown since then:

Return of your residency security deposit back ($200 for me, $300 for more recent residents I believe)
Whether or not you belong to CAJA will never be checked unless you go to the hospital and it is possible to opt out. You can opt-in by simply paying 6 months of back premiums.
Your 10-year cédula (vs. 5 years max for residency) is free
You can get a Costa Rican passport
There is no physical presence requirement to keep your citizenship
You have a constitutional right to leave and enter the country at will
You cannot be extradited for crimes committed in another country
You can vote and run for office.
In short, you can avail yourself of ALL the rights guaranteed under Costa Rica’s detailed and generous constitution, which may not be available to you as a resident or tourist.

Obviously, these benefits differ in value according to the individual.

Another intangible value, according to those who have gone this path before and shared their experiences with me, is that having a citizen cédula simply makes your life easier in ways that are difficult to explain. These boil down to no longer being considered a foreigner, since you have a “normal” ID and “normal” ID number format. Many transactions, I’m told, become seamless whereas with a residency ID these processes are more sticky.

So, Is Any of It Worthwhile?

Except for Perpetual Tourism, any residency or citizenship path is for those with ready cash to pay all the costs (including any income requirements) and who are convinced they are going to plant roots here as we have. Since it’s a long-term process, however, if you amortize the costs over, say, 10 or 20 years, it’s not so expensive.

Residency/citizenship gains you privileges and stability if I were to sum it all up succinctly. Either path is not for everyone.

There are so many paths available and so many situations that it there is no clear cut answer. I hope these brief summaries are of help to those considering long-term stays in this beautiful, peaceful country though. I’m actually taking my first naturalization exam in 3 days, so clearly I think it is all worth it. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Update 11/2018: Just got the results of my Spanish test taken earlier this month: 83% overall. In August, I took the Social Studies test and received 98%. Neither I found to be trivial. They both required substantial study. With those done, the way to citizenship is clear for me with just the turn of a few more bureaucratic cogs. Hoping that I'll have cedula in hand by Februrary.

Is It Really Worth the Trouble and Expense to Obtain Costa Rican Residency? Take Two (Part 1)

2018-08-13T12:44:00.001-06:00

This is a rewrite of a previous post on this topic. At first, I thought I could just re-tweak the original, but as often happens in Costa Rica, things change quickly and substantially. Many of the principles of the first post remain but the devil is in the details as someone once noted.

Part Two of this topic is here.

Ways to Get Residency

This post is meant as an outline, not an in-depth discussion of all the ways you can get residency, which you can easily find from other resources. I eagerly invite corrections from those with more knowledge or experience in the comments.

Get Ready to Enjoy a New Country

Residency by 1st Degree Relation to a Citizen (aka Vínculo)

Marrying a Tico/a or having a baby here is probably the most straightforward way to get residency. In fact, you’ll basically get Permanent Residency from the start.

In the case of marriage, you’ll have to wait up to 4 years for it to become final. There will be a 2-year wait period to confirm the marriage is legitimate plus 18 months for Migración to process residency or 2 years by TSE if you are going for citizenship. Those wait times are official by a new law enacted in March 2018.

Rentista

This is the worst way, in my opinion, but often the only practical alternative for people who don’t qualify for the other forms or residency. Why? There’s a steep income requirement, $2,500/month and that’s per individual. You can’t bring in dependents on your application.

The money also has to be deposited in advance in a Costa Rican bank 2 or 3 years (not sure which anymore) ahead typically as CDs. You have to convert that much into colones each month (keep the receipts!) although you don’t have to spend it all of course.

There’s another reason while this style of residency is really bad having to do with the requirement to sign up for the national health plan. More on that below …

Pensionado

This one only requires $1,000/month and you can bring in dependents (spouse, kids) on that. The catch of course is that the income must be for the rest of your life. Typically this is covered by Social Security or some other pension.

In our case, when the income requirement was just $600, we did it by buying a lifetime annuity since I was only 53 at the time.

By Investment (Inversionista)

Used to be that you could get residency in this way only through pre-approved projects, usually ones that helped the environment like re-forestation. Those still exist, and the investment level is $100,000, but it is rarely used, which tells me it's a hassle. Recently, they opened up inversionista to investments in businesses and real estate including your own domicile.

One catch is that it doesn’t matter what you paid for the property/business but what an official assessment says it’s worth. The minimum is $200,000.

Residency Costs

I’m not going to detail all costs, but they first involve acquisition of documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates and a police report from your home country, all with an apostille.

Used to be for U.S. citizens that a “local” police report from your state of residence would suffice but now it must come directly from the FBI and carry an apostille from the U.S. Sec’y of State.

If your Spanish is passing, you accomplish all the filing yourself, but I preferred to use a lawyer with experience in obtaining residency for expats as I have a low tolerance for bureaucratic BS, which Costa Rica can supply in great abundance. Done yourself, you could probably do it all for well under $1,000. With a lawyer, I estimate at least double that.

Keep in mind that obtaining Costa Rica residency is, in general, more expensive that most other Latin American countries.

The Wait for Residence and the Comprobante Catch-22

All residency methods take time. Just last March a revision to residency laws now allows Migración to take up to 18 months to process applications and you can bet they will take advantage of that.

The good news would be that once you receive your “comprobante”, which is a document showing that all your paperwork was accepted and in-process, you technically could avoid border runs every 90 days, but there’s a Catch-22.

By law, even when you receive the comprobante you are supposed to leave / re-enter the country every 90 days, but Migración has an administrative rule that says not to cite anyone for remaining past 90 days. They don’t want to police that for someone who is 99% sure of being a resident.

The catch, however, is that a separate change in traffic law a few years ago now makes staying in country more than 90 days impractical. That change says you can use your foreign driver’s license for 90 days but you cannot get a CR driver’s license until you have residency.

Damn! That’s only not a problem if you don’t plan on driving.

Moving from Temp to Permanent Residency

In most cases, your initial residency is in the temporary residency class, which means you have to renew every 2 years and go through the income requirements again, if any. I don’t know what happens in the case of, say, a residency based on investment. Perhaps you have to re-certify the investment value?

However, after holding any temporary residency for at least 3 years, you can apply for Permanent Residency. In fact, you can apply for PR early if by the time it is approved you will have had residency for 3 years. A lot of expats here don’t realize this option is available to them, but it’s a smart move.

BCR Renewal is Pain-Free

PR is “libre condición” meaning it is free of the conditions of temporary residency.

Benefits include:

You only have to physically reside in the country for one day each year.
There is no income requirement, so you can renew at a local Banco de Costa Rica branch for about $125.
No docs with apostille are necessary.
First renewal is in 2 years, second in 3 years and finally you only renew every 5 years.
It comes with a work permit (probably not terribly interesting to retirees).

What Costa Rica Residency Does Not Get You

Costa Rica residency, otherwise, does not include the many benefits other countries offer such as discounts on goods and services, fast processing, low income requirements, the ability to bring in household goods duty-free, etc.

It does get your through CR passport control faster (usually) as you can use the citizens line. The signs at passport control are ambiguous on that point, but I always use the citizens line and am welcomed by the officer.

Does Residency Limit You?

Besides occupancy and work limits, in terms of freedom of lifestyle, residency actually puts you into a bit of a box in that once you are invested in it and before you *really* know if Costa Rica is right for you (which could take years), you may be discouraged to try a different country.

The Potentially Costly Medical Insurance Requirement

A standout requirement of CR residency is that you must sign up for and keep current enrollment in the universal health plan issued by the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social or CAJA for short (cah-hah). This became a requirement by our first residency renewal but it’s required for all new residents now.

I’m not getting into judging the CAJA here, that’s an entirely different post or two. Suffice it to say it has its pluses and minuses. If you think of it as mainly emergency care, it’s a decent deal in my opinion and there is plenty of affordable health care backup in the private sector.

The relevance for residency is that you will pay, on a sliding scale, a percentage of your “declared” income, which is usually whatever you needed to qualify for the residency of your choice. They haven’t yet started requiring, say, SS benefits statements, but I see that coming in the future.

See the figure here for the exact monthly contribution rates.

Current Contribution Rates to Costa Rica Health Care System

Those rates are either for a family (e.g., under pensionado residency) or per individual (e.g., under rentista). Now you can see why rentista is a really poor choice cost-wise. They will take the required monthly $2500 for rentista as your income and you’ll pay 9% of that per month to be a member of the CAJA. $225/month for a single, $450/month for a couple.

Ouch!

Perhaps by U.S. standards that seems reasonable for a health plan without deductibles, no co-pays and free prescriptions, but simply put, access is the problem and, again, not going into that right now.

One way to deal with this is to rationalize it away as a tax and your solidarity contribution to the health of Costa Rican citizens and residents all over the country. Personally, a CAJA contribution that high would alter our lifestyle negatively.

The Alternatives to Costa Rica Residency (Besides “Expating” Somewhere Else)

This post on residency has already extended further than I’d imagined, so I’m leaving the alternatives discussion for another post. I promise it will come shortly. In that one, I’ll discuss the “perpetual tourist”option and becoming a citizen.

Top 10 List of What I Like Best About Living in Costa Rica

2018-07-11T08:21:00.000-06:00

One day, after we'd lived here a few years, my son asked me what I missed the most from our former life in Oregon.

Aricara aka Cusinga

I guess that's a question every expat harbors in the back of their mind, the comparison to what was to what is now, although I could not at that moment think of anything in particular I yearned for. But it got me thinking.

Life here is different in so many ways and I still enjoy most of the differences I find here so I don't often feel I'm missing much. It also feels as if it's a waste of time to fret over comparisons to the "old life" that much anyway.

Be here now, right?

His personal longing at that moment was for Dr Pepper, by the way, which we've since found.

Anyway, as a result of our musings of missed things, I thought I'd instead focus on a quick list of those things I enjoy about living in Costa Rica. Despite the numbering, the ordering is pretty arbitrary as it's tough to say which features are qualitatively more important than others. It's really the synergy of these and other points taken together that makes me smile, relax, and want to share the positive goodness we've all found living here.

10. The lower cost of living, which allowed me to retire early. True, C.R. is not the cheapest place to retire, but certainly much less expensive overall than the States.

9. Knowing there are several affordable health care options available for our family, whether it be public or private.

8. Beautiful, awe-inspiring, scenery in almost any corner of the country, such as the view from our balcony!

7. The exquisite friendliness of the Ticos (and most expats). E.g., clerks, who generally work 55 hours a week, are ready with a quick smile and a warm attitude. People I barely know in my neighborhood are always ready with a smile and a wave.

6. The diversity of flora and fauna with so many shapes, colors, and interesting behaviors.

5. Warm ocean water. No more freezing my you-know-whats off. The Pacific side harbors endless favorite beaches. The Caribbean, with its calmer, clearer water is only a 6 hour drive away with plenty to see along the way.

4. My morning, home-grown Costa Rica coffee on the balcony in shorts and T-shirt any day of the year.

3. Country living I could not afford in the U.S. I enjoy immensely our 7 acres of coffee, bananas, oranges, pejibaye, guanabana, etc. plus forest. We relish an abundance of fresh air, fresh eggs, cheese and milk from the neighbors.

2. Freedom from the U.S. 24/7 marketing machine and constant political drama. We can't ignore it totally, but here it is literally ... a dull roar.

1. Life here is not without its challenges, but even most of those (such as perfecting your Spanish) are fulfilling and keep you on your toes.

So, what do you think of this list? What would be on your list for where you live now or where you might want to live later?

8 Ways to Get Your Holiday Goodies into Costa Rica Easily or Safely

2018-06-28T11:53:00.000-06:00

My post about how to receive packages in Costa Rica while avoiding having them snagged by Customs, which requires a trip to San José and a couple hours of bureacratic SNAFU to retrieve said package, continues to be one of my more popular articles.

Still, I often get asked the question: "Just how do you get stuff shipped into Costa Rica?"

Attack of the Drones - CC-SA-3.0

Unfortunately, Amazon drone delivery does not seem to be on the horizon anytime soon. Even though Amazon recently announced they are opening up direct shipping to CR for many more items, they never seem to ship what I need.

So, to supplement the original article, here is a list (perhaps incomplete) on the various methods that I've either used or have learned second-hand from others who have found them to be successful.

It includes the shipping of documents, small stuff and bigger packages.

Mail Forwarding

We've managed to almost completely eliminate the sending of paper documents from the U.S. to here by aggressively using e-delivery where it's available. For the couple of dinosaur companies out there (e.g. insurance companies) that insist on sending me paper, we use a U.S.-side mail forwarder, i.e. Virtual PostMail, which lets us scan/view anything coming in and if it is important, we can download the scan as a PDF.

For CR expats, snail mail of docs is still very viable, see my P.S. at the bottom of the list for a cost-savings tip for that.

Muling Stuff In

If you have people who really like you, especially ones that can afford to travel First Class and perhaps have an extra checked bag for free, this is a great way to get stuff. Mail packages to them in the U.S. or your home country using free shipping in plenty of time before their flight departs. I advise people to take anything they are carrying in for us out of its packaging to mollify Customs officials, which also means your stuff takes up less room in their bags.

Re-Packaging by Those You Love

This is the method outlined in the aforementioned article. Have packages shipped to your friends or family. They will un-package everything and re-package it into what looks like a care package from home. It should look rough, have no business logos on the outside and only handwritten addresses. A few dents and swatches of duct tape on the outside are nice touches as well. Oh, and shipp books separately, since media mail is a less expensive category.

Remember, this is a hassle for your friends or family, despite what they may say, so don't overdo it and make sure you have a way to promptly reimburse/tip them for their trouble.

Re-Packaging by Those You Do Not Know

Use a commercial re-shipper such as AeroCasillas or even Costa Rica's BoxCorreos. These will collect your Internet purchases at a U.S. side address and ship the lot to you, shipping and Customs charges pre-paid. I have heard stories about AeroCasillas packages still getting stopped by Customs, but that is not how it is supposed to work.

Bite the Bullet and Pay Up

By this, I mean just pay for the extreme cost of shipping by a commercial international shipper such as UPS, DHL, etc. They will take care of the Customs hassle and call you with the charges when your things arrive in Costa Rica.

Make sure you have a local outlet in your town or nearby. Not my cup of tea to pay more for shipping than the actual item cost, but this is probably the most reliable and safest way to get your stuff. There are also forwarding businesses that do this sort of thing, but in my experience, they can be very restrictive and of course they take an additional cut.

EBay Asian Vendors

I have had remarkable luck buying items from China, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore via EBay. Mostly, these things are small, but packages up to a couple of kilos have arrived safe and sound.

The items have included LED lights, a car stereo, incense, a tablet, electronic parts, and so on. The downside is that you must expect to wait 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.

Rarely, a package never arrives, but the vendors are eager to offer a refund or re-ship the item. This even works with items from the UK and Europe and the shipping from there is much faster.

By the way, if you are in-country, Costa Rica Correos has a special program for receiving items from Asian vendors. You pay a fee per shipment (under $2) but pretty much guaranteed delivery, supposedly faster shipping and a special line at the PO or home delivery.

Shipping Big Stuff

If you need to ship something large and/or heavy, then hands-down the best way is to use a partial-container shipper. My preferred shipper in this case is Logistics Management Services, S.A. out of Cartago run by Mike Rappaport. The price is volume-based and includes all shipping and customs clearance.

Note that recently CR Customs has gotten better at collecting their full due of duties from shippers like this, so it has gotten more expensive in recent years.

You either pick your stuff up in their bonded warehouse near Cartago or they can ship it on via Transcama, which is probably cheaper than the gas you'd use getting it yourself. They ship once a month and you must send your packages to their U.S. collector/warehouse in Florida.

Most recently, I had a two pallet order of used PCs shipped by Mike from FL for my kitchen table charity, Costa Rica PC Rescue. This was really the only realistic way to get such an order.

Wing It

This method is like a roll of the dice. Just order your stuff from a commercial vendor that ships internationally by USPS and hope it arrives at your local post office. Customs only stops a fraction of what is sent here, so it might get through.

However, if it doesn't, you'll be making a trip to the Zapote Post Office and standing in several lines for an average 1.5 hours. Plus, you'll pay sales tax and misc. fees, which may include 600 colones per day if you package has been there for over two weeks. In some cases, if the item is not worth so much, you may just have to write it off.

I've done that. It hurts, but less than the 50 bucks for driving there plus a full day wasted.

The Best Shipping Method May Be No Shipping

The hardest, but simplest way to avoid shipping hassles is to just do without that glitzy thingamabob on your computer screen and figure out a way to buy local or not at all.

Tough, I know, but consider that probably 99% of Ticos do quite nicely without shipping in junk from outside the country and Costa Rica still consistently hits the top ten in global happiness indices.

Or, wait a few years and maybe the drones will arrive en masse

P.S. for CR Expats Using Correos to Receive Documents

Here's a tip I've learned from experience regarding getting just regular mail, such as documents into the country. If possible, avoid using USPS International Priority Mail as it's costly (around 30 bucks these days) and actually slower than USPS International First Class, which is way cheaper (like 2 bucks). Yeah, you get a tracking code, but that is worthless once the mail has crossed the U.S. border anyway.

There is a big caveat here. Whereas USPS IPM lets you send in 4 lbs. of whatever fits in their big envelopes at a flat rate, you can only use USPS International First Class for documents up to 12 oz. Still, if you want it in as little as 5 days instead of 2-4 weeks that "Priority" mail takes, it's a much better option overall and I've never had Correos lose my mail.

A Day in the Life in Our New Home in Costa Rica

2018-06-25T13:59:00.000-06:00

An unwelcome visitor to our rental house

One of my first posts after moving into a temporary (7 months) rental and working on our newly acquired property nearby.

The good old days!!

===============

It’s been an interesting couple of days.

We’re continuing work on the property, have had some notable encounters with Costa Rican wildlife both benign and treacherous and battled a bit with the recent wet weather.

For two days we borrowed some Nica (Nicaraguan) workers from a neighbor while there was a lull in the coffee picking. They are clearing brush on the property. Arnuvo, the crew boss, Mallel, and Raimundo, who also goes by “Rey Mundo”, King of the World, are a happy-go-lucky bunch.

They and seven other Nicas live in a workers shack at the entrance of the road that leads to our place. Each of the days they worked for us I’d trek up the hill to meet them at 6 AM to give them their cutting orders. They do all the clearing with machetes, which are called cuchillos here.

They do a fine job at a very reasonable price. I pay them an extra 100 Colones an hour since they are borrowed from their usual work and the work is hard. We also supply them lunch about 2/3rds of the way through their 10 hour day.

Arnuvo took my new store-bought machete back to his place Monday evening to give it a proper sharpening. It’s now the proverbial knife through hot butter. The next morning, our neighbor Luis showed me the proper way to wear the cubierta (sheath) and belt. I'm learning every day!

After I spent an hour or so spreading some Nutren (Ammonium Nitrate) over the erosion control plantings, I used the freshly sharpened cuchillo to re-blaze an old trail from the top of our main road to the northwest corner of the property. It rained most of the 2 hours I was working on that and I have to say it was a pure delight!

The property is pretty dense with trees and large-leafed plants up there, which imparted a real sense of rain forest trekking. Later, the rain turned to fog, which dampened the sounds of the workers below. The feeling was one of sanguine isolation. I could have been dozens of miles from any civilization for all I knew, wrapped in mist and trees.

The downside to my brief escape from the world was that I’d forgotten that I’d brought up the car to carry the 100 lb. sack of Nutren, which meant after the brief rain that is was going to be a dangerous drive back down as the road wasn't graveled yet. I decided to hike back to the house and let the road dry out a bit before attempting to drive down.

Even after that wait, I more or less tobogganed down the steepest un-graveled portion of the road. From there, after driving through one of two “pig pens” on this road, I couldn’t make it up the final hill to our rental place. It was just too slick and the road too rutted to get more than 50 feet upwards before all four wheels started spinning.

Fortunately, I was able to back the car down to a wide spot where I left it and walked home. The weather continued to dry out and after two more tries over the next 3 hours I finally made it up that hill.

Later in the early evening, one of my neighbors stopped by to shoot the breeze. He was shortly joined by his eldest son and then two more neighbors; the latter having arrived for a meeting about building the first house.

The first neighbor’s son brought along a small (dead) pit viper, whose name I forget (as usual). It was about 8 inches long, no more than 3/8” in diameter. These little guys can get up to about 6 feet long and a couple inches thick. They like to hang out in the coffee bushes, but are very slow moving so bites are rare. You’ll usually see them before the make a move on you. Even so, you wouldn’t want to take any chances even with a small one. Luis sort of shrugged it off as “Well, if you get bit you might spend one or two days in the hospital, but you’ll be all-right”. Oh yeah, I thought, no big deal.

The rest of the meeting with Luis and Irvin went well. We all went over the plans in gory detail to get Irvin’s advice on material types and sizes. We’re going to set up some trips to see a couple of Irvin’s previous projects to see if we’re comfortable with his level of work and then let him work out the materials cost and a labor estimate (he has a crew of 8-10). We’re also going into town today to consult with a CAD engineer to see if we can get Tamara’s drawings translated into bits and bytes.

This morning, we met up with Luis on our property to discuss another topic; his plans to build a trabajero (worker) shack very close to our property line. He wants to turn the brushy hill on our western flank into coffee and needs another shack for the seasonal workers near there. We were uncomfortable with how close he wanted to put it to our first house even after his offer to plant a screen of trees. We sure didn’t want a rift over this, but couldn’t live with the current plan either.

We broached the subject with a proposal for an alternative location further down the hill that seemed like a win-win-win for the property owners and the workers. It is a shaded location, closer to the road and has more room for him to plant coffee. He agreed that it was a better proposition; one he hadn’t considered. In the end, we learned that Luis is a pretty straight-up guy who is more than willing to openly discuss problems and work out solutions that benefit everyone.

Luis did us one more favor this morning. When we all walked down the bad road to our rental house together Sean came out alarmed at a large spider in the house. Luis gave his expert opinion after seeing it, almost deadpan, “No,that’s not a good one”, and proceeded to whack it with one of Tamara’s flip-flops. It was dark brown and the diameter including legs was about 4 inches. Rather formidable.

Shortly after that, we were treated to a couple of new-to-us bird species in our orange trees. One is colored like a scrub jay but the size of a large sparrow, the other brown and orange, the size of a towhee. It was a nice counterpoint to the spider. It also revived my regret that somehow we have managed to leave our Costa Rican bird, plant, and other animal guides back in Oregon.

Oh, and we completely slept through the 6.2 earthquake last night. Not a dish fell off the shelf nor was there any other sign of the terremoto at our house.

Pondering How Best to Serve Readers - Resource or Experience?

2018-06-15T18:18:00.000-06:00

So many expat experiences, so little time.

Skim to the bottom for recommendations on Expat resources!

Not long ago, I read a review of this blog that got me to thinking. The review was positive, but the reviewer didn't think there was much here about actually becoming or living as an expatriate.

That's fair. A Dull Roar has become, organically, just a place where one might visit to see one slice of the expat experience from a single family's point of view.

But that does not necessarily make for an in-depth resource for how to become an expat with guidance that applies everywhere for every intention. It's definitely a niche blog in that sense, since, as the home page states, it is mainly about "moving to, retiring in and living with Costa Rica.

I get the implicit point of the reviewer.

Once the "mechanics" of moving here, obtaining residency, driver's license, paying various "consultants" and taxes are done, my blog would naturally produce posts centered on daily life, culture, wildlife, the weather (egad!), etc.

Perhaps out of guilt for not providing more pithy content, I have been adding a few more nuts-and-bolts articles with practical information (e.g., "The Cost of Owning and Driving a Car in Costa Rica Can Be Daunting"). Shouldn't that make a better mix?

Then, that got me thinking if I should improve the site in other ways too?

For example, should I do as many C.R. blogging "authorities" do: create a large set of permanent pages (rather than less formal posts) that specifically deal with ex-pat hurdles, expat rewards, all the unexpected trials and how to specifically deal with these rather than just how we dealt with them.

The focus still has to be Costa Rica, because that's what I know, but perhaps I can work in a more general appeal to those considering moving out of their home country, but who haven't settled on a particular place yet. Honestly, it sounds like a lot of work! </wink>

In the meantime, let me direct folks to four additional on-line resources whose orientations range from world-wide to Costa Rica. I recommend exploring all of them plus the other expat blogs in my right side-bar. The latter list gets updated regularly as some blogs wither and new ones appear that appear to have dedicated authors.

ExpatFocus is a well-known expat resource including sections on finances, real estate, expat forums, a moving guide, podcast and plenty of current articles covering dozens of countries. There is also a job directory
ExpatExchange is similar to ExpatFocus. It has gotten a big facelift since being taken over by International Living. There are per-country forums, current articles, a blog, and has plenty of articles covering the nitty-gritty of living outside your home country.
Expat Blog is now Expat.com and has transformed its original forum-like feel to a slick central resource for about 3,000,000 members. You can find out about expat experiences and track down resources in one central place. It covers nearly 200 countries.
USExpatCostaRica.com This site has undergone a face lift that is much more attractive and easier to read. It's associated with the Expatriates in Costa Rica Facebook group that is open to new members. My opinion of the FB version has deteriorated over the last few years due to the distracting give and take and excessive RE ads, but the original site is worthwhile.

As always, I would love to hear from readers about their experiences with these recommended sites, get recommendations for more worthwhile sites and find out whether there are topics or areas that you would like me to personally cover in A Dull Roar.

Which Lifestyle Would Cost Our Family Less - Oregon or Costa Rica? - Part 2: Non-Tax Expenses

2018-06-09T12:31:00.000-06:00

Comparing Non-Tax Expenses

In this part, I include estimates of monthly costs for food, medical, vehicles, utilities and housing. Part 1, about tax costs, is here.

Food Prices

Comparing food prices between Costa Rica and the U.S. is a complex business. Most expats experience sticker shock in part due to the included 13% sales tax and the fact that so much food in Costa Rica is imported. Want a box of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios? That’ll be about six bucks please. Can you get by with 1-minute oatmeal? Good, because that’s only about 75 cents for a 200g bag. If you look at food here in a 1-for-1 comparison to U.S. products, Costa Rica loses.

Costa Rica Farmer's Cheese, available everywhere

Dairy products are about the same or higher than in the U.S. because producers are protected by steep tariffs on imported milk, etc. from, say, Nicaragua. About the best you can do by weight is local farmer cheese at $2.15/lb. but it’s only aged 30 days.

We found one store with what we consider a smoking deal on run-of-the-mill sharp cheddar at $6/lb. Many other cheeses are 50-100% more, especially artisan cheese.

Judging by a flyer from our once-local Fred Meyer store in Oregon, I’d say meat prices are on a par in each country, but canned tuna here is out of sight. You have never seen more ways to can tuna than in Costa Rica. They mix it with almost anything to reduce the actual fish content and lower the price.

Except for imported fruits (e.g. grapes), Costa Rica generally wins hands down in the fresh fruit and veggie department. They are plentiful, many are grown locally and sold in farmer’s markets and the variety is stupendous.

Granadilla fruit. Ignore the frog-egg look, it's delicious

That does not mean norteamericanoswill find their favorite hybrid apple or peach, but they will find cheap tomatoes and lettuce, a large selection of potato-like tubers, onions, carrots, etc. and a huge choice of tropical fruits such as papaya, pineapple, mangos, berries, bananas (more kinds, more delicious), plantains and many fruits you’ve probably never seen such as guanábana, cas, mangosteen, matasanos, maracuyá, guayaba, guava, granadilla (looks like frog eggs), … well, you get the idea.

Depending on your property’s elevation, you can grow many of these yourself.

If you can adjust to a diet more like what locals eat including lots of fresh fruit, like to glean roadside fruit and do a little gardening, you will have a lower food bill compared to what you spend in the U.S. If you can’t, there are stores for that, e.g., AutoMercado, but be prepared for a lighter wallet.

If you want another take on food prices, I highly recommend Paul Yeatman’s blog Retire for Less in Costa Rica as he often tabulates his and his wife’s total expenses by the month and does a great job at it.

Vehicle Costs Are Decidedly Higher in Costa Rica

I’ve been over the ground of vehicle costs in Costa Rica before. They cost a lot to buy, are much less to maintain because of lower labor costs (in spite of increased wear and tear) and fuel is the most expensive in Central America if not Latin America. Overall, amortizing the initial cost, I’d say owning a car is going to cost you 25% or more than in the States.

Medical Costs Might Be Higher in the U.S., Might Not

Caja Costarricense de Social Seguridad

As residents, we are obligated to pay a monthly premium of $95 (that is income based by the way) to Costa Rica’s universal health care system, known colloquially as Caja, whether we use it or not.

If we could take full advantage of the Caja (many expats do), our health care costs here would probably be much lower than in the States. The tradeoff with Caja is that non-emergency service entails long waits. However, in our area we have a brand spanking new emergency wing that is outstanding. We've used it more than enough times to justify our premiums.

To be fair, Caja continues to improve, and some areas have it better than others, but we still prefer private medical care, which is abundant, good and about 25% the retail cost of U.S. medical services. That percentage goes for dental as well. We do not carry any other medical insurance, but the cheapest I’ve seen is $100/month.

If we were to move back to Oregon, at our current income level, we would qualify for a special category Silver-CSR plan. That flavor caps the total family premium at a percentage of income and has a reasonable deductible. If we infrequently needed to approach the deductible limit, I estimate our health care costs would be about equal to what we pay here in Costa Rica using private care.

In fact, a GP doctor visit or specialist visit in the U.S. would actually cost less than it does in Costa Rica with a Silver-CSR plan. Naturally, this situation is highly dependent on the details of your personal situation in terms of health and income.

Utilities

A comparison of bills for gas, electric, water and internet leave the U.S. a little short. We had a modest home of 1,500 sq. ft. in mild-winter Western Oregon.

We brought the windows and insulation up to code and installed a high-efficiency gas furnace and water heater. If I recall correctly, we paid an average of $160/month for gas and electric. Water was around $20/month and 2Mbps Internet around $40/month. We didn’t have cable TV there, don’t have it here.

Costa Rica Utility Worker

I’ll allow $20/month for our spring water bill counting tank amortization and ongoing maintenance. Our electric bill is $90/month for about 400 KwH. Thus, we save $80/month on utilities compared to our Oregon home.

Housing

I’ve always said that health care and housing are Costa Rica’s two biggest bargains compared to living in the U.S.

What I had in mind, but the wife had other ideas

We were, in 2008, able to build our own custom home for under $50/sq. ft. The seven-plus acres of forest and view property we have here, we would be unlikely to afford in Oregon. If you are a renter, the bargain is even better, especially in rural areas, as Costa Rica enjoys an unusually favorable low ratio of rent-to-purchase prices.

And housing is at the center of what we consider an improved lifestyle, which brings us to the final, subjective, non-financial evaluation of which place is “cheaper.”

The Choice Comes Down to Lifestyle

In an expenses-only analysis, I’d say between taxes and non-tax expenses not counting housing, Costa Rica usually wins, but not by a huge margin, at least for us. However, I know a lot of expats here claim to live on about 60% or less of the income they needed in the States and I believe them.

The more you can adapt to local conditions and disassemble the marketing programming every U.S. citizen is subjected to, the more you will save. If you can forgo a car, for example, and use the widespread public transportation here, it’s a no-brainer.

Non-Financial Advantages

You can’t measure everything by monetary criteria though. Being able to jettison our mortgage and take advantage of generally less expensive living expenses here was key to being able to retire early, which is a huge plus for me.

But, there was also the ability to achieve a life-long dream of living in exotic surroundings in a year ‘round mild climate.

Other advantages include:

Living closer to nature and partaking in small-scale farming. Bird-watching and growing our own coffee, bananas and tropical fruits are big kicks for us
Getting to know some of the most friendly, peaceful and helpful people on the planet
Due to lower energy needs, cleaner energy and our re-forestation efforts, we enjoy a carbon-neutral lifestyle
A daily life that seems much less regulated and “dramatic” than in the States
The opportunity to more cheaply and conveniently explore S. America
Fill in the blank yourself _______________

Conclusion

Yes, Costa Rica is more expensive compared to its neighbors and compared to many countries in South America. The infrastructure leaves something to be desired, especially if you prefer rural life. Bad roads are our biggest headache, but that situation improves each year. Despite the challenges, for many people Costa Rica offers an excellent retirement destination where one can relax, pursue shelved or new interests and improve your health.

It is not for everyone surely, and there is plenty to complain about if you are so inclined, but for now at least, it is the place we happily call home.

Costa Rica Cedula Renewal the Second Time Around - A Pleasant Surprise

2018-05-30T15:33:00.000-06:00

Update 2018: The first part of this post is about renewing temporary residency, which is what the vast majority of expats to Costa Rica must endure their first three years. Then, I discovered Residente Permanente status, which the post below covers. We recently went through our second PR renewal, which could not have gone smoother. Now I am in the process of seeking citizenship, which is a whole 'nother deal but has some interesting benefits.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Sometime around the end of 2013, I started to faintly hear a giant sucking sound, which I soon identified as an impending residency cedula renewal event fast approaching.

That giant sucking sound of cedula renewal

If you've followed this blog for long, you may recall that we had completed our first renewal the middle of last summer, which makes it appear that Dec. should have been way too early to fret about renewal again. For all the bloody details, read about that first renewal, but the takeaway was that it consumed far more time than it should have, turned out all-right in the end, but left us a short window to the next renewal.

The Very First Time Through the Maze

In hindsight, our first renewal difficulty was rooted in our out-of-the-mainstream initial residency application and the procedural swamp that characterized Costa Rica's immigration process back in 2008.
Retiring at age 54 without pension or Social Security meant that to achieve the $600/month income requirement, I needed to purchase a lifetime annuity. The problem, however, has always been getting documentation from the annuity provider that would pass muster with Costa Rica Migracion.

Cedulas Expiring One by One

Our other problem was that due to the indecipherable wisdom of Costa Rica's immigration department, once they approved our initial residency, they decided to dole out my cedula in November, my son's in February and my wife's in May even though they are dependents on my residency. The dates are such that if we want to renew them all together, at least one has to be in expiration or too early for renewal.

I have asked more than a couple of immigration attorneys if they could convince Migracion to consolidate these dates, but their answers are eerily equivalent to how Japanese businessmen indicate that some proposal is impossible: they slowly draw in their breath through clenched teeth and then say "it is very, very difficult" avoiding a flat out "no."

Even though we attempted renewal the first time last year via the process at Banco de Costa Rica, it was a disaster due almost entirely to their incompetence. Despite that, this time around, based on encouragement from others who assured me things would be different this time, I decided to forgo a lawyer and again go through the process myself.

By this time, Sean's cedula had expired.

They Are Certain It Is to Be Certified

I called the DIMEX 900 number to set an appointment and receive the documentary requirements. They insisted that I bring a "certified" letter stating the monthly amount and a statement that the pension was active. They could not explain what "certified" meant, however. Did I need it to have an apostille?, I asked. They simply repeated from their script that it needs to be certified with no additional elucidation.

OK, whatever. The certification, whatever it was, seemed minor compared to actually getting the annuity company to issue such a notarized letter. Even though I'd obtained one for our initial residency and we were able to recycle it for our first renewal, I needed a fresh one this time. Trouble is, their policies had changed and obtaining the notarization was a huge lift for them. After six weeks, they approved an exception and sent it here by UPS.

By then, Tamara's cedula had expired. Mine is still good, because at our first renewal they had set my date a year ahead, who knows why, but that's neither here nor there.

Residencia Permanente to the Rescue!

Prudently, I decided before I sent the "pension active" letter to New Hampshire for an apostille that I'd check with a local attorney to see what the actual certification requirement is.

I was also going to have to draft two letters explaining why Sean and Tamara's cedula expiration had gone over the 90-day grace period. He took one look at the letter and essentially said "fuggedabouit!"

You've been in the country over 5 years, he continued, so take advantage of the new law, which lets you apply for permanent residency.

I had been working under the assumption that even if I had wanted to go for permanent, which until that moment didn't seem all that attractive to me, I would have to get straight with Migración by completing our current renewal. Not so.

To apply for residencia permanente:

our expirations were irrelevant
we paid the equivalent of $204 times 3 at a local BCR branch to secure our place in line
gave the attorney copies of our cedulas
signed a power of attorney for him to represent us with Migración
paid him $150 times 3 as 50% down payment and to cover transaction fees
and ... that's it! There is no income proof required, no letter of explanation.

He started the process online and the tramitadora will go to San José on Monday to start the process, which he expects to take 3 months. At that time, we'll pay the remaining $150 times 3 that covers the remainder of his fee.

My reaction was "Cuesta mucho creerlo." That is, it's hard to believe that in the area of immigration Costa Rica has done something right, really right.

The even better news in this is that in about 2 years, all of us will be able to apply for Costa Rican citizenship. Pura vida!!

The Cost of Owning and Driving a Car in Costa Rica Can Be Daunting

2018-05-27T17:17:00.000-06:00

Update June 2018: Yes, we still own this car, it's been very reliable since the rebuild and we have a fantastic (and inexpensive) mechanic who is actually just a stone's throw away. In fact, we are breathing new life into this vehicle by having a full body refurb. That means a full tear-down, pressure cleaning inside and out, new seals, new fog lights, repaint inside and out (with pearl-ized clear coat), etc., etc.

Cost for that? About $1700! Try that in the States. It's actually a common tactic here for Ticos to make a car last as long as possible due to the heavy costs of buying new, or to prepare a car for sale, which provides a nice segue into the original posting ...

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We purchased our first car in Costa Rica, a 2006 Mitsubishi Montero Sport turbo diesel 4x4, when we arrived to stay for good back in 2008. It didn't seem a great luxury at the time even though the cost was nearly twice what you'd pay in the States, if you could find a diesel version there. That's basically the rule of thumb here for cars, new or used. Purchase prices are double that in the States.

The time we had the diesel motor rebuilt

That fact of life here is due to import duties, sales tax, and property transfer tax but also because the number of drivers in Costa Rica has been growing rapidly for years. Strong demand and weak supply play a big role in driving up asking prices.

If only the madness would stop there, it wouldn't be so bad.

Maintenance Costs

Maintaining a car in this country is greatly mitigated by an abundance of inexpensive, and talented mechanics. Sure, there are plenty of shade-tree mechanics, and they have their uses, but there are also many who have training from the manufacturers and many years of experience; some of it in the States.

The problems with maintenance, however, are 1) parts are often very expensive or hard to find, and 2) you need so much of it!

The latter is mostly the fault of the poor roads, but also because it's such a mountainous region. Our total annual mileage is about 60% of what it was in the States. Our local trips are typically about 70% paved road, 30% on rock roads, but that portion takes its toll.

Our 8 year old Montero is getting an engine overhaul

You're often driving in low gear, four-wheel drive, and the suspension (and all that's attached) takes a pounding even at low speeds. Tires have it especially bad. We've gone through several sets of new tires and they are never discarded because the tread is gone. It's the cord that wears out such that you can no longer patch the air leaks. The whole tire is leaking.

Fuel Costs

Costa Rica doesn't have domestic oil sources, so they import crude oil and refine it here. That's all under one government monopoly, called RECOPE (ray-KO-pay). Fuel prices are fixed, so gas stations compete on service, which is nice. The price of gas and diesel is the highest here of any Latin American nation. Last I checked, diesel is about $4.80/gallon and gas over $5 per gallon, per the Colone/USD exchange rate. That, along with mountain driving, means a big fuel bill each month.

Insurance

Up until recently, auto insurance was also handled by a government monopoly, called INS. Compared to what we paid in Oregon, the premiums quoted were twice as much and provided about half the coverage. That's not a totally fair assessment, since health care costs are so much lower here, but it seems a bit much overall. Every car is required to carry a minimum of coverage for the driver and passengers, but not for third-parties. That's included in your Marchamo (we're coming to that).

An alternative, which we've chosen, is that in addition to the mandatory insurance coverage (which is very low cost), we keep our cars in inactive corporations. Thus, if, god forbid, we were ever in an accident for which we were at fault, the most someone could sue us for would be the car itself, the only asset in the corporation. Neither option for protection is appealing, so I drive very carefully.

Taxes

Besides a transfer tax and lawyer fee when you buy or sell a car, the main tax is what's called Marchamo. It's an annual set of fees that you need to pay at the end of each year in order to maintain your car's registration, the proof of which is a new windshield sticker. Any unpaid traffic or parking fines will also show up on your Marchamo. You have the option of purchasing more insurance, too, when you pay your Marchamo.

The cost of Marchamo varies greatly depending on the car, because the bulk of it is based on their value of your car. Until last year, those values were not at all in line with what you may have paid for your vehicle. The value was typically about half what you could sell it for.You could also expect your Marchamo to be slightly less each year as it depreciated. Now, however, they are upping their appraisal values, so our Marchamo actually went up this time.

Just from our personal experience, we pay about $100 per year for a 1988 small diesel pickup, and $400 for the Montero. A very new car could pay a couple of thousand a year. I know that many states in the U.S. pay value-based fees for registration, but in Oregon it was, and probably still is, about $35 per year for any car as long as you didn't get fancy plates.

Other Options for Car Ownership

Right now, our Montero is in the shop for a complete overhaul of the motor and suspension, and recently it needed a transmission rebuild, also. So, we're feeling rather down on cars here after a bad run of luck. It's almost enough to make you want to move to the city where taxis and buses are ubiquitous. Well, not really. It's just a cost of country life we have to put up with for now.

Besides going without a car, a frugal car-owning strategy would be to buy an older 4WD car, preferably diesel, that is not so expensive to maintain. That means a model that is very common in Costa Rica, such as a Toyota Hilux pickup. They're not as complex, used parts are all over, and it gets good mileage.

If you have a gasoline version, then, long-term, you could mitigate fuel costs by converting it to burn propane, which is about 40% cheaper than gasoline. The die-hards will buy an older (pre-83) Toyota Land Cruiser, which is tough to beat for ruggedness, but a bit uncomfortable as a daily driver. Even more frugal would be to get an ATV or a horse, or mooch rides from neighbors.

Despite the challenges, we feel a car is a necessity where we live, though I wouldn't mind extracting some of the capital from the Montero by trading it for something older and less expensive

We do tend to think harder about eliminating extra trips, more so than we did when living in the States, and I've learned to drive more slowly on the worst roads. In the end, the overall lowered costs of retirement here, the climate and the beauty of the place more than make up for increased transportation costs.

Squeezing Colossal Returns from Your Retirement Kitty in Costa Rica

2018-05-10T16:50:00.000-06:00

Update: We've had our CDs here for 2.5 years now. Even with the 5% devaluation of the Colon to the U.S. dollar, we are still getting an overall 9% return approximately. We've added to the mix now with a shorter-term USD CD paying 4.05% to maturity.

I just updated the chart with the most recent rates as of May 2018 in the text of the original posting.

We still have a lot of confidence in our choice of credit unions for our CDs here as they are the biggest one, have been in business 50 years and still enjoy the highest growth rate and liquidity compared to both credit unions and banks here.

===== Original article =====
I've been aware of the enormous interest rates on savings in Costa Rica since we moved here, but until recently was unable to take full advantage of them because spare cash was tied up in other things and, I must admit, the big returns made me gun shy. I mean, there has to be a catch right? Yes, there is a catch, but looking back over our 7 years residing here, with the absolute clarity that 20-20 hindsight provides, I wish we'd taken the plunge sooner.

Latest Rates from CoopeNae (May 2018)

As you can see from the chart at the right, phenomenal rates can be had on Certificates of Deposit denominated in Colones. Rates for U$D deposits are dramatically less, but much higher than in the U.S., up to 4.3%.

For deposit amounts in five figures or higher, you can actually negotiate slightly higher rates as well. We were able to get 12% with a quarterly payout of interest on one CD.

The highest rates are not universal. These quoted at the right are from our favorite credit union. Regional Bank CDs yield 2 or 3 points lower and National Banks even lower. The latter provide something like the FDIC insurance coverage enjoyed in the States however.

Which brings us to why you might not want to invest in such CDs:

Your deposit is not insured, so you have the (somewhat remote) possibility of losing your principal if it is not made with one of the biggest national banks, e.g. Banco Nacional
Colones have in the past been more volatile than the U.S. dollar. However, in the 7 years we have lived here, the Colón has actually risen against the Dollar overall by about 4.6 percent. The Colón was the #1 most stable currency in all of Latin America last year.
Depositing money in Costa Rica financial institutions will in no way relieve you of the U.S. tracking that money thanks to FBAR.

In our case, thanks to re-inspiration from a blog post in Retire for Less in Costa Rica, we decided it was time to try out CD investing here.

We chose to deposit our money in Costa Rica's largest credit union, Coopenae, which provides financial services to the education sector. In other words, they are mostly accepting deposits from and loaning to teachers and education administrators. This sector is in good shape and receives a lot of support from the government obviously, so we feel it is stable. Fitch Ratings shares that assessment by giving Coopenae a Stable/AA- rating.

If, like us, the money you are depositing came from the sale of foreign assets and it is over $10,000, you have to back it up with documentation showing the source of the funds to the satisfaction of the clerk and management. Our documentation gave them a 95% satisfaction rate, but we augmented it with what is known as a Declaración Jurada de Ingresos. This is nothing more than a sworn statement as to the funds' origination done in front of a lawyer for a relatively small fee. With that in hand, the somewhat tedious application process went much more smoothly.

You can avoid this hassle by simply limiting your deposits to 500,000 Colones per month (about $895 at the current exchange rate).

We chose to have the interest paid every three months, which garners a slightly higher interest rate. You can also withdraw it monthly or leave it in for the full term. They deposit the interest to a debit card for which we had to pay a one-time, lifetime fee of 10,000 Colones ($19). There are no withdrawal or use fees on that card.

We still consider this financial foray something of an experiment, since no one can predict the direction of the Costa Rica Colón versus the dollar, but things look pretty good for at least the next year. Obviously, we didn't put everything we own into this, so our risk is spread out.

By the way, anyone with a valid passport can open one of these CDs, though I'm pretty sure you would have to show up in person. Could be another great way, in addition to the benefits of medical/dental tourism, to pay for your next trip to the land of Perpetual Spring.

Want to Buy a Lovely Costa Rica Finca? or Selling, but Not Selling Out

2018-05-01T11:34:00.000-06:00

View from the balcony of our house. Cerro de La Muerte just beyond the clouds

[Update: The property now includes an artistic guest cabin with outdoor kitchen and bath, but the price remains the same! Check it out via our AirBnB listing: www.airbnb.com/rooms/23323245

Also, be sure to see the drone video of this property taken last summer on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rfaVx4HD6SM ]

The price of the entire property is $289,000. We are open to financing with 30% down with level payments over 10 years.

Here's a rough summary (more details can be found at the "Our Finca Sale" page, which you can access just under the blog header photo above):

Located at 4,000 ft. elevation just north of San Isidro de El General. The air is always fresh and cool and the views are outstanding
Walking distance to Matasanos village and the larger towns of San Ramón Sur and San Ramón Norte.
Fresh, cold, clean water comes from a spring flowing right out of the Las Piedras granite batholith, part of which crosses the property.
Rural tranquility with kind, friendly, honest neighbors both Tico and Gringo. The nearest house is 1/4 mile away. Fresh goat milk, cow milk, cheese, sour cream, meat and fish can be purchased from neighbors.
The house is 2,000 sq. ft. with two bedrooms, a second story family room, 2 bathrooms, 2 patios, a balconay plus a double carport. The interior is finished in tropical woods (teak, cedro amargo, amarrillon and eucalyptus) and features tremendous amounts of light and a spectacular view of Cerro de La Muerte to the north.
A mosaic-decorated cabina has been built on a secluded part of the property with kitchen and bath, perfect for family, friends or AirBnB guests.
The home itself is decorated inside and outside with permanent mosaics by Tamara
A 1500 sq. ft. workshop is below the house with 300 sq. ft. secured, full electricity, water, a toilet and a phone line. It gets Internet via a Wi-Fi link to the house. It would be very easy to convert the workshop into a second house for guests or for rent.
The house has 4 Mb DSL and excellent cellular service.
It's 3 km to the Interamericana highway, 15 mins. to San Isidro and less than an hour's drive to Dominical and pristine southern Pacific beaches.
Dozens of various fruit trees and lumber trees have been planted in recent years as well as construction-grade bamboo (now 60 ft. tall!), coffee, papayas, guanabana, matasanos and bananas, all organically grown.
There is a permanent vivero (greenhouse) just below the house where you can grow veggies.

Two-thirds of the finca is secondary forest.

If you want to discuss anything about this sale, just look up our Contact Us info at the top of the page.

Keep in mind, too, that if you are going to build before arriving permanently in Costa Rica, Tamara has a degree in architecture and I have 15 years experience in residential construction. We can design your house and oversee its construction for you.

Pura vida!

Rev Up For a Costa Rica Motorcycle Tour

2018-04-17T14:26:00.000-06:00

Welcome Guest Writer Evelyn Robinson and her post about options for touring Costa Rica by motorcycle!

The blue color of Río Celeste in Tenorio National Park

Tourism has become one of the fastest growing sectors of the Costa Rican economy. Currently around 2.2 million people visit the nation annually with its national parks and protected areas being the main attractions. This includes the magnificent Cocos Islands, which are a World Heritage Site and its numerous volcanoes. It is also, like Madagascar, one of the most biodiverse nations on this planet. Now many people take tours to see these sites or to hike or to go bird watching, but with Costa Rica being one of the safest countries in the region, it is the prime Central American country for motorcycle touring.

Now, a motorcycle tour will not take you to the Cocos Island because it is around 500 miles off the coast of the country and is about halfway to the Galapagos Islands, but there are a huge number of parks for such a small country. These include top parks like Manuel Antonio, Tortugero, Paos, Arenal and Cahuita. There are volcanoes like Irazu, Arenal, Turialba and Tenorio, plus world famous beaches such as the one in Manuel Antonio National Park, also Tramarindo beach in Guanacaste and Jaco Beach in Puntarenas. Six of the Seven Natural Wonders of Costa Rica are accessible by motorbike and these are Arenal Volcano, Chirripo Mountain, the Celeste River, the Tortuguero Canals, Poas Volcano and the Monteverde Reserve.

Guided Tours

Arenal Volcano Night Eruption

The easiest means of doing a motorcycle tour of Costa Rica is to do a guided tour. These are great for first time motorcycle tourists or first timers to Costa Rica. It helps with the lingo, finding accommodation and you have tour guides who know where they are going and what needs to be seen or done. These range from short one week tours to full on 14 day trips. There are also a range of educational tours. Companies offering tours include Costa Rican Trails, Wild Rider and Moto Tours Costa Rica. Typically these tours supply the bike, the guide and your general itinerary. There are different types of tours and they might be group tours with other strangers from around America or even the world.

Have Map Will Travel

Stone sphere made by Pre-Colombian natives

Once you have done the official guided tours, perhaps it is time to get to know the country a bit more. It is said that no country is ever truly known until it has been travelled independently with no map or fancy hotels. There are several advantages here. First, you get to pick where you go and how long you stay there. Second, there is more of a chance of meeting locals and getting locked into the local culture - though brush up on your Spanish first. It also allows you to tailor your tour to your interests, be they biodiversity or Hispanic churches. When considering this kind of tour plan carefully first.

Getting To And From Costa Rica

It is possible to do a grand tour and drive down to Costa Rica from America. It will take a long time and would be a trip of a lifetime, but it is also possible to bring your own bikes with you. Like any modern country, Costa Rica is quite easy to get to. From America there are two other basic routes. Firstly, by air and secondly by sea. There are several airlines who fly to San Jose and a number of Caribbean cruise companies who make anchor in Costa Rica’s eastern ports plus a few Pacific ones who stop off on the west coast too. This kind of traveling can add an extra dimension to your tour.

Bike Hire

San José, capital of Costa Rica

If you do not wish to bring your own bike, then the next best idea is to hire one. There are a wide range of bikes available from KTM motorcycles to Harley Davidson bikes. The best place to start is the capital, San Jose, but most deals can be done online well in advance, so when you get there, you know what to expect. Before hiring a motorbike be sure to check certain aspects such as the contract, the conditions of use, and penalties payable. Before taking the bike off the hiring company, check the bike is in good working repair. When doing a motorcycle tour of any place, it is always best to get insurance, even the cheapest motorcycle insurance can be quality and it is going to give you coverage should something happen during the vacation. Now you have planned ahead, it is time to enjoy the ride.

Will Citizenship Add Coolness to My Already Astonishing Life in Costa Rica?

2018-03-12T09:33:00.000-06:00

[Update early 2018: I did file everything and the document package was provisionally approved, but final approval probably won't come until the end of 2018. Meanwhile, I am studying to take the rather rigorous citizenship exams that are offered each three months. I can re-take these as many times as I need to, though obviously I hope to pass the first sitting.]

I've been arguing with myself for over a year about pursuing citizenship here in Costa Rica. I've put in the time, which is 7 years, why not get something for it?

The Benefits of Citizenship

There are a lot of benefits, such as being free from the residency requirement that you participate in Caja (CR's universal health care system), a free 10-year cedula (national ID card), easier banking/financial transactions, the ability to leave the country without having to worry about fulfilling the in-country residency requirements plus the return of my $200 residency security deposit (which I think is $300 for newer residents).

I've also been told by those who have gone this path before that many everyday transactions that involve use of ID become noticeably easier because you are no longer a foreigner in the eyes of Ticos, especially those that control various process gateways. Doors open that swung with difficulty before and the wheels of bureaucracy in general suddenly present less friction if you are perceived as "normal." Those benefits are rather intangible to me at the moment but they are apparently real.

And, of course, one mustn't overly discount the clearly facetious "coolness" factor of having dual citizenship and their passport, which may be less disagreeable to some countries than a U.S. passport due to my home country's unwelcome meddling in others' affairs.

The Name Change

One drawback that I was hung up on for a while, however, was the name change thing.

Here, names have a set pattern and they want you to conform to the norm too, which is your first name (and optionally your "middle" name) followed by the surname of your father and mother in that order. So, forgoing my middle name (I never us it anyway), my new name would be Casey Bahr Lehman. That bothered me for quite a while because ... well it's my name they are messing with!

I'm over that now, it's fine, who cares. It doesn't mean I change my U.S. name after all, but it does precipitate a few hassles in having to change various Costa Rica-only documents and minor IDs such as my Costa Rica driver's license. These are triggered not only by the name change but a change in my cedula ID number.

The Document Gathering Must Be Timely

Another drawback is that transforming yourself from resident to citizen naturally presents bureaucratic hoops to jump through although nothing dealing with Migracion, since citizenship is handled by an entirely different government agency, namely Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones.

The most painful of the magical documents I must procure is my FBI background check, which if you are an ordinary citizen takes about 14 weeks plus or minus not counting transit time in the mail. Additionally, that doc has to carry an apostille from the U.S. Dept. of State, which takes another 3 weeks plus transit time.

In my case, those transit times are significant because stuff I mail from here to the States generally takes 2 weeks, and mail from the FBI and the Dept. of State must go to my U.S. mailing address first, which takes roughly a week, maybe less. So, just for that single critical doc, I figure 5 to 6 months before it's in my hands all "apostillized." OK, ... breathe ...

I also need a new certified birth certificate with apostille but my home state is pretty fast with that stuff and I can do the two-step process online in essentially one go although I might need a friend to carry the doc from one agency to another, but I'm not so worried about that one.

However, I want to time the overall fetching of that document carefully. If I were to send for it at the same time as the FBI check, it would age about 20 weeks, which is not good, because both those docs cannot be older than 90 days when I present them to the office here that grants citizenship (which is not Migración by the way). Again ... breathe ...

The final drawback is that I could save myself a lot of headaches by using a lawyer to handle all this stuff and a service known as a background check "channeler" that can get that FBI check with apostille to me in 2 weeks. Trouble is, all that is spendy, just the channeler service costs $400, the lawyer $800, etc.

Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones runs the citizenship process, not Migración

If I can be patient (easier said than done), however, I figure I can do the whole thing myself including the BC (for which there is no channeler) and the citizenship bureau fee of $250 for a grand total of about $600. Minus my residency deposit, the net then is $400 but it takes me about 6 months longer than using the lawyer. So, that's my plan and I'm stickin' to it. If I flub it, I apply lessons learned and try again and still be money ahead. By the way, all told this DIY process is likely to take a year, so time's a-wastin'!

[Update: I accomplished all the document gathering by combining it with a trip back to Oregon last August to see the eclipse and visit friends and family. Saved me more than the price of my roundtrip ticket plus I had much better control over the entire process. There was a glitch with my mail forwarder and the U.S. State Dept. apostille, but it's a long story and I made the TSE deadline with room to spare anyway.]

The Tests

Oh, there is also the small matter of having to take a set of written and oral tests in Spanish that include Costa Rica civics and geography, reading aloud, oral comprehension, etc. Unlike the U.S. citizenship test, these are much more comprehensive and take most of a full day to complete. There is an official study guide for the social studies part, which has been extremely difficult to obtain [Update: I finally had to find another expat who'd completed the tests and have them make a copy of the book for me!]

I've learned from others that have successfully taken these tests that they knock off points for very minor errors such as a missing or misplace tilde, but with study perhaps I'll squeak by as the passing score is 70%. If they want me to sing the CR National Anthem, then we might have a problem however.

Another Citizen?

Once I get citizenship, my wife can apply as the spouse of a Costa Rica citizen and she gets a waiver on the test. My son, who is now of majority age here, will decide for himself if he wants to continue as a Permanent Resident or apply for citizenship. He will breeze through the test of course if he chooses to become a citizen due to his many years of private and public schooling here. But, he's now off to college in the States, so it will probably be of less importance to him.

Is It All Worth It?

I won't really know until it's a done deal I think, but for sure there will be an economic payback. In less than a year, just counting a potential reduction in my gov't health insurance premiums alone, I'll have recouped the money I spent if not my time. I kind of doubt that I'll really ever use my Costa Rica passport though (that's actually a separate process by the way, they don't just give you one when you achieve citizen status).

In any case, it's helping me upgrade my Spanish and that's something very positive for me as fluency in a second language has always been on the bucket list. I'll let you know if the other intangible benefits others have mentioned to me come true as well.

Dealing with Contractors in Costa Rica

2017-09-14T08:27:00.001-06:00

Enjoy this interesting guest post from Jason Mueller offering viewpoints on the pros and cons of residential construction in Costa Rica:

Chances are if you are reading this, you are new to Costa Rica or possibly thinking about making the big move to paradise to build your dream home and live a stress free life. After all you have heard that Costa Rica is supposed to be the happiest place on earth. What could go wrong? I’m sure everything in your mind will be just “pura vida”.

The truth is that if you are planning on building a new house, business, “cabina” or even a “rancho” in Costa Rica things can go seriously wrong when dealing with contractors. So you thought that dealing with contractors in the USA, Canada and Europe was a pain in the butt? Well, “bienvenido a Costa Rica” welcome to Costa Rica. Hiring a contractor in the land of “pura vida” has its pros and cons, mostly cons but hopefully you get lucky and find one of the few reliable contractors in this small country.


Living the Pura Vida

Cons

So, it’s Day 1 and your backhoe is supposed to show up at 7 am to flatten your proposed area and the machine is nowhere to be found. It seems you did get lucky on this day because your construction crew did show up, at least most of them and they are really happy because they can’t do any work. The foreman calls the backhoe company all morning but there is no answer. Don’t worry the backhoe will show up in a few days with no heads up when you least expect it and your crew is drinking Imperials at the beach. You’re only a week behind schedule at this point. Time to go to the beach, take a deep breath and remember why you moved to paradise

“Ticos”are notorious for always being late or just not showing up at all. You would expect a courteously phone call but in this case they will just turn their phone off so they don’t have to deal with you. After all you are the annoying “gringo” that expects things to be on time, “pura vida mae”.

If your one of those persons who pays attention to the fine details then you better do the finishing touches yourself or hire a professional expat living in the country. Costa Rican’s have a tendency to overlook fine details and to be honest some can be downright lazy. This isn’t true for every “Tico” but generally speaking this is true. Sure the wood could have used a finer sanding and they could have use the proper diamond bit to cut a nice round hole for the plumbing but in their eyes it’s good enough, after all they are way behind schedule and you want this job done, right?

The scariest part about hiring a contractor in Costa Rica is the fact that they most likely didn’t get any formal school training or a proper apprenticeship. The electricians, for the most part, aren’t actually electricians because they don’t have a ticket but neither does the plumber or the carpenter. If all else fails they can always become a real estate agent, again with no license.

Another important fact that you need to know when building in Costa Rica is that the property owner is responsible to pay the “Caja” for all the workers on his or her land. The “Caja” is social security or public health care and technically speaking everyone legally working in Costa Rica needs to pay the “Caja”. Generally speaking, the total amount paid to “Caja” will be about 12% of their wage, the employer pays about half and the employee pays the other half. This changes depending on how much the worker makes but for the wages the construction workers make this is a good ball park figure. Also, FYI, even legal residents need to pay into the “Caja”

It is always advisable to be present on the job otherwise things won’t get done the way you want. This can be very time consuming and frustrating but not as frustrating as living in a house that isn’t to your standards.

Pros

The wages are significantly lower than traditional trained workers in other countries. You can hire a “carpenter” for around $20 a day, which would barely pay a typical carpenters coffee break in the USA. Below are the minimum wages for Costa Rica, don’t be surprised if your crew wants more than the minimum wage. Beware of a contractor that hires Nicaraguans and is charging you a higher than minimum wage for his workers. Those workers are most likely illegal and are willing to work for less, around $400 a month.

Minimum wages for various types of labor

Workers here are generally easy to get along with and very happy so you should at least have a few good laughs along the way.

There are some skilled workers in the country, especially when it comes to woodworking. Some of the wood that is grown here is beautiful. Teak is one wood that sticks out and can add a fine touch to your home. There are other beautiful woods like Cristobal and the national tree Guanacaste but be careful because these woods are protected and illegal to transport.

Teak (teca) Flooring

In the end, once all the hassles are finished, you are living in an amazing country with a great climate. Time to sit back, relax and watch the sun set. Always remember the reasons why Costa Rica is such a great place to live. PURA VIDA!

When the Expat Life Gets Boring ... Write a Book!

2016-11-19T18:56:00.000-06:00

Well, writing a new book worked for me anyway: Make Money Now Copywriting in Your Spare Time: Earn While You Learn Copywriting on Textbroker

I like to keep busy and usually the finca is calling out to me with its many tasks such as whacking the weeds, managing the compost, making progress on the cabina, patching a few potholes in the road, etc. During the rainy season, however, there is more downtime during the afternoon rains and you can only browse the news, check on friends in FB and so on before you decide to either hibernate or find some new challenge.

My First eBook

Writing work on both Textbroker and for my other clients had ebbed recently, but it made sense to keep writing and write I did. I've always wanted to self-publish a book and my experience with copywriting has been so rewarding that it made sense to write about that.

The book writing, first draft anyway, went pretty smoothly. It seemed there were more things I wanted to say to my readers than my fingers could keep up with. Pretty soon I was looking at a dozen chapters and 50 pages of info. It finally grew to over 80 pages and 18 chapters.

Where it bogs down, which you know if you have ever written something lengthy, is in the second and third passes, trying to get the formatting and images right and fighting off that nagging feeling that your book will fail.

Despite a nagging doubt or two, however, I had a superb time plugging away on it during my spare time plus figuring out how to get it published on Kindle properly. My next task was to create a paperback version, which I've almost completed on Createspace, an on-demand hard copy publisher that is actually owned by Amazon. It surprised me how much work that actually was and I'm convinced that for the next book I will reverse the process. Paperback first, then the eBook. So, keep a sharp eye out for the hardcopy version (and second editions) in the coming weeks and months ahead.

Of course, writing the book is one thing but selling it is quite another as it requires a lengthy period of self-promotion, which is my Achilles heel, but therein lies another engaging challenge to while away the remaining weeks of the "emerald season" here in La Zona Sur when the fog rolls in and the rain drops fall.

I'm very grateful for a lifestyle that allows for me to pursue such endeavors as book and copy writing. I couldn't do it without you Costa Rica!

Pura vida!!

La Georgina and the Hummingbirds at 10,000 feet in Costa Rica

2016-08-17T13:23:00.000-06:00

Villa Mills. Blink and you'll miss it.

It is not much more than a broad spot in the road. Harder to miss, just beyond the blue sign, is a crisp-looking red and white restaurant, which may have several cars and a bus parked in front depending on the time of day. That's La Georgina, founded in 1947, just a year before the 44-day Costa Rican civil war that sparked the abolition of their army and instigated several social reforms that carry on today. Must've been interesting times for this spot, since a lot of the fighting occurred up here on Cerro de La Muerte.

I have doubts whether this place was ever in any danger of being obliterated by that war, but in any case we're certainly glad that it's still in operation. It's a spacious place and has restrooms built for no-waiting. The food is the usual Tico buffet, not bad, but not terribly creative either. The main attraction for us is in the back.

There, the entire length of the back wall is filled with large windows and a continuous built-in table with chairs. Just inches on the other side of those windows hang about six or eight hummingbird feeders and rare is the time they are not quite busy with several species of hummers slurping up the sugar nectar from the upside-down soda bottles. Hummingbirds are called colibrí in Spanish, though their traditional name in Costa Rica is gurrión.

This was actually a slow day for the birds compared to other times we've been there when as many as a dozen hummers are vying for the 4 slurping ports at once at each feeder. When it's crowded like that there are often aerial fights that cause the combatants to go into tail spins towards the ground.

This day, there being fewer birds, was much more peaceful and organized.

The only thing "wrong" with La Georgina for us is that the location is not the most convenient when we're making a run up to San José and back. It's just about 35 Km. from our entrance to the Pan-American highway, meaning it's about 45 minutes along the trip up north and 2 hours 15 mins. on the way back.

The natural halfway point for a rest stop is on top of the Cerro in Macho Gaft or El Empalme at one of the roadside restaurants.

When we make the stop at La Georina, however, it's always a treat. The coffee's fresh and hot and it's nice to spread out in this very ample cafetería and watch the hummers. They also have a very good display of souvenirs that is not the usual stuff, a cut above, and not expensive.

If you ever get a chance to drive the Pan-American highway in Costa Rica, down towards San Isidro de El General, make it a point to stop in at La Georgina for a rest stop. You won't regret it.

Feliz Día De Mamá in Costa Rica

2016-08-15T07:54:00.000-06:00

August 15th is Mother's Day in Costa Rica. Here they celebrate it with style.

Unlike Father's Day, which is synchronized with the same day in the U.S., mothers in Costa Rica get their own special day, which falls on August 15th regardless of the day of the week. Costa Rica is unique in the world for celebrating Mom's Day on that date, which you can see on the map below signifying on which day per country mothers are celebrated across the globe.

Days around the world on which mothers are honored

Costa Rica Mother's Day is a bona fide national holiday, which means many stores, the banks and government offices including the post office are closed.

To help celebrate, I offer up these lyrics from "Gracias Mamá:"

Thank you Mother, for praying for me each night
Thank you Mother for being with me if I am sick
Thank you Mother for consoling me with your kisses
Even though you are not here with me, you are not far
You have given me and I will give you love eternally.

Which Lifestyle Would Cost Our Family Less - Oregon or Costa Rica? - Part 1: Taxes

2016-08-12T17:06:00.000-06:00

Gringo expats decide to retire in Costa Rica for a wide variety of reasons. Topping many expats' lists of desirable advantages would be maintaining their living standard at a lower cost or enjoying a higher standard of living for the same cost. That goes for adventurous, frugal younger expats as well as older expats such as myself stretching their retirement dollars.

Costa Rica can certainly offer terrific savings, especially in the areas of health care and housing. Many other daily expenses, however - automobiles being the most egregious example - are higher than what most norteamericanos are accustomed to. Depending on your financial status, lifestyle choices, goals and ability to adjust, the comparative financial equations we all go through at some point before moving here will each have their highs and lows.

Taking Stock of Expat Living Expenses

One Constant Is That Things Change

As we approach a new phase in which our own income will shift to primarily U.S. Social Security, our calculations are changing. In fact, just in terms of cost of living, we find that it may actually be cheaper for us to reside in our previous home state of Oregon. I'm not going into all the gory details of that calculation, but this two-part article does hit the high points. Hopefully, it provides additional food for thought to those considering moving to Costa Rica

For Us, Taxes Would Be Less Living in Oregon

I started the reevaluation of our financial perspective by comparing taxes we pay here and what I'd expect to pay in Oregon. On the Costa Rica side, I included the corporation tax (which is suspended, but reinstatement looks imminent), our property tax, marchamo, our Caja premium and sales tax. I consider Caja a tax, since it is obligatory and we never use it, but also because there is a similar "tax" imposed on U.S. residents in the form of the obligation to carry health insurance due to the ACA health care act.

Costa Rica's Sales Tax Is a Killer

Of those tax items, sales tax in Costa Rica is the most difficult to estimate, since it is ubiquitous and difficult to track, but based on what I know we spend and subtracting things not subject to that tax I feel my estimate is easily within 10%. Sales tax in Costa Rica is 13%, which makes it the clear winner in terms of our total tax bill with Caja coming in a near second.

One tax area I did not include is fuel tax, since I enclose it within overall vehicle expenses, which I cover in Part 2.

Oregon's Biggest Tax Would Be Property Tax

Our projected tax burden in Oregon would be dominated by property tax, which although lower than many states is still a primary source of funds for local and state government. I estimated it would be about $300 more than we pay in sales tax here. Oregon has no sales tax, however, and does not tax SS benefit income. Even with the extra investment income we have, our Oregon income tax bill would be zero. The same goes for our federal income tax bill, since we would not exceed the Total Combined Income limit.

However, we would be obligated to buy health insurance and the total premiums would be about 50% more than our Caja premiums. The deductible portion (which Caja does not have, since everything is paid for) I have included in Part 2 expenses.

The bottom line in the taxes comparison is that we would pay about $300 less in taxes living in Oregon.

In the next installment, I'll go into a comparison of other major expenses we have and how those might play out if we lived back in our old home state. The two biggies there are the cost of vehicle ownership, which is more or less universally applicable for any expat in Costa Rica, and health care costs, which in our situation could be quite different for higher income retirees.

I have left out all the costs of moving and obtaining residency, which were substantial, but as they are not ongoing, it seems fair to not count them.

Part 2 discusses the non-financial aspects in this Costa Rica versus Oregon match-up, which could carry the day for one or the other.

Can Going to the Dentist in Costa Rica Actually Be Fun?

2016-07-24T19:15:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure I could ever say that going to the dentist anywhere could be fun as in large round wooden containers of primates kind of fun. Just having to go to town in the middle of my day for the appointment is annoying in itself.

Compared to trips to the dentist in the States, however, I'll take the Costa Rica variety of dental care any day over that. First of all, all the equipment here is identical to that in the States and the education level and experience of the dentists are likewise.

The requisite cleaning, painless, quick, ends with a smile

There are several more reasons, however, why I prefer dentistry here:

Most Costa Rica dentists, it seems to me, are women. I can't tell you why, but I prefer female hands groping around in my mouth better than larger male digits. The women have a lighter touch. By the way, I made that assertion about the high ratio of female to male dentists to a female dentist and she thought not, but at least in La Zona Sur I see a lot more "Dra." signs than "Dr." signs.
There are no pesky hygienists. 80% of the time, I visit a dentist to get a cleaning and the dentist does it herself. I've been to three (and I like them all, btw) and it is always the dentist doing the cleaning. One time there was an assistant who did just about nothing but run out to answer the phone or fetch supplies. The dentists here do it all.
It takes far less time. Having the dentist do the cleaning means there is no downtime as in the States when the hygienist finishes and you wait for the dentist to give you another exam. Also, they are faster about it. Some use ultrasonic, some use hand tools to scrape the plaque, all have polishers, but they are not endlessly scraping and scraping the way U.S. hygienists do it.

Is the result worse? I don't think so. In the U.S., the standard recommendation is a cleaning every six months. I think that is crazy and so do all my Costa Rica dentistas. Of course, they are used to seeing people who have not had their teeth properly cleaned for years, so there is definitely a different tolerance level. Today, I had my teeth cleaned and it had been 18 months since last I did that. It didn't take any longer than usual, I had no cavities, no gingivitis and the dentist congratulated me on the low level of plague in my mouth. Yes, I brush twice a day, but flossing is only now and then, definitely less than when I was Stateside.
That last part, about the congratulation, is the part about Costa Rica dentistry that I adore. Since the time I first went to the dentist as a kid until I left the States, I endured an unbroken litany of complaints from every single hygienist I ever met. They always had some criticism, never encouragement, let alone congratulations, regarding my dental hygiene. What is up with that?
They aren't trying to sell you something. More and more, dentists in the U.S. are trying to up-sell you something. They really go out of their way to look for "potential" problems that could be "cured" if you are willing to shell out a few hundred or thousands of dollars and endure several more closely space visits. Just not the case here. I once had a dentista make a half-hearted attempt to sell me whitening, but I said no, she shrugged, that was the end of that.
I don't have to mess with dental insurance. The charge for today's cleaning? About 38 bucks. But, I actually didn't have to pay because she was willing to trade straight across for some of my wife's beautiful handmade jewelry. Try that in the States!

I know a lot of my friends in the States are guffawing right now. They are replaying those mental jingles about "best medical care in the world is in the U.S." that they've been programmed to believe. OK, outside San Jose, most dentists offices here are not lavish, they don't have all the latest magazines and muzak in the waiting room. However, if you think those kinds of things will make your teeth any stronger, then more power to you!

I also know a lot of friends in the States who have some serious dental issues. I haven't been that unlucky so far, but knowing what I know now, if I ever do, I'm certainly not running back to the U.S. to get anything done when all the competence and equipment for whatever procedure is needed is right here in my backyard.

So many times, those friends put off getting those procedures done because there insurance doesn't fully cover it and the out-of-pocket expenses are too much.

To them, I say that for about half the cost you could come here including the airfare! No one, however, has yet to take me up on that.

Savoring an Elusive Romantic Getaway in Costa Rica through Art

2016-06-20T12:17:00.002-06:00

Even paradise wears you down after a time, especially if you find yourself bogged down by the normal daily routines of life: transporting the kid to and from school, shopping for groceries, yard work, cooking, cleaning, etc. We have found since moving to Costa Rica that we seem to take even fewer vacations or weekend trips than we did in the States in order to break up our domestic monotony.

So, even though our original motivation to stimulate demand for Tamara's well-known mosaics was admittedly pecuniary, this trip turned out to provide us an excellent opportunity for an amorous getaway hours from the finca working together to bring Tamara's art to someone new.

A scintillating and enthusiastic art lover, Judy Fried, responded to my posting on a Costa Rica expatriates Facebook group showing off some of Tamara's past works. She had the perfect spot, a front door gable, where she wanted to display an original mosaic featuring a Quetzal, local plants, butterflies and hummingbirds with a symbolic representation of their gorgeous view over Costa Rica's Pacific mountains down the Gulf of Nicoya.


One of the original mosaic concept sketches

After exchanging information via email about the installation site, mosaic subject matter, colors and level of detail, Tamara decided to use a new-to-her mounting technique to reduce the amount of on-site time at their location nearly a 5-hour drive away. We found the best price for a fiberglass backing mesh in Chicago (including postage) and Tamara's friend acquired it and sent it down Priority Mail.

The mesh and special glue allowed her to create 95% of the mosaic at home over an impromptu layout "table" of fibrolite, which is a common cementitious building sheet used in Costa Rica. She left room at the ends and along the bottom to allow for measurement errors and filled in these parts at installation time.

Building the mosaic at home first

We sliced up the entire finished mosaic into eight sections, wrapped them in stiff cardboard and transported them flat in the back of my truck. We took off with materials and tools at 5 AM Saturdat for our journey up the Pacific Coast, turning inland at Puntarenas to head to the western edge of San Ramón de Alajuela.

When we arrived, we were enthusiastically greeted by Judy who could barely contain her excitement after having waited several weeks since she first expressed interest in the work. She had acquired a perfect-height scaffold and had had installed a new canoa (rain gutter) above the gable, which provides some rain protection to the mosaic.

The installation of the pre-assembled sheets and the edge fill-ins took the entire remainder of the day, which was a few hours longer than we'd anticipated. Since we wanted to finish the project by the following day, we had to keep trudging on, however, as the adhesive needs overnight to set before we grouting the zillion and one seams between each piece of the picture can begin.

Racing the rain and fading light to apply the final touches

Even when it began raining, we kept going with me holding an umbrella over Tamara for the final hour as she polished off the finishing touches.

The long day's work done, we were treated to a fabulous dinner of paella in Judy and Art's enclosed patio where we could soak in the long view and watch an exciting, even nerve-shattering, lightning storm that stretched all the way to the coast.

The next morning found us at it again around 6 AM beginning the application of the grout. Bad luck hit us now as Tamara discovered that her good grouting float was missing and she only had a rather stiff, inefficient one that she'd been meaning to throw away. We made do with it, however, and a half-past ten, the work was complete!

Judy had invited several friends to come mid-day so they could see the mosaic and a collection of other types of Tamara's art work including jewelry, mosaic mirrors, paintings and painted beach rocks. So, we quickly showered and packed up for the return trip. Before departing, we absolutely stuffed ourselves on a huge lunch Judy and her husband Art prepared, which included tamales, empanadas, chocolate-chip bread, coffee cake, fresh fruit and fresh fruit punch.

The trip home was long, warm and uneventful although it didn't rain until the final leg. We did load up on some wonderfully creamy avocados they sell up north. Exhausted, we headed to bed about 7 PM.

Probably not the typical idea for a romantic getaway most couples imagine, but we both truly enjoyed getting out, meeting new people, eating new food, not cooking, and creating something of lasting beauty for someone who truly appreciates its value and the work that went into it.

Eliminating the Worry of Shipping Your Car to Costa Rica

2016-03-28T17:18:00.001-06:00

Are ready for an extended stay or retirement to the Land of Eternal Spring and have already decided you prefer to enjoy the freedom and convenience of driving your own vehicle while living in Costa Rica?

Buy a Car Inside Costa Rica or Bring Your Own?

Always check the tire quality!

We'll assume you already hashed out the pros and cons of vehicle ownership in Costa Rica. The next question is whether it’s wiser to buy a vehicle in-country or ship your current vehicle from North America. From my experience, if I had to do it over again, I’d bring in my own car without hesitation.

Why? Well, if you add up all the costs including shipping and import fees, you probably come out about even, but you’ll have one overriding advantage, which is complete confidence in your vehicle. That is something not available when purchasing a used car in Costa Rica.

Why Buying a Car in Costa Rica is Often a Losing Proposition

Buying new cars in Costa Rica is an outrageously expensive proposition. Expect to pay 50% above U.S. sticker price in the U.S. for an identical model. That rule-of-thumb is pretty accurate for used vehicles also. There are several reasons cars are so expensive here, but let's just accept that fact for now.

You'll never be 100% sure where a Costa Rica car has been

The big difference in used cars here, however, is that they probably have a checkered past when it comes to maintenance and repairs. Plus, they have been subjected to some of the worst roads in the modern world.

Better that you bring in a car or truck or motorcycle that you already know and can have thoroughly checked out by a qualified mechanic Stateside.

So, How Do You Import a Car to Costa Rica?

If you do not intend to stay longer than 90 days, then you will follow a Temporary Import process. If you expect to stay longer than 90 days, however, you must go through the Permanent Import process to officially import and license the car in Costa Rica.

Regardless of whether you are staying less or more than 90 days, it’s best to use a reputable and knowledgeable vehicle shipping company, such as A-1 Auto Transport, Inc. They will guide you through the process, give you a free quote, get you in touch with a Costa Rica Customs agent and take care of all the paperwork and fees. It's one-stop shopping for getting your car into Costa Rica.

Your car is shipped to Costa Rica securely in an enclosed container

They make sure you are abiding by the latest revisions in the law and regulations plus they ship and store your car securely. You’ll find that using these services nearly eliminates all the stress and worry of importation. All you have to do is pick up the car at the port or have it delivered.

Temporary Import Details

For temporary import, you receive a permit valid for 90 days. If for some reason your plans change and you will be staying longer than that, you can obtain an extension, but it is highly recommended that you request such permission well before the original 90 days is up from Costa Rica Customs.

All you need to obtain this permit are the vehicle registration documents, a valid passport and your home country driver’s license.

Permanent Import Details

For stays longer than 90 days or if you have run out of temporary permit extensions, you need to permanently import the car.

In addition to the documents required for temporary import, you need the following to complete the permanent import process:

A current emissions certificate no older than 90 days
Proof of vehicle ownership (e.g. the U.S. title)
Proof that the VIN is valid if the proof of ownership document does not cover this
The original purchase invoice or Manufacturer’s Certificate of Origin. Alternatively, a notarized bill of sale.

Figuring your total costs can be tricky

Importation and Vehicle Value Taxes

There will be sales tax due based on the car’s value and shipping plus a special vehicle tariff to pay, which accounts for the lion’s share of taxes owed. This latter tax is based on both the age and value of the car including options.

Costa Rica Customs has an excruciatingly detailed database of vehicle configurations from which they calculate this tax. It is no use waving a Kelly’s Blue Book at them, because they already have their own valuations.

The current schedule of vehicle value taxes goes as follows:

For cars less than three years old, they tax their assessed value of the car at a rate of 52.29 percent
Cars between four and five years old are taxed at a rate of 63.91 percent
All cars older than six years are taxed at a 79.03 percent rate
The only exception to the tariff is if you are importing an electric-powered vehicle.

Final Steps to Importation

You won't get far without all 3 window stickers

There are a few more steps to take once the import has been approved by Costa Rica Customs. You will need a formal title, which requires the help of an attorney (attorneys are inexpensive, fortunately). You will also need to establish and pay the “Marchamo,” which is the annual vehicle tax and purchase liability insurance.

You do both these tasks via Costa Rica’s national insurance carrier INS. The final step is to have the car inspected by Costa Rica’s Revision Technica Vehicular or RTV(pronounced ree-TEV-ay). Such an inspection is required every two years for vehicles five years old or less and annually for older cars.

Whew! Once you have accomplished all these steps, your car becomes a bona fide Tico car! Just don’t expect it to understand Spanish … yet. Do not forget to obtain your Costa Rica driver’s license after 90 days in-country if you are a resident.

Taking the Hassle Down to a Dull Roar

Welcome to Costa Rica!

Yes, when all the steps are spelled out, bringing in your own car can appear to be a daunting process. That is why we absolutely recommend that you get in touch with an expert shipper such as A-1 Transport, Inc. to take care of the numerous details of importation for you. They can even take care of hiring a Clearing Agent/Broker at the arrival port and get your car delivered to you no matter where you are in the country.

Thrilling Flight on Sansa and Pleasant Experience Using Uber

2016-03-12T16:17:00.000-06:00

Ever since one of the local airlines, Sansa, announced last December that they were instituting flights between our area's biggest town, San Isidro de El General, and San Jose International, I've been itching to try it out. Not only had I not been on a plane since around ought-9 but I was anxious to get a lay of the land in our part of Costa Rica that can only be seen from an aircraft. It is a satisfying feeling to finally have air service to our part of the country, which seems considered an unwanted step-child to the rest of the country at times.

Our terminal companion

An excuse to try the new flight arose when I glanced at my passport a few weeks ago and found that it was already expired, which requires a trip to the U.S. Embassy in San José to rectify. So, I booked tickets online for Tamara and me for yesterday, the 11th.

They fly between SIG and SJO three times a week, with two flights each of those days. Tickets are not exactly cheap, being $70 each, one-way for residents however. Turistas pay $100.

San Isidro Runway: lengthened, repaved a few years ago thanks to a grant from Germany

Arriving at San Isidro Airport

No parking at the San Isidro airport is available unless you want to leave your car on the road outside the fence. So, we dropped Sean at school, left the car at a downtown public parking lot and hailed a taxi to take us to the airport. Judging by the driver's perplexed look, it was clear there are not many requests to be taken out there. About 15 minutes later, through what passes for rush hour in San Isidro, we pulled up to the short cyclone fence surrounding the runway.

We'd arrived about 7:30 AM for the 8:40 flight, so had plenty of time to cool our heels. There was a changing of the sole guard at the tiny terminal shack as we waited. The new guard donned a 10-gallon hat that he stored in a plastic bag hanging in the restroom. He seemed especially fond of evangelical radio.

About half an hour before flight time, a young gringo with backpack showed up followed shortly by a couple about our age who were on a "fact-finding" mission from San Antonio, TX and were now heading back home (yes, the loved it here, by the way). That was the passenger complement, five people for a 12-seater Cessna Grand Caravan 208B.

Just prior to the plane gliding in, they pulled out a luggage scale, which they plugged in by running the cord through the window back into the shack. You are allowed 30 lbs. of checked luggage with a $1 surcharge/lb. over that limit. They then weighed each of us plus our carry-on separately.

The plane was about 10 minutes late, empty of passengers save the pilot and co-pilot. Of course, we had our choice of seats. After a short, unamplified announcement about weather conditions and flight time from the pilot as he entered the cockpit, we were soon rolling down the runway and lifted smoothly into the air.

The dual-screen LCD avionics were impressive as was the scenery. We were soon passing the San Ramón Valley on our right. It was easy at that low altitude to spot our house on the hillside. We also had terrific views of Cerro de La Muerte (literally, Mountain of Death), which is part of our view illustrated in this blog's header, the primary forest between our valley and the coast and the coast itself near Manuel Antonio National Park.

Suddenly, Costa Rica, which we had become accustomed to traversing painstakingly by car, had shrunk down to size.

San Ramón Valley left, our finca center-left, and San Isidro just off the right margin


Cerro de La Muerte, about 8 feet higher than Mt. Hood, Oregon

View of the Pacific Ocean near Quepos


Primary forest-covered mountain between San Isidro and Pacific Ocean

Volcan Irazu as we approached Costa Rica's Central Valley

First Time Uber Users

We touched down at SJO less than 30 minutes from lift-off in San Isidro feeling a bit like we'd gone through a wormhole. We hiked out to the main turnaround outside the departure-arrival tracks and stood in a shady spot to hail an Uber cab on Tamara's smartphone. As you may know, Uber's arrival in Costa Rica has been a sore point to say the least among San José taxi drivers and the legality/illegality of the operation argued back and forth based on Costa Rica's naturally antiquated code in the area of public transportation.

Uber Controversy

Me, I welcome Uber as a welcome step forward in Costa Rica's modernization, but I am not without sympathy for the taxi companies, although that sympathy is well-tempered by their sense of entitlement, not infrequent ill manners, dirty vehicles and the occasional dishonesty. We had none of that with Uber on our introductory trips.

Whelmed by the Uber App

The Uber app I find annoyingly non-intuitive, but I love the GPS map that shows all the Uber cars in your area moving around like ants, the instant communication you can make with a driver who has picked up your request and the complete lack of a cash transaction. Everything is automatically charged to your credit card and no tip is expected. You can get fare estimates between any two points before committing to using the service.

The First Ride

Our first ride was to the U.S. Embassy of course and the driver arrived within 5 minutes or less. The car was practically new, the driver spoke fluent English and we had a great time discussing our mutual lives and his experience with Uber. He does get hassled by the red taxis taking his picture and supposedly reporting him to some authority, but nothing has come of it and there are now over 2,000 Uber drivers in San José. It's a movement unlikely to be curtailed. Uber drivers actually would welcome some regulation as that would put them more on par with the taxis and quell the controversies.

The Second Ride and Total Fare

After the uneventful embassy visit (for some reason, it's like a ghost town there now), we grabbed some lunch at a nearby café and after the meal, called up another Uber driver. Unfortunately, Uber had placed our location about six blocks north of actual, and due to the paucity of street signs it took us a while to realize the mistake as we watched the driver circling the pinned location but not seeing him on the street.

Once that got straightened out, we again were treated to an extremely courteous driver plus a comfortable trip in a spotless Renault to the Musoc bus station across town. In total, for the two rides, from the airport to Musoc, we spent 12 mil on cab fare, or about $22.50. I do believe that is way cheaper than the red cabs charge for a straight trip from SJO to Musoc these days.

Musoc to San Isidro

We arrived at the Musoc terminal and got two of the few seats left for the 12:30 bus. There was just time for us to take a café americano (which was not bad at all) and eat a cream puff before getting in line.

I'm not sure if we got lucky or the ticket seller did my long legs a favor, but we got two of only three seats that have extra legroom all the way in the back. I pretty much snoozed the whole way to the halfway point high on Cerro de La Muerte, so it seemed a short trip to me. We were soon back in San Isidro, picked up the car across from the bus station and made it home before 4 PM.

I'll be keeping my eyes out for any can't-pass-up promotions by either Sansa or Nature Air in the future, so we can explore more of the country by air. It's really a great, stress-free way to get around and see the big picture. If we are taking trips out of the country, as we hope to do more often starting next year, the Sansa flight is the obvious choice for getting to and from the airport or for visitors arriving from the States.