Webby

In Costa Rica, I suggest you look all over!! :-) It has a lot to offer and much of this is missed by tourists.

But for practicalities - like day to day living and also comms, I'd suggest Cental Valley - it's where the capital, San Jose is - but don't think of living in San Jose - it's crap! :-) But, there are areas outside San Jose which are nice and if you want to do a home rental for a while till you know more, - there are plenty decent homes on the market.

If you like beaches and palm trees, the coast to head for is the Pacific. The Caribbean coast is very rich in eco, but has a tendency to have the drug-running crews passing by and they cause problems with crime. The rest of the country is safe, but petty theft is common. In the time we have been here - we have had no crime problems and last I spoke to the woman who runs the OIJ (Investigative Police) her preoccupation was some crappy credit card frauds - not serious shit.

I got a place outside San Jose, but also bought a largish land area on the Pacific coast (which is gonna end up a nature reserve and webmaster world *s* but that's a couple of years away).

The people of CR are damned nice - at least all I've encountered and nothing is a problem. Maids and gardners cost about $250-$300/month full time.

For the last few years there have been a few folks ending up in CR from the US, Canada and the EU to settle down. The effect means higher land/home prices, but these are still a good deal (some excellent real estate deals!) for what you get.

Generally comms are not that bad, but improving all over the country. I've never had much problems with this - apart from the usual outages. Nicaragua already has good cable and competition between the baby Bells etc and Panama is next to the Maya link and has excellent cabling. (I smell Panama will end up good for hosting - they have a "silicon park" there and this is going to grow).

__________________
XXX TLD's - Another mosquito to swat.