What's your thoughts on Costa Rica?
 

I'm thinking about moving down there for a year and running my web design company from there.

What do ya think?

looks great, real estate prices have really gone up a lot though

Rent has too, a nice place is $1300, it used to be about $800 maybe I should just buy a place. Although the real estate market will probably collapse like here and I will lose another 100k

never know til you try. Jaco beach is one of my favorite places in the world.

Fuck ya, love that place. I would probably move to Santa Ana or Acazu though

I think you mean Escazu?

Thanks, I did. Do you live around there?

I'm looking at the Avalon Country Club by Santa Ana

Yeah I lived in both Santa Ana and Escazu.

Quick Question, is there a reasonable way to get stuff there from Los Angeles? Like for some what cheap, boats cost 3k and up.

Internet is damn slow in Costa Rica :-(

Not really. I shipped my expensive electronics on a boat and it wasn't cheap. You also have to pay huge duties on newer electronics.

That's what I thought, I'm going to just store stuff and bring it in suit cases gradually. I am worried about the internet, I'm going to need lots of speed as always!

I heard you had to pay a 100% tax on anything you brought back so if you shipped a car down there you would have to pay the price of the car just to bring it back. Don't know if that's true but if it is it's something to take into consideration when bringing stuff down there.

I love Costa Rica, I wish I could move there but I own a crappy house in La I'm stuck to like fly paper.

I know lots of people who have moved down there and love it

Friend of mine bought 10 acres over there and is building a bed and breakfast type of place
I hear great thing about it, he 's there 6-7 months out of the year

just smuggle them in - it's cheaper :thumbsup

How do you do that, in luggage?

because fuzebox lives there, costa rica gets extra brownie points

Yes - just don't bring original boxes or manuals - separate the manuals if you need them - if they ask questions just say that you had to bring the item outside for a warranty repair or exchange - very simple todo!

Thats because he cooks up those 'SPECIAL' brownies :winkwink:

Just got back. was there for a week. The place is amazing. I can tell you getting large stuff there is a bitch. My girlfriend has a house there and it is tough. she found an interior decorator who works pretty cheap and gets nice stuff. big tvs there is no way around getting screwed based on us prices.

The country itself is great. The locals for the most part are extremely friendly. I love the food. But you can only eat so much ceviche :). If I made all of my money remotely I would deffinetly consider it.

having lived in panama for almost 2yrs, and going to costa rica dozens of times...

heres points to consider that nobody is telling you about:

#1. its a beautiful country

#2. its a spanish country, if your spanish sucks its tough to mingle with locals, so you better know spanish.. this was the reason i basically left panama. what fun is there if the only people u can talk to are the 0.01% who speak english.. its no fun

#3. internet/amenities are lacking.. you wont have your usa bank there, neither will you have super fast 30mb internet. also say goodbye to customer service or trying to get a problem resolved.

#4. it rains a shit lot, like think April/May till end of december, it gets annoying trust me.. i see you are from vegas now, that much rain is not fun trust me..

#5. its humid, i hope you dont mind 80F temperature/sweats at the middle of the night

#6. lotta bugs/mosquitoes

#7. its is beautiful yes, but its very boring.. in costa rica you can go to the beach, but after that what else? i love the fact in USA i can do 1000 things at once.. right now in san diego im about to enroll in a class, im also learning how to surf, sail and fly, and i want to learn how to skii
Good luck doing any of that easily in costa rica

#8. Id recommend costa rica for a weekend gateway, not a permanent residence..

#9. in panama i felt like life was passing me by.. i was lost in the language and people did the same shit all year... work mon-fri, get drunk thur,fri,sat.. almost makes u think there is more to life than that...

#10. anymore questions ask me.. ive been to a bunch of towns in CR for visa runs and just to visit. I actually _DROVE_ into costa rica from panama..

GOodluck

xxweekxx is pretty much bang on...

:-)

hope he reads it and decides.. wish i had THIS same info before moving..

all everyone said is yes move to panama, its beautiful, dont worry you can get by with english, etc etc, nope its not 100% true.. they left out a lotta important stuff and im saving you the headache now..

iz pretty nice

Good place!!

Costa Rica is frakin awesome. It's a completely different mentality down there, very laid back. And if your gonna shoot pics/vid, it's pretty cheap, the women are hot! If you can get down there, go for it!

Spanx!
Jack

Awesome place, make sure and pay for the extra luggage to bring as much as you can. Shipping there is insane.

Thanks! I speak o.k. Spanish but I figure this is a great way to get fluent. I am considering all aspects but I like the pros at this much much over the cons. I am doing a 6 month lease just in case i don't like it. Probably keep a second place there and move back to Vegas in a year or two.

Thanks, I'm really stoked for the wild life and adventure. Not to mention its a fast growing country with great business opportunity.

CR sucks.

Costa Rica and Panama are both horrible examples of Latin American countries worth living in. :thumbsup

Beautiful beaches and women.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:4...ocean-view.jpg

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:w..._beaches_l.jpg

Indeed. CR is only awesome until you've been elsewhere in Latin America. I still enjoy CR because it has it's moments, but all in all it's not the place to be anymore.

I was thinking about moving there from Estern Europe. Well, my major downfalls were the humidity, lack os Spanish speaking abilities, sticking to Santa Ana or Escazu bcs of security reasons, slow internet and 'maniana' way of doing things there.

I live 2km from Avalon Country Club... I like Santa Ana the most outta the central Valley cities...

I live up the mountain from Avalon.. I can actually see it from my front porch. Lots of foreclosures around town .... LOTS. You can for sure get something really nice for much less then a year ago even. Rentals as well are hurting... so if you house hunt here you can offer half of asking on high end rentals and walk into something really nice.

As well Santa Ana has a hardcore floor hockey league.... seriously.

Don Ting

Socially its definitely not for everyone.... But if you can find your way into the scene here its pretty awesome.

I still barely speak any spanish after 4yrs... you learn enough to get by and as long as you don't want to act like a 'rich gringo' everyone is very cool down here.

If you want to only hang out with americans... I find the ones down here kinda suck. *present company excluded* If you want to mingle with the locals. There are scenes for everything.

1. Find an area you really like, and is relevant to what you want to do.
(work, fuck, party, relax, or what mix of those is desired)

- For instance Santa Ana is the hottest place in the central valley.
- 5degrees warmer then Escazu,

2. Find appropriate friends. There are some seriously fun parties that rock this place. And some shady people as well to enjoy the better things in life :upsidedow

3. Get a friend with a beach house. Or place at the Marina (Los Suenos) Because one perk of the tropics should be an ocean nearby.

4. Biz wise I REALLY like the locals. Getting ready to open a big office down here. And I personally have nothing but good things to say about them. Different pace. I had a big office in the phillipines and I hated it... I would hire 'ticos' 2:1 over people in manila.

5. Dunno you either like it here or you don't. I personally do, but I know I wouldn't if I lived in a different area or under different circumstances.

heh - yeah baby, roll the dice on Costa Rican real estate. You and Farang doing lines off hooker's asses together again? Tsk tsk. :D

Not a good idea for a gringo in these days. You are allowed to own, but not run a company; you're subject to being audited if you are running one, and getting a rentista is difficult if not impossible these days.

They've done what all smart countries have done - they let you visit, encourage you to pay, but if you don't go the fuck home, it's your ass.

Now that there is some awesome info. THIS Gringo says SEE! I mean, Ci! SEA! Um, CEE! Wait - TSE! TZE! Shit...um, um, CeCe! No, that's a Winans....well, whatever Spanish is for YES!

Really I was reading their government website and it says they are improving their immigration process and encouraging people to move there and invest.

To get citizenship you just need to deposit one thousand a month to a local bank account for three years. You can get a temp visa as long as you keep this up mean while. Much easier then the US. I also plan on traveling a lot so this is a good central point and cheap in case I'm gone for months.

What would be your favorite places to live in Latin America and why?

Haven't been there yet...