MOVING TO COSTA RICA
THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY AND THE BEAUTIFUL
This is a blog about moving to Costa Rica and our goal is to give you information you are not getting on the other "move to Costa Rica" web sites and blogs.
Moving to Costa Rica is a popular idea and many people are interested but few do it and even fewer do it successfully.
Why is that?
We hope to share with you why that may be and help you make your move successful, if - after reading this web site - you still want to take on the challenge.
We are making this move on a "shoe string" budget and if you are also doing it on a shoe string budget hopefully this blog will help you see the challenges you are up against and help you deal with them.
If on the other hand you have plenty of money to make your move, this blog will help you make your money go further and/or help you find ways you may have not thought of to save some of your money. (Everyone can use more money, right?)
Who we are:
We are a couple who have a budget of a little over $1300 a month and we have heard we cannot live on this amount of income, and we have heard that we can, and after considering all sides of this question we have decided to go for it and find out for ourselves whether we can or not.
Our reasons for moving to Costa Rica are mostly that I was sick and tired of "working for a dying" (as opposed to "working for a living") and I was sick and tired of living in a big U.S. city and had wanted to move here to Costa Rica since I first discovered it in the '90's.
If you poke around this blog you will find all kinds of info about the cost of living in Costa Rica, the customs and culture of Costa Rica, where the best places to live in Costa Rica are, how to buy property in Costa Rica, the weather in Costa Rica, and many other subjects that you will want to read more about before making your own move to Costa Rica!
Please comment and let us know what you think of our blog, what your own experiences and opinions are, and why you are here reading about our move to Costa Rica!
START READING OUR BLOG, STARTING WITH DAY ONE ABOUT MOVING TO COSTA RICA HERE!
NOTE:
This blog is subtitled "The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Beautiful" and that means we have written about the difficult challenges we faced, especially during our first 2-3 months of living here.
We want you to know, from the outset, however, that we overcame all these challenges and after awhile we got our life set up here and now things have settled down and we enjoy living here way more than we enjoyed our lives in the United States!
After almost a year now, we are VERY HAPPY ABOUT OUR MOVING TO COSTA RICA!
Health Care For Expats In Costa Rica
There are several options for health care for expats in Costa Rica. First there is the CAJA which is required for all legal residents to pay into. The CAJA as it is called, is basically Costa Rica’s National Health Care plan and it’s pretty good and covers all your health care needs. However the CAJA…
Read MoreCosta Rica Immigration
The last stop at the end of the Costa Rica Immigration Process Costa Rica immigration is not hard but it does take some time and some money and some work on your part (not much work, really, if you hire a good attorney). There are various types of Immigration to Costa Rica, and although you…
Read MoreCosta Rica Residency
We had been notified by our Costa Rica residency attorney of the date of our Costa Rica residency final appointment. Finally the day came – the day we’d been waiting for since we got here last year! So the day of our final appointment finally came, and we got up at 5:30am which is about…
Read MoreCosta Rica Army Ants Will Clean Your House
What I call Costa Rica Army Ants are actually more like National Guard or Peace Corp ants or something along those lines. They’re smaller than the army ants of Africa, but they’re very aggressive and have a bite that hurts a lot – I’ve been told. But aside from their aggressive nature, they are helpful…
Read MoreThe Return of the Costa Rica Army Ants
After I woke up yesterday morning, I went out to my front porch to see what the day was like and see if there are any visitors waiting for me there. (Sometimes there are amazing visitors like a 12 inch long walking stick or a huge praying mantis, or maybe a toucan in a nearby…
Read MoreDay 4: STILL Looking for a good used car in Costa Rica
Got up early to look for a car. Decided we liked the Hyundai Galloper diesel 4×4 so went looking for various ones to look at that might be cheaper than the one our friend-of-a-friend showed us. He wanted $8400 which seems high even for Tico car prices which tend to be almost double U.S. prices…
Read MoreOur Move To Costa Rica: Day 1
To move to Costa Rica is a dream for many. It was for us and now it’s a reality. Read all about our move: the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful! We don’t sugar coat it as other blogs do!
Read MoreRetiring In Costa Rica
Retiring in Costa Rica was my choice because I was sick and tired of big city life and Costa Rica gave me an opportunity to live out in the country or “campo”. Here we have birds, monkeys, exotic insects, beautiful sunsets and all that goes with living the “country life” instead of horns honking and…
Read MoreCosta Rica Hurricane Or Tropical Storm
Today we experienced a Costa Rica hurricane or something very close to it! All I know is, it was pretty much a disaster and we had to jump into emergency mode to deal with it before everything in our house got wet! So we were out working on the drainage ditch next to our driveway…
Read MoreAnother Living In Costa Rica Adventure
I always say “Living in Costa Rica is always an adventure”, and so this is yet another Living in Costa Rica adventure! We started out the morning waking up… (yeah sure, we all start the day that way!) … but to the sight of this snake (picture below) when we opened the kitchen curtains: He…
Read MoreHow To Live In Costa Rica On A Budget
TIP #1 on How To Live In Costa Rica on a Budget Buy a property so you don’t have to pay rent. Property in Costa Rica is cheap enough that you should be able to sell your house and buy something really nice and have money in the bank leftover. This way you can live…
Read MoreCosta Rica Insects
People often ask, when considering moving to Costa Rica, “What about the Costa Rica insects? Are they a problem? Are there a lot more than where we live now?” and so on. The basic answer is that it depends on where you live in Costa Rica and where you live now. Carbunco Okay but I…
Read MoreDriving Costa Rica
Driving Costa Rica is do-able and can be rewarding, but one has to be very careful as it is generally more dangerous than driving in the USA. Here is what to watch out for.
Read MoreWhy are some things so expensive in Costa Rica?
This post is a question to all my readers: WHY are some things SO expensive in Costa Rica??? We all understand that Costa Rica is far from the USA, Japan, Colombia, Europe and other places where quality items might be imported to Costa Rica. And so importing those things might cost a bit more. So…
Read MoreOur New Tico Friend
This is our new Tico friend. He is squatting on our property but we’ve decided to let him stay. Turns out he has no legal rights here in Costa Rica so he is no threat to us. Actually our new friend is an iguana, pretty sure he’s what they call a “black iguana” but I’m…
Read MoreVideos: Living In Costa Rica
These are videos about LIVING IN COSTA RICA. These will be mostly videos of scenery, animals, insects, and so on – anything we take a video of in Costa Rica that we think you might enjoy seeing or you might want to learn something about. So, below you will find embedded youtube clips and/or playlists…
Read MoreVIDEO GALLERY Of Home Construction In Costa Rica
This is a video gallery of home construction in Costa Rica near San Ramon. The house is being constructed with a cement foundation but the walls are SIP panels (Structural Insulated Panels) fortified throughout with heavy steel posts. Note that Panacor – the company who makes the SIP Panels used here) does not sell their…
Read MoreBuilding A House In Costa Rica
Building a house in Costa Rica is different than building in the USA or other countries you may be familiar wtih, in that standards are often different, materials are often different, and even if you know nothing about building you should probably read up a little and just BE there – at the building site…
Read MorePhoto Gallery Of Home Construction In Costa Rica
Here are some photos I took of a home construction in Costa Rica. This particular house is being made from SIP panels which are a heavy duty styrofoam type of material. The advantages of this can type of home construction can be read about in this post about building a house in Costa Rica. The…
Read MoreAnother Car-related Costa Rican Adventure!
Well things have gone fairly smoothly the past week or so… so that meant (apparentlly!) that it was time for another Costa Rican Adventure! It started out normal enough. I got up to take care of internet business, banking and so on. Had problems with bank security due to logging in from another location and…
Read MoreCosta Rica: Land of Toucans
In Search of Toucans At Our Costa Rica Home We are very fortunate to live where toucans live. We hear them constantly but seeing them here is a little more rare. Getting a good long look at them is even harder. So our little game is when we hear one nearby we go look for…
Read MoreDay 19: Rural Living In Costa Rica
WHAT THE HECK CHEWED UP MY SHIRT IN THE NIGHT? We got up early and got ready to go take care of today’s business. Every day requires us to take care of house-building-related business: choosing materials, picking up materials, “supervising” the work, etc… Grabbed a cup of coffee only because we knew they were going…
Read MoreMy First And Last Border Run To Nicaragua
First of all the idea of having to leave the country I am in the legal process of being a resident of, to get a stamp, to be able to continue driving legally, is unacceptably stupid. I’m all for being tolerant of Costa Rican laws and customs. And I do try to adjust. But STUPID…
Read MoreHow To Lose Weight By Moving To Costa Rica
This post is about how to lose weight by moving to Costa Rica. I’m not kidding. If you have had trouble getting those extra inches off of your waist line and you have an interest in moving to Costa Rica, this might just give you the incentive to go ahead and “go for it” and…
Read MoreOwning A Home In Costa Rica
A common question is “Can I as an American (or Canadian or other foreigner) own property in Costa Rica?” The answer is yes. No ifs ands or buts, just “yes”. To read more about this I suggest this page: How To Buy Property In Costa Rica Basically all you have to do is buy the…
Read MoreToucans and Monkeys in Costa Rica
One of the reasons I was attracted to living in Costa Rica is the nature. It’s everywhere! Get just a mile or two outside of any town and you begin to see forests: rain forests, cloud forests, jungle… All kinds of wild life: hummingbirds, iguanas, toucans, monkeys, ducks, wild turkeys, etc. Here where we live…
Read MoreReasons People Leave Costa Rica To Live Back Home
What are the reasons people leave Costa Rica to move back home? Why do – some – people have a dream of living in Costa Rica and then when their dream becomes a reality, they end up moving back to the USA or Canada or Europe or wherever they came from? There have been no…
Read MoreI Gotta Leave Costa Rica for 5 Minutes – WHY?!
We’re applying for legal residency in Costa Rica and as a result we DO NOT HAVE TO LEAVE COSTA RICA every 90 days as some say… However, there’s a crazy catch to this:If you want to DRIVE in Costa Rica after 90 days here, even though you are legally applying for residency, you DO have…
Read MoreToucans Near San Ramon, Costa Rica!
Toucans Near San Ramon Costa Rica are a common site – at least where we live. When I say common, I mean we might see one every couple of days or so, and hear them every day. Today I woke up to the sound of a nearby toucan so went outside to see if I…
Read MoreBring It With You or Buy It Here in Costa Rica?
Things To Bring To Costa Rica When You Move Here I had read forums for years off and on but never found a good thread about what you should bring with you and particularly not one that is currently updated to today’s economy in Costa Rica. So here is a list of things we didn’t…
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So what happened? Why are you selling your house after less than just 1 year?
Built the house on spec. Want to build on another lot after this house is sold. Great house, we’re very happy with it! But it has always been our intention to sell it and build on another lot.