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Are Americans living in American enclaves or are they dispersed among the local population?
Are Americans who are living in houses living in “communities” with homeowner associations or are they living in properties with no connection of any sort to one another?
Thank you in advance.
Hola Marilyn,
The answer to all of your questions is yes. There are a variety of gated communities, gated developments under associations, as well as Americans living dispersed throughout the local population. We live in a single family home next to one other gringo. The other 7 or 8 houses around us are all owned by Tico’s. It is not a gated community. Different strokes for different folks, but we enjoy being part of the culture as much as possible and not hidden behind a gate with just gringos.
I would suggest that at the beach, more than in and around the Central Valley area that the Americans tend to live a little closer together.
In my opinion there seems to less of a sense of “community” there. You tend to have the gringos (and other extranjeros) living in the various gated communites near the beach and outside the gates, you have the Costa Rican families. Would love to hear more feedback from people at the beach on this point….
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t quite see the sense of living in a different country – Costa Rica – unless you are going to make a real effort and become a small part of a Costa Rican community within that country …
Scott – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.com
I’ve received a couple of answers so far and expect there might be others. Both people wanted to live outside of gates and homeowners associations; both wanted to live with the Ticos. I’m all in favor of exactly this. If someone tries to show me a home with a homeowners’ association, I run the other way. When I lived in Israel, I made sure most of my time was spent with the Israelis and not with the Americans who were in my group (I went to work there for a year when I was in college).
I strongly agree with Scott…..why make the move to a foreign country if you don’t want to really experience the culture. There are gated communities near us, but we chose to not live there. Perhaps there is a certain level of security in a gated community, but to us it’s not such an issue. You can still have problems in gated communities. That said, there is one little gated community being built here in Esterillos Oeste that is right up from the beach. It is owned and being sold and built by a Tico builder. The houses are not elbaorate, but are very well constructed and very reasonably priced in comparison to any Gringo development we have seen. We walked through it and met the builder. As I’ve mentioned before, everyone has different things they want as far as where to live and how, but I think there are a few options such as this little gated place that still gives you the feel of living among the Tico’s and not totally isolating yourself. I personally do not believe in the modern gated communities of nothing but gringos, where they have their own restuarants, banks, stores and everything. Why not live in West Palm Beach instead.
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