In the June 10th, 2005 of Costa Rica’s English language newspaper, there was a ‘Letter to the Editor’ from an unfortunate man from Sierra Madre, California:

In his letter he said that: “On reading this article (about crime), my wife and I, who were attending a seminar on moving to Costa Rica in San Jose, packed our bags and took the next flight home.

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“Nothing had happened to us, but the article confirmed all our worst fears that not only is violent crime becoming a problem, but not much is being done about it. The feeling of insecurity alone is enough to ruin a holiday.”

Sad isn’t it?

Now I have a funny feeling that this man will be miserable wherever he goes however, we should remember that we can choose how we react to a certain situation. You and I must make our own informed decisions as to whether something may be accurate or not and it is not difficult!

What should they have done even before booking their trip?

How about a little homework? Instead of allowing ‘anybody’ to scare him half to death, if they had spent ten minutes online, they would have felt just fine about enjoying a peaceful vacation in this land of stunning scenery, sunshine and smiles. Instead, they ran off like scared puppies at the sound of a car back-firing… What a waste of time and money!

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According to City Data, with 50% more rapes per capita, 100% more assaults per capita and more car thefts, the crime rate in his little home town of Sierra Madre is worse than Costa Rica in many aspects! He may not think that amounts to much but you can be sure his lady wife will notice the 50% more rapes difference!

Now it’s difficult to compare a small California town of about 12,000 people with Costa Rica which according to the CIA has a population of about 4,016,173 in July 2005 (??) so we must look at the various numbers ‘per capita’.

For example, if you look at some US cities chosen at random for their similar population size to San Jose, according to the US companies NationMasters and City Data this is what you will find:

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