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rward, I am wondering where you see so much negative. Perhaps, like many, you are accustomed to being sold things so that when you come across critical assessments and differing opinions which deter you from what you desire, you are irritated.
Costa Rica is part of the real world which means it has qualities and conditions which may contradict commercial advertisements for retirement here. But even with all its defects, for me, Costa Rica is a paradise for a number of personal reasons. You will need your own reasons to be able to live here. Which kinds of people other expats are should not even enter into the calculations.
It is only a matter of minor interest to me what kind of expats settle here. I will make friends and acquaintances with people (or not) regardless of their country of origin. I do NOT seek out expats as we are an anomaly here. I seek to adapt and blend into this environment as much as I can.I myself would be [b]PERFECTLY[/b] happy socializing with..howlers…toucans….a sloth….a snake….butterfly’s…some of the beautiful cats in CR…frogs….etc. 🙂
i’ve always wondered why people leave their home country, set up housekeeping in a foreign land, isolate themselves with others who did the same, then ruminate day in and day out about what is happening in the place they just left. expats have been doing this since the first exodus in the 20’s. they usually move someplace because they are not happy with the way things are where they currently live, or else they are just looking for a cheaper place to live, and rarely do they have an interest in learning the language, the culture, cultivating local friends or acquaintances, or participating in anything other than an offshoot of the culture they just left. why not just stay home and move to Alabama if you want a cheaper place to live? okay, costa rica isn’t the cultural hub of latin america, but it does have its good points and there is much to learn historically and culturally about living in Central America and yet most of the expats i know haven’t a clue about the history, and nor do they care. somewhere in their brain is a dim memory of iran-contra, but beyond that, they don’t know anything at all about central america. go to france or italy (Tuscany has been dubbed Chiantishire!) and you see the same thing. or spain, where there is a big Brit population in some isolated upscale community (where some of my family live) but they usually stick to themselves and bemoan the fact that things are not like they were in the place they used to live. i didn’t move here to replicate a cheaper version of my life in the States — i moved here to enjoy nature, to learn as much as i can about how things work here, to study the political history as well as the ways in which this little country fits onto the world stage. i was never a big TV fan from the day we got one when i was 8, so going three years without seeing american TV isn’t a big deal to me, but i know people who do nothing but watch TV all day long, and i can’t help but wonder what they are missing by not interacting with the culture they are now living in. learning new things is always an adventure — to me anyway. and if i want to see some event, or landmark, or a new place, i certainly don’t need to gather a gaggle of gringos to do it. so while i do have expat friends, most of them are like me — they have integrated into this culture by learning the language, cultivating latino friends, and are doing their best to create a “new” life here not a cheap imitation of the one they used to have someplace else. i had one taxi driver comment to me that he can’t figure out why gringos move here and then spend all day drinking in a gringo hangout, which seems to be a big pasttime for a lot of people. the locals just shake their heads in wonder at how some expats simply avoid ever trying to fit in.
Maravilla and I agree on this one. I don’t seek expats or their hangouts. While I am sure there are many like Maravilla with whom I would ind much in common, there are many others who I would want to avoid.
I have a problem with the concept of gated communities and foreign money rearranging and redirecting rural economies away from a state of sustainability. I can see how great amounts of foreign money could even warp the culture and destroy small, tightly knit communities.
I am offended and even ashamed by the attitudes of some of the expats whose conversations I overhear on the flights back and forth between CR and Miami. Some of these these attitudes display a prurient and/or purely financial interest in Costa Rica. I would have nothing to discuss with these people. We are from the same culture but not the same world. I go my way.
[quote=”costaricabill”][quote=”sprite”] I go my way.[/quote]
Please do![/quote]
You usually have something more substantial to offer than a personal attack. Is that the best you can come up with?
[quote=”sprite”][quote=”costaricabill”][quote=”sprite”] I go my way.[/quote]
Please do![/quote]
You usually have something more substantial to offer than a personal attack. Is that the best you can come up with?[/quote]
Come on Sprite, don’t be so sensitive! It wasn’t intended as a “personal attack” – those attacks rarely, if ever, are 100% in agreement with the “attackee”, and seldom start with the word “Please”.
I was and am in agreement with you that you should go your way! What fault can you find with that?
There is one question that I have though:
As a little boy, teenager, young man or adult, did you ever get your finger(s) or hand (or other extremity) caught in a gate somewhere?You seem to have a very strong personal prejudice against gates and gated communities. Somehow you seem to introduce your gated community prejudice into many of the threads that have nothing to do with gates or communities.
What, in your mind, constitutes a “gated community”.
In your view, is a high rise condo a gated community? Most of them have gates on the parking areas and at all of the entries and exits, and most of them have guards as well.
If a single, free standing family home has a porton and a gate and a fence, is that a gated community?
If several homes are clustered behind a gate and fence that runs along the road but not along the sides or back of the property, is that a gated community?
I know that for you to “go my way” it will not include a gated community, so I am just trying to find out where you will not be!
I will agree with you that there are all too often some very obnoxious gringos flying to and from Costa Rica, whether the other port be Miami, Atlanta, Lauderdale, Houston or wherever! Maybe some of them are inclined to be obnoxious because they are “banksters”, or maybe it is because they, and you, had to pass through a “gate” to get on the airplane!
A gated community is one which is relatively secured and segregated from the surrounding social structure. But I refer more to the gated mindset than the gated physical barrier. Segregation from the community is, by definition, a rejection and repudiation of that community. It marks the resident as an outsider.
A gated community is a statement by the residents to the surrounding, outside community. The essence of the social contract is based on trust and fair distribution of community wealth. This contract is broken by the gated statement “I have more than the rest of you and I do not trust the rest of you and I feel the need to be guarded and have my property protected from you.” Anyone who thinks about this for even a moment must see the insult.
A gated community is also physical evidence of an income gap within a society and that is never healthy. Gated communities are a sign of an infection in the society.
What is a Gringo ? A type of Lizard perhaps ?:shock:
OH ! You mean those clowns that sell houses for ten times what they’re worth.
I have to go clean my shotgun now.
Thanks for the reminder.[quote=”barbaracjohnson”][quote=”Livefreeordie”]My wife and I are “young” compared to the “normal” age of gringos that retire to CR. I am 40’s she is 30’s. . . . The people we have met around my house are all over 60 and tend to ask the most personal questions right out of the gate. “How can you afford to build that house, where does your money come from, ect. I find these questions not only rude but intrusive, especially from strangers I just met. . . .[/quote]
Literally a half a century ago (1966-1970), I lived as a divorcee with two kids. I was 31-35 yo. Having coffee with a few locals the first week I arrived, one asked me how many times a week did my hubby and I have intercourse. I, like you, was shocked. I came to learn that the Greek customs are different than those in the States. Ditto here, although they are much more conservative here in CR. Given that you and your wife are 30s-40s, people are curious to learn whether you inherited your money or whether you are using drug money to build a house here. Earning a few thousand dollars ANNUALLY, the Ticans are also curious how such a young man can afford to build a house here – never mind buy one. Although less expensive to build here, one still needs a few hundred grand. As for the local banks, when I opened a bank account locally, I was required to get a report from my local police dept in the U.S. and to have it certified by the Secy of State (MA).[/quote]
So, let me make sure I read that right. If someone is in their 40’s and has enough money to retire and build a Gringo style house they must have inherited their money or are selling drugs to get it? It is this mentality that creates the constant discrimination against me. One can have millions and neither of your assumptions are correct. The Ticos don’t question me. The Gringo’s are relentless. I am going to start saying “its none of your damn business”.for a gringo to even pose such a question to you speaks of their poor breeding and low class. mostly they are just plain jealous. dismiss them with a wave of your hand, which is all a person of that ilk deserves.
[quote=”maravilla”]for a gringo to even pose such a question to you speaks of their poor breeding and low class. mostly they are just plain jealous. dismiss them with a wave of your hand, which is all a person of that ilk deserves.[/quote]
[size=200]HUH ?[/size]grin·go (grngg)
n. pl. grin·gos [b]Offensive[/b] Slang
Used as a [b]disparaging [/b]term for a foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person.——————————————————————————–
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