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Looks like flights out of Tampa, Orlando or Miami are indeed the best deals……..I’m going to go start packing……LOL
Dan, I for one want to Thank You for your service to America. And Thank your son who is in Iraq for his service also. I have my eyes wide open as to where this country is headed, and wish you and your family all the best in the pursuit of Happiness! Please write back after your trip and honestly tell those of us who can’t go right now what you’ve found out. Debra
[quote=”CostaRicaDreamin”]Dan, I for one want to Thank You for your service to America. And Thank your son who is in Iraq for his service also. I have my eyes wide open as to where this country is headed, and wish you and your family all the best in the pursuit of Happiness! Please write back after your trip and honestly tell those of us who can’t go right now what you’ve found out. Debra[/quote]
Thank you Debra…… We Vets get little recognition , but honestly, most of us don’t SEEK it, most are just guys who did what they had to or needed to do.
I solemnly promise to write an account of our trip once we return, and remember…..Keep your EYES open and your POWDER DRY!
Some days I look around and ask “Where are we going, and WHY are we in this HANDBASKET!!??”
The US is in SERIOUS trouble, I just hope the Sheeple wake up soon…….and that’s all I have to say about that…
Dan.
I am TESOL/TESL certified I feel confident I can find work teaching English in CR and I have placement services available to me. I am learning/relearning conversational Spanish. But leaving my job (which I desperately want to do) and living on a very small CR/English teacher wage and small pension will more than halve my income…can I live decently on $2000-2300?
John is absolutely right. If you don’t play by the rules, you could find yourself in serious trouble with more than one government agency. What John failed to note is that obtaining a legal work permit can take a year during which time you are not allowed to work. So how will you support yourself?
Also, you should not assume that there is a shortage of English instructors here. They may not have your credentials, but they’re not in short supply.
And John is also right that typical Costa Rican wages are much, much less than those in North America. Our first Spanish teacher also taught in the public schools. He earned about $12,000US for full-time teaching (with 450 student contacts a week). If there were more lucrative teaching opportunities in the private sector, you can bet that he’d have jumped ship.
david and john are both right about work prospects in CR. do NOT assume you will get a job, and if you do you won’t make very much money at all. the woman who committed suicide last summer came here with the same assumptions — she was a qualified teacher of english, therefore she would get a good paying job. ha! the only job she was offered was two hours away by bus, and it was going to pay about $6.00 a hour. every agency she contacted had a waiting list of teachers looking for work. even after 5 years of living here, and seeing literally hundreds of people come and go, i am still amazed that people think they can come here and work. yes, some do, but most don’t, legally at least. if you are not financially able to meet your expenses in this country for as long as you want to be here, don’t come! it’s as simple as that.
David….can you tell us more about living in Grecia?
I won’t need a job…thank the stars, but we are trying to get a sense of what living is like in certain areas….we like San Ramon too, but reading about it in a book isn’t everything…..Often too much sugar-coating…..What is the reality?
Dan.
[quote=”vmc”]David….can you tell us more about living in Grecia?[/quote]
Whew! That’s a pretty broad question, Dan. Can I use more than one hundred words??
Grecia is very comfortable for us. It has all the amenities that other Central Valley towns have — shopping, medical care, etc. And we have shoe stores, used car lots and fereterias to pave hell a mile. The people have been universally warm and welcoming.
Grecia’s downtown is much more compact than San Ramon’s. That means that we can park in one place and walk to everything we need. It also means that there’s more congestion, more hustle and bustle, than in San Ramon. I like it.
We’re effectively about as far from Santa Ana and Escazu, the gringo shopping meccas, and San Jose as is San Ramon. We’re farther from the autopista than San Ramon is but closer once you’re actually on the highway. The time’s about the same.
We actually live 7.5km from town center in the barrio of [i]el Cajon[/i] which we like very much.
Not having children to educate, I can’t comment on schools.
Does that help?
[quote=”DavidCMurray”][quote=”vmc”]David….can you tell us more about living in Grecia?[/quote]
Whew! That’s a pretty broad question, Dan. Can I use more than one hundred words??
Grecia is very comfortable for us. It has all the amenities that other Central Valley towns have — shopping, medical care, etc. And we have shoe stores, used car lots and fereterias to pave hell a mile. The people have been universally warm and welcoming.
Grecia’s downtown is much more compact than San Ramon’s. That means that we can park in one place and walk to everything we need. It also means that there’s more congestion, more hustle and bustle, than in San Ramon. I like it.
We’re effectively about as far from Santa Ana and Escazu, the gringo shopping meccas, and San Jose as is San Ramon. We’re farther from the autopista than San Ramon is but closer once you’re actually on the highway. The time’s about the same.
We actually live 7.5km from town center in the barrio of [i]el Cajon[/i] which we like very much.
Not having children to educate, I can’t comment on schools.
Does that help?[/quote]
Yes, every tidbit of information helps…my Wife has all but packed our bags, we’re just awaiting the opportunity.
We’ve been talking about this for about 2 years or so, and Grecia is one of the areas we are GOING to look at while we’re there. I just hope that 7-10 days is enough time to look and not be so blinded by the looking that we fail to see some of the sights and places that make living there what we want to do.
I am curious about one other thing….And this isn’t a sticking point, just a matter of curiosity, but insects…..tell me about this.
we have read that ANTS are inescapable as well as other insects, but how much of a battle IS there, and I hate mosquitoes, they remind me too much of my ex-wife……Are there many to deal with?
And finally, what if any, dangerous insectae or other crawly-types should we be aware of?
Thanks again!
Dan.
you can walk to everything in san ramon as well. the entire town is twelve blocks long and twelve block wide with the concentration of businesses right in the center. san ramon is a cow town. it is not as slick as grecia which is why i like it; people still parade through town with their cows or horses in the back of their truck. the shopping is adequate, too, with everything you need. i don’t shop anywhere else so i know what’s here and where it is.
[quote=”maravilla”]you can walk to everything in san ramon as well. the entire town is twelve blocks long and twelve block wide with the concentration of businesses right in the center. san ramon is a cow town. it is not as slick as grecia which is why i like it; people still parade through town with their cows or horses in the back of their truck. the shopping is adequate, too, with everything you need. i don’t shop anywhere else so i know what’s here and where it is.[/quote]
Maravilla, Ii know you are a vegetarian, but we like chicken a lot, and every so-often a good steak or some burgers on the grill, or even Bar-B-Que….I know this might not be your area of concern, but for us omnivores, do you know if meat and chicken is good in the markets there? I EXPECT that our own diets will shift more toward vegetarian once there, and I welcome this, but my kids are voracious……I may have to feed them grubs and roots and stuff………..LOL
[quote=”jdocop”]I’m sorry, but I just cringe when I read posts like VMC’s………we visited CR over the course of ten years before we moved here. We planned our move (or, our retirement) carefully during that time. I simply recall too many instances over those ten years of people talking, dreaming, wishing, and then failing to do the one thing most important for a major change such as moving to a foreign country: VISIT! Just once, but visit………stop saying you’ve been looking forward to moving until after you have at least seen the place. And, no, 7-10 days is not adequate, especially when you consider the cost of one round trip!
Finally, since you say you have been researching, you should be aware of the very high percentage of gringos who do move here, and then give up and go back within the first year of so of residency! Think very carefully before you commit yourself to this.[/quote]Thanks John….I AM aware of the high percentage of Gringos who fail to be able to adapt to the lifestyle, and although reading can’t tell you everything, I feel that we are fairly well armed against at least SOME of the pitfalls…..It will only be our FIRST visit that will last 7-10 days, we aren’t rushing ourselves to make this leap, and plan to take 1-3 years before we start selling our stuff here.
Believe me, when we step on Costa Rican soil, we will have made a plan and will be talking to a lot of people who we have either read about or contacted over the last couple of years. We’ll consult the ARCR, and every Oracle we can find. The first trip will be more brief than we want, yes…… But we will make as many as necessary to be comfortable and SURE we are making the right move.
I appreciate your concern….thanks for expressing it.
I WOULD like to meet you at some point, I have much to tell you about the Veteran situation mentioned in another thread….YES, there are HOMELESS Vets, and it took me [u]in[/u] [u]excess[/u] of TWENTY YEARS to see my disability claim to this point….and I still have to fight the VA. The VA has a policy of Deny or DELAY till the Vet either just gives up and walks away, or dies during the process…Dead Vets receive no benefits.
I hope you will re-think your stance, or belief that every Vet is being taken care of. It’s often a long bloody fight, with the VA as our greatest adversary.
YOU have helped me and others by providing good information, I just HOPE I can return the kindness.Regards,
Dan.the problem with the chicken here is that it is loaded with antibiotics and steroids. they are raised in huge factory farm (shudder), but occasionally i’ve found a neighbor who said he could get me a patio chicken that was free range and NOT fed all those things. when i used to buy it i would always ask the vendor about these two items and he would say, “there are no ADDED hormones or steroids,” which i learned later meant that besides what’s in their feed, they don’t give them any extra. as for the beef, it is unlike anything you ever ate in the States. it is grassfed and not aged, and not the cuts you are used to, except for hamburger (carne molido). having said that, i have had some great lomito (tenderloin) but it is expensive here — about $12.00 a pound. there are carniceria’s everywhere so you won’t have a problem finding meat; the question is do you want to eat it. grassfed beef is actually better for you, but don’t expect to find cornfed — that is an american thing; torture for the cows, and bad for you because the meat is very acid. i have a neighbor who has made some great brisket here, but she had to bring the butcher a chart so he would know how to cut it. people eat a lot of cerdo (pork) here, but i talked to a butcher the other day about how they are raised and again, they are pumped up with all kinds of hormones and antibiotics. i used to buy a few hundred grams of uncured bacon about 3x’s a year, but when i asked the butcher if it had nitrites, nitrates, or preservatives in it, he smiled and said, “oh yes!” as though i were hoping for those things. i never bought bacon again after that. when you see the variety of vegetables here, you will be excited about vegetarian cooking. eating meat in the tropics isn’t such a good idea anyway, but to each his own.
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