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The way many here generalize what is a Tico lifestyle is much to general.
Absurd really.
Condescending too.
Tico lifestyle –
What does that mean?
Financially according to Americans it would mean you are poor. But have you ever been to the San Jose Valley? Lot of expensive cars there, and malls and expensive restaurants.
Financially poor?Reconsider.
Ah you must mean and organic, carefree less ambitious life revolving around simple living and cooking with lena and picking coffee.
Like I said, have you ever been to San Jose?
Oh you must mean a noble family centered honest church going God fearing lifestyle.
Plenty of thieves in San Jose…
Now here is the kicker – you cannot combine all people with many lifestyles and say they have a Tico lifestyle – as if it was one lifestyle.\
What is meant by an American lifestyle… tell me
you have rich poor educated uneducated sick healthy etc etc
Think about it!
If you are single and live in the campo and are frugal and basically live a campesino existence and you have your house paid for you could possibly live on $1000 a month. If you have to pay rent add another $500. Car? much more… wine, entertainment, etc.. where does it end? Travel?
I wouldn’t want to live on a grand a month and that would not be my idea of living.
I would say living with a car and a life and paying rent requires $2,500 minimum…
Kids! That means private school and at least another $600 just for the school…
It aint cheap here. Now if you want to live frugally like a minimalist I think you could live cheaper somewhere in the states,
We never mentioned medical.
Do not for a minute think that your $65 a month caja bill will even come close to giving you medical treatment like you would find in the states. Also you can get emergency quality medical treatment in the states for free if you qualify.
There are so many Caja Horror stories it would give you nightmares… private medicines here is much less than the states but it aint cheap.
If I made under 20k a year i would move to an inexpensive place in the states and use government assistance…
Bunch of jokers! I love it.
regardless – the website is awesome.
You deserve credit. Great job.
I knit pick about your refusal to use the registered and trademarked name “Realtor” correctly, but aside form that you run a great website, and in a country of expat jokers, refreshingly you do not seem to be one of them…
That is saying something indeed…
Carry on!
Celebrities? Musicians?
Please no…
Ego maniacs with blow horns. Costa Rica already has enough noise pollution…
How about some adventures and eccentrics…
It was great when every one of the few gringo you met back them was a true character and they all made 3% a month for doing nothing and spent it like drunken sailors!
Well I have always considered it a privilege to grouse with you my dear…
Just like a couple of Jews in the New York diamond district – we can haggle all day, raise our voices loud but at the end of the day we are really all pretty much the same… that is we do one of three things, stand, sit or lay down.
No Costa Rican Drivers License for Perpetual Tourist
This is not good for Costa Rica. Making things harder for foreigners to live here adversely affects the economy… or does it?
I think people confuse the need for tourism with the need for foreign residents. Plus Costa Rica is not as it once was with few cars, little money, infrastructure in complete disrepair from lax tax enforcement.
Tico in general merely tolerate us for the most part. In the past, some viewed us a special and progressive until they found out what progressive meant (changing of culture). Now many see us as what we are – a detriment to their culture.
We come here and act as if we know better by turning our noses up at social mores and doing as we do back home rather than as Ticos do here. Several Ticos have personally expressed to me that Gringos culture is unwelcomed. They blame foreigners for rising prices and new taxation.
Before it was easy to disregard the rules – now the middle-America grow-government pro-tax stand and is turning Costa Rica into a developed country.
The question is, is that a good thing? I didn’t move here to live in a facsimile of the US. I liked it better when there were few cars, crappy roads and everything carried here from the US. Ticos were not fat from fast foods and people smiled much more. So, considering this, why would Ticos want to make it easier for foreign residents to live here.
Western culture, whether it has seeped in from the media, or flaunted by the so called “do gooders” that feel a need to make CR like the US, has not helped Costa Ricans smile more. On the contrary, it has brought more stress from higher materialistic expectations.
If you never knew what it was like here in the 90’s, you probably have no idea what I am talking about. If you do, you are lamenting the changes along with me…. Oh well.
Personally, I hope they make it even harder for foreigners to live here. Most that I meet constantly complain, speak crappy Spanish if at all, and have no idea how to dress or act graciously. They think their money entitles them to act as they please.
So, I am happy with the licensing law. To me most foreigners are part of the problem rather than the solution. This is Costa Rica. If you want to reside here than learn the culture and to do that, you need to speak Spanish. The answer to this from most is “I don’t want to be a Latino, a Tico!” Well than why are you here really? What would you think of people that live in the US that say they do not want to be American… Think about it.
Depends what you are looking for… No? I am not saying Prisma is incompetent… I am saying they will try and charge you for services and work you may not need… Now if you are going there for a crown or a specific need its one thing, but I was looking to have a lot of work done (in my opinion) and they really poured it on price wise. As an example Dr Marcos charges $40 for a cleaning and Panoramic xrays and molds are included in the price – not so at Prisma… Guess they need you to pay for all that shiny stuff inside their office… I don’t need Beverly Hills flash… guess that’s why I live here!
The thing about Prisma to me was that they wanted to sell me everything under the sun – they gave me the “your teeth are like jewelry so you need to buy this $300 teeth guard” plastic thing to use at night. Then they told me I had a cist and it needed to be removed or it could rupture. Another $300 or so to remove (another doctor said that it was so small that it was nothing to worry about and that i had had it for a long time and they are not uncommon). Then they wanted to do a complete make over and extract teeth and replace with implants and do root canals in healthy teeth. What got me is they wanted to do a crown on a perfectly healthy tooth rather than a veneer to match color (maybe higher profit in a crown? who knows – but very fishy smelling)…
Now, this might make since if you are looking for cosmetic dentistry so your teeth look picture perfect. I wasn’t into that and explained my desires, but that failed to impress them. They saw the gringo dollars and tried to sell me the whole show. Also they were semi high pressure sales tactics as well and had a kind of “we expect you to agree to the quote and do the work now” – vibe.
They looked upset when i walked out after paying for a teeth cleaning like about $80 – $100 and paying for a panoramic x-ray. The whole appointment cost me around $300.
Plus they have you locked in the back office. I know buildings here have guard gates where you have to hit the buzzer so the door opens and this building has one at the main entrance, but the office has one between the inside dental office and the waiting room. I really disliked feeling captive.
Well if you are a gringo that does not care about price because you think you are saving so much because of the inflated prices in the US, than they may be your cup of tea. To me they appear very greedy and not Pura Vida at all. Very uppity… Money hungry wanabe rich gringos to me. I didn’t come here to be around those kind of Ticos.. Plenty of those types in the states. So I prefer not giving those types my business.
I used to use Dr Marcos because they are genuinely nice people but now they have a churn and earn mentality and some guy from New York managing their business. It has really changed and to me the quality and individual attention has faded. They are still a good value price wise but the quality/individual attention…???
I am thinking about trying to fins someone in the middle. An average size practice that is not focused on the gringo buck and treats each patient like an individual rather than a client..
Its harder now because Costa Ricans in general are much more materialistic and greed is on a dramatic upswing here. This place is losing its soul, but still compared to the semi-souless US there are still compassionate people but less and less all the time when it comes to professionals in San Jose…
Just my view…
If anyone knows of a middle of the road practice with good quality and reasonable prices (Not Prisma prices)for Costa Rica – in that I mean one Costa Rican professional compared to another. Not comparing US dental prices to Costa Rican prices – PLEASE let me know. I need some work and am not going back to Dr. Marcos Cavellari.
You have to be careful here. About a year ago I lost a crown in Grecia and a gringa recommended a dentist near by. I went there and he charged me $60 to glue it! I was in the US not too long ago and lost the same crown (which now has been replaced) and they charged me $45 in a modern immaculately clean facility..
Gringos are viewed as ripe for the pickings so be aware,,,,
You mean Real Realtors???? jajajajajaaaa
Like in those belonging to The National Association or Realtors as in the NAR, you know the association that has its own code of ethics that bind all members no matter where they sell property – as in worldwide… ???? The trademarked organization that does not call their cola drinks “Coca Cola?” You mean those members that would never infringe on someone else trademarked name have told you stories about transferring funds??? er er er er er…
Its any negotiable instrument worth 10K. That includes checks made out to yourself. It does not include [u]blank [/u]checks…. It does include cashiers check that are made out to anyone. This is from what i have determined after reading about it… Its not the gospel according to the Feds… just what I gleaned. Also bullion and anything commonly traded is considered negotiable. If you are really interested Google it – there is a lot of info available.
Now someone wrote on the web that you can hold a letter that has been mailed to you unopened with cashiers checks inside made out to you and they cannot open the letters without a search warrant.. Does that mean the will not? NO! But you can always say hay I did not have time to open my mail, just grabbed it and hauled ass to the airport at the last minute! May save you from losing your cash…
So if you think about it the best way to deliver money here is to send a bank check through Fed Ex… I mean I don’t know why anyone would do that when you can wire money.
Recently a Canadian said that he told Scotia Bank that he was wiring 50K (from SB Canada to SB CR) and that SB CR told him to get a letter from SB Canada saying where the money came from and have it notarized at the CR embassy (or maybe just notarized in Canada) – regardless is this true?!? I mean has it really come to this? If so its a sad sad commentary on the North American banking system…
Scott have you heard of having your home bank write a notarized letter stating the source of your funds????
The mantra for the past two generations in America has been that women suffer from low self-esteem brought on by a multitude of negative influences such as teacher bias, misogyny, old boys’ networks, parenting favoritism, double standards, gender stereotyped toys, you name it.
Low female self-esteem industry has been one giant scam perpetrated on gullible liberals and cowed conservatives. Women — American women in particular — don’t have a low self-esteem problem; just the opposite — they have a problem of unwarranted high self-esteem. What kind of woman do you get when you combine a cultural apparatus designed to maximally extol the virtues of womanhood and cast all fault for any female shortcomings on male bias and discrimination with a biologically innate evolutionary imperative that renders men more expendable than women? Answer:
A woman with a big fat head.
From the cradle, women are groomed by their peers, family, society and DNA-coded algorithms alike to embrace the joys of big-headedness. It used to be only beautiful women had this problem (and with at least a semblance of justification based on real value), but now ugly women, fat women, and lawyers are all riding the phony low self-esteem grievance chariot to the entitled princess winners’ circle. The result has been to produce a nation of broads hell-bent on seeing themselves as god’s gift to god himself.
You here women pronouncing themselves as goddeses frequently. How many men do youhere calling their counter parts into a “god” club.
This is all coming to a head now that American women have woken the sleeping giant with their overt disdain for men and blatant gender blur designed to feminize all possessing a penis.
Her in Costa Rica is expanding but men here look at women not as something you put on a pedestal but rather as a tool that makes family life comfortable. They are not wanting the alpha female like their male counterparts in the US do, rather they seem content to have a less beautiful woman and the alphas are basically seen for what they are – over confident, under accomplished pain in the ass rather than a hard working less beautiful woman that fulfills her functions as mother and wife. An honorable self sacraficing woman rather than a wanabe chick flick conqueress heading down the golden path of the having it all Godessdom boat load of crap sold to them by their hollywood whore value brethern in the western world under the guise of liberation.
Rationale women understand this.
Written by a prominent American female:
And it’s this feminist attitude that has made respect and admiration between men and women take a nosedive. Women’s studies programs teach women that when men act graciously, they are attempting to control them and keep them down. They encourage women to be hostile, become major ball-busters, and think they can have babies without men because kids don’t need a daddy. If you listen to them, they say just about every woman is beaten, raped, and cheated out of everything (just read Who Stole Feminism by Christina Hoff Sommers if you think I’m nuts). And when these women dress like pigs, talk like pigs, and act like pigs, it is a little demoralizing for men to put them on a pedestal, take them out on dates, and treat them like they’re special. Think about it. Chivalry has to do with respect, and we don’t see women behaving with much dignity when they hook up and have multiple sexual partners.
Although chivalry is dead, there are still nice guys out there who would act chivalrously, but they simply don’t know what the hell women want. Today’s men are very frustrated and scared because they accept women’s equality, but they are afraid that if they act romantically, they will come across as sexist and offensive. I don’t blame them. I mean it’s just the stupidest stuff that makes women angry with men.
For example, when I was just starting to date boys, my dad was very clear with me: “If a fellow opens his car door, then go out on the date with him. If he doesn’t open the car door, turn around and come back inside the house. Don’t have a conversation about it, don’t argue, and don’t demand anything. Just say thank you very much and wave goodbye.” However, if a guy tries to open a door for a woman today, she tells him, “No, I can open it myself.”
All I can say is if you’re a guy and a woman behaves obnoxiously like that on a date, just let her open the door herself. In fact leave her there. Tell her she can call a cab herself too because she’s equally competent to do that. If a woman acts in an ungracious way, dump her. Don’t waste your time, money, and effort on her. If you go out of your way to be chivalrous, kind, and thoughtful, and she doesn’t behave in a way that shows she respects, admires, and appreciates it, she’s not a woman – she’s just a female.
It makes a man feel good to be protecting and taking care of a woman, and it should make a woman feel good to know that a man is being respectful and thoughtful of her. If I walk into an elevator and a man lets me walk in first, I turn around and say, “Thank you very much.” Most of the time they look utterly surprised to get the compliment.
We’ve lost something beautiful and it’s something so essential in a love relationship. If you treat your husband like he’s a man, you’ll get more manly behavior. If you treat your wife like she’s a woman, you will get more womanly behavior. The polarity between men and women actually means something despite what social trends say. I don’t care how big of a feminist you are – we are still hardwired.
As always fun butting heads with you, and I really do enjoy it! But just as when one’s position is weak they are reduced to yelling and foul language, so to you in your response. I have not made on negative generalization regarding all women. The women responding have made such generalization regarding all men. Misandry comes to mind.
Regarding misandry: The Western World has quietly become a civilization that undervalues men and overvalues women, where state and society forcibly transfers resources from men to women creating various perverse incentives for otherwise good women to conduct great evil against men and children, and where male nature is vilified but female nature is celebrated.
This is easily visible in television and movies where men are repeatedly made to be the buffoon. Another example is when the laugh track goes off every time a woman brutally attacks a man by kicking his genitals. Now have you ever seen a man kick a woman in the genitals in a sit com? Of course you haven’t.
The savage way in which men are degraded by the media is unfair to both genders, and is a recipe for a rapid civilizational decline and displacement, the costs of which will ultimately be borne by a subsequent generation of innocent women, rather than men, but their innocent children will suffer. My premise is that the maculation of women and the emasculation of men is what drive men like the original poster to look outside the US for mates. The gender confusion will further dishearten their children. Who really wants two mommies and who really wants two daddies?
The original poster is looking at the alternative for his dissatisfaction with gringas. That alternative is Latin America. Where do dissatisfied gringas look for their alternative to gringos? I see plenty of Ticas coupling up with gringos. I see few if any Ticos coupling up with gringas. I think that is a very telling point.
And isn’t the mutual dissatisfaction between gringo and gringa emblematic of the situation described in the second paragraph regarding the feminist agenda being pushed way over the line resulting in a disservice to women and men as collateral damage.
Now if you have some insight to this it is appreciated however if you want to scream the stereotypical radical feminist battle cry of “misogynist” defame his character because he wants to make an unpopular point! Kill the messenger (I am envisioning a scene out of Shrek), pitch forks), because if a “boys versus girls” kind of teenage emotional reply is the best reply you have, than I see no reason to further respond and regard such responses as complicit to my specific arguments.
Ah my old nemesis Maravilla, I was wondering when you would pop your viperous head from the the gringa snake pit! Jajajajjaaa. Just kidding…
“you apparently have no clue as to the power women wielded millenia ago before men decided they were too threatened.”
You must be pretty old to have a clue about that. More platitudes. That’s all you “guys” have, opinions stated as fact…
You know its all true and your are threatened by it.
The pendulum is swinging the other way my friend… macho women are out! The new cool is feminine women…
Soon men all over the US will be rising in liberation from the giringa’s insatiable need to be masculine such as Super woman kicking butts and taking names, with her whipping boy Gringo in tow.
How many whipping boy Ticos do you see? As in “none!”
I think you and your kind are in the wrong place when it comes to looking for partners.
And BTW the fact that you added your devalued and femanazied dos colones is further proof that my arguments stand…
So lets here more condemning of me rather than refuting my points as the typical gringa man hating femanazi would do.. or are you better than them?
None of you have attacked my argument. Because its true. So you attack me in perpetuation of your antiquated march of solidarity into man land. Real women are wising up to your NOW lib crap. Her in CR all traditional Ticas despise your masculinity and anti male stances… No quire here to which to preach… sorry.. (not really).
