[amani]

Interesting thread.
While we were in CR this past winter, two of our Tico friends were robbed at gunpoint for their cellphones by people with ‘funny accents’ (read, not Ticos). One was in San Jose, mindlessly walking down the street playing with his phone, a mistake he won’t make again. The other is pretty tall and fair for a Tico, we think he was mistaken for a gringo, anyway he was out late and alone. And we have heard of two murders that were more like assassinations, the general consensus of which is that they were dope deals gone wrong. I have come to the conclusion that petty theft is a national past time and we choose to deal with it or not. Crimes of passion and greed occur everywhere.
CR doesn’t have a monopoly on crime. In 24 years, on our little 3 miles of dirt road behind 2 locked gates in Northern Calif, we’ve had home invasion robberies, regular robberies, 2 suicides, a murder, various and sundry gun threats, one vacation home destroyed by renters that held a 500 person rave, and every year there seem to be folks that can’t read that just walk on thru looking to take the marijuana plants that they are SURE everyone is growing. Oh, and regular helicopter/CAMP activity looking for the guerilla growers that ARE growing large amounts of pot (which also brings more people looking to steal said pot).
The whole time we were in CR this winter I kept up on the headlines back here in Calif and there were more than enough murders, rapes, road rage incidents and manslaughter problems to go around. Not to mention the crooks running the country.
At least CR doesn’t deny they have problems.
I STILL choose CR over Panama because I have made FRIENDS here over the past 7 years of visiting. Friends that have told me what neighborhoods to stay out of and how to protect myself and not invite problems. As I said, the crime I’ve heard of was perpetrated on Ticos, not gringoes. Although I did know of one woman who lost her diamond rings that she left in the shower stall at her fancy condo in Punta Leona (that’s 3 locked gates with guards) – guess it was just too much for the maid to pass up. She got them back, after her mother-in-law suggested they ‘might have accidentally ended up in the trash’, which is where they were ‘found’.
If I wanted all the fancy stores/malls/designer stuff, I’d stay in the US. Costa Rica still has a soul, which is a lot more than I can say for the US. No need to trash/bash the US, Scott, they do it to themselves quite well without help.

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