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residencial:
George Lundquist is a straight shooter and yes, he has insurance. Several of the members have pointed out many of the reasons that George may have for preferring cash, all of which are logical.
Enjoy the tour and Costa
rica!Without a doubt, take Georges tour. He does a masterful job of letting you know what NOT to do after you “fall in lust” with Costa Rica.
Also, give yourself a good 3 weeks on your own after the tour to take the country out for a test ride on your own. All you need is a decent GPS and a Costa Rica chip. My Garmin with the chip had gravel roads on it that the local goats did not know were there. It’s really pretty easy to get around and in 3 weeks you can catch a lot of look-sees and come away with at least an idea of several areas you would like to see again. Take the time the first time and that will pay you benefits in the long run. Good luck and CR is hard to get out of your memory, once you have been there.For informational purposes only:
Where I originally hail from (Minneapolis, Minnesota)the acceptable bite rate is 3 per minute. This after all the “seeding” of ponds with large scale attacks of killer chemicals which attack the larval stage. I sympathize with our Alaskan friends, but from personal experience in Minnesota, I’ll wager mine is as big as yours….:shock:
A lot of good advice so far so I hope I don’t go off the rails…….
My wife and I are doing a similar tour this year, we were in CR Feb-early March and are coming back for 2 more months this summer to relook at some areas and find new ones.
Even if you are a beachy type person, you will no doubt want to look at other areas and by residing on one or the other shores of the country, you will be making your exploratory trips more than a bit longer. Might I SUGGEST thinking about locating more centrally, where you will pay less and have a better option to transport yourself around the country will less drive from point A to point B. I think you would find you could stay in the Central Valley and rent for your term, still do your beach tours, stay in some areas and probably spend less overall than if you just rented in a beachy setting. Keep in mind distance and travel time are two separate issues in Costa Rica. Having that home base is a really nice thing in country and it’s easier to explore that way.
Best wishes for a great visit. Just let the country talk to you, as it will!Costaricafinca, thank you for adding that point. I was told the same thing but failed to note that in my response. Pura Vida
I have looked into this on a “what if” basis and the information I got was that you can generally use the same shipping broker on the way out as you did on the way in. You might check with Arden Brink at shipcostarica.com for further information. The advice given to me was that as an individual you don’t really want to deal with this process on a micro level. Let the people that ship in and out for a living do it for you.
David:
Unfortunately, you are probably correct. I might just have to settle for being “a little less watched.” FYI, most of the golf balls lost were in Annapolis…………..:D
Sweikert:
I guess the good news is that Costa Rica is unlikely to have drones like we now have overflying us in the US, so there’s something you can miss from a great distance. I have to admit that the thought of the fillings in my teeth being painted on radar right before I catch a Hellfire missle in my chops is something I can live without. Once you are targeted, I don’t think you can surrender. Check the survival stats in Afganistan….
On the other hand, warmongering nations like Costa Rica, a country without an army, will probably acquire a drone for use in the annual Easter celebration. Think about a Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade inflated Dumbo with an old VCR camera freely swinging below it. Now THAT’S a threat.
Too bad those of us still in the States but on the way still have to be concerned about ALL the prying and spying that goes on here. And it’s much deeper than most of the public is even aware of. Our sats can read the label on a golf ball (wish they could help me find all I have lost) from way out in space.
Come on down-“me thinks” you will gain much more than you could possibly miss. And nobody will be watching you.Sweikert:
I don’t have just a ton of experience for you to rely on, but you have a pretty heady manifesto of things you might miss and you may indeed miss them….but then again, if you concentrate on what you can do in Costa Rica vs. what you might be missing, the solutions may become apparent.
Would sitting on your deck, surrounded by flowers of unimaginable beauty, sipping a nice cup of Costa Rican Tarrazu be a fair trade-off for 1.5 hours on the Dan Ryan?Best bet is to take the advice from a whole lot of people on this site and take the country out for an extended test ride first.
You might be surprised; I certainly was on my first tour and my wife and I are coming back for more.
Best of luck and I hope it all works out for you!
Unless something has changed, income earned outside of Costa Rica is not taxable in CR. In the US, what you earn there is still taxable, no matter where you live, unless you live someplace that the IRS will be unable to find you. When I see the drone, I just surrender….
Not sure how Canada handles taxes if you live somewhere else, but I suspect you would be liable for whatever you owe in your home country, but CR has no claim on this income.Recommended reading:
While in San Diego last week, my financial planner gave me a series of articles to read, one of which I think may have some intellectual value to those of us that have contributed to this particular post. It is available via the New York Times internet site. The article was written by David Stockman, former budget chief during some (1981-1985) of the Reagan years. Pretty interesting reading.
Lookup tag: David Stockman
Article: Sundown in America
Header: State-Wrecked: The Corruption of Capitalism in AmericaVery interesting reading and Stockman unloads with his opinion, giving due discredit to both political parties. I am offering this up for the reading pleasure of all without personal comments on my part.
Phil:
The responses are on target in that only you can determine what your level of comfort will be at a given level of expenditure. You might benefit from taking a tour, such as the tour offered by George Lundquist. My wife and I did this tour in February and the most informative portion of the tour was the meetings with ex-pats. We probably met 20-25 expat “units” that had been in-country from 1-6+ years and had the opportunity to quiz them as to what it cost them to live in CR. Keep in mind that owning vs. renting has some advantages in that your housing costs are not really a part of your monthly expenses, per se. Our quizzing of the expats found that most of them lived with reasonable comfort in the $2000 per month range and this was a mix of renters and owners. This is not to say that you could live on $2000 per month as it depends on your circumstances, but from our research this does not appear to be an unduly low number and was echoed by a number of in-country expats. We are coming back this summer to do a test run/reality check as there is no experience like your own, as this is based on what your particular needs and wants may be. I think that being adaptive to the Tico lifestyle vs. having all the same/same of what you experience now could prove to be a cost saving lifestyle change and the added side benefit is that you may wind up healthier to boot. Best of luck with your plans!There’s a pretty good editorial today in the U-T San Diego paper that’s worth reading for those of you that can tie in to utsandiego.com/news/opinion
The lead off quote is from Margaret Thatcher:
“The trouble with socialism is eventually you run out of other people’s money to spend.”
Check it out, if you can.
