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I have a good friend who has lived in David, Panama for a number of years and he simply won’t go through all the garbage at the border crossings. His advice is to simply take the bus and “leave the driving to others.” Border crossings in a private car can be very interesting and may consume copious amounts of time, whereas bus crossings are routine and generally are hitch free. The other comments are on target……..so now it’s up to you. 😀
Waggoner41, you are correct in that the finished bill is about 900 pages. I was referencing the early comments from the Goddess of Goodness (Pelosi) and other Politicos in the early stages when I think it was numbered in pages as I referenced. Of course depending on which talking head was discussing the length, the numbers varied, but it’s all moot as now we have the Nirvana of Health Care…….and it’s only about 900 pages long.:D
I am sure the draft version and finished version went through a lot of polish and probably type face and page reduction along the way. A goodly number of our congress folks probably cannot read less than 14 or 16 point type anyway and sadly, the older I get the more I appreciate 14 point type! Have a great day and thanks for your correction.
Pura VidaLet’s all hope that the Big O isn’t bringing a copy of the 2700 page health care bill, that nobody in the US understands, along with him as a gift to the Costa Rican President. Now that would set CAJA back a bit. 😀
Windom and Lyndahykin:
David’s observations are pretty much dead on. If you don’t mind a little researching…go to worldweatheronline.comYou can research weather almost anywhere on the planet, get average yearly temperatures, rainfall data, etc. and have it expressed in metric………or the good old USA way (degrees/inches) as you determine.
When you type in a lookup address, be specific, i.e,:
Tamarindo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica.Good luck and hope to see you in Costa Rica!
I feel your pain, but Scott has you on the right track. When I left Minnesota for Maryland 14 years ago, I had to leave behind a family of 6 grills, including my 400 pound two-chambered wood smoker (the love of my life) as our stuff had to be in storage for a while….and you know what all our household goods would have smelled like…but I found that the vertical charcoal smokers, like the Weber products in the link Scott gave you, will do almost the same job and only require one stoking about 1.5 hours into the process. Really, with adding chunks of wood to the charcoal, I was hard pressed to tell the difference. I understand the convenience of an electric smoker, but the import costs would be hefty (unless you are packing it in a container-then much less) and of course one never knows if you would have power all the way through the cycle in Costa Rica……..:D
Good luck and don’t stop smokin’! All my friends think I am a bbq magician. If only they knew how easy it really is!
costaricafinca wrote:
The tours offered are geared toward retirees.
As Dave commented on costaricafinca’s thoughts, that’s true, but if the tour I took is any indication of what’s to come, where 2 out of 5 couples on our tour were NOWHERE near retirement age as we know it, it could be the demographics of the tours are shifting a bit. These folks were not window shopping, but looking for an alternative lifestyle to replace something that has been largely lost in the US. We shall see how it all works out, but don’t be too surprised to see a younger group start showing up in Costa Rica. This may be a trickle now, but we all know the power of flowing water
In regard to your question, I would recommend you and your significant other take an introductory tour when you arrive. I can highly recommend the tour hosted by George Lundquist. It’s very informative and the best part is you get to meet real expats and hear their stories and chat face to face. These folks tell it like it is and do so for your benefit.
The second thing I would suggest is take Dave’s advice. He’s been in Costa Rica for a while and is quite insightful. And………you can learn a lot on this forum. Just don’t overthink Costa Rica and let the country talk to you………versus having your brain spray out all you think you know. Having all that advance research is great, but don’t let that cloud your experiences.
I hope you find Costa Rica to be a special place as it is for so many…..but remember it does not work for everyone, and that’s OK too.
Pura VidaWord is out that the North Koreans are working on the GMO thing for coffee and are adding a nuclear attack resistant gene into the mix. That way, after they reduce the rest of us to radioactive rice krispies, they can relax with a nice cup of coffee, just prior to going out on the links where the Supreme Leader will once again astound what’s left of the world by carding a 17 on an 18 hole championship course. Hope they spare Augusta National so the new world course record can be set there.
😀
I just realized I used “longer term” twice in the same sentence. My high school English teacher just rolled in her grave. Sorry about the grammatical glitch. Think I need another cup of coffee!!
Finally an article/question where I can jump up on my soap box!
Speaking from a point of experience (my wife and I owned two coffee shops for about 11 years) I can relate the following with some degree of professional expertise.
To Scott’s question, I don’t think it’s either necessary or necessarily a good thing for Five Bucks (what my kids say……) to gain a foothold in Costa Rica-the initial assault is generally the portender of things to come………and it’s up to the individual to determine if the invasion is indeed warranted. I personally wish they would choose Guatemala, Peru, or Mars, but what’s done is now history.
To David’s point, eradicating coffee rust would indeed be a boon to all coffee growers and would have a significant impact, world-wide. Ultimately, this would, or should, cause the cost of coffee to fall, if production were able to increase to offset current losses to rust. Getting rid of the bane of rust would be a good thing, indeed. A lot of Tico coffee farmers (or others) would be able to put more product into the market and hopefully the offset in price would not negate the increase in production. Tricky math, but it can work. Let’s all hope for a positive outcome and best wishes on the rust eradication experiment.
While I can appreciate, more than one can imagine, the altruistic exterior motive, I have seen so many instances of corporate creep over the years that this one leaves me a little cold. How about funding research within CR through a college? I would indeed sleep easier at night. Starbucks has indeed done a lot of good things over the years and this would move them to the top of my list. Not to sure about the 600 acre farm thing, though. Like I said, I think we have all seen this before. I will remain hopeful that the motives are pure and that the results will allay my concerns. As Yoda would say, “wary I am…”
No offense intended to Starbucks fans and I hope none is taken. I always respected them as a competitor and never, ever talked them down. It’s just that this news leaves me a little queasy and I have some long term fears for the small shop owners in Costa Rica, over the longer term.
PS: For what it’s worth, the all time favorite coffee in our coffee shops was Costa Rican Tarrazu. Just an incredibly delicious coffee with a built in problem. The problem was nobody could stop at one cup. As a coffee shop owner, that was a nice problem to have………..and helped my retirement program out quite a bit!
The whole concept of estate taxes is just nuts-I think it’s a fair assumption that most of us will have been taxed one way or another while building up whatever nest egg we have, then when you croak, before your survivors can divvy up the surviving remains you have to pony up in absentia and make one final payment. What for? I fail to remember anyone from the government helping me add to the pile. Did I miss the memo?
Scott and Sprite have hit the nail pretty squarely on the head with their comments. The political march towards aramageddon reminds me of the German Army in WWII, which was a very well-oiled machine (witness our politicians) which managed to grab vast tracts of land (our freedoms) but most people don’t know that this march to the cliff (in both cases) was largely fueled by the use of horse-dawn supply chains. In other words, we are the horse drawn supply chains and when an army (or politicians) get cut off by extending themselves to far (fiscal cliff) they then tend to eat what was supporting their drive to “Victory,” i.e., the very supply train that got them there. Not a yummy prospect for me, or anyone else, for that matter.
“Sheeple” is one great line! Interesting in that I have had a lot of unwanted advice..telling me I am nuts but I can handle all of that just fine. I just have to look at the depression around me, read the papers and watch the news to underscore the validity of our decision. If I need new friends, it looks to me like there are enough intelligent people that comment on this website for me to fill up my address book all over again. Kudos to our predecessors!
Had to laugh in regard to your comment on International Living. I read it too but you need to take it all with a large grain of salt mixed into a reality cocktail. There are some great articles, however, and their email machine never sleeps. Need to get it on Ambien to slow it down sometimes. Good luck on the search-I have spent the last year doing just that and after sifting through all the information and talking to a lot of expats in CR, Belize and Equador, CR finds almost always finds its way to the top. This may have something to do with the dimensionality of the country in that there is a lot of diversity within a relativly small geographic area, thus feeding the needs and desires of a large swath of people. Good luck from a neighbor in a almost neighboring state!
