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We have nothing but good things to say about Barry and the folks at http://www.ShipCostaRica.com They moved us from our door in Virginia to our door in Nosara, Guanacaste, for a reasonable price with no surprises, and with no losses or damages, except for the glass bowls I hadn’t packed well enough. 🙂
[quote=”vache”]Hello. I was looking at local flights this morning, Nature Air specifically, and noticed that there are three categories for cost. Flex, promo, and locos.
Assuming that the cheapest fare (locos) is for residents and perhaps crazy people,
No, not crazy people, but crazy system.
We just booked a ticket with Nature Air over the phone, paid with a debit card linked to a dollar account with Banco Nacional, and got the “loco fare” with no requirement of showing a cedula. Had the ticket been paid in colones, it would have been necessary to show a cedula when boarding.
Go figure! ❓In 5 rental apartments, we have 3 Titan on-demand water heaters and 2 electric water tank heaters, admittedly not insulated. At the beach, mold and other ugly black growths appear in no time, if you wrap something. We do turn off the power for the water heater when not needed.
In 10 years, we have replaced 1 Titan and one tank, and replaced the heating elements ($35) in another Titan.
With comparable use (number of people x number of days in use), there is a huge difference in the amount of used electricity , with the on-demand heaters winning hands-down!
They are more expensive to buy, but with the money saved to ICE and the much smaller amount of space that the Titan needs, we will recommend that any day.
If we need to replace one of the small heaters, we will check the other brands mentioned here – or look into solar power – but all things considered, we have gotten a lot of hot water from the Titan heaters at a reasonable cost.[quote=”costaricafinca”]I have read some posts from the lawyer you hired, and was impressed by his responses.
However, he did mention that[i] ‘… even if you have the ‘entramite’ that one would have to leave to renew their visa, until they had been issued a cedula’ [/i]or words to that effect
I have been trying to find out, whether this is correct.
Possibly you could ask him about this?[/quote]We were ensured by Eugenia who is the expert on immigration that we would not have to leave, but I will ask her again and let you know.
[b]costaricafinca wrote:[/b]
[i]Welcome! Glad you made it and glad you shared the information about the service that provides bus tickets. Just remember, when you do make that bus trip to Nicaragua, to get back into CR you will need another “onward passage ticket”, be it another bus ticket (available at the border) or a plane ticket out of CR.[/i]A couple of weeks ago, we drove to the border, walked over, shopped, walked back and of course needed to show that we would leave Costa Rica again. Since we did not use our one-way bus ticket from “A Safe Passage” to get to Nicaragua and it was still dated out in the future, we used it again and it was good enough for CR immigration.
We now have our “entramite” paper and don’t have to leave, but would actually like to visit Nicaragua, so I have just changed the date on the bus ticket till it stops raining. If we can’t go on the date I picked at random, we can change it again.
Not bad for $ 69 per person: 2 “free passes” into Costa Rica and at some point we will get on a nice bus in Liberia (but it is good from SJ)and go maybe all the way to Managua, although Grenada sounds more interesting. 🙂
9 days (on the calendar) after the first meeting with a residency lawyer, we have the receipt that our application for residency is “entramite” 😀 😀 – and we would like to add another name to the list of recommended law firms: GLC Abogados in Los Yoses, San Jose. http://www.lawyersofcostarica.com
After receiving the recommendations here on the board, we drafted an email explaining that despite having lived in the US for a number of years, our passports are still “European Red”, and sent it to Romulo Pacheo, who never responded and to “Junior Visquez” who recommended we apply as US citizens! ❓
Reading on another forum, I saw a post by Augusto Arce of GLC Abogados which impressed me because he actually answered the posted question.
I sent the same email, at 6:30 am, and before 10 am, I received a call from Augusto. He just wanted to confirm that they had received my email and he had a few questions he wanted answers to before he put everything in an email.
We hired them on the spot for $ 1,000 to retain them and another $ 1,000 when they had the receipts for filing, total $ 2,000 for the two of us plus the stamps and fees that everybody will charge.
All subsequent communication has been “Prompt and Polite”, the only P’s in use so far. 🙂If we had not gotten sick, we could have met with them 3 days later. Instead, we went to San Jose 10 days later, met with Eugenia Viquez who is the immigration coordinator for the firm, and went for the fingerprinting the following morning. They sent a guy to stand in line at 4 am, we arrived a little before 7 am and were joined by Yannsi, a paralegal from the firm, who was with us all through the process, and we left at 11 am.
The line was extra long because the “illegals” (mostly Nicaraguans) have been given till Nov. 7, to get their papers in order, so the whole system is swamped!Yannsi even gained another set of clients while we were in line. An American couple had paid $ 3,000 to a lawyer in March and since then, nothing had happened. Now, they were trying on their own, with very limited Spanish skills, and when they realized that we were only on day 2 of the process and already where they were, they decided on the spot to go with GLC Abogados as well.
The entire process to get our residency (as inversionistas) is expected to take 5 months, 1 month longer than normal because of the swamped system.
While in SJ, we stayed at Hotel Boutique Jade (behind Mall San Pedro and in walking distance to the GLC office) where we got a special rate of 25% off because we were clients of GLC. Very nice hotel with breakfast included and the “Jurgens Restaurant” part of the hotel was great.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”]So where are Nova Dental and Prisma Dental? pebo1 was asking about Atenas.
[/quote]Nove Dental is in Escazu. Plaza Itskatzu, office 212, in front of the Court Yard Marriott.
Some procedures might be worth traveling a little for, but that is up the each individual.Two of our guests have had implants and other major work done at Nova Dental http://www.novadentalcr.com/ and they give them rave reviews, are even coming back to Costa Rica just to get more work done.
Thank you for the feed back and recommendations.
I was well aware of the “3M’s” (Momentito, Mas tarde and Mañana), but had never heard of the “3P’s”. However, after spending more than 10 years building with a local contractor and developing a business, I am quite adept at being a “Persistent and Polite Pest” – something my husband, recently rescued from corporate America, still has to learn. (“But I told the boss once”.) Smiling a lot and bringing lemonade and cookies to the workers will also get you far :).From what I have read over the years, I really don’t doubt that Javier can get the job done in the best way possible. We are wondering if the (high) cost of his services are in line with others doing the same thing and thus are open to hear about the experiences of others.
We just arrived in CR with one way airline tickets and bus tickets out to Nicaragua. From now on, we will do the return tickets CR – USA and back.
John from “A Safe Passage” http://www.costaricabustickets.com/ booked our 2 tickets from San Jose to Managua for $ 69 each (payable by Paypal) and sent with them a cover letter stating this:
[i]In accordance with Costa Rica’s immigration law (Ley de Migración y Extranjería – Ley 8764), a copy of your onward bus ticket along with this cover letter will give the two of you all the documented, verifiable proof you need to board your flight and enter the country. Your tickets and passport information have been entered into Costa Rica’s Immigration data base by Tica Bus, and they are accessible by your airline. [/i]My husband, flying out of Roanoke, Virginia, was asked to prove he would be leaving CR and, after a phone call to ?,this bus ticket was sufficient. I flew out of Newark, NJ and was never asked for anything.
Only knowing that we will make a trip out of CR and return before 90 days, we picked a date withing that time frame. If this date won’t work, we can change the bus ticket without charge. It is the same price no matter where you board the bus, but dates can only be changed if ticket is booked from San Jose.
Even if we choose a different way to meet the visa requirements, the $ 69 for the bus ticket was a cheaper option than being out $$$ for returnable plane tickets.
A note to the web site: I found the “Book Here” link confusing and used the “Contact us” email instead. All questions were answered and everything was taken care of quickly.
Next step: Applying for residency 🙂
Thanks to all the recommendations here for ShipCostaRica, we decided over a year ago that they would be the outfit to use for our move from Virginia to Nosara.
Between Arden, Louise and Barry, we got every question (both the good ones and those from the “worry warts”) answered quickly, competently and convincingly. Stateside, Jeanne in Charleston was our helpful shipping contact.
Even when we were hit by a huge storm on June 29, taking out power for a good part of the state for several days, Arden answered our panicky emails on a Saturday, and when we decided to re-schedule the container 5 days before loading day, the team made it happen. Bumping the local packing/loading crew was a bigger challenge, but somehow that fell into place as well. 🙂
We have been able to follow “our” ship here http://www.marinetraffic.com and we know that the container has arrived in Costa Rica. We have full confidence that the last leg of the journey for our stuff will take place as planned, but we will report back, after everything has been delivered on top of our hill in Nosara.
If you are considering a move and trying to figure out which size container to use, find some containers somewhere (we found both 20 and 40 footers parked behind Sam’s Club) to better visualize how much room you will need. For a good while, we were sure we could make do with the smaller size, but as time went by, we started doubting, and we ended up filling 2/3 of a 40-footer. Difference in price is small, relatively, and we were so glad we did not have to decide on the spot what we could not bring after all. You don’t want your things to fall out when the doors are first opened! Better to have room for a “retaining wall” inside.
[Just posted a detailed Update. Clicked SAVE… and now what? Where is the text?] [Will try again :?] [Retyped everything, but it times out before I am finished typing, and everything is lost. Don’t have time now to re-type it all a third time, sorry…]
This is the information we have received from two different lawyers:
Active Companies: ¢ 135,000 = $273 approx.
Inactive Companies: ¢ 67,500 = $137 approx.Starting 2013 (*)
Active Companies: ¢ 180,300 = $360 approx.
Inactive Companies: ¢ 90,150 = $180 approx.(*) This amount is approximate because it will be recalculated every year based on a variable scale known as the “base salary” as well as on the exchange rate applicable at that time.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”]Cotton batting — [i]bateo del algodón[/i][/quote]
Thanks, except I have not seen cotton batting, only the synthetic kind. Maybe it is just called “bateo”.
If I find out what they call it next time I go to Nicoya, I will post it.[quote=”rf2cr”]Bibi – what is batting called in spanish?[/quote]
I don’t remember what they called it. I think it was one of those situations where I pointed, smiled and told how many meters I wanted.
A quilt is called “una colcha” or “un edredón”, so explaining that you need “relleno ó empaste para una colcha” should get you in the right direction.
I have seen it in fabric stores in Nicoya and Sta. Cruz.
Good hunt! 🙂WE have had ALL furniture for 6 apartments in Nosara made by local carpenters and got exactly what we wanted at very reasonable cost. It takes more time, of course, than going to a store, but the benefits outweigh that. It is such a pleasure working with the craftsmen, because they love to work with the wood.
Some of the pieces we designed, others we copied from things we already owned in the US and liked for their looks and comfort. There are basic rules for measurements for tables and chairs that will fit most people.
We brought detailed drawings and photos to the carpenters and could choose the wood and finish. I happen to know how to make cushions, but I know of others who have had them made, with their chosen fabric, at fair cost. You can get all kinds of foam at the hardware store, and the fabric stores carry quilt batting that will give a little more “fluff” to the core of foam.
Just an alternative, if you are not keen on what is available in stores, or their prices.
Good luck.
