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[quote=”costaricafinca”]I advise you to read the rules & reg’s of living and working …or rather not working.. at [url=http://www.costaricalaw.com/legalnet/residency.html]Costa Rica Law[/url]
Things have changed here, since your last visit, so good but some bad, so suggest you come for an extended trip before making any commitment to live here. More home robberies are taking place, possibly to fund someones habit[/quote]Thanks for your advice.
The drug habit home robberies are pretty much a problem everywhere in the world, including where I live now.
I had read the laws pertaining to required income for living there, etc. Not planning on working other than writing and painting, unless we decide to open and run a B&B. But then I would hire local help to do the cooking and cleaning.
Of course, we would take several extended trips before even considering the purchase of anything or making a final commitment to living there. Good excuse for a couple of vacation trips.
Thanks everyone for your input.
[quote=”maravilla”]i live in the country and we are not having shoot-outs over drugs, but there is a modicum of petty crime. i still feel safe here — more so than when i lived in Nassau in the 80s, or even NYC. with your background of living out of country for so many years, you are better equipped to deal with this lifestyle than many other people. you should be just fine. i have been told by local residents that Palmares, which is not far from San Ramon where i live, has quite a big of drugs, but it’s mostly upper middle class ticos who are the customers. there is no escape totally from this scourge. but i think we are better off here than in say, guatemala, or el salvador![/quote]
Thanks for the info and encouragement.
[quote=”maravilla”]what kind of trouble are you talking about? there have been HUGE seizures — several tons at a time — of cocaine bound for the US in coastal waters on both sides of the country. there have been some gang shootings in various places here, but nothing like Juarez or Sinaloa. there are cities here that are drug havens, and there seems to be no end in sight to cocaine use here either. it’s very upsetting. i used to spend a lot of time in Jamaica when i lived in the bahamas — both places were pretty peaceful when they were just smoking the ganga, but when crack hit the streets violence soon followed.[/quote]
I guess I was wondering if any areas of Costa Rica were getting dangerous to live in due to any drug lord types waring with others, like in northern Mexico.
BTW, I just joined the forum today and I was reading many of the blogs and was going to comment that I enjoyed a lot of your answers. Sounds like we are kindred spirits in many areas. I, too, am so against Monsanto GM foods, and the toxic poisons that they are spreading around the world and many US policies, etc.
I grew up as a Navy brat (my dad was a pilot), so I was an expat much of my life, (started grade school in the mid 50’s in Hawaii before it was a state, graduated from high school in Tangier, Morocco, then two other tours of duty were spent in Italy. Then after many years in Key West FL and getting divorced from my first husband I owned and lived on my own in a small beach cottage (shack) in Jamaica on the North Coast in Trelawny Parish, near Falmouth. Then for several more years I sailed around the world cooking on Tall Ships. When I married my current husband we moved aboard a new sailboat and spent five years sailing in the Caribbean, two of which were spent in Venezuela until it got too dangerous for cruisers. Our return to the US took us by way of the ABC’s, then Rio Dulce in Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. So I am aware of living in the tropics and off the grid, if need be. Now we’re living in a house in north central Arizona that my second husband and I built ourselves, totally solar, and attempting to become as self-suficient as possible. My parents, who live close by are still going strong at 85 and 87 and I would not think of moving while they are still alive, but I am beginning to investigate, along with my daughter and her husband, some alternatives to living in the US for when my parents are no longer here. I really think that Costa Rica is my first choice.
My husband and I spent two weeks in Costa Rica about fourteen years ago and just loved it, so I guess I was just wondering if it was still as safe as I felt it was when we were there before. We stayed inland the entire time, knowing that we had so much sailing ahead of us. We were at an Eco-lodge in the south central rainforest, then up at a big lodge in the northeast, then in the Monteverde cloud forest and then a horse ranch up in the northwest. I know another trip is in order to scout out more areas. My daughter and son-in-law want to be closer to the ocean, so that is our goal and right now other than looking at some of the properties for sale it is hard to get a feeling for those locations. Where do you live?
I was a professional cook for many years (as well as more recently a massage therapist and into alternative health for 20 years) so the thought of doing a B&B or Eco-lodge appeals to me and/or perhaps building a compound of sorts so we can all have separate living quarters on one big piece of land and grown our own veggies and fruit and raise some egg layers. If my kids sell their house, we sell ours, and my parent’s house we’d have a good amount to invest, plus my husband and I have pretty good monthly fixed incomes from S/S, some commercial rental income and our IRA.
Anyway, I am excited about the possible new venture as since living in the Navy, and having done so much traveling, I have always looked forward to the next move and I will have had my fill of the dry high desert in a few years. If I can find something in CR the next few years to buy, even though it is too soon to leave here, I will consider it. Any advice will be welcomed.
Karen
