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[quote=”Scott”]Although this would not surprise me, this has certainly never been made public by Intel and of course, we have no way to verify this…
The Costa Rica government is very reactive rather than proactive so only after big companies have already left will they start to wonder how we can keep them.
What’s that expression about closing the stable door after the horse has bolted ?
It’s important to remember that both Intel and Bank of America Continuum shut down other operations, not just in Costa Rica.
Scott
[/quote]
It has been known for some time on this forum and others, as well as English speaking news sources, that Intel was “considering reducing its workforce in CR”, which we all know is a form of negotiating for a better deal.
So now, I am trying to picture in my mind exactly how the CR government handled this, and my images keep going back and forth from an ostrich to Pinocchio!
[quote=”sweikert925″]
[quote=”costaricabill”]And, knowing how keen you are to statistics, have you compared the crime statistics of your 237 square miles to our 19,729 square miles? [/quote]
I have actually, why do you ask?[/quote]I asked because I figure you would know and I would like you to share. So how about a comparison of “major crime” like murder, armed robbery, armed home intrusion, assault & battery, rape, etc.? Enlighten me, please!
[quote=”sweikert925″]The US State Department issues annual advisory reports for most countries of the world and the 2012 report (the most recent available) for Costa Rica can be read [url=https://www.osac.gov/Pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=12155]here[/url]. What struck me about it is this:
[i]The uniformed police, Fuerza Publica, has between 12,000 and 15,000 officers working in the entire country.[/i]
Since most government agencies in Costa Rica seem to be overstaffed, I wondered why there were so few police in CR. Is that related to the refusal to have an army? Are Ticos so resistant to the idea of armed security personnel? Costa Rica (19,729 square miles, 4.7 million residents) has about the same number of police officers as Chicago, (237 square miles and 2.7 million residents).[/quote]
Uh Steve, I think you have been to Costa Rica exactly one time, right? If so, you can be forgiven for not knowing that we also have the Traffic Police, the TourisTica Police, the Transito Police, the Immigracion Police and the OIJ Police, and maybe even more I don’t know about even after living here over 5 years. I am not saying that “segregation” of police power is the best system, but you cannot compare one department of CR police to your total number of police. The numbers will still be out of balance, but while 40-50 of your police are investigating one of you hundreds of murders, our different departments are still on their beat, effective or not!
And, knowing how keen you are to statistics, have you compared the crime statistics of your 237 square miles to our 19,729 square miles?[quote=”schlabra”]We are heading down in July(1-22)
1st stop(7days)Atenas/area.
2nd stop(7 days)Lake Arenal/area,
3rd stop(5 days)Nosara/area.Need suggestions where to go/stay as we work our way back to San Jose. We will be driving east from Nosara.
Also, would love to visit with any expats from the board along the way.
Thanks! Steve and Tracey Schlabra- Fairfield, Texas
[/quote]
Hey “Y’all” –
The first stop I suggest after Nosara is only 35 minutes away, in Samara. Come for a day or two, and you might find yourself staying a bit longer. You will miss our “First Friday” event (we had over [b][u]100[/u][/b] people last Friday at one of our local restaurants) and there is always something going on!
We have a great community of Gringos and locals, and we all work and play together.
PM me for more information!
Originally from Houston,
costaricabill[quote=”johnnyh”]My main concern was that a crypto communist like Villalta was thoroughly rejected by the Costa Rican people. That in itself is great news![/quote]
His campaign was effective (unfortunately, in my view) in at least one regard. If I am not mistaken, he was the only 1 in the legislature from his “FA” party for the last 4 years, and in yesterday’s election I think the FA party captured 8 or 9 seats.
Certainly not a majority or anywhere near a majority, but that’s 8-9 seats that the larger, more established parties did not keep or secure.
[quote=”colleen.1″]Forgive me “Oh wise ones!” if this has been questioned before, but does anyone have the current telephone number one can call in need of roadside assistance. Thank you.:roll:[/quote]
800-800-8001
Put it in your cell phone contacts and you will have it with you – if indeed you have your cell phone with you![quote=”johnr”]
You should just book across the street from the airport (Marriot) and take the free shuttle.
[/quote]Just to avoid any confusion, and for clarification, it is a Hilton Garden Inn (not a Marriott) and the shuttle only goes to the airport and back – not a good way to see the countryside!
[quote=”sprite”]…… Right now, there are numerous reports of wealthy and powerful US citizens buying large tracts of land in South America. The Bush family purchased a huge tract of land in Paraguay recently. It was a significant expenditure even for them. Was it just a financial investment? Or are the rats leaving the sinking ship as they have throughout history after they have sucked dry the host nation?[/quote]
Sprite, this is SO LIKE YOU! You throw out some conspiratorial claim without regard to any of the facts surrounding your statement. The information about the Bush family land purchase in Paraguay has been spinning around the press and the internet since 2005-2006 – that is hardly “recently”. The Bush “Hideaway” is very near an even larger piece of land purchased by Sun Myung Moon – maybe they have plans for a joint venture development – maybe a big dude ranch?
[quote=”sweikert925″]Thanks. Any of them you can personally recommend?[/quote]
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g309240-Liberia_Province_of_Guanacaste-Hotels.html
that the same link I posted on the forum earlier. Of course, the most “gringoish” is the Hilton Garden Inn, but several friends have told me that they had good experiences at Hotel Rincon del Llano when they stayed overnight for 7:00am flights.
I might suggest that the area around the Liberia Airport and the town of Liberia itself is absent of anything to do, no restaurants, no attractions, even no stores and no sodas.
I think I remember you saying you aren’t interested in the beach areas
– if I’m wrong I would urge you to take a taxi to Playas Del Coco or Ocotal or Hermossa (all within 25-30 minutes from LIR) and then work your way down the coast from there.
– if I am right, then I would arrange transport up to Tileran, Tronadora (sp?) or the Lake Area and start exploring there.
Check FlipKey and/or Airbnb and you can find plenty of small vacation rentals or small hotels or even “in home apartments” that are very reasonable and within walking distance of all the things that are absent in the area around the airport.
safe travels
[quote=”sweikert925″][quote=”costaricafinca”]The amount and facilities offered by your hotel in Liberia are much less than what is available in San Jose. [/quote]
For me, the only facilities that I require in a hotel room are a quiet, clean, bedbug-free bed, hot showers and someplace nearby that serves decent meals at a reasonable price. Anything beyond that is nice but not essential.[/quote]hotel info for Liberia area:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g309240-Liberia_Province_of_Guanacaste-Hotels.html[quote=”sweikert925″]I was trying to work out the total cost differential between flying into SJO and LIR and I wondered what a taxi cost from the LIR airport to the center of Liberia. Normally the taxi to/from San Jose from Juan Santamaria costs me about $30 each way. Anyone familiar with flying to LR care to share the taxi fares you generally pay? It also seems that hotel rooms in Liberia are a bit cheaper than the average price in San Jose.[/quote]
“The center of Liberia” is less than 10 minutes from LIR in normal traffic. so the rates should be very reasonable ($10 or so); HOWEVER, the cabbies are looking for longer fares (to Coco, or Tamarindo, to resorts, to secluded areas, to Arenal area, etc.) so they are not so interested in a short fare. I arrived at LIR one day a couple hours before my wife and wanted to grab lunch at the restaurant that is less than a 1/2 mile from the entry intersection to the airport. I asked a cab driver how much and he said “$20 one way”.
So now, my question – “why do you want to go to ‘the center of Liberia'”?
[quote=”costaricafinca”]Flights are usually more expensive going to Liberia, due to the landing fees. Also less airlines fly into there.[/quote]
Actually, based on the web sites for each airport, more airlines serve LIR than SJO, even excluding all the charter airlines that fly from Canada – but I’m pretty sure that SJO has many more flights on a daily basis by the fewer airlines that do serve SJO.
So it is (unfortunately for us) accurate that the fewer flights with higher landing fees do indeed cause the airfares in and out of LIR to be higher.
Because we have 6 grand kids arriving each June + our daughter and her husband and maybe our daughter-in-law, it is beneficial for us to gather all of them in Orlando for 1 hotel night, then fly them into and out of SJO at the lower airfares and pay the extra $100+/- for the shuttle each way versus the higher fares in/out of LIR.
However, if it were only 2 or 3 people (versus our 8-9 people) then it is well worth the extra airfare into and out of LIR.
It comes down to doing the math.
I would think that the value would increase by a substantial amount, because if the land is in the maritime zone and you need a concession to use it, and you have no concession or title, then what do you have to sell to a buyer?
And the other question is “why would you ever agree to buy untitled beachfront property without a concession in place?”
It may be beneficial for you to scroll down to the bottom of this page and take advantage of the offer Scott has placed there!
[quote=”sweikert925″][quote=”Imxploring”]Let me get this straight… you intend to “comply fully” with the law by declaring only the minimum required retirement income but not declare your full retirement income when obtaining residency in order to obtain the benefit of healthcare at a lower cost yet allow people of higher declared income that can’t pick and chose how much they declare subsidise your coverage.[/quote]
No, I will declare the full amount of the fixed income that I am then receiving when I make my application – whatever is required by the applicable law. I am no tax cheat and resent your implication that I am.
Not willing to address the other points I raised?[/quote]
I think you guys are both picking at straws…….
The CURRENT requirement for pensionado temporary residency is a guaranteed lifetime annuity (i.e. pension, social security, whatever) of $1,000/month, The law does not ask you how much or how many guaranteed lifetime annual annuities you have, or how much “fixed income” you have or what those sources are – all it does is require you to prove you have $1,000/month that qualifies as a guaranteed lifetime annuity.
The only reason they find out and know that your annuity is more than $1,000/month is you must provide as part of your application a written document that they will accept demonstrating what that amount is. If you get $2300/month pension and you can get the source of that pension to give you a document that says that your pension is “a minimum of $1,000/month” or “shall never be less than $1,000/month” and IF that is accepted by immigracion, then your monthly CAJA “contribution” would be lower than if you submitted the document saying $2300/month.
I have friends who have their Resolution from immigracion that says (in essence) that the applicant meets the requirement for the minimum monthly pension. Obviously, when they went and applied for CAJA, that statement is all CAJA had to rely on and use in calculating the monthly CAJA required payment.
Others (like me) have a Resolution from immigracion that says exactly the amount shown in my proof of pension letter from Social Security says – to the penny.
Subsequently, I pay a higher monthly CAJA payment than my friends that have the “old” Resolution – but I am still less than 25% of the % numbers y’all throw around.
[quote=”lyncota”]Of course I didn’t pay but we’ll have to sort it out somehow from theUS as we had to leave today. My husband thinks it may have to do with neglecting to reregister the corporation after 5 years. We purchased our property about 6 years ago. Any thoughts on that Costaricabill?
[/quote]No ideas or thoughts yet. I’ll be talking with my attorney manana to get his thoughts.
