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While I agree with most of saltwater’s list, I should point out that the ultra-high temperature pasteurized milk in the one-liter boxes in the store needs no refrigeration until opened. And the 99.9% fat-free milk tastes richer than any skim milk in the U.S.
I miss a daily newspaper, American television (I’m working on that one) and the range of basic consumer products we’re used to in the U.S. On the other hand, not having the bad news from the U.S. thrown in your face constantly is a wonderful relief. I’ll trade a little peace and quiet for Oscar Mayer products any day (especially now that I’ve found Johnsonville Italian sausage at the AutoMercado in Santa Ana),
INS does offer homeowner’s insurance. Basically, the coverages are two: damage to the structure from earthquake, flood, fire, etc and loss of contents from theft. When I looked into this, I think I recall that the annual premium for coverage on the structure itself is about $250 per $100,000 of coverage. Contents are another matter.
First, in order to cover contents, all the windows in the house must have bars. Second, you must insure all contents of the house; you can’t do it selectively. Third, there is a substantial list of exclusions from the coverage that includes many of the high-value items that middle class homeowners would be likely to own and to wish to insure — and that thieves would be likely to target. Given these conditions, we’ve decided to take our chances with contents. And theft coverage is pretty expensive.
More information is available from the Association of Residents of Costa Rica.
My brief experience here is that specialty preparations such as you advertise are not widely available, if at all. My local pharmcist has looked for Centrum Silver, for example, and can find none of it. So I know at least one person who would be interested in that, at least.
That said, I’ve read that some fifty percent of the Costa Rican population is under fourteen years of age. If that’s anywhere near true, then the market for “senior” vitamins, etc must be pretty small, since the total population is only about four million.
To be sure, there will be an influx of gringo retirees in coming years and some of them are potential customers for your products. Reaching them through retail outlets may be difficult, however, as most of them are scattered about the country. Other than in a few gringo neighborhoods, the concentrations of gringos aren’t very great.
The third option I cited is not government-connected. The background, as I get it is this: ICE has a governmentally-granted monopoly on telephone service. RACSA is the government-approved Internet Service Provider. Since, traditionally, all Internet access was via telephone hook-up, RACSA and ICE have *asserted* that they have a monopoly on Internet access — by all routes. But no one has granted them a monopoly on satellite access; they’ve just claimed it.
There is no entity large enough to challenge RACSA and ICE in court over their assertion of a monopoly on satellite access, so their claim goes unanswered. Is a non-ICE/RACSA service illegal, or is it simply not legally recognized? If the law doesn’t prohibit something, does that mean it’s legal? Only the courts can give a definitive answer and for them to do so, some entity must raise a challenge. So far, no one has.
Sorry it took so long to reply.
In the nine months that we’ve lived here, I’ve been pulled over by the Transito (Traffic) police several times. They like to check to see that you’ve gotten your Costa Rican driver’s license, it seems. Once the officer said he couldn’t see our front license plate for the fog lights.
In every event, they have been courteous, friendly and patient with our pidgin Spanish. We couldn’t ask for better treatment.
It’s not quite “all bills”, Marilyn, but many. I dunno, it’s just that you can pay your bills at the bank here in Costa Rica like you can pay some bills at the drugstore or 7-11 in the U.S. The bank tellers can look up phone, DirecTV, cellphone, and (I think) electric bills on their terminals and you can pay via the teller.
Our electric bill comes to our local pulpuria and our local water bill is paid in advance at the water utility’s office, but everything else goes through the bank. I have a friend, however, who has arranged to pay his bills through the local office of the Costa Rican Red Cross. Whatever entity collects the payments gets a small fee, and that’s his way of contributing to the Red Cross.
First of, I’ll bet nobody is checking to see if you’re making regular deposits to your Costa Rican bank account. That said, we’ve found it very easy to have our pension checks directly deposited in our U.S. bank account. Then we use our VISA debit or ATM card to withdraw colones from one of the many ATMs scattered about. Just be sure your card operates on the Plus or Cirrus systems.
The easiest way to transfer money to your Costa Rican bank account is to do it in big chunks. Let it accumulate for several months, then wire it down in a large lump sum. The cost is the same.
For pensionados, remember that you must convert $600US each month to colones. When it’s time to renew your residency, you must be able to demonstrate these conversions with receipts that show the date, amount converted, and your name, so a receipt from an ATM won’t do. You must go to a bank with $600 taken from the ATM or withdraw $600 from your dollar account at the bank and convert it to colones.
Generally, Immigration wants to see that you’ve made this conversion each month rather than in just a few lump sum conversions. We go to the bank every month, withdraw $600, convert it to colones, and pay all our bills, all in one visit.
ABC Mudanzas advertises in A.M. Costa Rica (www.amcostarica.com). SG Global can be reached at jsueiras@sgglobalcr.com. Both have very good reputations.
The contents of your container can be insured on a “piece-by-piece” basis. That is, you can insure the television but not insure the anvil; it’s up to you. Our insurance costa was 3% of the value we declared on each item — each box, each piece of furniture, whatever.
Charlie and Jeanetta Owens own and operate La Terazza B&B on the outskirts of Grecia. They’ll pick you up and take you back to the airport and serve you the best breakfast in Costa Rica.
Their website is: http://www.laterazzab-b.com. You can e-mail them at: laterazzagrecia@msn.com
Charlie and Jeanetta are personal friends of ours, but we’d recommend them even if they weren’t. Tell them Dave sent you.
We shipped our container from northeastern North Carolina via Norfolk, Virginia to the east coast of Costa Rica. It was picked up at our home on June 15th. We arrived here on September 7th. It got here ahead of us.
Since our guest house here was not finished, everything went into storage. Once the guest house was completed, the first delivery of household goods could take place. Everything went just perfectly except that they delivered a couple of things we didn’t want and missed something insignificant that we had requested.
Moving a containerful of household goods to Costa Rica need not be a nightmare. We opted to use a Costa Rica-based moving company on the theory that they, better than some U.S.-based mover, could negotiate the Customs maze. I don’t know if that was good thinking or not, but we had no problems.
Elsewhere in this forum, I’ve written more extensively about our experience. It is critical that you follow all the rules and procedures or a nightmare might ensue.
Let me also reflect on the economics of the question. You’ve got a houseful of goods in the U.S., right? So you must either sell, give away, throw away or move all that stuff. If it’s stuff you like, then the question boils down to this: Can you realize enough from selling what you can sell, and save enough by not moving your things, to give you enough money to replace everything here in Costa Rica? Not everything here is up to U.S. standards, and not everything (especially imported things) is cheap. So you need to think about the value of your household goods and the cost of replacement and make a decision.
Another point: The cost of the container is fixed. You pay the same whether it’s full or empty. So if you have things with useful life left in them, you might as well put them in the container; you’re paying for it anyway.
Think about your kitchen stuff, your tools, your books, your clothing (summerwear only, please), your family heirlooms, your pictures. If you’re not ready to give those things up, then you may as well ship the sofa and bed.
I’ve just begun building a home in Grecia with a San Jose-based builder, Victor Merino. He’s a structural engineer who was recommended by my architect. So far, I’m impressed.
You can reach Victor at: vmerino@cfia.or.cr. Tell him Dave sent ya.
I should have added . . .
As the veteran of several colonoscopies, I can assure you that it’s a “nothing” procedure. The “cleanout” prep the night before is, by far, the worst of it. You’ll be totally anesthetized and won’t feel a thing during the procedure itself. And recovery is almost immediate.
In the U.S., colon cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death after lung cancer. A screening colonoscopy is something everyone (EVERYONE) should have done.
I’m still new to Costa Rica, but the medical care I’ve received has been at CIMA Hospital and I can report only favorably on the experience. Dr. Hernando Gonzalez is a gastroenterologist there who will do screening colonoscopies. When I asked him about it, he said a totally routine procedure would run about $200US IF there were no polyps found that require pathology. If pathology is required, then the price goes up. Dr. Gonzalez e-mail address is: hgonzalez@hospitalcima.com.
CIMA Hospital also has a website in which they advertise colonoscopy at about $350US. Maybe that includes pathology. Their website is: http://www.hospitalsanjose.net/portada.htm.
I have traded e-mail with Dr. Loyola and found him to be every bit as sensitive and helpful as Scott says.
You should also consult the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service about the legal and procedural requirements for importing your dog into the U.S. which is what you will be doing.
In each U.S. state, there is a chief U.S.D.A. veterinarian (the “Veterinary Service”) located in each state capitol. These are the folks who must endorse your International Health Certificate to enable you to bring your dog to Costa Rica and they are the ones or know the ones who will govern bringing him or her back into the U.S.
Last week, my attorney advised me that if I do not pay this ticket it will be added to my “marchamo” next December along with about 2% interest. Waiting ’til then to pay it seems like a much better deal than driving into downtown San Jose from Grecia, finding the Municipalidad, finding parking, finding the caja, waiting in the correct line (always a question), etc.
I think I’m going to take my chances.
