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Hi David, here are two Costa Rican web sites you can peruse. You may well have seen these already. They both supply new and used vehicles. I came across these in the Tico Times Classifieds.
James.
http://www.autocarcr.com/ing/aboutus.htm
http://www.ehlerscars.com/Hi editer, the two way radio’s sounds like extra baggage and an unknown quantity. I am assuming that your party have cell phones amongst yourselves, use them. Roaming charges will shock you a bit but you will be using something you know works.
I was contemplating renting from Rico at the airport. I am sure he provides a necessary service. He told me that my GSM phone may not work in Costa Rica, if your phone will work on multiple frequencies, it will work.
If you plan to rent a car, many of the Car Rental firms will provide you with a cell phone at an extra cost.
We found that taking a GSM cell phone with us was the smartest thing we did. We were having the most difficult time finding some of our destinations and I don’t recall seeing any pay phones en-route. Our cell phone saved us time and again because we could describe to the person on the other end what we were seeing as we were driving and they would confirm if we were going in the right direction or not. This was a big help.
As soon as we had picked up our baggage at the airport I turned our phone on, it worked as well in Costa Rica as it did at home. In many instances it was a comforting life line. Costa Rica has a very good GSM service. Unlike their TDMA service where you have to physically take your phone to ICE and get them to turn it on to work, with GSM you turn it on and it works. The roaming charges once you return home was a bit of a shocker but we will never go to Costa Rica without our GSM cell phone.
Hola Rocky425, you will get so much more enjoyment out of Costa Rica if you can speak a little Espanol. Costa Ricans are very easy going and accommodating people, a lot of them speak inglés. Where I found it most frustrating was in trying to communicating with niños. You can see the inquisitiveness and confusion in their eyes when they cannot understand you and what they are trying to get across isn’t happening. Very frustrating! I am in the process of learning Espanol online. You and your family have ample time to learn a lot. According to these courses, you need to know just 200 words in order to be able communicate comfortably. That shouldn’t be a huge effort (I keep telling myself). Anyway you have until October, you can do it. The two online sites I use is:
http://www.learninglikecrazy.com/
http://www.rocketspanish.com/Rocket Spanish is my primary source. Both sites have a fair bit you can try out for free. I hope this helps you and anyone else who finds themselves as Espanol challenged as I am.
James.If you want some serious reading, have a look at http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/c_code.html I don’t know how much of this will apply to Costa Rica.
I have been trying for sometime to find a comparison online regarding the two forms of law. I have just found this site http://www.ascotadvisory.com/OffshoreArticleLAW.html which offers an insight in the Napoleanic Code. I am sure that this a mystery to many of us who are looking to possibly relocate to Costa Rica. If I find anything else I will post it.
Hi, there was an update to the new Immigration law in the Tico Times, daily emailed edition 29 June. The content I will copy below.
Immigration Law Faces New Scrutiny
By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff
kstanley@ticotimes.netPublic Security Minister Fernando Berrocal confirmed yesterday that the Executive Branch will ask the Legislative Assembly to delay until December 2007 the date by which the controversial new immigration law must take effect, saying the government lacks the funds necessary to implement it in August as scheduled.
He also announced that the government will use an executive decree to form a council of representatives from human rights groups, the business sector, the Catholic Church and others to discuss the possibility of changing the law, approved last year. Its measures to crack down on illegal immigrants and the people who hire them have been criticized as unduly harsh by academics, religious figures and President Oscar Arias.
However, although the government is certainly not opposed to changing the law, Berrocal said financial concerns are the driving force behind the proposed 14-month delay.
One can’t oblige the state to (achieve) the impossible, he said during the press conference following Arias’ weekly Cabinet meeting. It’s absolutely impossible for this administration to put this law into practice.
The law would require 671 new police officers and other employees at Immigration in addition to new police officials, vehicles, infrastructure and administrative reforms, at a total cost of ¢7 billion ($13.7 million).
The change has the support of the President’s Cabinet, and the Executive Branch will now meet with party heads within the assembly to determine when to submit the legislation.
The law grants greater freedom to police in their efforts to find and remove illegal immigrants, detention for an undefined length of time for those suspected of being in the country illegally and changes to improve the efficiency of Immigration (TT, Aug. 26, 2005).
Berrocal emphasized that Immigration and the Public Security Ministry will, in the meantime, continue to work to improve the government’s handling of illegal immigration, which he called an enormous burden.
You can also receive the daily edition free, or you can pay (like I do) for the weekly edition by going to: https://www.ticotimes.net/secure/subscribe.cfm
James.
Thanks Debbie, I did manage to get into the travel blog site using http://travelblog.com/ I believe this is the same site you posted above.
James.To me, Costa Rica’s climate is perfect for shorts. Bermuda gets a little cold in the winter and most people don the longer variety. I wear mine year round except for when we go out to dinner on a wintery evening.
I will agree with one of the previous postings, there was a couple areas we visited in January and what ever the insects were must have thought that their birthdays had all come at once. Boy did I get bitten. I found that Off works really well.This a very interesting topic. Until now, I never gave it a second thought (wearing shorts in Costa Rica.) Now that it has been mentioned, I can’t recall seeing a Tico or Tica in shorts, in the cities. I had no idea that there was somewhat of a taboo on shorts but I do understand what has been said so far. You see, where I come from, I wear shorts year round, including work and so does my employer. In fact, I would say 60% of the business men here wear shorts to work, to parties, to meetings, to dinner in fine restaurants and to church. I mean, what else would we wear in Bermuda but our beloved Bermuda Shorts with long knee length socks? Did I mention that I live in Bermuda? http://bermuda.com/picturesvideo/culture_gallery.php
I will remember though, when we next return to Costa Rica, to pack some long trousers. I do have a few pair, somewhere, I will just have to hunt for them.Keith, if you haven’t visited these sites yet, there is information on residency you may want to look at.
James.
http://www.residencyincostarica.com/
http://www.infocostarica.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000655.html
http://www.costarica.com/Home/RetirementRegarding the Immigration August 12th law. Today’s Tico Times (16th June) had this to say.
Arias Administration Plans
To Postpone Immigration Reform
The administration ofPresident Oscar
Arias plans to send a bill to the Legislative
Assembly that would prevent the new
Immigration Law from taking effect in
August and delay it for at least a year.The
delay is designed to give the government
time to prepare for the costs ofimplement-
ing the law and examine aspects ofthe law
that have been criticized by the President,as
well as academics,religious figures and the
Ombudsman’s Office.
Mario Zamora,the new director of
Immigration,told the daily La Naci
n his
institution would have to spend ¢7 billion
($13.7 million) for the new police,infra-
structure and administrative reforms the
law demands.For example,the law would
require increasing the Immigration Police
force from 35 to 600.
Zamora added that the law,which
cracks down on illegal immigration
through measures such as increased penal-
ties for people who hire illegal immigrants,
includes eminently repressiveregulations,
and Arias administration officials would use
a delay to study reforms to counteract those
regulations.
Public Security Minister Fernando
Berrocal told the daily the government
would have to spend a fortuneto apply
the new law,and that he couldn’t under-
stand how the law could have been drafted.
The bill the Arias administration plans
to submit would alter Article 269 ofthe law;
the article states that the law must take
effect eight months after its publication in
the official government daily La Gaceta,
which took place Dec.12,2005.
Other measures the law includes are
greater freedom for police in their efforts to
find and remove illegal immigrants,deten-
tion for an undefined length oftime for
those suspected ofbeing illegal immigrants,
and changes to improve the efficiency of
Immigration (TT,Aug.26,2005).
Tico TimesJames.
