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Scott,
Ouch!! After reading your reply, my Carol said, It looks I was quite wrong about Scott’s appreciation for ‘a woman’s attachment to jewelry’. If he was buying for his ex at Tiffany’s, his appreciation is in direct proportion to the amount he spent there!
I had about the same experience with my ex; however, without the Tiffany’s overhead. She did get ½ half of my military retirement, and that’s my continuing ouch.
Regarding the jewelry, we’ll certainly follow your sage advice as usual.
Regarding investments, I understand and appreciate the reasons for your statement.
Didn’t want you to think we are, in anyway, the major league folks you deal with. We’re just little leaguers, but we’ve been small, successful, conservative, non-greedy investors in the commodity markets. Would have loved to have been at the beginning of the current gold run up!
I assume that, with internet access in CR, we could continue this pursuit. Is that so?
As for the name Jughead, piqued your Brit curiosity, no?
Simply a term of endearment from my wife, who’s lovingly know as peanut. She’s from Alabama and is 5′ 1 (that’s Jimmy Carter’s Alabama), get the connection?
When we married 18 years ago, folks started with the Mutt & Jeff moniker (again from the comics), as I’m over 6′ 3. We made sure that was quashed forthwith! I may look like a Mutt, but Carol certainly doesn’t look like a Jeff.
Folks here in south Texas and especially any military pilots have a habit of attaching personal monikers, some of which are not appropriate for your site.
As an instructor pilot in the military I had 2 monikers. Gentle Ben, for my patience in qualifying instrument flight students when other instructors were unable to do so, and Action Jackson, while teaching aerial gunnery in attack helicopters. Go figure!
Jughead is a personality from the Archie comics in the newspapers. He’s the guy, while very weird, is Archie’s best friend. He’s the person with the pointed nose, and wears what looks like a sailor’s hat, but cut on the top to look like a crown. He’s known for his zaniness and love for cheeseburgers.
I kind of like the Jughead moniker, because I fit the personality. In my 61 years I’ve learned to smile about the good things in life, cry about the bad things, shake my head about the ironic things, and laugh at myself for some of the goofy things I sometimes do. Carol, Peanut, would say that the goofy things are a lot more often than sometimes; ergo, the name Jughead. Hey, who’s to argue? I’m too busy wiping the laughing tears from my last goof!!!
We’ll be moving to Atenas in July. Hope, after we get settled to meet with you and your lady.
Pura Vida
(To those of us in south Texas who’ve visited CR, this means It don’t get any better than this.)
Ben & Carol Jackson
May 4, 2006
I’m now corresponding with an MS Word document because when your screen came up asking me to refresh my page at your site, I did so, and it wiped out my response that was about 15 minutes in the making.
To continue&..
My wife Carol chuckled at your question, saying, (tongue in cheek of course), Scot must not understand a woman’s attachment to jewelry.
The truth is we’re no flashy folks that wear a lot of Bo jangles. We live in a log home on 1 ½ acres in a small hamlet with a population of about 150 folks in south Texas. We grocery shop weekly in the nearest town 25 miles away which has a population of almost 15,000. I can assure you that neither of these communities are impressed with Bo jangles. They just don’t mix well with our blue jeans, boots, and denim shirts.
Carol and I were reared in Austin,TX and San Antonio,TX respectively, and we chose to leave the rat race of the city for our haven in the Texas hill country. This is why we fell in love with Atenas; it being a small rural agricultural community that has a great year round climate, cleanliness, and extremely friendly people.
We’ll never forget our visit to the beautiful church in Atenas, nor the wonderful elderly gentleman who greeted us as he was leaving the church. He’d ridden his bicycle to the church to pray and was leaving as we approached the entrance. He welcomed us to visit his church. What an awesome experience!
Your rhetorical question is right on the mark; there is absolutely no reason to take this stuff to CR, other than it is a significant asset and we are leaving the USA to retire in CR. My wife wears her wedding ring, and when the clasp isn’t broken, the tennis bracelet I gave her at our 15th year wedding anniversary. Real flashy, huh?
Although we are not affluent by any means, our families have been very successful in their careers. My
Grandfather and father had a successful practice as physicians and surgeons in San Antonio, while Carol’s family was quite successful in the grocery business in Austin. Our mothers, (who else has the jewelry) died
of cancer within a year of each other about 3 years ago and left the Bo jangles, fortunately or unfortunately to us. Probably the former rather than the later, as an asset, is an asset, is an asset. No? We don’t wear or display this stuff; and it’s somewhat hidden in a drawer in our master bath.Since we’ve read your sage advice for about 2 years now, we sincerely ask your advice in this matter.
Our human nature tells us that you keep your assets close by and under control, yet we would like your advice on whether to move these assets to CR with us when we come, or leave them in a safety deposit box at our bank in the USA.
As an aside, Carol’s youngest son is a successful attorney in Dallas, with dual undergraduate degrees in accounting and finance. We have not approached him for advice due to his lack of experience in the international arena, and will rely on your advice as usual.
Please let us know of your opinion soonest, as we hope to be arriving in CR in late June or early July.
Pura Vida, (We all know what this expression means in CR. Did you know to a Texan who has visited CR it means It doesn’t get better than this!)?
Ben & Carol Jackson
Concan, TX ( Yeah, that’s really a town in Texas)Thanks very much David!
I guess from your advice, I’d better contact a CR Attorney regarding the pencionado resident advice next.
We’ll be renting for the first year or two on most folks advice, and understand the corp ownership concept for owning property from our reading.
We were in CR for 2 weeks in Feb of this year and our debit card from the US worked well.
Ben & Carol Jackson
Holla Isabelle,
Don’tknow about the tour guide possibilities.
As for a nursing job, I have some current info..
We plan on moving to CR this summer. My wife is a retired nurse and clinical psycholgist. We ask a knowledgeable person about her doing some part-time councelling in the small town we are moving to.
They told us that it would not be possible without getting licensed in CR and then only if it could be shown that her work was not available to be provided by a Costa Rican person.
If you want volunteer your services, it seems to be much easier. Our original question to the informative person was my wife’s volunreering her services to our small town clinic, but our answer missed that point and addressed only the licensing and working for a living issues.
Another issue was raised about speaking Spanish very well being a requirement for even volunteer work.
If your status in CR is a student, tourist, or pencioner your are not allowed to work for wages. You can own and/or manage your own business, but even then, you must live from the profits of the business and not from a salary.
Ben Jackson
Hola Frank,
We just returned from CR the last week of Feb. Stayed a the Best Western Erazu just west of SJ and 10 minutes from thr airport. After 11 days we drove to the Best Western in Jaco and it took us right at 2 hours and 10 minutes including a Coke/rest break of 10 minutes at Atenas enroute. Made all reservations from US and everything went smoothly. Erazu has a free continental breakfast and if you want a regular breakfast with meat etc. they credit your bill by the amount of your chit for the continental. They also have a free happy hour from 5 to 6 every evening. Jaco has a free continental breakfast and have a discounted (2fers) happy hour.
Both places were very nice and clean with very courteous folks. At Joco, request the side of the complex that has elevators. (our lesson learned)
Ben
PS: We went during the dry season and you should get better rates than we did.
It’s obvious to everyone who has read your post that you have NOT done your homework on CR and CR society or you wouldn’t be asking the questions you have.
The people of CR are, by nature, non-confrontational folks and also hold women in best esteem. I suggest you do more homework on CR residency and society before you arrive and also take that chip off your shoulder or you’ll be miserable anywhere you go.
By the way, Scott was anything but insulting with regard to your post. If you want helpful info on CR, he’s the guy to talk to, but leave your arrogance behind. He has no use for it nor do the people of CR.
Ben Jackson
Hola Frank,
I airline speak there is quite a distinction between a direct flight and a non-stop flight. Non-stop is as the name implies, so if you’re looking for that to happen from Chicago to San Jose, it ain’t gonna happen.
Direct flights mean you stay with the same airline throughout the trip, but doesn’t mean you may have to go to another gate to continue your trip. It just means your baggage should (and I stress should) get to the continuing flight. It simply means you don’t have to claim your baggage at one airline and check it in with another to continue the trip.
So, Mr. hahahahaha from San Francisco can surely get a direct flight from San Francisco to San Jose, but he certainly can’t get a direct flight! He’ll have to make 1 or 2 stops in route.
I can assure you that the problem is not a conspiracy by the government of CR; they’d love to have as many non-stop flights as their main airport in San Jose could handle.
What Marvela said is true, and if you draw a line across the US from Atlanta through just north of Dallas, and on to California, you’ll see where you need to get for a direct flight.
There are very good reasons for this.
If you draw the same latitude line from say NYC through Chicago to San Francisco, you’ll get a perspective of the distance vrs the previous line.
From the Northern line the distance would require a Boeing 747’s fuel range to reach CR non-stop. The 747 requires a 3 man crew and 4 engines to make the trip, along with almost full passenger capacity to make the trip profitable. OK, so why don’t the airlines feed passengers into NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco to fill the seats for a profitable trip? Answer- can you think of any US airports that are more congested and have more weather problems than these? Second answer- you feed your passengers South where the weather is better year round and congestion is less a problem.
Keep in mind, when the weather goes to crap in Chicago and flights start stacking up, it’s easier to get out than in.
Getting in-In instrument weather, airlines must have enough fuel onboard to get to the destination, endure time in holding patterns, make an approach at the destination that will allow the aircraft to make a missed approach, fly at cruise speed to an alternate airport, commence an approach there and arrive with at least 45 minutes of fuel on board. Most of the smaller aircraft would be fuel limited, so most airlines will delay or cancel flights rather than sending the flight forward, ending up missing connecting scheduled flights or perhaps arriving at an alternate with angry people and the cost of putting them up for the night.
Getting out- If I’m going South to one of the aforementioned destinations, and if the weather there is, as we say, is clear, blue, and 22 (miles visibility), you take off without undue delays and know that you’ll be able to get your passengers to the destination on time to make connections. Matter of fact, you’ll probably be able to get there ahead of schedule, because the low pressure area that caused the bad weather at your departure airport will now afford you a tailwind aloft. So now you’re at one of the Southern connection airports and hopefully shedding your winter wear.
The planes of choice for the airlines for the trip to CR are the B 757/767 and Airbus 350. They have a crew of 2 and 2 engines (read as more economical), and are much more suitable for landing at the San Jose airport. You’ll see what I mean after you make your first landing there. You won’t find any 747s there I guarantee you. Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly safe for landing the smaller aircraft stated above.
So as far as going non-stop to CR from Chicago, give it up. I’d suggest you go direct to the airlines’ websites and do your own scheduling and figure out the best trip for you. Look at the flights out of Chicago to the Southern portals for non-stop flights to CR and compare the layover times for the trip.
We live West of San Antonio, TX and found a Continental flight to Houston to make our direct connection to CR. Flight time to Houston was 1 hour; we had a 1 hour layover, and 3 1/4 to 31/2 hour direct flight to CR. From Dallas, add about 45 more minutes.
Pura Vida,
Ben
