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Scott is right, the linmit is 50m. Please read the fine print in his answer. You don’t need to submit your “planos” the regular way, you need a “crokis”, aka a sketch, made either by you or by architect. You still need a permit from your muni.
FYI: in many cases muni will require that you do all the regular steps in spite of the fact that your building is less than 50m. I suggest you send a trustworthy Tico friend to your muni to ask what exactly they require, and don’t be surprised if that changes.
You can also download a Costa Rica GPS map here:
http://www.mangovalley.com/costa-rica-gps/It’s absolutely free for personal use. The drawbacks: no support or guarantees.
We found the map to be very good. We use Magellan, so we had to convert it before uploading. For Garmin, you just upload it and you’re ready to go.
You don’t need to pay your taxes in January. You can pay them any time of year. You will get a DISCOUNT (4-8% depending on the municipality) if you pay CASH until March 31. After that there is a SMALL penalty. If you come, say, in June you can pay your taxes then, and the penalty will be much lower than $600.
Whether you can pay your taxes online depends on your muni. In Grecia we CAN pay our property taxes online (at least we were told so). We haven’t tried as you don’t get the discount, but folks in muni said that, at least Banco Nacional will let you pay the taxes online.
In some other munis (for sure in Garabito, aka Central Pacific) the only way to pay taxes is in person.Pease re-check all the info above with your muni. If you don’t speak Spanish, take a trustworthy translator or friend, so that you don’t misunderstand important details.
The main difference is what’s considered a crime here and there.
In V. many crimes are minor (drug use, tax avasion, minor thefts). Such crimes are typically NOT included in the CR statistics for obvios reasons.V is #1 in drug related offenses? May be, but we’re talking mostly about marijuana growing/consumption.
I’m just saying that Vancouver, in general, is quite a safe city. BTW, crime in Vancouver is down 7% (stats for 2009).
Why would you compare Vancouver with Tibas? Vancouver is larger than San Jose!! Yes, East side is not the place to be in the middle of the night, but other areas are perfectly fine. We lived in Richmond, Burnaby, Coquitlam, New Westminster, North Vancouver, and did walk late in the eveing without any problems.
Would I do it here? That really depends. Grecia, Atenas, perhaps, but we even close windows in our car when driving through Alajuela or central San Jose.
As everyone is saying, choosing the right (safe) place is the key to living happily here.
I suggest you search forums for “Golfito”. There were several threads with all the info you’re looking for.
In short: no, there are no “high end” brands: mostly the same as in major appliance stores “Importadora Monge”, “Gallo”, etc. Said that, we bought small “Samsung” fridges that we haven’t seen in any regular stores.Expect savings of around 25% after all the expenses (hotel, gas, food, delivery of goods), can be more on luxury items or a bit less on cheap ones.
The easiest bank to open your account in is Banco Nacional. Pls note: BCR will NOT open you an account unless you are a resident/citizen. This is a new rule introduced several months ago. It’s not even a rule, more like the bank’s internal memo (their interpretation). Don’t waste your time trying to argue with them.
HSBC will open an account, but it’s much harder than BN.
For BN you’ll need a certified copy of your passport and your water or electricity bill (can be on someone else’s name, but it’s better if your name is on the bill). You can have a referral letter from your US/Canadian bank, but the most helpful is to take with you someone who already has a bank account in that specfic branch for some time (having a significant sum on that account helps a LOT). They will print the “reference letter” for you at the bank. Good luck!Just to give you some numbers. A night will cost you around $300 in Biblica or CIMA; slightly cheaper in Catolica. Add to that meds and your doctor’s fees, and it becomes $350-$400 per night. If you stay longer the room rate is slightly cheaper.
The hospitals above are rated: #1-Biblica, #2 -CIMA, #3 – Catolica. All 3 hospitals are excellent. We liked Catolica most.Do call them to get the quote.
FYI: in CIMA you get 5-8% discount if you have the PriceSmart card; in Catolica you get 10% discount if you use BCR for the payment (discount applies to the room only, not for meds or doctor’s fees).
“Visual Link Spanish” (http://www.visuallinkspanish.com/)worked better for me than Rosetta Stone.
I first got their free CD with several very basic lessons (numbers, days of week, months, directions, most used verbs, survival expressions, etc.) What I liked was that I could learn Spanish while driving to work (back then I had one and half hour one-way commute). The best part is that all you need to do is push the button, and the lesson starts. There is no escape, too;-) I was “forced” to listen and learn for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week
It worked miracles for me.That’s the basic level.
To become more or less fluent you need to come here and start a project. Our Spanish improved tremendously once we started building.Main thing: it’s not a rocket science: Anyone can do it. All you need is put a little effort.
Good luck!
I can’t believe Scott allowed such an appalling article on this web site. I suggest to remove our flag from it ASAP!
We lived in Vancouver and I must say, it’s one of the best places we’ve ever lived in.
Let’s look into the facts presented by John Oldham:
“It is against the law in virtually every municipality to provide such accommodation for your elderly parents.”
-Not true. You need to adhere to your zoning requirements and legalize your basement. Do tell us the other side of the story! It has nothing to do with “elder abuse by government”. That’s just ridiculous.
“Canadian families can hardly pay their gas and hydro bills, or high property taxes”
-Which Canadian families are you talking about? Canadian economy is booming. We have the LOWEST electricity and water rates (yes, even comparing to CR). Our property taxes are low comparing to US, for example. If you can’t afford your Hydro bill in Canada, you CANNOT afford to live in CR, trust me!
“The Canadian government has also destroyed our quality of life by allowing an excessive number of immigrants into the country over the past few decades.”
“No more paying high taxes to support excessive immigration”– I don’t even know where to start.. Canada (as well as Australia and NZ) got it right. We are attracting the “independent” category of immigrants using the points system. That system proved to be the best in the world as it lets in only the most highly-educated, young and ambitious people. Those new immigrants get the jobs right away and start paying taxes. Part of those taxes immediately goes to support the “elderly”.
Your taxes are not supporting immigration, it’s the other way around: the newcomers are supporting YOU.
Without these very intelligent and ambitious newcomers Canadian economy would not able to support itself. It’s a known fact.
“No more complaining Muslims.
No more government that caters to the desires of minorities.
No more witnessing attacks on Christianity.”This point has been well covered in the previous posts.
If you don’t like what you see, why not move to Vancouver? Unless you also don’t like Indians, Eastern-Europeans and Chinese..Your reasons for leaving Canada in favour of CR are so wrong. The only right one is the weather which is absolutely the best here.
I suggest you take off your pink glasses next time you’re here and re-do your research!!
Here are my top reasons to leave in CR:
1) weather
2) cheaper (please note that I said “cheaper”, not “cheap”. Again, if you can’t afford your Hydro bills, you can’t afford CR)
3) lots of things to do if you like nature
4) gardening is the most rewarding
5) 2 WARM oceans within reasonable driving time
6) low property taxes (this has been changing lately, so let’s see if this reason stays)
7) reasonably friendly locals (though Canadians are probably just as friendly and definitely more helpful). I know many will disagree with this item, as many locals see us Gringos as “money bags” with plantations of money trees back North. I’m trying to say that there is no open hatered towards us. It’s nice to see smiling people on the streets.
8 ) privacyWe have it since January. We opted for 512M, but we can get 2G if we wanted. The technicians check what max speed you can get on your property when they install the equipment, so that if you change your mind later and want a faster connection they can do that from their office with 1 phone call from you.
I’ve been hearing that 3G service (for internet) has deteriorated and is very bad at the moment. My understanding is that ICE is trying to resolve the problem, but so far, no luck.
I’d say that if you live close to the town center you should opt for Amnet.
If cable is not an option (most expats choose to live higher up in the mountains), I recommend ICE Enterprise connection (you have to be able to see one of their towers from your property). The monthly fee is about $70 including taxes, but the connection fee is minimal (comparing to a $300-500 charge of any other provider offering similar service). So far we’ve been quite happy with the connection.
FYI: We used to be with Puro, but they went out of business. The guy from Atenas wasn’t able to connect us as we’re too high in the mountains and their antenna is looking down at the valley, not up into the mountains. We’re very lucky that ICE now offers this new Internet service.It appears to be just another sensation..
If the “proposed” regulation (not a law) passes, the CR economy will be crushed. No, I’m not talking about perpetual tourists from US, Canada and Europe. I’m talking about thousands of semi-legal Nicaraguans who legally come on tourist visa, but work illegally in the agriculture. Most of them never obtain a Work Visa as it takes some money and time.
Again, I’m not talking about much smaller group of illegal Nicaraguans (who hike for 3 days around the border). They won’t get affected by such a regulations, but I doubt that anyone in their right mind would want to get rid of all those semi-legal hard-working folks from Nicaragua that will be negativey affected by the “proposed” regulation.I’d call Guacamalla. They are the ones I go to when I’m looking for parts for my Galloper. Just cal 113 and ask them to give you the phone number.
They have at least 2 locations with one being in Alajuela and another in SJ.
Call them beforehand. Sometimes you need to wait a week or 2 before what you’re looking for becomes available. They usually have brand-new and used parts, so you can choose how much you’re ready to pay for a specific part.You can also download a Costa Rica GPS map here:
http://www.mangovalley.com/costa-rica-gps/It’s absolutely free for personal use. The drawbacks: no support or guarantees.
We found the map to be very good. We use Magellan, so we had to convert it before uploading. For Garmin, you just upload it and you’re ready to go.
