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i’ve heard it all — from you’re a traitor, to a sell-out, to a wimp, to whatever comes across their little minds at the moment. i sent you the personal attack i got from someone i didn’t even know when i made a statement about being upset that one in five children in america live in poverty. she told me to leave. i told her i was ahead of her and had already done that. well, you saw the exchange. jajaja the bottom line is if you lived your life, or made your decisions based on what the sheeple think you should do, not a one of us would do anything daring, and as most people know, i don’t give one whit what other people think about my choices.
i wouldn’t bother with Belize, personally. the crime rate is soaring, esp against expats (as it is in Ecuador as well). Belize is also very hot, most of the time. Somehow we manage to tick off a lot of people wherever we go.
you don’t have to live on rice and beans to eat cheaply in costa rica. we do eat beans — limas, garbanzos, black beans, fresh red beans — and we do them in many different ways from a variety of cultures. we don’t eat meat, but we do occasionally eat chicken and some fish or shrimp (and lobster when it’s available). where it gets expensive is buying gringo packaged stuff. but there is every kind of vegetable available here and all the herbs so tonight we are having fresh pesto sauce with bucatini and grilled aspargus as an appetizer. total cost for two people: about $3.00.
no, we did not do ethiopian food (which i love by the way, if only i could get teff here !). we had Italian fine-dining restaurants, where every single thing was made from scratch — even in the 90’s it was expensive to do that and then chemicalized, industrialized corporate food took over. people like cheap, and cheap is what they got at every restaurant but ours. so really, the prices scott quoted are NOT expensive if you want to eat well prepared FRESH food, and not some glop out of a 5 gallon bucket that the food service companies supply to most restaurants. you get what you pay for.
if you already consider yourself poor, for god’s sake, don’t move here. you will become even poorer as the prices for everything escalates.
the orange sweet potatoes ARE here (FRESH, NOT IN CANS that have bpa) and they are every bit as good as the ones we got “up there.” get them at a local farmer’s market. i buy them all year round here.
AM had FRESH cranberries the other day. pricey, but fresh is always better. i just baked three loaves of sourdough bread to make stuffing. it’s so easy to do and you know what’s in it.
you can find turkeys here, but they are imported and expensive, and none are organic. just the pumped-up-with-sodium turkeys that cost 3x’s the price. everything else is available too.
we did the big dinner a couple of years ago, and then didn’t do it again. i mean, what is there to celebrate?? it was just an excuse for me to get the turkey from a neighbor so i could make turkey soup!
as for xmas, it’s not a big deal here at all. it’s a day for the kids when baby jesus brings gifts. no santa claus in this culture.
mother’s day is the biggest holiday and everything is closed on that day.
easter is a huge deal. this year we are having thxgiving dinner at a neighbor’s. getting organic chickens instead of chemicalized turkey.
but it could come and go and we would hardly notice. to other expats it’s a huge deal. to me, ehhh!
wow — you think driving a 7 year old car makes you look poor???? in the town where i used to live in Colorado, which was the 6th richest county in America a few years ago, we have a high number of billionaires who live in my neighborhood. they drive cars in excess of $100,000, and usually have more than one. I drive a 1986 Volvo station wagon. i can’t even count the number of times one of those rich dudes — usually it’s a woman — has gotten right behind my back bumper and either honked or flashed her lights, indicating that she would like ME to get out of HER way — after all, she is the rich person driving to her home in the ritziest part of the town, where i also live (in one of the smallest houses compared to the 20,000 sq foot houses they have been building lately.) so looks are deceiving and one really shouldn’t make judgments about superficial stuff such as the cars people drive. i would bet in the final analysis, i am worth more than some of the rich dudes because my car was paid for and i have no debt whatsoever!! but i have experienced that kind of discrimination, which i find totally amusing, and actually feel sorry for the rich dudes because they think they are so much better off than anyone else. but i knew dirt about these people that told me otherwise — i wouldn’t trade my simple life for theirs any day, ever! behind the patina of social acceptance there was usually more dirty laundry than you could imagine and some of the things i knew about these people were absolutely shocking!! Driving a Boxster doesn’t necessarily make you a nice person.
just what does that explain, Victoria? that my ex-father-in-law was very wealthy? And, your point is??????? my point was that the maid and the cook (a couple!) often drove his car to do the errands. And i am sure in a town as xenophobic and snobbish as EH was/is, that must have raised some eyebrows, but who cares?
if there are no Ford Tauruses in this country it must be for a good reason. it doesn’t seem like it would be practical car in this country, on these roads, in this climate. pretty much you can plan on it costing you more than it’s worth to get it here, pay the duties and import costs, and the licensing.
$115 for a great dinner for two is a FRACTION of what you would pay for a similar meal in LA, NYC, London or Paris. when we had restaurants in the 90’s, it used to cost $50 a person to eat there, and that was without tax and tip. fine dining is expensive, no matter where you go. if i weren’t married to an italian chef, who was praised by Julia Child when she ate in our restaurant, i would make him take me there!!!! but i think i will just tell him to get into the kitchen and work some magic.
cars are vastly overpriced here because of all the taxes and import fees. i just paid $5000 for a 1991 Geo Tracker that, in the States, I could’ve bought for $1000 (or less!)
you’re not one of those people who think the new fines are only for gringos, are you? they are not. and the Tico who gets such a ticket is not making $350 a month. those people can’t afford cars. in my town we have a plethora of hummers, bmw’s, mercedes, and even a porsche and that doesn’t include the high-end monster trucks that Ticos like so much. nobody who is making that low wage has a car — and i am willing to bet on that.
remember, in this country, or anywhere actually, your comfort level is determined by your income. most of us here do not have young children that we must house, feed, clothe, and educate. those are expenses above and beyond what a retiree living on social security would be burdened with. the internet oftens gives an unrealistic picture of what life is like here — yes, the houses look wonderful, but the house you could probably afford would not be listed, and if money for food is an issue then be sure you move somewhere where there is a big farmer’s market. there was a guy who was once on this board who complained bitterly that where he had chosen to live denied him access to many fresh foods. for someone with 5 children, this access would be one of the most important things about living here. the sad thing is that the cost of living keeps going up up up and most peoples’ income is pretty static. not too long ago, my husband and i spent only about $700 a month for all our expenses (we have no house payment), then it was $800, and now we are close to the $900 mark and there are some fixed expenses that have actually decreased, but the cost of food, gas, etc. have all gone up exponentially. so coming for a visit, and checking out the areas that appeal to you, is the first thing you should do before making this decision. you don’t want to wind up like so many others who come here, discover it’s not for them, and then haven’t the resources to go home. good luck.
i don’t regard anyone who rips off our government programs to be a saint. what i am echoing is actually something that showed up on my facebook page a few days ago, but which i cannot find, so i will have to paraphrase it. it was about just this issue, where a woman asked not to be judged by other shoppers in the check-out line because she was using food stamps. she went on to say, “I do my own nails, i cut my own hair, i work two jobs and still don’t make enough money to pay my bills or buy sufficient food for my family, my cel phone is paid for by my father as a Xmas gift every year, and the car i am driving belongs to a good friend. i shop at thrift stores for my clothes and those of my children, etc etc etc” — you get the drift. and also i remember that my ex-father-in-law used to let his servants drive his new BMW to the store in East Hampton. I can only imagine the kind of judgments that were passed when a black woman drives up in a very expensive car in the most expensive place in the world to live!!! and while i am not a religious person at all, a phrase does come to mind — judge not lest ye be judged. you simply do not have enough facts to reach the conclusion you did, and there is a hint of racism and xenophobia in your post that is beneath you.
