[robsoilman]

David, Thanks for the information on Dr. Dish, but $7000 is way out of my league. I can go to town or to my neighbors hotel over a 1000 times and not spend that kind of money even if I buy 2 or 3 beers each time I use their wireless connection.

Again it is just a matter of scale too. At Cabinas la Tranquilidad, our maximum capacity is 20 people (very small), but our little place works very well for certain types of small groups.

[robsoilman]

Since I now know you are my neighbor I will get back to you off board.
Robert

[robsoilman]

Yes this is what I am looking for, but I have a sneeking suspicion Dr. Dish is very expensive (thousands of dollars and high monthly costs thereafter. If I had a 100 room hotel or just a lot of moldy currency lying around it would be good. Unfortunately no “old money” here and not nearly as much new money as about 6 months ago.

I will still check out Dr. Dish because it may not be as much as I have heard. Thanks for the suggestion. I just don’t want to invest too heavily in a satelite system when there is the stong likelyhood they will get the fiber optic down to my end of the island within a year or so.

[robsoilman]

I have been a member of Scotts forum for a number of years, but I rarely post anything. This post/reply post regards phone, internet, VOIP, cable, fiber optic, “Skpe” tm, “Magic Jack” tm or anything else that will improve my chances of communications between the world and my little beach hotel on Playa Palo Seco near Parrita.

My Wife and I currently live NC, but plan to become CR residents around April of this year.

Here is our current communication set-up in the USA:

We currently use a slow DSL connection through our local phone company which also is our land line provider (Windstream).

We use AT&T as our Cellular provider (has the removable SIMMs)

We have Long Distance through Power Net Global (PNC) which also provides 2 Toll Free phone numbers which forward to our home phone here in NC and our my wife’s cellular phone here in NC. These are very important because this is how people in North America reach us by phone regarding our little hotel.

Here is our current communication setup in CR:

We do not have a land line available to our property at this time (applied for 2 lines 3 years ago).

We have an old technology “radio phone” at our hotel provided by ICE. It is unreliable and cannot be used for internet or fax. only voice and that is more off than on.

We also have 2 cell phones: 1 of each type they offer in CR (GSM and TDMA I think). The signal on our island beach is week and only works when you are standing on or near the beach or have an external antennae connected – so not a sure thing for receiving incoming calls.

Regarding the new Undersea Cable that connects in Parrita: We watched in great anticipation as they rolled out and installed a new Fiber Optic cable on our beach island, but as far as I know it has never been activated and who knows if they will even extend it all the way to our east end of the island. If that ever gets completed I’ll throw a big party with free beer for the whole island.

Our hotel manager has his own office in Parrita about 10 km from our hotel.
He has a regular ICE phone line and what they call “high speed internet” via a special modem box (not sure how that works or whether he can make a phone call while he in on the internet.).

Our manager accurrently has a Skype account and uses a VOIP digital (USB connected I think?) phone and can call us on this at our home in the NC very well. The sound quality is very good and it appears to be more reliable for him to call here than it is for us to call any regular land line in CR from NC.
? I do not know if we can call him at his office if he is connected with the VOIP phone connected. Do you know the answer?
We are considering switching our phone service here in NC to a cable company which offers internet, digital phone and TV bundled for less than we pay for our DSL and Phone now. Not sure what to do. Still don’t understand the Skype/Magic Jack debate too well, but trying to learn fast.
Well this post is getting quite lengthy so I will stop for now and ask if any are willing to give us the benefit of your experience and I.T. expertise.

Thanks and hoping for a reply,
Robert (Robsoilman)
Playa Palo Seco, Parrita, CR

[robsoilman]

Yes; see the list below. There may be other species we should consider.

Rhizopora mangle (Red)

Avicennia germinans (Black) (I think it is called pineapple mangrove on mangrove tours in CR)

Laguncularia racemosa (White)

thanks,
Robert

[robsoilman]

We still have some openings in February at our small oceanfront hotel

Robert

Edited on Jan 27, 2009 11:09

[robsoilman]

Thanks for the excellent info on Cuscatlan from mediatica and others: Could someone provide a link to that bank? It sounds like having a Cuscatlan account and a BNCR account would serve us well. Is there a branch in Quepos or Jaco? Even if I have to use a branch in the Central Valley I think it could work out although not the most convenient.

Another question: What will I need to present to set up an account with Cuscatlan? Since I already have several BNCR accounts will that make it easier?

Also is it best to set use a saving account or checking at Cuscatlan?

Thanks,
Robert

[robsoilman]

To Bandera,

I also have trouble with the spanish BNCR site, but I am determined to just learn the spanish. My wife has less spoken spanish than I do, but she is a whiz at paying bills, etc on BNCR.

Yes the Parrita Branch does have safety deposit boxes, but they are small in size. We haven’t bothered to get one, but may in the future.

As for withdrawal limits. You can set that fairly high, but I don’t know what the limit is. I am refering to the withdrawal limits for the ATM. I don’t know of any limits on withdrawals at the teller inside the bank. We recently had to update our accounts inside the bank because of new passports. I think that is when we set up our daily withdrawal limits. There is a very nice man who appears to be mid-level mgt for this branch, speaks very good English (not a teller, works behind the glass near the corner of the glass wall next to the tellers and behind the public computer/printer workstation).

Sounds like you live in the Parrita area. My wife and I own a small hotel on the beach at Playa Palo Seco http://www.cabinaslatranquilidad We don’t live there full time yet, but plan to be there full time by the end of this year. Give me an email sometime and maybe we can have a beer or something when we’re down.

[robsoilman]

My wife and I use Banco Nacional in Parrita. We have had very good service and very few problems. There have never been any incidences of fraud. Although we have very limited Spanish my wife has learned how to use the online banking to pay our hotel employees, social security, ICE bills, pool company bills and in some cases miscelaneous repair bills to local contractors. We wire money manually into our accounts in CR and can move funds between accounts. The security seems better than our USA banks with regard to password changes (every 30 days), no vowels, etc. I am sure there are some problems based on reports I have read in the media, but for us at least so far, None! I will add that the only other choice in our little coastal town is Banco Costa Rica which we have not looked into. There are no international banks in our little town. We would have to travel to Quepos or Jaco which seems unnessary to us at this point.

One other question for the group…We were considering opening a Euro account, but haven’t done so. Certainly wish I had done so years ago with the way the value of the Euro has moved with respect to the USD. Anyway any pros and cons on that appreciated. I haven’t visited this forum much recently, so please excuse me if this was a recent topic.

[robsoilman]

I agree with Scott. It took me only about 20 minutes with very little Spanish. I just gave them the name of the corporation at the window in the municipality and paid in cash. They gave me a receipt and I was on my way. If your property manager can’t handle that, time to hire a new one.

Edited on Dec 14, 2006 13:05

[robsoilman]

We just paid our taxes in Parrita and found it to be much more after we got our concession. It was almost $500.00, but we have a small hotel/cabina on 5 lots. I think you can pay the bill to the municipality in Parrita anytime during the year, but most people pay it near the beginning of the year. I guess will have to pay the taxes again next month for 2007 or at least before the end of the year. One thing for sure they aren’t mailing out tax bills, so you have to go there and ask.

Edited on Dec 14, 2006 13:06

[robsoilman]

It sounds like the sonar devices are the best option for our situation. Next question is where to purchase them and how much do they cost. I am in the States at this moment so I could buy some here if I know what to look for. The lights are not an option because there is no practical way to install lights in this very small air space (only about 4 inches), also very hard to block all the potential spaces along a convoluted metal roof edge. I have another suggestion of installing bat boxes (or houses) along the property to give them another option. Someone suggested a high incidence of rabies in bats. I know this is true in North America, but I haven’t heard of any incidences of rabies in bats or any other mammals in Costa Rica. Has anyone else?

[robsoilman]

Is your “Parrita” property the Parrita located between Jaco and Quepos? I have property at Playa Palo Seco and I am also interested in learning about good builders serving our area. I have learned there is another town by the same name.

[robsoilman]

Read Scott’s great article on the furniture stores in Sarchi. I think as long as the wood is properly dried before the cabinets are made you will not have any problems. My wife and I have a little hotel right on the beach near Quepos (Cabinas la Tranquilidad) and we have lots of beautiful tropical wood cabinets and furniture which have been there for a number of years without any cracking.

I think it would be a terrible shame to have to go with laminates with such incredibly beautiful tropical hardwoods all around us. In case you didn’t know, many of these species are naturally resistent to termites and decay.

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