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sure, David. The place is called “Tierras Enamoradas” or “Lands In Love” . I believe my friend mentioned once that he knows Scott. Each time I have stayed there, I came across guests who were Israelis as well as Ticos and the usual North Americans. It is interesting to hear Israeli being spoken amongst the staff and guests.
http://www.landsinlove.com/

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There is always the possibility (probability?) that this minimum could be changed soon. I don’t think it needs to be increased dramatically, though, and that may be reason enough to leave it as is for a while. I am sure it based on CR average incomes and the average Tico salary has not changed as much as our North American inflation and salary decreases have.
Also, be careful taking anecdotal stories about cost of living too seriously. This is a very subjective matter. I read CR blogs all the time and they all have very different takes on the overall picture down there. It appears that personal predilections are what determine everything. It is so hard to get a good grip on relative values in regards to Costa Rica. It is a small country and is not great at record keeping or regulation so statistics are always questionable. We all look to web sites like this one for further illumination and many times, we find it here. But I’ll bet you get a wide range of opinions on this particular subject and will not be able to take away any certitude about how the cost of living would relate to your situation. Life is an adventure, isn’t it?

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Thanks for the input, Joe. Your anecdotal experience sounds like it might be right on the money. I am just another American who bought land a couple of years ago in the Central Valley but my own casual observations are that prices have not gone down. My impression is that there are no worthwhile sources of information on relative real estate values in Costa Rica.
The market may be temporarily saturated as the money has dried up from North America. But what about other sources such as Europe, Asia and South America? Those economies are still quite robust. Perhaps you are fishing for business in the wrong lake. Your perspective is from one whose clients mostly come from the U.S. so it has a bias.
I also don’t understand why everyone in the world doesn’t leave the cold northern climates for the beauty of Costa Rica…but I am also glad they do not.

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I have a friend who belongs to a kibbutz type of set up. This Israeli community runs a resort hotel north of San Ramon. It is quite possibly one of the most comfortable and enjoyable places I have stayed at in Costa Rica. The vegetarian food is absolutely delicious and the Israeli staff is simply wonderful. They are attentive and very friendly towards guests and dedicated to maintaining the buildings, grounds and kennel of dogs. It is a unique place unlike any other I have visited in Costa Rica.
The resort grounds are extensive and beautiful and even though there are Tico employees working with the Israelis, the place is sort of like a cultural bubble. I highly recommend the place to everyone I know. I don’t want to sound like an advertisement, but the experience is truly enjoyable and unique and especially interesting if you are interested in meeting some nice Israelis. They have an interesting story to tell about how they came together and how they decided on settling in Costa Rica.

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Now THIS is valuable info for me, David! I consider the wood covering as insulation. Are you talking about something more substantial? I can see where the sound of non stop winter rains could be quite a bother after a while.

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I would go to great lengths to avoid killing any animal, even a dangerous one. I once came across a snake on my Florida property too large to handle. I suspect it was a corn snake and they look similar to rattlesnakes. I dealt with it by simply scaring it away. I have no idea where it went. It may or may not have been poisonous. It may or may not have posed a threat elsewhere. I do not know. There is a good chance my small property in Costa Rica has poisonous snakes since it is surrounded by farmland. I am not sure how I will react when I come upon another viper. I have dogs and I have to consider their safety and mine as well. I just hate the idea of killing an animal for any reason at all.

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we were in the San Lorenzo area just south of Bajo Rodriguez. We remained on the platform only long enough for our small group to arrive and then move on to the next platform. The Ticos called the snake a terciopelo and the website I looked up later showed an image of this snake and it sure looked similar. In any case, it was poisonous as you pointed out, by the shape of its head.

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I just may do that next time I am in country. I assume the usual building materials; ie; steel roof, cement block etc. were used.
One feature about most Cost Rican construction that I find positive is the use of steel roofing. I presume the cost to be less than traditional clay roof tiles or even wood frame and ceiling structure as we have in the States. And the sound of rain on a steel roof is magic.
Financing in CR sounds like it has come a long way since just 2 years ago. Financing is always a speculative move for both lender and borrower and it will be interesting to see how far Costa Rica moves in this direction.

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Congrats, David. Any way we can know some of the architectural details of the new house to be constructed. I am always hungry for this kind of info.

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I can’t recount all the books I have read or heard of over the last three decades written by experts which have put forth theories about some sort of tremendous economic upheaval. All of the predicted dates for these disasters have come and gone. New batches of theories are always coming forth and re-setting the dates. There is plenty of fodder out there to feed these theories and there is never a shortage of speculative fear in people. I am no expert on macro economics. Like most people, I have to rely on what I read and what common sense tells me about probabilities. And I strive to keep separate probability from possibility. In the end, macro economics are tied to human behavior. They are a product of human behavior. So far, there is no reason to assume that some sort of major change in human behavior has occurred so I am betting that things will continue to chug right along as before. The only wld card hee is population and climate change.

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That’s sort of like saying “the sun always rises, until it doesn’t”. When will be the day the sun doesn’t rise? What is the approximate date of the terminal fall of the U.S. economy?
Nobody is refuting Mr. Walker’s numbers as they stand right now. But nobody is moving very quickly to counter act what he suggests is going to happen. One reason may be that people simply cannot live their lives worried about 30 or 40 years in the future. There are just too many variables in any equation which pretends to predict what will happen that far in advance and today’s problems, of which there are always many, almost always take precedence.
Remove the variables. State with some certitude the approximate date and specific consequences AND prove to everyone that there will be no more mitigating factors such as technological advancements or massive population reduction in the meantime which would lessen the ill effects you are predicting. It may be wise to be somewhat cautious, but it is out right foolish to wring hands and move into caves in preparation for the end of the world.
The stock market experienced another rally this week. Even with tons of bad news thrown at it, the market responded well. The recent downturn may not be over yet, but it just might be. It seems the economy here in the U.S. is not a total wreck yet. We may have another 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years to enjoy. And who knows? We may be able to skirt disaster completely once again.

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David,
Could you elaborate with a definition of “Maturation of U.S. national debt”? It feels as if this debt has been up and down but mostly up…way up, over the course of my life time. The bill never seems to come due despite so many ominous predictions of the grave consequences when it does “mature” for collection. There seems to always be some saving trick or event which steps in and prevents consequences. And along the way we have these bumps in the economy. 2002, 1990, 1987, 1976….all years when there were big downturns, some lasting quite a while but none doing any permanent damage. The economy always bounces right back.
My sense of doom has to do with macro situations, primarily over population, climate change and environment degradation. These things will eventually get us, I believe, and get us good. But I have no clear sense of what time frame is involved. How can one plan for anything without enough knowledge?

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Paramilitary police in Panama? That alone should tell us something about the place. I am still amazed that a haven like Costa Rica exists, sandwiched between two heavily militarized countries, Nicaragua and Panama. But it not only exists, it is seemingly thriving. It’s the people.
I spoke briefly to an employee, a Nicraguan mechanic, of an upscale hotel in the Arenal area. I don’t know if he was here legally or not but he criticized Costa Rica for what I thought were just spurious and untrue reasons. First he claimed the CR economy was shaky and could fall away any minute. What was he doing here then instead of staying in his beloved Nicaragua?
He also claimed CR DID indeed have a military force in the form of the police. Nicaragua’s armed forces were where they’re supposed to be; in their barracks, not on the streets. I didn’t laugh at him or argue with him. I didn’t point out that any armed force divorced from the people is a huge danger. Uniforms in Costa Rica are on the streets WITH the people and part of the people..locally. So much better! I took the Tico attitude and just let it go.
Nobody can convince me that Costa Rica is a bad place to live. I haven’t live here yet, but I have visited enough, spoken to enough people and read enough to finally be pretty darned comfortable about what life is like here. But keep the anecdotal evidence coming. It’s better to talk it out than brush it under the rug.

Edited on Apr 03, 2008 08:35

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Most people are pretty adept at putting a good spin to whatever direction they happen to be heading. It doesn’t matter whether they chose that direction or were forced to go that way. The point is, we are all creative enough to come up with good reasons in order to feel good about things. Perhaps Souflodoug has had to leave CR and is in need of some rose colored glasses when he looks at Panama. And in order to leave Costa Rica, which, as far as most of us are concerned, is a far superior place to so many others, he needs to tear it down a bit. He probably laments having to leave CR.

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“I have seen and heard several Ticos who refuse to accept other Latinos based on their pronunciation of Spanish. Kind of a prejudice of those outsiders who don’t speak Tico Spanish.”

The above observation you made is new to me. I have lived amongst Latinos for the last 3 and a half decades here in the U.S. (Miami). While there is always a certain amount of national pride, it hasn’t seemed to keep any of these different nationalities apart in any meaningful way. We all have Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican and Colombian friends. We all speak spanish with our own accents and colloquialisms and we all hang out together. It may well be a function of finding ourselves in a society filled with immigrants from everywhere. Since nobody is in his homeland, everybody may feel the need to make an extra effort. The only exceptions to this are a minority of north americans who do not speak or understand spanish. Most do not speak spanish but there is some resentment on the part of a small minority there. Otherwise, this is a Latino community.
Is Costa Rica different? So far, just brushing the surface of Tico culture hasn’t shown me any stand-offish attitude on the part of Ticos towards other spanish speakers who have not mastered the accent. I speak with a definite Cuban accent and have been told so but never as a criticism..at least , not that I could tell.

Edited on Apr 02, 2008 10:18

Edited on Apr 02, 2008 12:28

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