Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
[quote=”soldier”]There is another Costa Rica website, that I will not mention here; that contains some figures; I do not know how accurate the numbers are, and how the data was compilled. I would assume it would be impossible to keep accurate numbers. If you would like the website, please contact me by email.[/quote]
Soldier: Please send me the other website. Thanks, Bill Moss, wk.moss@gmail.com
[quote=”maravilla”]just in my little enclave 30% of the people who moved here with the intent of living here til they died, who built houses, and spent a lot of money shipping their goodies, have left already. all within the first two years, often less.
i can predict with uncanny accuracy who will make it here and who won’t after only a few conversations. some people just don’t belong in a foreign country — they want all the things they had back home and continually grouse when they can’t find them or have to pay a premium to get them.
the folks who refuse to learn spanish, or think the Ticos should accommodate them because they are spending dollars in their country, also have a high return rate. the people who constantly compare costa rica to wherever they hailed from are also dooomed. this is not like any other place; it is not small town america, it is not LA, NY or SF. it has its own rhythm, it’s own cultural structure, and its own mindset of prejudices and history.
if a person refuses to embrace those things, they can never function in this society. then there are the peeps who hate any kind of insect and who squirm and scream at the site of all kinds of creepy crawlies at the onset of green season. get over it! the gringos who insist on hanging out with only gringos often find that they are thrust into a circle that they would never have joined in the States. they find that the only common denominator is that they are living in a Latin country.
the ones who refuse to make Tico friends wind up being isolated and view the Ticos with suspicion. another ingredient in the recipe for failure. the shipping companies love to tell people to bring ALL their stuff, even though many people have stuff that isn’t worth the price they are going to pay to ship it somewhere.
when it molds, falls apart, or otherwise becomes completely unusable, they bitch and moan that their 18 year old sofa was just fine when they had it in the States. my next door neighbor fled CR on the cusp of a nervous breakdown. he couldn’t wait to get out of this place, even after romanticizing before he got here that this was the perfect place for him. he sunk almost all of his savings into building a house that he will probably never live in, and which is now rented.
then there are the folks who think they will come here and earn some money. forget it. if you don’t have enough to live on without earning one sou, stay home. and once people figure out that this is not the cheap place to live, unless you want to live like an unskilled worker, where if you want all the electrical goodies running 24/7, you can expect to have a $250 a month ICE bill.
i have one neighbor whose ICE bill is nearly $500 a month. the ones who scurry home came here with unrealistic expectations. they say they like the rain, but when it rains day and night for ten days, they are ready for Prozac.
they also seem to not know that with lots of rain comes lots of mud, lots of cleaning up the mud, and the constant battle against the things who would like to move in with you.
i am currently working on an article for the new central american magazine called Neotropica. the thrust of this article is the unrealistic view of paradise, and how it is sold as a concept to people who refuse to do their own research on what the reality is here. when reality finally does sink in, the results can be disastrous — suicide, alcoholism, divorce, financial ruin. this is truly where caveat emptor rises to the occasion.[/quote]
Very good advise. This is your article. Bill Moss, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA wk.moss@gmail.com
