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Costa Rica Expat Living Mistakes to Avoid

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Costa Rica Expat Living Mistakes to Avoid

I realize posts like this are a dime a dozen on the countless blogs out there providing advice on moving to Costa Rica. I hope this one offers a slightly different twist on a well-worn topic…

In my humble opinion, the Costa Rica expat living mistakes to avoid generally come in three different flavors and those are mistakes of mindset, money and (for sake of continuing the alliteration), misanthropy (or developing a negative attitude about your fellow humans)…

Also, please note that I am, again generally, writing about mistakes that “Americans” (er, expats from the U.S.) make, since that’s where I’m from. And after almost 20 years here, I can tell you that I’ve made most of the mistakes revealed below…

Mistakes of Mindset

Risk Aversion (American Style)…

I believe America is unique in the world when it comes to risk aversion. It’s probably because we are also unique in the world when it comes to ratio of personal injury lawyers and insurance agents to total population. Down here we’re just not that way. The personal injury lawsuit doesn’t even really exist here at all. Costa Ricans do things, routinely, that make the average American tourist, or newly minted expat, gasp in horror. An example is the “station-wagon” motorcyle…with the dad navigating, the mom sitting in back, and the toddler sandwiched between them. What horrible parents, correct? Wrong! It’s just the most efficient way they have at their disposal of getting from Point A to B.

And that risk aversion filters through to the manner in which some expats choose to live their lives in Costa Rica. A prime example is an over-abundance of caution when it comes to security. Since they have more stuff than the average tico, these risk-averse gringo expats are absolutely convinced that the locals are out to take some of it from them. So they go to obscene measures to avoid that…making their expat homes look more like drug-lord compounds complete with razor or electrically charged wire and video cameras to capture what is going on in every corner at every minute. For some, even armed guards are deployed. It just gets downright ridiculous and probably invites more problems than it avoids.

Bottom line, if you are that risk averse you might want to stay in the country that caters to that mindset…the U.S.A.

The Perpetual Vacation Mindset…

Most of my expat and/or real estate clients first arrive to Costa Rica “on vacation”, usually to a beach destination, which in my case means Dominical, Uvita or Ojochal. There they encounter a gorgeous coastline and lots of entertainment options, with many other tourists doing them same thing they are doing…vacationing.

Have you every stepped back and observed the way people behave on vacation? I have. I grew up on the beach, in the major U.S. tourist destination of Myrtle Beach, S.C.

People generally don’t act on vacation like they do back home. And they shouldn’t. After all, they might only get the opportunity to be tourists once, or maybe twice, a year. Why not let the hair hand down a little? People on vacation in our Costa Ballena do what people on vacation do all over the world, they have a good time.

The problem is that when you settle as an expat in one of those beachy touristy destinations and then try to live full-time in that type of mindset, you tend to get the idea that life is one big vacation. Well, I guess we could argue philosophically as to whether, or not, that’s actually the case, but…

Life has a way of ultimately bringing one back down to earth, if you know what I mean.

Let’s face it, the body and mind can only stand so much of being “on vacation.”

Mistakes of Money

Straining Credulity (by accepting really bad advice)…

I have clients constantly make the following comment to me, or something to its affect…

“well, so and so told me such and such…”

You get the idea, right? Here’s some sage advice, don’t take advice from anyone who hasn’t lived, full-time as an expat, in Costa Rica for at least 5 years. Otherwise, the odds are highly likely that they haven’t the foggiest idea of what they’re talking about.

We Americans like to think that our “friends” (usually fellow Americans) know best and have our best interests at heart. They might be well-meaning and all, but bad advice is bad advice. And it can get you in a world of trouble down here and that especially portends in financially-related matters.

Showing Off (American Style)…

Some expats come to Costa Rica with the idea of changing their consumptive habits. After all, Costa Rica is one of the most naturally pristine places on Earth and over 25% of its entire territory has been set aside and preserved. All that provides wonderful inspiration for living a more sustainable and less consumptive lifestyle.

Others come here to try and turn Costa Rica into a tropical version of back home. They build lavish homes and drive exotic vehicles. They bring the keeping up with the Joneses mindset with them and if they settle in the right area, such as an expat enclave in a tourist destination, they’ll be surrounded by plenty of Joneses to keep up with.

I’ve always tried to steer clear of that, partly because I don’t have the money to even try to keep up in the first place, but mostly because I really wanted to get away from that down here. I really don’t see the point in coming to Costa Rica and trying to live an American lifestyle of over-consumption. It tends to mess things up for those of us who came for something entirely different.

Mistakes of Misanthropy

Cynicism is NOT Your Friend in Costa Rica…

Making the Costa Rica expat living mistakes alluded to above can give rise to a very unhealthy case of cynicism. Costa Ricans, by and large, are not cynical. This is a very happy-go-lucky culture…the so-called “pura vida” culture you’ve heard about. Sometimes that sense of “getting it done when it gets done” mindset can rake the nerves of the newly-minted gringo like fingernails on a chalkboard. However, resisting will only exacerbate the issue. Costa Rica culture is also very passive-aggressive and if you express your discontent too openly, it will be met with reactions that will only fuel that discontent even more.

The best way to react? Go with the flow and avoid cynicism at all costs.

And don’t hang out with the cynics who sit in gringo bars on their perpetual vacations drinking their livers into oblivion while complaining about tico tardiness.

Minding Others’ Business…

The best way to make it to bliss as an expat is to get involved in positive and impactful endeavors. Many expats who live here simply have too much time on their hands. Some utilize that time by meddling…we call that being a “chismoso” or “chismosa” here in Costa Rica. Yea I know, minding the business of others can be great fun, anywhere, can’t it? But did you really come to Costa Rica to do that? Can’t you find better things to do out there?

If not, you’ll more than likely end up in the aforementioned gringo bar drinking your poor liver into oblivion.

Immersion Therapy…

The simple solution to all of the above Costa Rica expat living mistakes is to engage in immersion therapy.

I know it sounds cliche for me to advise you to “learn the language.” But it just seems funny to me that the gringos in said bars complaining about the ticos not being able to speak their language are the same ones who decry, along with Trump, the fact that many of the Latinos back in America can’t speak perfect English.

If you’re going to live in a foreign country and be surrounded by a foreign tongue, it’s better to switch than fight…learn the language and you’ll get along much better and that will help serve to guard you against “cynicism creep.”

Of course, there are many other ways to immerse than just learning Spanish. This blog post is already running a bit long, so I won’t begin to list them here.

Bottom line is, as they say, when in Rome do as the Romans…that applies equally to Costa Rica as well.

The Place Called Perez

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The Place Called Perez

I was living in Santo Domingo de Heredia when I began to think hard about where I really wanted to live in Costa Rica. I was running a travel agency making online sales and entertaining customers upon their arrival at the San Jose airport. For a long time I felt as if I needed to be in the big city. I had an apartment in the business district of Paseo Colon, before moving to the Sabana Park area, and then finally out into the mountains of Santo Domingo.

Santo Domingo is in the shadows of the Barva and Poas volcanos. It’s a higher and cooler altitude than downtown. All in all, it’s a lovely place. But there was one problem…my office was still downtown and to get to it I had to drive right through the worse traffic San Jose offered at the time (and it’s still pretty bad), the infamous rotunda of Juan Pablo Segunda. In short, it was a nightmarish commute.

I began to romanticize about all those locations around the country where life would just be, well, perfect. Of course, we all know that there is no “perfect”, but I often would catch myself fantasizing about life in a small pueblo, surrounded by a mesmerizing array of flora and fauna, and offering the quintessential “pura vida” existence.

I knew that I loved the mountains and the beach. Could it be possible to have both, I pondered? I grew up surfing, but I’d arrived at an age where there were more important things in life, like general comfort. The beach is where the waves are, but it’s also where relentlessly oppressive heat is, where the highest prices are, and where the most pretentious gringos tend to congregate. In short, I knew that I didn’t want to live AT the beach, but close enough.

The area that stuck out was the place called Perez Zeledon and its principal city, San Isidro de El General. I’ll call it Perez, for short, as that is how we locals refer to it.

Perez is in a gorgeous valley at the foot of the highest mountains in Costa Rica, the Talamancas. The trail head for the highest peak in the country, Chirripo at 12,500 feet, is less than an hour from downtown. San Isidro is also less than an hour from the beach.

I thought I’d identified my proverbial “shangri la”, offering the best of both worlds, mountains and beaches!

I moved to Perez in 2011 into a cozy apartment in the barrio of La Palma. Rent was $400 per month with utilities included (Perez is also much cheaper than San Jose). My wife and I were separated at the time, which made “getting out of dodge” even more appealing. And I’m still here in the place called Perez with zero plans to move any time soon. On a side note, my wife and I are together again and living very happily in Perez.

I must say that I’ve been very pleased with my decision.

Certainly the fact that you can live in the mountains and yet be so close to the beach is one reason why I love this place. However, there are many others…

First there is the city itself. It’s actually not a small town, even though it has that feel. It’s the second largest city in the country outside of the “gran area metropolitana” of the Central Valley (which encompasses San Jose, Cartago, Heredia and Alajuela). I often characterize center city as one giant outdoor mall. The streets are lined with small stores of every kind, all mom and pop owned. I remember growing up in small town North Carolina when it was like that. San Isidro offers a hearkening back to those days of old. And here you can find everything you could possibly need for the pura vida life, and more. We even have a mall with a cinema…we call it our “small.” In short, it definitely has the convenience factor going for it.

Then there are the people. The P-Zetas, as they are often referred, are mountain people…kind and considerate, but also on the whole honest no nonsense straight-shooters. Many work in agriculture or some type of trade where they earn a livelihood with their hands. Some are business owners, or wealthy land owners. The canton of Perez has a very entrenched middle-class of ticos who live what I would consider a relatively high quality of life. If you want to understand why Costa Rica consistently ranks as one of the happiest countries on earth, look no further than Perez Zeledon.

However, the city is not where the real magic of the place called Perez can be found. The population of the city proper is perhaps 50,000, maybe less. But the canton (or county) of Perez is quite large, with a population approaching 200,000. The beauty of the place is found in the many mountain pueblos that dot the folds of the Talamancas, as well as the smaller range that slopes towards the gorgeous coastline of the southern Pacific.

I’ve since settled in one of those pueblos known as Quebradas. The community rests along the banks of a picturesque river of the same name. The altitude is around 900 meters, or just under 3,000 feet, offering a perfect climate at all times of the day and year. I should mention that the valley, where the city is located, can get quite warm during the day. But in a small mountain pueblo like Quebradas, which is only about 10 minutes from downtown, it’s an entirely different story. That’s the magic of the micro-climate in Costa Rica, where temperature doesn’t vary by time of year, but solely by altitude.

I work as a real estate agent for Coldwell Banker down on the coast in Playa Dominical, where some of the most consistent surf in the country can be found. It takes about 45 minutes for me to go from my front door to the office down there. And the drive offers breathtaking panoramic views of the mountains and ocean. That’s quick enough to make a day trip to the beach on a moment’s notice an easy thing to accomplish. So, if the waves are good, I can grab my board and be in the water within an hour!

My real estate motto has become “live in the mountains and visit the beach.” I realize that for some folks being 10 minutes from the beach, let along almost an hour, just won’t work.

But if you’re like me and being comfortable and having a high quality of life is perhaps more important than an ocean view (or even an ocean), then the place called Perez might be one you should look into closely.

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