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Costa Rica Residency – Perpetual Tourist or Resident?

April 17, 2018 by Costa Rica Guy Leave a Comment

This post is not going to explain the ins and outs of obtaining a Costa Rica residency. I’ve written on that in the past. It’s complicated, but not so much. It’s not a bad idea to talk to a lawyer on that issue. Although I know of plenty who’ve handled it all on their own.

This post on Costa Rica residency is for those out there who choose not to become residents.

Believe me, there are more Costa Rica expats living in the country, full-time (or almost full-time), who aren’t residents than there are those who have achieved residency status.

So, what gives? What’s the big deal?

The main advantages of Costa Rica residency are as follows (in random order)…

1. You don’t have to leave the country every 90 days.
2. You can participate in the CAJA, or medical/social security system (but at a price).
3. You can more easily obtain certain services that require a “cedula” or government identification card.
4. You can acquire a Costa Rica driver’s license.

Granted, those are pretty significant advantages. But are they really?

There’s also the “moral” factor. For some folks it just doesn’t seem right to live in a foreign country as an illegal. If you don’t have residency and you are renewing your passport by leaving the country every 90 days, you aren’t technically “illegal”, but truthfully you are sort of gaming the system.

The deal is this…if you come to Costa Rica on a tourist visa, and for U.S. and Canadian citizens that simply means you entered with a passport from your home country (there are no other requirements for the visa), then you are allowed to stay in the country legally for 90 days. Also, you are allowed to use a valid driver’s license from your home country to drive on Costa Rica’s roads for that same 90 day period. After the 90 days are up, you’re an illegal.

Are you subject to deportation? Well, yes…however Costa Rica generally won’t do that as long as you keep your nose clean.

Recently the law was changed (effective April 20th of this year) wherein if you overstay your visa you are charged $100 for each month you overstay. When you exit the country you must pay up and if you don’t, you will be denied entry for 3 times the amount you overstayed. I don’t believe this is prorated, meaning that if you overstay by a day, you’re gonna owe $100. I’m not sure on that, but I have not read anywhere about a reduction in fine if you only overstay a fraction of an entire month.

Here’s an example of how this works: Let’s say you overstay your visa by 47 days (so 2 months). Well, when you check in at the airport for your flight home, someone somewhere (not sure who nor where) will be charging you $200. And if you don’t pay at that time, then you can’t come back into Costa Rica for 6 months. Got it?

You can avoid all this ugliness by just leaving the country before your visa period is up. You can of course go home, but you don’t have to. You could go to Panama or Nicaragua, both nice places to visit. How long do you have to stay outside the country? Technically you are supposed to stay outside for 72 hours, or 3 days. However, that’s not readily enforced.

I know of many a perpetual tourist who will simply go to the border, cross it, have a beer, and then cross immediately back to get his or her passport stamped and visa renewed for another 90 days. I never did it that way. I was a perpetual tourist for my first several years in Costa Rica. I always left for Nicaragua and I always stayed gone for the required 3 days. Heck, I loved doing it! But I’ve heard enough stories about folks getting away with far less time out to lead me to believe that the official 72 hour requirement is just not enforced.

What’s my recommendation on Costa Rica residency – perpetual tourist or resident?

Well, I would have to say that if you easily qualify for residency, either due to a pension back home, or the fact that you’re investing $200,000 in Costa Rica real estate (which incidentally will qualify you, your wife and minor children all for that same $200K), then go ahead and go for it. However, if that’s a big problem for you, then the perpetual tourism route is certainly viable. Bearing in mind that it will now cost you to overstay your visa.

Back when I was a perpetual tourist I overstayed often. Usually because I was running my own business and the date I was supposed to leave wasn’t always commensurate with my ability business-wise to just up and leave. So, I would overstay for a week or two (sometimes even more). You won’t really be able to do that anymore without having to pay a price.

It seems that Costa Rica is trying to discourage perpetual tourism, so more loophole closes could be in the plans.

I was talking to a friend the other day, a guy who lives half the year in Costa Rica and the other half in Canada (so, not really a perpetual tourist as I would understand the term to mean). He said he didn’t understand why Costa Rica didn’t make the tourist visa valid for 6 months, rather than 3…apparently as they do in Panama? I agree that would be a welcome change, but it doesn’t seem to me that Costa Rica is going in that direction when it comes to their immigration policies.

For now perpetual tourism is still alive and well in Costa Rica. Who knows, however, what the future has in store?

Costa Rica Expat Living Mistakes to Avoid

March 25, 2018 by Costa Rica Guy Leave a Comment

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

March 7, 2018 by Costa Rica Guy Leave a Comment

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.

The Costa Rica Beach Bubble

February 25, 2018 by Costa Rica Guy 2 Comments

I grew up at the beach. When I was seven my family moved to a small barrier island off the N.C. coast, Holden Beach. Later, before the start of my junior year in high school, we moved to Myrtle Beach, where I lived off and on for the ensuing 20 years.

When I first moved to Costa Rica I was of the opinion that in order to do business here I had to live in the big city, which meant San Jose. To be honest back in those days the communication infrastructure was not where it is today, so in some respects I was right. And I wasn’t one of those expats who arrived with enough money not to have to worry about making any more.

After a decade in San Jose I was ready for a change. I moved to the southern zone, to the town of San Isidro de El General, in the canton of Perez Zeledon, about 8 years ago. Then in 2015 I made a disastrous decision to try repatriation back to the States. That lasted about 6 months, when I returned “home” with my tail tucked. By that time there was only one place in Costa Rica I considered “home” and that was San Isidro. I got involved in real estate shortly thereafter, joining the Coldwell Bank team in Dominical.

I came under a lot of influence from the agency to focus on beach listings, even though I lived in the mountains. After a while trying to do just that, I finally decided to go in a different direction. I decided I would only take my listings in the mountains, but would attempt to serve my buyer customers as an agent/consultant who would expose them to both worlds…mountains and beaches. And that’s still what I’m all about.

So, with that bit of background, let me get to the seminal point of this post. And that concerns what I regard to be the Costa Rica beach bubble…

Here’s how that works…and it works in other areas, not just my area of real estate coverage, which encompasses the mountains of Perez Zeledon and the Costa Ballena…

Most of our real estate buyers first arrive to Costa Rica “on vacation”, usually to a beach destination, which in our 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. Probably because, as first alluded, I grew up on the beach, in the major U.S. tourist destination of Myrtle Beach, S.C.

The problem is that when you live full-time in that type of environment, 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. The body and mind can only stand so much of being “on vacation.”

There’s no doubt about it, the beach is where the money is. And if you arrive to Costa Rica with a pocket full of cash, you’re probably going to gravitate towards that. We all like to show off a bit, don’t we? And what better way to show off one’s success than with a gorgeous beach home in Costa Rica!

So, what do I mean by the “Costa Rica beach bubble?”

Well, all of the above tends to give rise to one.

For starters, it tends to isolate those at the beach from what life is really like for the average Costa Rican. It also tends to raise the prices for everyone down there, including the locals.

What you tend to get at the beach is a societal division between wealthy gringos on a perpetual vacation and a few poor ticos who can afford to try to live among them.

In short, you get the Costa Rica beach bubble.

Now if that sounds like your kind of lifestyle, then by all means go for it. It’s readily available and I’m more then willing to expose you to it and help you become a part of it.

However, there is an alternative and, in my market, it’s less than an hour away.

It’s called the mountains.

There you will find a much more entrenched middle class of ticos, interspersed with the occasional gringo expat, living an authentic Costa Rican life. They work and they play, but they don’t do it so much for the “show factor” as for the simple joy of living in one of the most beautiful and happy countries on earth factor. There’s not a lot of showing off that goes on up here in the mountains. People are, for the most part, content to live quiet and humble lives…the kind you’ve heard that goes on down here…the real “pura vida” life.

I know this probably sounds awfully critical of the beach. I don’t mean for it to come off that way…well, maybe a little bit. In all honesty, I just want my readers, and certainly my would-be clients, to know how things really are down here.

You see, there is a Costa Rica beach bubble. It exists in all major beach tourist areas throughout the country. It’s not any different from the one I experienced for my teenage and young adult life on the Carolina coast. For some, it’s the preferred lifestyle. For others, not so much.

I just want you to know there is an alternative. And here in the southern zone that alternative is only about 40 minutes away from the most gorgeous coastline that Costa Rica offers.

For those of you who’d rather live in the mountains and visit the beach, here’s a site with a few properties to peruse…

Costa Rica Expat Properties

Christmas in Costa Rica

December 13, 2017 by Costa Rica Guy Leave a Comment

Wow, can it really be almost Christmas again?

It seems like we just got through celebrating 2016. I guess time really does fly when you’re having so much fun. I have always enjoyed Christmas in Costa Rica. It is a magical time to be here. Being in tourism and real estate, Christmas is a very busy time for me. It is considered the “peak” season here not only for the foreign tourists that arrive each year, but also because of all the Ticos that take extended vacations (usually to the beaches) this time of the year with their pockets flush with cash from the “aguinaldo” (the annual legally mandated Christmas bonus that all employers must pay).

Why is Christmas so special in Costa Rica? Well being a predominantly Catholic country, the Costa Ricans celebrate Christmas with an extraordinary intensity. Christmas here is about the kids and children play a special role in all celebrations. There is the festival of lights parade in downtown San Jose with floats that are ornament-ally adorned with brilliant lights. This festival usually draws some 1 million people to the streets. It is quite an event.

In San Jose there is also the festival at Zapote, which is like a state fair back in the states and features all kinds of activities and shows, the highlight of which is the bull run where the people will get into the stadium ring with bulls and be chased around and sometimes brutally gored (sounds like fun, huh?).

The city is always beautifully lit up. There is a spirit of festivity that is in the air and every-one’s mood seems to become a little lighter. During Christmas week, while everyone is at the beach, the traffic in San Jose vanishes and that is always very nice.

But just like in the U.S. the festivities, shopping and gifts have the tendency to distract us from the real reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place. That is, to celebrate the birthday of the King of Kings. God who became man in the form of Jesus Christ and felt our joy and pain and endured the ultimate sacrifice in order to bring peace on earth and goodwill to men.

Nevertheless, still being a “kid at heart” I thought I would take the liberty of posting my Christmas wish-list for 2017 (this is actually a re-make of a 2008 post…with an updated wish-list, of course)……

1. I wish for 1,000’s of readers of this blog who all become Costa Rica Expat Tour customers that make me filthy rich (at least in Costa Rica terms)!
2. I wish that my son would decide to come here and live with me in Costa Rica!
3. I wish that Costa Rica could stay green and gorgeous forever and develop into the number one eco-tourism destination in the world.
4. I wish for the best and most peaceful resolution possible for the daunting political situation in my country of birth that poses an imminent threat to people and planet.
5. I wish that my blog Revolutionary Misfit would inspire 1,000’s of misfits (like me) around the globe to practice impact mindfulness and make this world a better place…..

Feliz Navidad!

Lest We Forget…..

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel–which means “God with us.”

Matthew 1:23 (NIV)

Costa Rica Mountains versus Beaches: Another Factor to Consider

October 8, 2017 by Costa Rica Guy 1 Comment

As I write this recovery efforts are underway to clean up the mess left in the wake of Tropical Storm Nate. Nate formed in the southern Caribbean sea. That’s a bit strange, since the majority of these tropical systems form off of the western African coast, or in the Gulf of Mexico. Nate produced as much rain in the matter of a couple days as Costa Rica normally experiences in the entire month of October, which incidentally already is one of Costa Rica’s rainiest months.

The results were devastating to many communities, especially low lying ones. The wind was not the issue, nor storm surge, but the rain. The inordinate amount of rain that fell in the mountains and rapidly made its way down the steep slopes to the coast caused catastrophic flooding, landslides, and washed away key bridges. Seven people were killed by the storm and there are some 15 more currently missing.

This is an odd occurrence for Costa Rica. In fact, Costa Rica’s supposed to be too far south to be threatened by these storms.

That might be changing.

Perhaps we’ve forgotten, but last year there was Hurricane Otto. Otto also formed in the southern Caribbean sea. It hit Costa Rica in November of 2016, resulted in massive amounts of rainfall, which caused flooding, landslides, and washed away key bridges. That stormed claimed the lives of ten in Costa Rica and more in other Central American countries.

I’m no scientist. I did grow up on the Carolina coast and do have quite a bit of experience with these types of storms. And I do know that scientists have been telling us for some time that climate change will increase the frequency and ferocity of these storms.

Do storms in two consecutive years equal a trend for Costa Rica? I don’t know, but it is alarming.

If we are going to begin to routinely see these tropical systems forming in the southern Caribbean and affecting Costa Rica directly during the peak of its rainy season, well, that’s a problem for the country.

It’s also a problem for all those expats who tend to invest in coastal areas.

For the sake of full disclosure, I am a Coldwell Banker real estate agent out of the Dominical office. I do sell beach properties to expats, along with the other 140 or so agents along the Costa Ballena. However, I am also one of the few who’s focused on selling mountain properties. I live in the mountains in Perez Zeledon. I’ve written before about the Costa Rica mountains versus beaches dilemma…you can read those posts here and here.

However, common sense is beginning to lead to the conclusion that beach properties, especially in low lying areas that are prone to flooding, might not be the wisest choice.

Right now the Costa Ballena area is suffering greatly from the effects of this storm. Bridges are out to the north, south, and eastern access points, virtually isolating the area from the rest of the country. Supplies coming down from San Isidro de El General have virtually stopped until key infrastructure improvements can be made. That will take some time. Many coastal residents have lost everything in the flooding that resulted from Nate’s massive amounts of rainfall.

Up here in San Isidro we fared a bit better. Our many beautiful rivers and creeks did rise to alarming heights, but all that water was fast on its way somewhere…it didn’t hang around. And that somewhere was the coast.

San Isidro is a large enough town that we are doing OK, so far, with supplies. Much of that has to be delivered from San Jose and the roads are closed for the time being, but clearing is well underway.

My “MO” has been to expose wanna-be expats to both mountains and beaches. They both are wonderful areas to live in, especially here in our gorgeous southern zone. However, if these two annually consecutive storms do indicate a trend, I believe this might provide another factor to consider when contemplating the Costa Rica mountains versus beaches decision.

And remember, the mountains in the southern zone are less than an hour from the beach!

If you’d like to help the victims in Costa Rica from the devastation of Tropical Storm Nate, you can do that here…

https://amigosofcostarica.org/product/help-victims-tropical-storm-nate/

Costa Rican Language of Politeness

October 7, 2017 by Costa Rica Guy 1 Comment

Costa Rican society is decidedly polite, especially compared to that of the U.S. It might be the biggest area of culture shock one will experience after being here for a long time and then returning to the U.S. At least that has been my experience.

Now there are exceptions to every rule…

Those exceptions generally apply on the streets, avenues and highways around the country (especially its cities). Just put the most polite tico behind the steering wheel of an automobile and it’s like pouring water on a “gremlin” (you remember those lovable little creatures from that early Spielberg flick?).

Yea, they become little demons hell-bent on destruction. But for the most part, outside of that environment, politeness rules.

I am still trying to adapt, because sometimes I just don’t feel like being polite. That’s usually when I’m just too wrapped up in what’s going on in my life at the moment (or in my head) to take the time to try to brighten someone’s day with a simple, disculpe, por favor, or gracias.

Here folks are routinely polite, even when they may not be having the best day. And it’s not as if they’re faking it. The politeness comes natural. In the culture of the U.S., you can readily tell when someone is faking it, can’t you? You know, the so-called “courtesy laugh” at that joke you blew, or the “courtesy smile” when lurking just behind it is seething cynicism.

Now I’m one of those types who tends to wear his emotions on his shirt sleeve. That doesn’t always go over so well in this culture. I’m learning to be polite, because I admit I’m not naturally so, as any of my tico friends would attest. I’m polite when and if I feel like it. The Spanish language of politeness does not roll off the tip of my tongue as easily as…

Gimme 20 of super…and check the oil while you’re at it!

Learning the Costa Rican language of politeness will get you further. It will open doors that sometimes appear to be shut to gringo expats who haven’t learned it yet. It will develop and strengthen relationships. It will make you feel better because you are making others feel better.

Because in reality life isn’t all about us, now is it?

To refuse to learn to adapt to this culture of politeness is to remain in the cynical and pessimistic world where one always demands that his needs be met and to hell with anyone else.

That does not go over so well down here.

So take a tip from the Costa Rica Guy and make your first Spanish lesson be to learn the Costa Rican language of politeness.

And the “palabra mágica” is…

POR FAVOR!

If you’d like to delve a little deeper into my keys for successful Costa Rica expat living, I recently published an eBook on the topic entitled, Expat Mindfulness: How Expats can Change the World with Impact Mindfulness.

You can get it here on Amazon!

10 Reasons to be Expat Mindful

September 18, 2017 by Costa Rica Guy Leave a Comment

The idea of being mindful, or mind-full, might seem stressful at first blush. After all, most people’s minds are full enough already without having me reminding them to be that way!

But that’s really not the essence of mindfulness. If you do a quick Google search for the definition of mindfulness, you come up with this…

A mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.

Putting it that way makes it seem far less stressful, doesn’t it?

The certain strain of mindfulness that I speak of in my blogs is what I like to call impact mindfulness. That’s simply focusing one’s awareness on one’s impact on people and the planet. Most of what we do, or don’t do, does indeed have such an impact. So, why not be mindful about what that impact actually is?

It’s as simple as that.

I break it down into a three-pronged framework to make it even more-so. That framework of focus is as follows: (1) prioritizing impact over self-interest; (2) embracing the concept of the Big US; and (3) removing impact blinders.

The three are interconnected and interrelated…that is, you can’t truly accomplish any one of them without the other two being present in your consciousness, or mindfulness. And my hallucination is that without all three being mindfully present as a guiding force for our actions, our impacts will suffer…and people and planet along with them.

I sincerely believe that this is pretty important (and heady) stuff worthy of a high degree of mindfulness.

As some of you may already know I’m a long-time expat and a naturalized citizen of Costa Rica. Living as an expat in Costa Rica caused this dramatic paradigm shift that led me to the idea or mindset of impact mindfulness.

I believe we expats are in a unique position to have an impact on people and planet.

We are the outsiders looking in. We have this unique opportunity to see things from a different perspective and let that new way of observing the world guide us to greater impacts.

In fact, here are 10 reasons to be Expat Mindful…

1 – Some ways of doing things you will observe in your adopted country may be better. It pays to put aside your national pride, which can be one of the most insidious impact blinders, and keep an open mind about new ways of doing things.

2 – The converse is also true and you can bring that different perspective to bear in your adopted country to help them find better ways.

3 – One of the central ideas behind embracing the Big US is the concept of world citizenship. That we’re really all in the boat together and your time in a foreign country can help you see that in it truest light.

4 – Changes to our planet are taking their toll everywhere. However, it might be that those changes are more evident to you in your adopted country than they were back home. That might motivate you to take action…and that’s a very good thing!

5 – We are indoctrinated from an early age to believe in certain “truths” that might just not be so true after all. It could be that your time in a foreign country can help remove those impact blinders. It certainly did for me!

6 – Most expats have a desire to immerse in the culture of their adopted country. Being expat mindful and maintaining the degree of open-mindedness required to be so can really help in that regard.

7 – Life in a foreign country can be hard at times. So hard in fact that many give up on the idea altogether. Being expat mindful will help you get over those hurdles because it gives you a larger reason to relish in the challenge than self-interest ever can.

8 – Expats are ambassadors who represent their birth countries to the world outside of them. Being expat mindful can help change negative attitudes and bridge cultural gaps.

9 – The overall learning and life enhancing experience one can gain from time in a foreign country as an expat can be deeply rewarding. Expat mindfulness can greatly enhance and accelerate that process.

10 – Perhaps the greatest reason to be expat mindful is because it supplies the why. Having a clear reason to do something can generally be quite motivating, wouldn’t you agree? And the motive of impact at least in my opinion is the most inspiring of all…and that’s true not just for oneself, but for others as well.

If you’d like to delve a little deeper into this idea of Expat Mindfulness I recently published an eBook on the topic entitled, Expat Mindfulness: How Expats can Change the World with Impact Mindfulness.

You can get it here on Amazon!

The Lowdown on Costa Rica Climate

August 14, 2017 by Costa Rica Guy Leave a Comment

One of the most frequent questions I get from Package Costa Rica customers (or potential customers) is, hey, CRG, what’s the weather like? Or, a variation, such as, we were thinking of coming in x or y (month), is that a good time to come, weather-wise?

I usually provide a curt and self-serving answer like “well, any time is a good time to come to Costa Rica.” And for the most part, that’s true. But we do have weather. It does rain. And there are some seasonal differences. So I thought I would do a post today on the topic of Costa Rica climate.

A Tale of Two Coasts with a Mountainous Spine

Like the U.S., Costa Rica has a west coast (the Pacific) and an East Coast (the Caribbean). However, unlike the U.S., our two coasts are only hours (not days) apart. They are divided by a mountainous spine consisting of the Talamanca, Central, Tilaran and Guanacaste mountain ranges. These mountains slope to the Pacific on one side and to the Caribbean on the other. The small size of Costa Rica might lead someone to think that the weather would not be that different on one slope than it is on the other. Wrong! The Pacific slope and the Caribbean slope have different weather patterns. On the Pacific, the rainy season starts in May and runs through November. On the Caribbean, the rain comes a little earlier (April) and sticks around though December. Also, the Caribbean experiences a brief period of dry weather, a veranillo, usually occurring in September and October. In contrast, these can be two of the months with the most rain on the Pacific side.

Seasonally Speaking

In Costa Rica we have only two seasons. The summer (or dry) season (Verano) and the winter (or rainy) season (Invierno). The previous paragraph explained the degree those seasons differ whether you are talking Pacific or Caribbean slope. Rainfall amounts differ dramatically with the seasons. However, temperature is fairly constant year around and varies much more by altitude than by season. The coolest months of the year actually are some of the driest ones of January, February and March, when the trade winds tend to blow the hardest.

Geographical Gyrations

The effects of the seasons vary for each major geographical division. For instance, the northern half of the country on the Pacific slope, consisting primarily of the province of Guanacaste, experiences the most intense dry season with very strong winds and virtually zero precipitation. The Central Valley, where the capital city of San Jose is located, experiences the mildest weather patterns. This is why it is the most populated area of the country. Temperatures are mild throughout the year and the rainy season is not as intense as in other areas. The southern half of the Pacific slope experiences a shorter dry season and a longer and more intense rainy season.

Temperatures in Costa Rica can very considerably by altitude, if not by season. At the summit of peaks as high as Chirripo (3,820 meters above sea level) you can actually get morning frost. At the same time, down at sea level on the Pacific or Caribbean the temperatures remain hot and humid throughout the year. The most moderate temperatures are felt in the central valley, which enjoys an almost eternal spring-like climate.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

The evil demon that our customers always want exorcised from their vacations is rain. But wait a minute. One has to realize that without the rain, there is no Costa Rica. At least, not the Costa Rica that beckons 2,000,000 tourists per year to its lush green jungles and mountains teaming with flora and fauna. So, if you want to come to Costa Rica and are adamant about no rain, then opt for Guanacaste in the months of January through April. But up there you won’t see lush green tropical jungles because it is just too darn dry. For that you need to go South or East. Rainfall is more prevalent in those areas, hence their spectacular greenness, but it is still predominantly dry on the Pacific and Caribbean slopes for the months of January through March. You can have a dry Caribbean experience in August, September or even October, which is in stark contrast with the rest of the country where it is likely raining cats and dogs.

But dry season also brings crowds and higher prices. To avoid those, you might want to consider the green (or rainy) season. If you do, don’t fret too much about rain since it usually consists of afternoon showers that start around mid-afternoon and last until dusk. Mornings are typically sunny and nights clear. On the Pacific Slope, the rainiest months, when one can really experience endless days of constant downpour, are September and October. So, if those are the months when you want to come, consider our Arenal and Puerto Viejo design, or our Costa Rica Caribbean design, as an alternative.

The Unruly Child – El Niño

Costa Rica experiences a recurring weather phenomenon about every two to seven years (although it seems more frequent lately). It is generally detectable by an unusual warming of Pacific ocean waters. This little bugger can really turn normal weather patterns on end. When it occurs (the last time was actually last year), the rainy season is a lot dryer than normal on the Pacific slope. It also can wreak major havoc on Caribbean slope weather, with a wetter than average winter. With El Niño, things go a little haywire and are far more unpredictable than is the norm.

I hope this little post on Costa Rica climate helped calm your Costa Rica vacation-related weather anxiety. I am no weather expert, so I may have gotten something wrong above. If there are any meteorologists out there who want to take issue, or elaborate, on anything written above, by all means do so.

Post by CRG

Source: Technical mumbo jumbo gleaned from the World Headquarters Report on Costa Rica Climate.

The Impact Mindfulness Mindset Primer

June 17, 2017 by Costa Rica Guy Leave a Comment

When you first hear or read the phrase impact mindfulness, what comes to mind?

Probably some sort of save the world kinda of a thing, no?

And it is that, but much more.

In this impact mindfulness mindset primer I want to explain a little about what this worldview really means. If you want to delve deeper, there are other eBooks, as well as my blog, Revolutionary Misfit.

You see, the normal way of thinking about personal impact is to put the cart before the horse…to think in terms of impact as a by-product, rather than the end game.

It’s more typical to think that the best way for me to have an impact on the world is to focus first in a self-interested way on my success. And then from that firmly established and comfortable platform, I can have my greater impact on the world outside of me.

Sounds perfectly legitimate, doesn’t it?

Here’s the problem with it.

Even if you’re Donald Trump and you make sure that a certain percentage of your success is funneled towards some type of image-driven, brand-focused, impact…a certain very small percentage…

It doesn’t detract from the fact that the other 90+% of your daily energy and focus is purely self-interested, group interested, consumption oriented and certainly not People and Planet interested.

The impact mindfulness mindset suggests that a larger percentage of your interest be impact focused. In fact, all of it…yea, you heard that right, 100%!

It must permeate every aspect of your life.

It must become who you are and what you’re about.

Because only when enough people do that will we begin to solve the problems we have in this world…

Problems that have been exponentially growing to uncontrollable proportions right before our very eyes in just the last generation.

Problems like religious fanatics unleashing genocidal rage on unbelievers, global warming that’s already wreaking havoc on the planet’s weather systems, a growing income gap that threatens social unrest around the globe, developed nations that are literally consuming the world out of existence, etc., etc…

Lately the trend seems to be one of sealing borders and leaving those outside of them to their fate, rather than finding real solutions.

In reality, in order to solve these problems impact can’t be sequestered into that small slice of our lives we label as charitable.

It must pervade every waking moment of your conscious existence.

That’s the “mindset” or “worldview” of impact mindfulness.

It’s not simply donating time or money to this or that worthy cause, even though doing so is a very good and certainly an impact worthy activity.

It’s adopting a mindset that sees the world and our place in it in terms of the three foundational pillars of Impact Mindfulness…

Prioritizing Impact Over Interest – making sure our daily choices or activities, especially those consumptive and economically focused ones, are impact mindful…

Embracing the Concept of The Big US – seeing the entire world and its inhabitants as fellow crew members on a planetary ship…the only ship we have…so that it becomes of utmost priority that we take care of it and each other…

Removing Impact Blinders – being mindful to eliminate status quo ways of thinking that serve to trap us into doing “it” (life) in the same old destructive ways…

The world, our world, needs people who are thinking and acting according to this impact mindfulness worldview. And that is true both within the borders of one’s birth, as well as outside of them. In fact, this whole eBook makes the point that expats, those who’ve chosen to live outside of the borders of their birth, have an even greater opportunity for making world-changing impacts.

The only heroes out there to save us are those of us willing to rise up and make an impact.

Hopefully this little book will inspire you to do no less.

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