Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Did you know that Costa Ricans never say no? There are many reasons for moving to Costa Rica. But the most attractive one is that Costa Ricans are nice people. They never say no. If you compare the Ticos, with their neighbors, the Panamanians and the Nicaraguans (Nicas), they come…
Estimated Reading Time: 3 Minutes Are you ready to retire but you’re worried about your kids? and you are dreaming to do so in Costa Rica. You see yourself already walking the beach or sitting on your terrace at your pool, enjoying the views, while having piña coladas. But, there is one but……. Your kids.…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes I’d like to tell you about the decision making process before we purchased an Atenas property. Walt Disney said that “dreams really do come true.” Now we believe it – or at least we are starting to. Ten years ago, Katya and I first visited Costa Rica. We stayed on…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Machismo is part of the Latin American culture and though education and travel are changing this gender gap, you will still see a lot of machismo in the lower and middle social classes in Costa Rica. But what is machismo? Machismo is a concept of masculine pride, associated with men…
Estimated Driving Time: 6 Minutes Did you know that you need a Costa Rican drivers license when you have been in the country for more than 3 months? Nearly all obstacles to our residency in Costa Rica are in the rear-view mirror except for the matter of getting our Costa Rican drivers license. If you…
Estimated Reading Time: 8 Minutes I titled this blog, “our tips for moving to Costa Rica” it easily could have been titled “our moving nightmare.” It seems that even when you are careful, get recommendations, and follow expert advice, everything still can go to heck in a handbasket. I have already covered some tips for…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Pasta is an unusual type of food to have for breakfast and Ticos usually have Gallo Pinto at that time of the day as you all know by now. You might not know that soccer is almost a religion in Costa Rica. Last Friday, the Costarican National Soccer Team…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes Jopco Costa Rica does not feel responsible for accidents that happen to their clients in their store. Would you buy anything from them? Haven’t we all heard of the “McDonald’s Hot Coffee Case”? Let me refresh your memory. In 1992, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck bought a cup of takeout coffee at…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Are you a type-A personality or a type B personality? A move to Costa Rica is not for everyone. Maybe it is not for you? Moving to any other country is not for everyone, and certainly a Type A personality is one of those. It takes a lot of hard…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Today’s story is about this Euro savings account that we needed to open. This should be an easy task. But it is not! Banking in Costa Rica is not as simple as it is in other countries. Please do not see this blog as a complaint about Costa Rica banks…
It is tourist visa stamp time for my wife and me. Our 90-day visa was expiring and we needed to make a border run. Therefore, we had to leave Costa Rica and re-enter to renew our visa. That was the only way to keep our U.S. driver’s license and Costa Rican driver’s insurance in force.…
Estimated Reading Time: 8 Minutes I hate winter, don’t you? But, unfortunately, it seems never to stop being cold up north, even the realtors on Google+ complain about it almost every day, and we’re almost in May! It never rains in Southern California is a lie because it does. Although we get hail once every…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes Did you know there are two tennis outfits Grecia? When showing property with clients a while ago, I saw a couple of tennis rackets and a basket full of tennis balls in the garage of the Grecia home for sale. We were way up in the mountains of Grecia and…
Estimated Reading Time: 3 Minutes In the United States, Daylight Savings Time (DST) 2014 is on Sunday, March Nine and in most European countries on March 30. In Costa Rica, Daylight Savings Time was used for the first time in the summer of 1979, once in 1980 (from February until May), and in 1991 from…
A Costa Rica real estate client asked me to write about medicinal herbs in Costa Rica. This, fortunately, comes pretty easy to me. That’s because my dad, together with his partner, Hendrik Stins, opened La Buena Hierba in 1986. This was the first real medicinal herb store in Costa Rica, although you could find medicinal…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes So, we’ve completed 98% of our home improvement project. Friends say that this is the Tico way of finishing things. Honestly, I think it happens everywhere. But allow me to tell you all about it, so you can learn from my mistakes. We have finished the business with my contractor…