Pretty much every inexpensive good or service mentioned in this blog is a result of low-cost labor. In the States, we always wished that we could afford a housekeeper. We just never could find a way to fit it into our budget, even if only twice a month. We are now retired in Costa Rica…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes In this blog, I will cover used and new clothing shopping as well as leather. When clothing shopping, you’ll learn that some of those are inexpensive comparing Costa Rica and North America. Costa Rica has quite a low labor cost. The result is inexpensive goods and services. Many more…
Now, let’s talk about being a homeowner first. When comparing with homeownership in North America, it is, perhaps, the largest single savings experienced. The cost of being a homeowner by comparison to the States is much cheaper in Costa Rica. It depends on what you buy and where you buy. Remember, the real estate saying,…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Inexpensive things are important if you want to keep your cost of living at an acceptable level. Here we go. I’ve been spending a lot of time and ink in the last four blogs talking about and giving advice on expensive or hard-to-find articles in Costa Rica. Therefore, I…
Sometimes it’s really hard to find articles in Costa Rica. I’m going to mention a couple of more non-perishables before leaving the territory of hard-to-find products in Costa Rica. Here’s an eclectic list of a couple of expensive and hard to find articles plus a bit about cellphones. Luckily, we shipped a couple of box…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes I needed some specialty goods and really had a hard time finding them. There are other food items to cover on Costa Rica’s hard-to-find list. But I thought men are less interested in edibles. So today, as a men’s section of blogs, I’ll explain how I found a shortage of…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes I couldn’t connect with a recommended English-speaking specialist for a medical appointment. You’ll see, I’ve learned to have patience. I was having a troubling medical situation. So now my Plan B is to attempt to see a GP in the town next to mine. I called and the receptionist connected…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes When moving to Costa Rica you’ll need medical attention. So what’s available when you retire here? While we’re still waiting for our “cedula de residencia” as “pensionados” we’ve kept our MediCare in the States. Just in case there is a real medical necessity. So, if something major required a return…
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: 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…
Estimated Reading Time: 8 Minutes I’m sure you now want to learn more about the remodeled result of our home. We went through a long and detailed process, but we’re all happy with the remodeled result. We bought our new property in Costa Rica at a price that allowed us to afford all of the…
Planning to import your household container? Then be careful and be patient! Our construction projects continued. And based on our prior inquiries and due diligence, we thought we had timed the arrival of our household container pretty well with our move-in date. The ongoing progress of the work at our house to receive our container…
A car accident is never fun nor is it ever convenient. One Saturday a couple of months ago my husband was driving through Barrio Mexico, going to a Little Theatre Group rehearsal. He stopped at a stop sign as required and was thinking about whether he should go straight or turn right (he wasn’t familiar…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes I have now learned to watch my pants because I was stung by a scorpion. On occasion, the relevance of an event or experience needs to be related while it is fresh in one’s mind. Therefore, I’m taking a brief detour in this blog from writing about our home improvement…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Carole and Don from Atenas bought a cheap car that needed a paint job. Instead of painting it the same color, which was identical to the gardener’s car, they changed it to red. They had no idea what an adventure it would be getting the legal transfer in order until…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes I had to paint my car red. That’s the color of the taxis in Costa Rica. But there was a reason. The business was dead. Picturesque Capitola, a seaside village in California, my hometown for twenty years, was abuzz with summer tourists. My seafoam green XJ8 Jaguar was parked outside…