by Ivo Henfling City planning and public works departments in Costa Rica are not as well organized as you are used to. Actually I don’t think the locals have ever heard of city planning and therefore planning their public works. The not planning of a city is part of the Latin mindset: live the…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes When buying a property, you will want to know how much the closing cost is, right? You just found this absolutely gorgeous property in Costa Rica and you want to purchase it. Before you start negotiating the purchase price, you would like to know what the final cost of that…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes It’s time to eat in a Costa Rican restaurant or soda, and learn to read the menu. Once you move to Costa Rica, you will want to eat out once in a while. Depending on where you are going to live, you will be able to read the menu or…
Speaking bad Spanish is better than no Spanish. If you want to live in Costa Rica and you want to communicate with the locals, do not be afraid of speaking bad Spanish. Most people, when they are learning a new language, they are afraid of making mistakes. When I started learning Spanish, I used to…
Just like in many other countries, it is customary for people to have short names in Costa Rica, just like in other languages. You will find it interesting to know why the city of San Jose is called Chepe (look up the name Jose below) and why your gardener is called Juancho or Chuz (pronounced…
Do you know it’s important to do a final walk-through before closing? Today’s the day, you have almost made it! Today is the closing date on this beautiful Costa Rican home you are buying. Now you are only hours away from “home sweet home”. Your home inspector came up with a perfect home inspection report.…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Imagine visiting all these beautiful places in Costa Rica! and on top of that, the sun shines! Yes, for many people on the planet, to imagine that you wake up in the morning and the sun shines, is just that: an imagination. For us, the ones who are lucky enough…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes You could end up on a leash if you sign an exclusive listing agreement without having read this blog first. Property sellers should be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of signing an exclusive listing contract with a realtor. You should be aware of what this contract obliges you to.…
When you grow up with burgers, you cannot live without them. Moving to Costa Rica doesn’t change your eating habits. If you have grown up eating hamburgers and hotdogs, you cannot just start eating Gallo Pinto the next day. The advantage is that if you move to Costa Rica, thousands of US citizens have done…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes I am often asked, with a lot of skepticism, why yoga and horses? Where is the connection? My standard answer is; I have experienced the similarities between riding and yoga practice. The same stillness and union I find in my yoga practice I feel when I ride. Last week I…
by guest blogger TicoNuevo Back home, before I tackled the financial flowchart, we were dealing with a number of banks, and credit card and financial institutions; some of whom we felt either we would not need, whose fees would be too expensive to use when moving to Costa Rica or would not be easy to…
Yes, we have hail and lightning in Costa Rica. Real estate agents always write about the beautiful weather in Costa Rica, but this time I wanted to write about bad weather in Costa Rica, in fact, about hail and lightning in Costa Rica. The girl in the photo below is not in Denver, Colorado. She…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes You have been doing important things all your life. Now it is time to take it easy, by doing nothing important for a while. Hundreds of baby boomers who live in Grecia are barely surviving by doing nothing important. Grecia seems to be the perfect place on earth to do…
Most U.S. citizens and green card holders rushed to file a US tax return by April 15. However, Americans living abroad on the regular due date of their tax return can take advantage of several extensions. We updated this blog on 3/27/2020 First and foremost, American expatriates get an automatic two-month extension until June 15…
by Ivo Henfling The first time I was standing in line in a hardware store in Escazu, the attendant asked me “Y vos macho, en que te puedo servir”? And you “Macho”, what can I do for you. I didn’t realize I was being called blondy. (I was far from blond, I used to be…
Have you heard of Blooms Ladies Club Costa Rica? I love following Irina and Jim Just’s blog, called “Just Costa Rica, living la Pura Vida” because they both always have interesting things to say in their blog. In all my years selling property in Costa Rica, I rarely saw a couple retire in Costa Rica…