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…
When you are living in Costa Rica, you soon might miss your countrymen, your own customs and traditions. Sometimes, it’s also fun to be able to speak your own language again. Some nationalities are well presented in Costa Rica and some are not. And they all have their own traditions. There might be certain food…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Here are some housewarming party ideas for when you purchase a house in Costa Rica. A couple of months ago, TicoNuevo was planning his housewarming party. He asked me where to find musicians to turn this into a real happening. Who else to ask than your Costa Rica real estate…
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: 6 Minutes How can you legally drive when you have just moved to Costa Rica? Can you legally drive on a pending residency? Have you decided to settle down and start living in Costa Rica? Maybe giving it an extended tryout? Then you’re going to have to leave the country every 90…
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…
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…
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…
Atenas expats always enjoy the Annual Atenas Charity Chili Cook Off. Are you a great cook? Do you like to eat? Do you have a great Chili recipe that’s been in your family for over a century? Are you ready to have some fun? Even if you don’t live in Atenas, you should join the…
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…
We have to pick the best contractor estimate. Selecting the contractor with the best quotation is never an easy task. But for us, it was a very simple process of selection by default. I was always dubious regarding Builder #1’s enthusiasm to quote for a second time despite his agreement to do so. So, I…