Yes, we have mosquitoes in Costa Rica, lots of them! And also plenty of rodents, like cockroaches, ants and even fleas! Brooke Bishop, our Grecia expert real estate agent, went the extra mile as usual. She took care of the pest control or fumigation as we call it in Costa Rica, for an absentee buyer.…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Does my Costa Rican wife beat me? Mine doesn’t, but I know a couple of guys in Costa Rica who get beat up by their Costa Rican wives. And the women get away with it. Marrying is so easy, especially when you’re in love with a beautiful woman. But divorcing…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Let me tell you about my first living experiences in Costa Rica, right after I purchased my coffee farm in 1993. The day after closing, I went down to set “things” up. I inherited a peon that I let stay on the job till I decided what I was going…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Like you don’t know how to do your laundry, right? Well, the best way to do your laundry in Costa Rica is to hire a maid and have her do it. I have written lots of blogs about the difference in culture between back home and Costa Rica and I…
Let’s talk about cultural differences today. I’m going to spend this blog on small items of note and a few observations. Some of it similar to the culture we are used to being part of in North America. Some of it is a derivative of the Spanish influence and, while I am no expert, some…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes Online shopping is now becoming a routine for most. My past three blogs discussed shopping in Costa Rica. Let me now spend a bit of time on online shopping. About what happens when you decide to give up looking for that special something. Or if you believe it is easier…
Estimated Reading Time: 8 Minutes Have you ever tried to do your own dishwasher installation in Costa Rica? Ralph did! Ralph and Gloria have lived in Costa Rica in the nineties and moved to Florida. Now, they miss Costa Rica a lot. Ralph loves to read Ivo’s blog every week Ralph has some great stories…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes We have lots of bugs in Costa Rica, so for those who have a bug phobia… My first meeting with a monster spider, made me ask myself what I was doing on a coffee farm in Costa Rica. Gradually I adjusted to my new life in the tropics and learned…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes Carole and her husband Don live in Atenas and met a toucan for the first time in their life. They are baby boomers and retired in Atenas, Roca Verde to be exact. It’s a pity that Carole’s blog doesn’t exist anymore. But you can order her book “Flying High with…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Do you know what a MacGyver in Costa Rica means? TicoNuevo wrote a blog about hardware stores in Costa Rica this week. I would like to go a bit deeper into the matter. He said: “be prepared to substitute or make do with something other than the perfect solution”. If…
Let me tell you all about hardware stores in Costa Rica or ferreterías in Spanish. For your shopping pleasure in addition to supermarkets, mini-supers, ferias, central markets, carnicerías, and librerías, in towns of any considerable size, generally included are ferreterías or hardware stores, the standard Ropa Americana store (new and used clothing), jewelry repair, paint…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Shopping in Costa Rica, for just about anything and everything, is a change from what you are used to in North America. The shopping environment in Costa Rica is much more similar to what I experienced in Europe about 40 years ago. By that I mean, chain stores are here…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes What to do with your free time when living in Costa Rica? Have you arrived without a job, without a mission, or without a business to found? Then that probably makes you a retiree of whatever age. Also, those who do have a job, or run a business, will have…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Expats and visiting tourists should know about the behavior of trucks and buses on the Costa Rican roads. Most Costa Rican roads originated as oxcart paths in the valleys and on the winding hillsides. When these roads got converted to asphalt, they weren’t widened much. Buses in Costa Rica are…
After moving here, you will need a bank account in Costa Rica. Without it, you’ll be in trouble. How are you going to pay your bills? I certainly hope you paid attention to my previous blogs and prepared for gaining easy and ongoing access to your funds back home. At the moment, it’s difficult to…
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…