Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Moving offshore with your family is much easier than it was ever before. The internet made the world smaller and Costa Rica is now home to thousands of expats and retired foreigners, many of them Americans. Costa Rica is not just a place to hide dirty money anymore like it…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes In Costa Rica, people have weird ways to transport stuff. Planning on moving to another home in Costa Rica? Are you remodeling your home and need to purchase large building materials like cement, gypsum, steel beams, and others? Need to take your cow to your sister’s house? Organizing a wedding…
How important is to consider the location before moving to Costa Rica? Everybody knows that buying a house, it is all about location. The physical location is most vital, but what about the “people location”? If you are considering moving to Costa Rica, it is critical to plan. There are people who “stick a pin…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes Let’s do something different today; let’s talk about reasons for NOT moving to Costa Rica. Thanks to Marian, our real estate agent in Atenas, and her almost-famous tenant, I’m able to write another blog. This story is about the tenant who has done us a favor by writing a 7-page…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Should you trust people you meet in Costa Rica just because they speak your language? At home, you grew up in a certain environment and you learned how to recognize the people you don’t want in your life and those you cannot trust. When you move to Costa Rica, it…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Do you have any drinking habits like this? “Hon, grab me another cold beer from the fridge, will you? God, it’s hot today and it’s making me thirsty”. It is only 10:00 am and John is ready for his 2nd beer of the day. What else is there to do…
IVO HENFLING | MAY 29, 2015 When I moved to Costa Rica a while ago, the last thing that came to my mind were cockroaches in my house. The first cockroach I met in Costa Rica was in my house in the Santa Ana mountains and the animal was huuuuge. I’m not so crazy about…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes Making the decision for your spouse to move to Costa Rica is probably not a good idea. Maybe your eyes see a different Costa Rica than your spouse does? As we all know, men and women see things differently, though they’re both looking at the same thing. It’s one of…
Costa Rica News published The real reason behind Costa Rica’s high product prices on April 8, 2015. This is a really interesting article about the fact that Costa Rican produced products are cheaper in neighboring countries than in Costa Rica itself. This article explains that commercial protectionism of certain Costa Rican industries, the high import…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Prohibition during Easter week in Costa Rica is something you should know about. I know, it’s like going back to the Stone Age, but we have this liquor prohibition or dry law here. Oh, and we also have a dry law, countrywide, on election day. The United States had Prohibition…
I was surprised to read a US Embassy security message from the U.S. Embassy in San José, forwarded to me by one of our real estate agents, who is an American citizen. You can read the US Embassy Security message at the end of this blog in case you haven’t received it yourself. In this…
You are here to learn all about tipping in Costa Rica. In most countries, you’re expected to tip, even if you’re not happy with the service. In others, tipping is simply not done. You just arrived at the international airport in Costa Rica. As soon as you walk outside arrivals, 10 guys jump on you,…
Have you noticed that Ticos have flaws, just like we all do? But let me show you that they have different flaws than you and I have. Sometimes these flaws are funny. And sometimes they’re quite the opposite. And that’s when you need to keep your cool! Costa Ricans, we call them Ticos, have a…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes When you live in the United States, as we do, you tend to take water for granted. In the 30 years we’ve been living in Washington DC we’ve had a water interruption only once. And the limits of our concern generally are the hope that the pipes won’t freeze at…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes It’s not every day that you move to another country, so here are some must-read moving tips for you. There are many reasons for expats to move to Costa Rica, from its unique and beautiful natural appeal to the rich and diverse cultural heritage and business opportunities. One thing remains…
Today’s turn is for the no passing zone and the lack of it. Como, qué dice? A no passing zone? What’s that? I have written quite a few blogs about driving in Costa Rica and strange and funny things you might find on the roads of Costa Rica and show you that driving in Costa…