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…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes This was the first day of our home search as “potential Costa Rican homebuyers.” We loaded up with GoDutch realtor, Isabelle Jones, and headed out to meet the other GoDutch realtor, Brooke Bishop. The plan was to start our home search with three homes that Brooke had arranged to view…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Let me tell you a bit about our housing search. For a while, Ivo has been subtly steering me toward talking about our experiences buying and renovating our house here. Until now, I have been trying to avoid it by talking about anything and everything else. But now I am…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes Culture shock or culture bumps? That depends on the experts you hire for your move to Costa Rica. Recently, we have been publishing blogs by ex-pats TicoNuevo and FloridaTico that our readers seem to like. Why do readers like them? Because they tell you the truth! Because they don’t only…
Estimated Reading Time: 9 Minutes There are four lessons I learned when we moved to Costa Rica. If I would have known these facts, we would have had a much easier start. I’d like to share those four lessons with those with an interest to learn from other’s mistakes. My good friend Ivo has asked…
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 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 Do you have any idea of what to wear after moving to Costa Rica? I have just moved to Costa Rica. I came from a place where during the summer, it can be 110 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and windy and 55 degrees F. at night. So, I was…
Did you know that Costa Rica is a tropical country? And that there a few things you should know about living in a tropical country before you move? You may have already guessed, I’m from the West Coast. A second-generation native Californian, in fact. Both sides of my family lived In California for about a…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes How difficult is driving in Costa Rica? I am now assuming for a minute that you have a valid drivers’ license. The kickback style of Costa Rica’s citizens is reflected in the posted speed limits throughout the country. Remember, I said “posted” speed limits. Sometimes, even I find it hard…
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…