Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes TicoNuevo starts practicing for his first tope, a whole new experience. One more neighborly communication came through our shared caña India fence. I was reminded of my first horseback riding “lesson”, I needed practicing for my first tope or horse parade. This was going to happen on the first Tuesday…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes This is how the wish for my first tope started. Your Costa Rican guide books and online resources probably define a “tope” like a horse parade. Using a very liberal interpretation after my first experience with one, that’s as accurate a description as I can give. Every town of any…
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…
Those used to the North American real estate market, always want to know if we can produce a CMA. For those who don’t know what that is, this is a Comparative Market Analysis. In Costa Rica real estate, it is impossible to produce a CMA for various reasons. At least for now, it is not…
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…
Planning to import your household container? Then be careful and be patient! Our construction projects continued. And based on our prior inquiries and due diligence, we thought we had timed the arrival of our household container pretty well with our move-in date. The ongoing progress of the work at our house to receive our container…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes For some reason, new expats who don’t know where to rent, often ask an agent to give them a tour. I never understood why some assume that real estate agents want to drive them around for days, all over the Central Valley. So they can make a commission. I have…
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…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes Carole and Don from Atenas bought a cheap car that needed a paint job. Instead of painting it the same color, which was identical to the gardener’s car, they changed it to red. They had no idea what an adventure it would be getting the legal transfer in order until…
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…
I told you last week that we had to move into our home under construction in Costa Rica. It didn’t matter that the contractor was still working on the reconstruction job. Unfortunately, less than 48 hours after we moved into our new home, we were on a flight back to the States. It was a…
Our house is under reconstruction and it’s moving day! This is the first time in our lives that we move into a home that’s still under reconstruction. I’m not trying to use my blog as a pulpit. So, I’ll try my best not to get too preachy here. But I’ve been meaning to say this…
There are many surprising ways a seller can lose the sale of a property in Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, we do not have lockboxes. So, we need to organize a day of showing ahead of time and adjust our agenda (and our buyer’s agenda) to the availability of the sellers. In Costa Rica real…