Yes, we have hail and lightning in Costa Rica. Real estate agents always write about the beautiful weather in Costa Rica, but this time I wanted to write about bad weather in Costa Rica, in fact, about hail and lightning in Costa Rica. The girl in the photo below is not in Denver, Colorado. She…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes You have been doing important things all your life. Now it is time to take it easy, by doing nothing important for a while. Hundreds of baby boomers who live in Grecia are barely surviving by doing nothing important. Grecia seems to be the perfect place on earth to do…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes Setting up Banking and Utilities after our real estate closing was a treat! During the two weeks we visited the country during our Costa Rica real estate closing, we enjoyed some downtime. Also, we did some touring and exploring and learning more about our newly-adopted second home. While meeting more…
Estimated Reading Time: 4 Minutes There have been several changes in the temporary Costa Rican residency policy and law that affect the financial wellbeing of long-term visitors. This includes those visitors applying for one of the three immigrant resident categories. Just before our arrival, Immigration made changes in the temporary Costa Rican residency. We received…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes We hit on 3 more challenges before closing on our property. I apologize for the length of time that has passed since my last blog in late February. I wanted to let some time go by to digest our house purchase, before writing the last chapter, and wrap up our…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes When you move to another country, it’s important to create a timeline for your plan. If you are changing countries, there’s a pot full of planning, changes, and notifications that need to be implemented. This is necessary to achieve a successful and less stressful transition. In my last blog, I…
Most U.S. citizens and green card holders rushed to file a US tax return by April 15. However, Americans living abroad on the regular due date of their tax return can take advantage of several extensions. We updated this blog on 3/27/2020 First and foremost, American expatriates get an automatic two-month extension until June 15…
by Ivo Henfling The first time I was standing in line in a hardware store in Escazu, the attendant asked me “Y vos macho, en que te puedo servir”? And you “Macho”, what can I do for you. I didn’t realize I was being called blondy. (I was far from blond, I used to be…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes I recommend everyone to create a moving plan. Everything you read online might be inaccurate. That is why it is vital for you to stay on top of your moving plan; because I can tell you from recent first-hand experience about requirements, policies and laws nonetheless their enforcement is all…
Before you pick where to live in Costa Rica, you need to have some weather considerations. If you decide on the wrong location, it’s possible you end up hating it, which might oblige you to move elsewhere. Or return where you came from! November-April is the high season—or the dry season or tourist season. Ticos…
Now that we are in the country, we are scrambling to learn Costa Rican Spanish. Try to find the time before you leave North America or wherever your home country is, to learn some Latin American Spanish. Latin American Spanish, and more specifically Costa Rican Spanish, is not the King’s Castilian Spanish as spoken in…
Have you heard of Blooms Ladies Club Costa Rica? I love following Irina and Jim Just’s blog, called “Just Costa Rica, living la Pura Vida” because they both always have interesting things to say in their blog. In all my years selling property in Costa Rica, I rarely saw a couple retire in Costa Rica…
Estimated Reading Time: 6 Minutes How much help can you get from a database that you should build before moving to Costa Rica? Once you are committed to moving to Costa Rica, there is a huge amount of information to read and absorb. So, my advice again: be detailed, be methodical (even if it’s hard…
The pulpería and the polaco are two typical ways of purchasing for Costa Rica’s working class. Every week, “El Polaco” visits a poor neighborhood of Costa Rica, with a car full of merchandise. The Polaco is a department store on wheels and he sells on credit. He offers mainly clothing, women’s, men’s, and children’s. But…
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes How important is the spousal compromise when moving to Costa Rica? My purpose in this blog is to show that there will be surprises and unknowns harbored by all parties when making the decision to move. The success of your move to Costa Rica will be measured by how well…
Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes More properties have a title problem than you imagine. Property owners just trust that their attorney does his job when they purchase. Unfortunately, very few real estate agents check the property title before they list the property. At GoDutch, as well as on the American European MLS, this is a…