Costa Rica - the Good and the Bad

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When people find out that we are going to Costa Rica for 5 months their first question is usually "Why Costa Rica?"

I won't attempt to answer the implied "Why are you doing this at all?"... maybe on another post. The answer is long and political.

Cost Rica: The Good

For starters - please watch this video presentation on Costa Rica that was created for the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Multicultural Festival in 2009. It speaks to a lot of the "good" of CR.

Some additional attractions for us:


• We are not 'winter people' so getting somewhere warm at this time of year is a real treat.
• The western part of Costa Rica is a Blue Zone. One of a four places in the world with an exceptionally high number of centenarians. There must be something good going on here!
• It is exotic and fulfills a romantic notion that living in the tropics is bound to be a great experience.
• It's an opportunity to learn a different language and get a perspective on a different culture (and perhaps enhance our perspectives on our own culture and country in the process). My favourite Spanish Language product so far... Total Spanish by Michel Thomas.
• With two vegetarians (well okay, pescatarians) in the family, we are thrilled by the opportunity to get really fresh fruits, vegetables and seafood in the place where it is grown (rather than at the end of a 3,000 km train or truck ride)..
• It's a gift that we can give ourselves and our children that will impact us for a lifetime.
• We have jobs and kids that are portable. It's a rare opportunity and I think we'd be crazy to NOT do it.


Costa Rica: The Bad

Costa Rica is a third world country and that creates some inherent challenges and problems. Without being judgemental here are some common complaints by ex-pats that live or have lived there:


• Stuff gets stolen. A lot. If you leave anything in a position where it might get stolen (anywhere untended, on the back of your restaurant chair, in your car) just expect that it may get stolen. For right or wrong, if a gringo makes something "stealable", then we probably didn't really need it or care enough to keep it. Other than that, it's like being in any country - some parts of big cities should be avoided and don't flash your money or jewelery around like an idiot.
• People don't like saying "no". If you ask a local for directions or advice, it is culturally undesirable for them to admit they don't know even when they don't have a clue what the answer is. So asking for directions, for example, will always yield a friendly response - you just have no idea if they are real directions or not. I think the key here is to ask a few people the same question and see if the answers line up.
• Gringos (any foreigner in this case) will ALWAYS get charged waaaaayyyyyy more for everything than a local. This one I'm okay with. We can afford to pay more and I think we need to share the wealth. Paying more than a local is not quite the same as getting blindly ripped off. In this case we know we're paying more and we can always decide to shop around or walk away.
• Things move really sloooooowly in CR. Sometimes things don't seem logical and no appears to be in any hurry. Personaly - I think we are way too uptight and have unrealistic expectations in Canada/US/Europe. If you lived somewhere where it's really hot all the time and you're getting paid next to nothing, why the hell would you be in any rush to do anything? My hope is that we can slow down during this time and come even partway close to living at the pace of the locals. At least outside the realm of our 9-5 day jobs.


By the way, the inability for expats to adjust to the slow pace of things is often cited as the #1 reason that people leave Costa Rica and move back home. It will be a challenge but I'm up for it.

If you're thinking about doing something like this I highly recommend you read this website www.therealcostarica.com and also spend a lot of time interacting with current expats in a user group or forum. For Costa Rica, join the Yahoo Group "CostaRicaLiving " and get the inside scoop on day to day experiences of expats - their challenges, frustrations and triumphs as well as boring nitty gritty details like where to buy bleach and iPhone chargers or who to call to fix your toilet.

That's all for now... Hasta Luego!

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Comments

[Ted Sidlauskas]

A neighbor at our cottage in Parry Sound moved to Costa Rica many years ago. In speaking with him he related Costa Rica to Parry Sound in the 50s. I can think of no better reason to want to spend some time there!

[GuitarDan]

Thanks Ted!
I'm sure there are parts of Costa Rica that may STILL feel like Parry Sound in teh 50's... but lots of the tourist areas are pretty up to date EXCEPT for the roads.