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Published: August 29th 2007
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It has been quite some time since I’ve updated my blog. It’s been well over a month actually which is unusual for me. Since my last entry, travelblog.org crashed and lost a lot of people’s blog entries. Luckily for me, I type all of my entries in MS Word and save them in multiple places (just in case my blog becomes famous after I’m long gone). In fact, if you look at my last blog entry, which travelblog “found,” the captions on the pictures of my trip to Thailand all read, “recovered:” http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/San-Ramon/blog-183513.html. Luckily, travelblog only lost two my 73 blog entries. Now I just need to figure out which two!
I think the main reason I have not written is that I’ve been so busy and the only time I seem to have to write as of late is at odd hours, usually from 3am to 5am (when most of my neighbors are getting up!). I also spent much of July and part of August traveling but thankfully, that has cooled down for now. So, hopefully, in the coming weeks I’ll get back to regular blog updates, usually every one or two weeks.
Fun, fun, fun…work, work work!
It’s been a crazy time over the past two months but luckily it hasn’t been all about work. After the trip to Thailand (which was work), I spent five great days in New York City with the only “non-fun” activity being my last doctor’s checkup on my ears. After almost 2.5 years and four surgeries later, I’m finally done with that major issue in my life! So, this last trip was primarily just to visit friends and that was terrific. It’s certainly a much better trip knowing you can travel home and not have to think about getting cut up for 4 or 5 hours! It’s great to visit New York as there is always so much to do and people to see but I have to admit, I’m even tiring of the Big Apple, and I think it is partly due to my new life and routine in Costa Rica. New York is just too big, too fast-paced, and the attack on all of one’s senses can be too much sometimes. Though having great food, re-connecting with old friends, and making new ones definitely made the trip worthwhile. Perhaps I’ll visit New York again but in the short
term it’ll likely be while passing through on connecting flights to other regions or even countries.
Work has been amazing. It’s been amazingly crazy and amazingly terrific. I still sometimes cannot believe the things I’ve gotten myself into here in Costa Rica—things I never thought I’d do like running a tour company (www.boomersincostarica.com) that is expanding its base of countries (Thailand will start soon with a few other Latin countries next year) and gaining more clients at a crazy pace. Or, continuing to run the B&B (www.AngelValleyFarmBandB.com)--but without my manager, Terry, forget it!—that finally after a few years is in a good “normal routine.” I’ve even managed to continuously update my “Boomers Blog” (www.costaricarealestate.typepad) which provides news, information and tips on real estate and living in Costa Rica. In the midst of all this work, I somehow managed to get this blogged syndicated and it now appears here: http://costaricarealestate.landbrokr.com/brokers/index and in a variety of other places.
On top of all of this, our real estate development company, CR Communities (www.crcommunities.com), continues to grow, with clients coming down looking for properties at an incomprehensible pace. Our “flagship” property, “Pacific Hills at Magallanes,” (http://www.crcommunities.com/properties/prop.php?currdevid=0&currpropid=1 is moving along tremendously. We’re very happy with the progress of our development work and marketing. So, what do we do when this project nears completion? We already have done what most any land baron would do: Buy more land! The area we work in, the Magallanes section of San Ramon is hard to beat: Stunning Pacific ocean-view and mountain-view properties, great infrastructure, reasonable prices, terrific people moving to the area, and only five minutes to San Ramon. Location, location, location! Even driving the fairly few miles west down the Interamerican highway to the Rio Jesus area can be a chore as the road gets narrower and treacherous in spots, and the trucks more numerous. A trip that should take 15 minutes under great conditions often takes 25 minutes. The other day a combination of rain and trucks made the trip from Rio Jesus to Magallanes last 55 minutes!
It’s all good stuff for sure but sometimes it’s a lot more than I thought I would be doing here! Anyone that knows me will tell you though that there was no way I was just going to move to Costa Rica well before my retirement age and limp along for 20 or so years until my first social security arrived. Who would want to retire on only social security, anyways if they couldn’t help it!? Not me. This is the fun part of being in a business-friendly country that is not yet overly regulated. You can try your hand at almost any type of business and for a very reasonable investment in many cases, give it go. If it doesn’t work out you can easily try something else without losing your shirt. The key for me is creating new things, adding value to people’s lives in different ways, and building something that will sustain itself over the long term. It’s also great just to try new things and stretch one’s capabilities.
So close….
I swear that in the past few days that I’ve been driving in and about Sam Ramon (where I live), I’ve come very close to getting run off the road by big trucks. Some of the roads here, particularly those in the surrounding areas of San Ramon, were just not designed to handle a large truck and car passing each other in opposite directions. Thankfully, there was a little space each time to go off the road into grassy areas so the trucks could pass. The big lesson here is: pull over well before you see the truck coming, let it pass and then move on!
TLC/CAFTA
The big issue in Costa Rica right now is the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA, or “TLC” in Spanish) and the upcoming national referendum on this subject scheduled for October 7th. There isn’t much need for me to chime in on this subject except to say it’s a highly divisive issue and no matter what the result, there will be many unhappy people. If it does pass, I hope its supporters are able to demonstrate its value.
La Nina…
Apparently “La Nina,” the climatic condition that can make weather events more extreme, is rearing its ugly head in the waters off Costa Rica. The country’s national weather bureau has forecasted that the “La Nina effect” means potentially higher than average rain in the Central Valley and Pacific Coast for the remainder of the rainy season—until about November or so. So, as always, we get things done in the morning and relax indoors in the afternoons and evenings! Luckily, I finally have someone coming out to fix my increasingly treacherous road in about two weeks. I just hope it’s not too late!
Thanks for reading and for your comments.
Pura Vida!
Andrew
andrew4cr@gmail.com
www.CRCommunities.com (real estate and more!)
www.BoomersInCostaRica.com (4-day/3 night relocation/retirement/real estate tour!)
www.CostaRicaRealEstate.typepad.com (Boomers’ Real Estate & More Blog!)
www.AngelValleyFarmBandB.com (the B&B!)
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Travis
non-member comment
Red dirt
That dirt in your pic reminds me of the Red River Valley of North Texas. Is it like that all over or just some places?