About RandL

Currently Lives:

Citizen of:

Some Forum Posts:

Costa Rica: Moody's Downgrade:

Thought this might be of interest to some. http://www.usexpatcostarica.com/moodys-announced-the-reduction-of-costa-ricas-risk-rating/

Costa Rica: JUST for FUN!:

We are still planning with about two years to go. Also disposing of a lifetime of stuff, which will still be doing 2 years from now. And working on the place to get it ready to go on the market. I'm a die hard DIYer and do every thing from plumbing and electrical to plaster board. I'm good but I ain't fast. I had knee replacement in late October trying to take care of things now rather than later. In all seriousness it looks very likely that planning and prep will take longer than we will live in CR. But our determination to live there, at least for a while, is undeterred. And just in case we can't make it in the flesh well have our ashes dumped into one of the volcanoes ;) Hope everyone is moving happily toward their paradisiacal goals. And thanks again for all the tips and help this forum provides .

Costa Rica: Planning Our First Trip:

ddoorn: We are pretty much in the same position but we spent three weeks in CR in June (yea, our total experience of CR). You did not really explain why you've chosen Costa Rica, what are your personal values that draw you to CR. That might make it easier for the experienced souls here to help out. Best wishes and good luck to you, R and L

Costa Rica: The Ever Evolving Plan:

Quick review, we are in our early 70s. We spent a week on each coast and one in a cloud forest in June 2016. Mostly it was a vacation, but one inspired by a life long unrealized dream to move to CR. We both spent our childhoods in South Florida and I have a deep love of tropical flora and all natural landscapes. The upshot is that we are now hoping to move to Costa Rica, but at least one of us will have to travel to the US every 3 months for medical reasons, we have a large German Shepherd that our ethics and our hearts require to go with us. Also we have a mostly blind and deaf 41 year old horse whose death is on our critical path but which death we are trying to prevent while that can be done humanely. Additionally we will need to sell our farm. When all that has come to pass … we will need a plan. The most recent and extreme involves up to six months of scouting real estate with most of that time spent in the US, going through listings, making lists of properties to see and travel to and from CR to see them. At the end of that process we would buy out right and plan to live there a year before deciding whether or not to put the house on the market and just stay till it sold. We would just repeat the evaluation each year till we decided it was time (most likely for medical reasons which could require a sudden departure). It would be hurtful but not lethal to loose money on the house. Except for the dog and that we want a nice place near the beach we would follow the recommendation to rent the first year. From what I've seen, even if someone would rent to people with a large dog the rentals look like they'd be between $2500 and $3500 per month. At 3000/mo. x 12mo. = $36000/yr. which could equal a good deal of the lose one might expect on a purchased house. Thoughts, suggestions, etc. welcome and appreciated. And many thanks for the people and resources here. R and L

Costa Rica: "All that glitters is not green":

Seeing how cyclists drive there I'm surprised any survive, though I'm sure many are helped to their final reward by equally wild car drivers. Rules of the road seem to be interpreted very liberally.

Costa Rica: New Years Eve:

You could try leaving brochures for AutoTune in their mail box.

Costa Rica: Cautionary Crime Stats:

Trying to put the data into some kind of perspective I found that at our age the death rate from all causes is about 1000 per hundred thousand. I'm not sure how to feel about that LOL.

Costa Rica: Want to Be Happy? Move to Costa Rica:

“Umm, it refers to students who live in the countries mentioned. So the title makes no sense whatsoever unless you move there as an infant.” I respectfully disagree and believe that it says something important and useful about the culture-psyche relation. No, it shouldn't give one hope that one can transplant one's “personal culture” to Costa Rica and get happy. In fact every thing I've read indicates that's usually the road to misery. But this study and a number of others do suggest that it is the values of Costa Rican culture that lead to increased happiness. And though not proven, it seems not unreasonable to think that integration and adoption of these values into one's self may lead to greater happiness. To state the obvious, how plausible such integration is depends on the individual and their circumstances. Just my < 2 cents. We've only spent 3 weeks in CR and my views regarding it should be discounted accordingly. R and L

Costa Rica: Duty on perscription drugs.:

We are looking into having our prescription drugs delivered by an Air Courier as one of them is cold packed. Is there a duty on an individuals prescription drugs that we would have to pay. Many thanks, R and L

Costa Rica: Trump won:

Don't be scared. Get prepared. Unless one is undocumented, one has little to fear from Trump in the near term. Though the economic "policies" he has enunciated could precipitate a trade war fairly quickly after he is sworn in. But in terms of his authoritarianism becoming dangerous, that will take years. The first step is normalizing political violence. Keep an eye on what he does in that regard and it should be clear enough when it's time to bail for personal safety. In the mean time do research and make plans.

Date Joined:

7/17/2016

Total Posts:

60

Posts/Day:

0.23