I am not going to get into a discussion on pros and cons of living in Costa Rica as I have lived here for almost 6 years so my take is obvious.
I do have a few observations to make about what Michael has written. Reading many of his comments indicate his article was written many years ago or he is prejudiced or he simply is totally uninformed and has made statements that are not true. Some examples:
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Since there's so much sex tourism in Costa Rica most latinos automatically think you've come there just for cheap sex. So none of the middle or upper class latinos want much to do with you. Even though you can convince them you're not a sex tourist, they still don't want to associate with you for fear of what their friends might think. And the poor latinos will associate with you just to take advantage of you financially. Generally I found living there very lonely.
I have not found that to be true. If you spend your entire time in the gulch you might not meet many Ticos who want anything to do with you. If get out into the suburbs shop in the local Tico markets, eat in the local sodas and have a drink in the local bar you will find a warm reception. The only way, IMO, to be lonely here is to lack any social graces or be a complete loner.
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Like many different types of indians these Costa Rica people are very in-the-moment and don't (or can't) think about future situations that their present actions cause. They are also dull-witted and incompetent.
As most here are aware of the indigenous population is very small and is almost totally confined to remote areas. To classify Ticos as one of different type of Indians is ignorant at best. The last sentence of his quote is obviously prejudicial.
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Import taxes here are 100%. Yes I said 100%, which means that all imported goods cost twice as much in Costa Rica as in the USA. A VCR that costs $120 in the States will cost $240 here. And anything you have shipped to you has to be taxed which is almost never less than $100.
A VCR does not even appear on the customs duty list so it must be lumped under a catch all category. There is not a single item on that list that carries a 100% duty rate. A DVD recorder, the closest thing I could find to a VCR, has a duty rate of 13%. Last year I imported a desktop computer with a 22" flat screen monitor. I paid zero duty.
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Rich gringos move here and then everytime you talk to them they do what I'm doing here which is only complain. My landlord, who is an isolated positive thinker, is the only gringo I've talked to who says he likes it here.
That is obviously a generalization and most likely not true. To live here two and half years and find only one gringo who says they like living in Costa Rica? That defies the imagination and clearly show a prejudicial side to his article. Most of the gringos I know who live here full time have a common mantra "I am never going back to live in the states"
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Yes you can be connected to the internet down here but it's hard to get 'on-line' and you pay both for on-line time and telephone time. (Even local calls are billed.) My monthly bill from RACSA (the government monopoly supplier of internet connections in Costa Rica) is $35. And connection speed is so slow some web sites are useless to you.
Almost all of the Central Valley, where he indicated he lived, has access to broadband internet. Dial up is almost totally restricted to rural areas or used by those who do not have much need for internet service and prefer to pay for only the few minutes they need or want to use.
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The evil pesticide companies in the USA sell outlawed pesticides at a low price to the farmers here. They are outlawed in the USA because they are highly toxic to humans also and cause cancer. But the farmers here buy it because it's cheaper. They don't care if you get DDT poisoning. I've eaten vegetables here that caused an immediate reaction in my throat because they had so much pesticides on them. It seems the farmers spray too heavily or too frequently. Costa Ricans are typically very immature in their thinking and do things you'd only think Ch*ldren would be capable of. A friend of mine knows two people who returned from Costa Rica after just a few months with pesticide poisoning from eating the food here.
While there are isolated incidents of misuse of pesticides in the past they were most often used on the banana and pineapple plantation and presented a hazard to the workers not the general population. The average life span if a Costa Rican exceeds that of the the average resident of the U.S.
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And then there's San Jose, the most polluted city I have ever seen. Old buses and cars with all pollution controls taken off are continuously spewing out tons of dark exhaust fumes. I try to never go there but there are many essentials which are only available in San Jose. If you like to wait a lot then you'll enjoy driving in San Jose, Costa Rica. Traffic jams galore and believe it or not there is no main highway loop around the city.
This particular section really makes me wonder what year this was written. Yes San Jose has a pollution problem but is vastly improved from a few years ago. Old buses are almost non existent and the implementation of the yearly vehicle inspection (Ritieve), with its stringent testing of exhaust emissions, as put an end to removing polution control devices if in fact that was ever done in a more then isolated incident. The circumvalcion is a ring hwy that loops around about 80% of San Jose.
Obviously living full time in any foreign country is not for everyone. There are adjustments you have to make and perhaps coming from a first world country to a third world one requires a lot of adjustment. Not everyone can do it. The only way to find out is to read opinions like Michael's, opinions by those who take the opposite stance and then give it a trial run.
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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine
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