Anyone who wants to move here or thinks they might someday want to move here should print that list out and refer to it when making the decision. So much of it is spot on and the author has the credentials and experience to know what he is talking about.

Mr. Howard is a regular at the Association of Residents of Costa Rica monthly seminars and says exactly the same thing. He says something like 50% of the people moving here, leave within 2 years for 1 or more of these reasons (I'll take him at his word on the per cent and time frame). The "hammock syndrome" and lack of desire to learn Spanish sufficiently discouraged me .

Typical amorphous tico asslicking condescending ectoplasmic tripe ...designed to suck all the fun out of living in costa rica... if youre not escaping cars guns guitars boats triple decker chopped liver pastrami tongue with slaw and russian dressing and all those little baracudas with angelic smiles and dollar sign pupils who think theyre smarter than that dick bulging from your forehead youre just another schmo like myself trying to make sense of the world by moving mho and jo in a rythmic trance to the strains of cheap pu*sy and the whispering illusion that your shitsandwich might have a little more bread somewhere else..

Once again, I gotta tell you the term "Ugly American" has been 180 degrees misconstrued--in the Burdick novel it was the upcountry unassuming AID worker actually doing something to improve peasants' live and thus ridiculed by the striped-pants cookie pushers at the Embassy who's sole contact with workers was tipping the waiter at the Hotel Continental. It has nothing whatsoever to do with arrogant, ignorant tourists, Hawai'ian-shit clad or otherwise. A little learning goes a looong way. Oh an BTW "rhythmic" is spelled my way. yes I'm a butthead--I get that a lot.

The Encarta dictionary defines "Ugly American" as: stereotypical offensive American: a loud, boorish, nationalistic American, especially one traveling abroad, who is regarded as conforming to a stereotype that gives Americans a bad reputation. In contrast, Dictionary.com defines "the Ugly American" as: Pejorative term for Americans traveling or living abroad who remain ignorant of local culture and judge everything by American standards.