www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Prolijo you are right it really does come down to average daily cost.

Alright, alright --you talked me into it, I'm coming down!

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The sexiest part of the human body? The brain.

I spend total about 150% of what I budget, due to the ho-de-ho factors Brother Prolijo and others mentioned. For me $2000 is a good week+. And you know what? I don't begrudge a penny of it, cuz mostly I've got the memories to take with and the good feelings left behind--and not just the free-spending in the KL either. That's just me.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

I'm still looking for a $5 meal. I can't fine even a bowl of soup (other than back bean) and rice for that. I usually eat on the cheap side and end up between $6 and $7. Throw in a few meals for the chicas, and the money just disappears. I honestly cannot account for how I spend what I do on daily food, drinks, etc. My bar tab is usually between $10 and $15. That is 6 or 7 Imperials plus a tip. Yes, I do tip the bartenders around 10%. I know there's a 10% tip already added in the bill, but I always get very good service after a couple of trips to a place.

OK, I found a $5 meal. The lunch buffet (between 11:30am and 2pm) at the Morazon is 2500 colones. That includes a fruit drink, soup, salad, main course, and a dessert. Today the main course was rice, mashed potatoes, mixed vegtables, fried chicken, and pork and beef in gravy. The dessert was a fruit cup. It's not the quality of food you'd get at a restaurant, but it's definitely eatable and filling.

I'll grant you a $5 meal is getting somewhat harder to find than it used to be IF you include a special drink (btw, fruit drinks in CR are always cheaper than beer and a lot healthier), but you still can get a very filling and satisying meal quite easily for not much more than that. Of course, that might all depend on your definition of satisfying, but from what I've seen a lot of CRTers could stand to skip a few meals or at least step away from the feeding trough a little earlier. However, if I've exaggerated a little on the low side, you're also exaggerating a bit on the high side too. Bowls of soup usually don't cost more than $5 even here in the US, so they're DEFINITELY available for under $5 in CR and one can CERTAINLY at least get a LIGHT MEAL in CR for under $5. I already mentioned the sidewalk pizza and drink deals. The daily 5 course lunch special (including a fruit drink) at La Criollitta is still just around $5-6. And food court buffets like at Plaza Venida are very cheap y más tico que el morazon and probably at least as good. I think you've just been looking in the wrong places.

Meals for chica's? I'm sure that is very nice of you especially considering you've probably ALREADY just paid them $60-70 for an hour or 2's work which is at least 2-3 times what the average tico earns in a whole day of labor. However, it is totally unneccessary. And, considering the originator of this thread was looking for what a gringo ON A TIGHT BUDGET could spend, I think we can safely leave that out of our cost calculations.

Similarly, tipping HDR/BM bar staff 10% on top of the 10% they're getting on ALREADY overpriced drinks (not to mention what they scam off the drunk gringos by short changing them and such), is also an added expense that can easily be dispensed with by gringos on a budget. Besides, to me good service is the waitress NOT hassling me every 10 minutes to buy another drink.

Which brings me to my next point. Six to seven Imperials per day is VERY heavy drinking. And that is not just my opinion. According to the CDC, anything over 2 alcoholic drinks per day is considered being a heavy drinker. Okay, you're on vacation so you may want to drink a little more, but 6-7 beers per day? C'mon now, you might want to think about trying to scale that back a bit. You'll save a little money, be a lot more clearheaded when dealing with the chicas, probably have better sessions (beaue you'll be able to perform better), and it will be MUCH better for your health. But obviously you can do what you want. I think we can assume that Junky doesn't drink to your degree or even if he does would be open to scaling it back for reasons of economy if not also health.

I can tell you that on my trip in April (4 nights), excluding room and air, I spent an average of $200 per day for taxis, food, drinks, massages and chicas and also included in my exit tax. I am not a heavy drinker (maybe 2-3 beers and 1-2 vodka cranberry per 24 hr period) and I had two sessions per day (non MP's), and also had three days that I received a total legit massage from a girl who works at the SL. So like I said, $200 a day was comfortable for me. I really did not skip anything that I wanted but I did not drink myself silly and eat at the high end restaurants either. I actually had most meals at the SL and really enjoyed the food there.

I am going back for 10 days beginning next week and planned a budget of $300 per day but that is only because I am planning on taking several tours and a fishing trip while I am down. It is my b-day week so I am splurging a bit more but chances are I will come in well under budget.

Prolijo's plan is tops. I buy Duty Free booze or bring my own (last I read customs 5 L was allowed) or if it is open, buy from the Duty Free store in the baggage area, although the grocery stores offer some good specials at times. You can cut down on booze allowance by preboozing before you go out.

Girls...two guys I know were daily whoremongers. One spent no more than $40 at the HDR. Okay, sometimes its's after midnight, but he brought back good ones. And no theft problems. The other guy never spent over 10 mil. He went to VIPS and some other hole in the walls, but there was a least a couple of 20 something dominicanas, ticas o columbianas, and you do go to the back rooms, but hey, it provides the sordidness to heighten the experience. Anyway, whenever the urge hits, I can satisfy it without breaking the bank.

Frankly, the girls I've seen at HDR the last few times, are, well, average for here.

I just don't know where the money goes. I try everything from keeping a list of what I spend,to putting money in individual envelopes and doling it out to myself once a day(when I was drinking) to budgeting my money. I would do good a day or 2 then wham there goes all that monopoly money . If anyone has a system that works I would love to try it. I have noticed when I win at the Colonial all this is a mute issue

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Oh please, please CrackerAss, please come to MDE with us. You will just love it there.

Maybe you should look at the menus at the most popular hotels where CRT's stay. The soup with rice is over $5. You rail about CRT's overeating and not eating healthy, then you mention eating pizza as an alternative.
The title of the thread is "How much does your trip cost?"
You make a lot of assumptions. I have had a total of one beer at the HDR/BM. In an earlier post, you made the statement that I may be too fat to walk between the Dunn Inn and SL. You don't know me and I doubt you have ever seen me.
I don't need your advice on how to live my life. I doubt you are perfect. I complimented you on your post about the taxi fares, but now you have crossed a line.

GDJ,
First off, I'm sorry if you took what I posted so personally. I think the line you're referring to was from the taxi thread where I said in response to one of your posts "Here's some more advice. For relatively short trips such as this, sometimes the best (and certainly the healthiest) way to avoid a taxi rip-off is to just walk it. That also serves the purpose of working off some of those gallo pintos and cervezas we eat and drink while down in CR. Lets face it quite a few of us could stand to lose a few pounds to look a little better for the chicas, have more stamina in the cama and live longer for more trips to CR." I thought those comments were clearly GENERAL in nature rather than directed solely at you. Also, you might have noticed that I used the pronouns "we" and "us", meaning including myself (even though I'm not really overweight either). When we're in CR, eating meals with lots of rice and beans and probably pouring down more cervezas than we usually do while we're at home, for most of us our diets take a turn for the worse and we could probably ALL use a little exercise whereever we can get it. And that is all that I meant when I posted that.

I also said later in that post "To be completely fair to GDJ, I DON'T know if it was also raining out (heavily) or if unfortunately he is in such bad shape that walking 500-600yds would leave him sweaty and wheezing, which would be 2 other possible exceptions I could think of for opting for the cab over walking it." I can see where you might have taken this personally. But all I meant there was to speculate, without knowing you personally, why you might have elected to take a cab during the day rather than walk 5 blocks. I never said that you definitely WERE fat and, in fact, said right there in capital letters "I DON'T know". Maybe you had some other reason for taking a cab or no reason at all.

In either case, I concluded that post with this comment which should have erased any possibility that my comments were intentionally directed at you personally: "I don't mean to single GDJ out to pick on and not knowing the full particulars of either of these trips my advice may not even apply to him. However, IN GENERAL I think that more than a few of us should give greater thought to walking at least the shorter hops more often than we do rather than automatically opting for a cab every time and not just to save a buck or two or to avoid being ripped off."
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As for some of your latest comments:

I have no idea how much they charge for soup "at the most popular hotels where CRT's stay" because I've never regarded most hotels to be the most economical place to purchase any meal or for that matter, any establishment that caters primarily to western tourists. So I'd never use the prices they charge at such places as a yardstick for an economical meal.

As for "railing about CRT's overeating and not eating healthy and then mentioning pizza as an alternative." Of course, a slice of pizza is not very healthy (even when downed with a fruit drink) but at least its not overeating. My point there is that you don't need to have 3-4 gutbusting meals every day. Nor do I expect anyone to have a slice of pizza for lunch every day either. But occasionally just having a LIGHT lunch like a slice of pizza rather than an all-you-can-buffet is a way to shave a couple of dollars off one's budget and at the same time reduce one's total caloric intake. I might also add that I NEVER said my own diet is the most healthy. My own particular weakness is consuming too many Coca Colas. But that doesn't mean I still don't TRY to eat better.

Re: the title of this thread being "How much does your trip cost?", I already addressed that at length in my first post. If you read Junky's full original post carefully (it is after all only 3 lines), you'll see that he fairly clearly explained what he was really after with that question when he added "I'm really kinda broke right now" ie he was really more interested in how CHEAPLY can some of us travel.

Re: assuming you drink all your beers at the HDR/BM, you're right that was a simplifying assumption. However, you missed my real point in that section which was, REGARDLESS of where you do you're drinking, tipping 10% on TOP OF an already existing 10% service charge in CR is an unneccessary extravagance. It is a practice which exceeds what the average person does. And it certainly would not be good advice for someone who is kinda broke and is looking for ideas on how to do their trip on the cheap. Secondly, regardless of how much you tip or how much you weigh, 6-7 alcoholic drinks per day IS considered heavy drinking and is NOT healthy.

Lastly, re my advice, whether you think you need my advice or not, and for whatever my advice may or may not be worth, it is CERTAINLY your right to completely ignore it. I'd be the absolute LAST person to ever say I'm perfect and I don't even always follow my OWN advice, let alone always listen to others. HOWEVER, when it comes to the issue of mixing HEAVY drinking with mongering, I think my advice on that measure is very sound. Naturally, YMMV and may disagree.

Great post, Srlim! And obviously I agree with most of it.

Gringo hotel meals being more costly than what they charge for similar food at more tico-oreineted establishments? Absolutely. Eating at the hotel you're staying at or frequent being more convenient? I'd go along with that too. HOWEVER, this is not like you're in say someplace like Arenal where you may be several kms or more from Fortuna and most of the independent restaurants. In downtown SJ you're never really that far away from the types of places we're talking about. La Criolitta, which is on the way (sort of, if you take a short detour off the most direct path) between the SL and the HDR, is one example I already gave.

Tipping being discretionary in most situations in CR? Also very true. When I was referring to overpriced drinks, I was really referring mainly to the drinks at the HDR/BM. And, although the high drink prices at that place are not the fault of the servers, they do already get the 10% service charge that automatically gets tacked on to those high prices. AND I hardly think anyone needs to start up a collection for any of those servers since they already do very well from all the other big tippers in the place (not to mention they're various frequent shortchanging/no-changing scams). And, as for "good service" there, if I'm trying to cut down on my natural tendency to drink more when in a place like that, I'm actually just as happy when it takes a long time to get my order or bring back my drink (as long as it doesn't take forever to bring back my change).

Of course, the HDR/BM is NOT the only place we're ever in a tipping situation or even the only place we ever drink, so one is definitely likely to tip at least a little bit while in CR. For example, I usually leave my smaller change (anything less than 100c) for the waiters (on top of their 10%) and the same thing for taxi drivers. If its a soda where they don't automatically add 10%, I'll tip a bit more. And of course there are maids and, if you take any organized tours, tour guides. I'll often keep the larger 100c and 500c coins when I get them but I also USE them whereever I can instead of (or in addition to) paper currency to avoid developing a huge and heavy surplus.

RE: splitting cabs? That's great advice. I usually save even more by taking the bus from the airport, however for those who for whatever reason prefer the cabs (due to time of arrival, number of bags, rush to get to the bar, greater comfort, etc.) splitting one from the airport is certainly better than paying the entire cost yourself. Where I tend to split cabs more is when going around downtown at night, particularly since going to most of the nightclubs alone is not as much fun anyway.
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More than 2 drinks per day is heavy drinking? I agree that more than 2 drinks a day doesn't seem like very much, particularly while on vacation (and already said as much). I myself do more than that most days. And it may comfort us to write-off such CDC definitions as just another gov't exaggeration. However, their numbers happen to be a MEDICAL definition rooted in science and not just some arbitrary number (our SOCIAL definition may be something else). The FACT is that anything MORE THAN 2 drinks a day is associated with a shorter lifespan and a whole host of increased medical risks. The interesting thing is that the healthiest practice is to consume 1 alcoholic beverage per day (presumably because it lowers stress and, in the case of wine, adds cancer fighting anti-oxidants). Complete teetotalers only do about the same as those who consume 2 drinks per day (presumably because BEYOND that point the negative effects of alcohol consumption start to outweigh the positive effects of stress reduction). I should add that this is not AVERAGE consumption. You can't go on a week long 6 drink per day bender in CR just because you went completely "dry" for the month leading up to it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. In the case of your doctor's "prescription" it is also important to note that he didn't prescribe MORE than 1-2 glasses of wine and that he may have only gone as high as 2 because of your particular medical condition at that time.

Those other factors can and do impact your level of drunkeness, but not as much as you think. For one thing they've ALREADY taken body weight into consideration. The 2 drinks per day limit is based on your typical 200lb man, The limit for a 100lb female is actually only ONE drink per day. And, while a 300lb male can probably handle more alcohol without getting drunk, they're ALREADY in a high risk group because of being overweight so if anything should probably watch how much they consume even more. They've also taken alcohol content into consideration with their numbers. Ounce for ounce different drinks may not be the same but one normally doesn't consume hard liqour by the 6-pack. On the CDC scale one 5 oz. glass of wine is equivalent to one 12 oz. can or bottle of REGULAR beer (which is typically in the 4.5-5% ABV range not the special lower content 3.2% beer they serve in alcohol restricted states like Colorado) is equivalent to 8 oz. of malted liquor (e.g. Colt 45) is equivalent to one 1.5 oz. measured shot of 80 proof of distilled liqour (which covers most of the liqour we usually consume including rum, but not overproof, Crown Royal, most vodkas, though they can go even higher, etc). I might also add that I doubt most guys carefully measure their shots when in their rooms and probably fix individual drinks with more than just 1.5oz in it or else favor bars where the bartenders "spill-over" a bit when fixing their drinks to make them stiffer.

Probably the biggest factor when you were 23 was that you were in the habit of consuming that much and were simply more accustomed to maintaining yourself on that volume of alcohol. I'd be willing to bet that if you consumed more than 2 drinks in an hour your blood-alcohol would have been right up there regardless of how much you were or weren't stumbling around. I've seen many heavy drinkers who don't display any OBVIOUS outward evidence of their drunkeness but who would still fail any breathalyzer and, more significantly, would display greatly reduced reaction times if put to the test (e.g. everybody thinks they drive better while drunk than they actually do).

Besides, I WASN'T even talking about the 3-4 drinks per day that you or I consume while in CR. Even though that is double the CDC limit, it is not what I'd call really "socially" heavy (at least not while on vacation), but I wouldn't exactly call it light either. My comments were really directed at consuming 6-7 drinks per day (ie more than TRIPLE the CDC guideline), which would be heavy even for you or me. And, though one can and certainly will do whatever they wants, IMHO anyone that is consuming that much alcohol each day SHOULD seriously think about scaling it back AT LEAST a little bit (like at least down to our 3-4 drink per day level) if not for reason's of economy than for reasons of better health, ability to deal more soberly with the chicas (and ticos) many of whom may try to rip you off or shortchange you if they see that you're drunk, and probably perform better in the cama.

There are various simple ways you can do this:
1) Make it a rule to at least not have any alcoholic drink until noon at the earliest. If you need a bit of the "hair of the dog" to get going in the morning than that might be a sign that you were really drinking too much the night before.
2) Limit yourself to only one alcoholic drink with lunch if you must have one or, better yet, try to hold off on the alcohol until even later if you can.
3) Save your next (or first) alcoholic drink for 5PM happy hour.
4) Don't feel like you HAVE to order a drink from the first moment you enter the bar.
5) Don't feel like you ALWAYS have to have a drink in your hand or order a new one as soon as your waitress comes around to take away your just emptied bottle or glass. A "good" waitress will keep you drinking ALL THE TIME as it is in her interest and the interest of the bar to sell more drinks. But that doesn't make it in your best interest.
6) Alternate your alcoholic drinks with non-alcoholic ones. If you're drinking rum and cokes this is super easy to do without anyone besides you and the waitress being any the wiser as you just alternate with straight cokes.
7) Nurse your drink. It doesn't matter if there is just undrinkable swill in the bottom of the bottle or melted ice in your glass. If you have something in your hand you may feel less compelled to order a replacement and the waitress, seeing you making carefully timed sipping motions, may feel less compelled to try to sell you more drinks (darker glass beer bottles work better for this). When she comes around be sure to grab a hold of your bottle or glass as if you're not finished with it or even take a small sip, before she can snatch it away removing your prop. Don't give it up until YOU'RE ready to give it up and/or are ready to order a fresh one.
8 ) I'm sure this will seem like cheap-ass stuff to many of you but I often pickup a bottled water or coke at Chelles before heading over to the HDR/BM (where the same bottle costs at least 50% more) and sip that for at least the first half hour I'm there, thereby avoiding having to give those crooks any of my money for a while (though they always wind up getting at least some of my money in the end).

That's some interesting data. However you're ONLY considering BAC (used as a measure of drunkeness) and I believe that the CDC concern is as much or probably MORE about all the OTHER negative health effects of excessive alcohol consumption, not just sobriety. After all your liver and kidneys have to work harder to filter out all that alcohol from your blood.

I also found your results interesting in that while if you drink a few beers in a relatively short time your BAC will fairly quickly go back down, if you do the same thing repeatedly over a period of time your "bounce-back" is not nearly so quick. And I think that latter scenario is more akin to what many of us do in CR where we're consuming more alcohol than we normally do throughout the day (but primarily in the evening) over SEVERAL days in a row (not just during one Saturday afternoon off).

BTW, I seriously doubt any 240lb man is going to space those 10 drinks evenly through out the day (getting up to have another every 2 hours during the night). More likely he'd concentrate that over the course of an evening or afternoon, which would be more like 1 drink every hour. And, even with a little time to sober up a little between drinks, that should be more than enough to keep him continuously intoxicated that whole time, particularly towards the end with the cumulative effect.

Lastly regarding overly safe government generalizations, I wouldn't be so sure that always applies or that your airplane wake analogy is such a great one. For example, while the legal limit for drinking and drive is a BAC of .08% in most states, that is just the point where most people are definitely so shitfaced they become a danger to themselves and everyone else on the road. Actual impairment due to alcohol use begins to occur at levels well below the legal limit. And would you really want anyone else out on the road with you who had a BAC of .08% or above just because they THINK that they're a special case and can handle it better than everyone else? Same thing applies to those medical studies that the CDC guidlines are based on - actual mortality rates. It doesn't mean that you're cool at 2 drinks per day but at 3 drinks you're playing with fire and will automatically die of cirrhosis of the liver, but your odds definitely go up. And even if you can get away with 3-4 drinks per day, when you start hitting TRIPLE the recommended maximum amount (6-7 drinks) you HAVE to be greatly increasing your risk unless you're Superman.

"Truth is the CDC's two-drink limit is a vast generalization and the best answer is going to come from your doctor, assuming his judgment isn't colored by personal opininion or experience." IMHO, the danger in what you're saying is that most people are not going to consult their codtor on this but are going to simply go on the basis that I'm special or I can handle it. And let's face when we're slightly drunk or especially when we're very drunk we're not exactly in the best position for honest self-assessment. How many people are really going to consult their doctors about this and if they do how many doctors are really going to say "go ahead its okay for you to drink 6-7 drinks per day, the CDC is full of shit"? I'm guessing your concern that their opinion might be colored by their experience is not that they're gonna err on the side of saying its okay to drink excessively, so that kinda reflects your own personal bias the other way.

Lastly, how many guys are really gonna carry around a personal breathalyzer to monitor their BAC unless they've had some sort of issue with excessive drinking in the past or already suspect that they're drinking too much? IMHO, if you've gotten a DUI(s) or have had bouts where your drinking has gotten a bit out of control then you're probably already susceptible to going over the edge and that is probably all the more reason not to keep on testing it.

Out of those who drink, how many drink less than 1 drink spread out evenly over 4-5 hours before taking their next drink? Practically no one if any one at all. So that bit of fact is essentially completely meaningless.

You keep sayng how "2 drinks per day is safe and 3 drinks per day is unsafe for me" seems ridiculous and arbitrary and maybe it is, but I keep saying I'm not talking about anyone who takes just 1 or 2 over that line. What I've been talking about ALL ALONG is when their consumption climbs to 6-7 drinks (or more than THREE times the recommended limit) and for several days at a time (which is more than just a few of us). So go ahead and quibble about whether it should be 2 or 3 or 4 if you want. At SOME point it clearly becomes harmful for most people who would consume it at those higher levels. Maybe there are some guys that can handle 6-7 drinks per day, but from what I've seen most guys don't handle it nearly as well as they THINK they do. And that seems to be particularly the case with many CRTers. Out of the CRTers I know reasonably well, an abnormally high number of them (I won't mention any names) have had one or more DUI's, which to me indicates they might just have a problem with their drinking. Even if you think a .08 BAC doesn't impair your driving, driving after drinking past that legal limit (with all its possible legal and financial consequences) demonstrates greatly impaired judgment. And I'm sure there are many more CRTers who have had similar problems that I just don't know about. Okay, most guys won't be driving while in CR. But how many times have you heard about a gringo being ripped off after having been drinking to the point of at least some level of inebriation? Or are you saying that having 6-7 drinks doesn't increase your odds of having something like that happen and that is really only the guys who are drinking 16-17 drinks per day that those things happen to?

You obviously (and for some reason) are intimately involved with your own sobriety (probably simply due to FAA requirements). I seriously doubt most guys here will go to similar levels of self-assessment. So what I fear is that there will be some who read what you write and figure that gives them an excuse, rationale or some sort of carte blanche to take greater risks with their own drinking, thinking that they're one of those who are somehow special or that because of their unique metabolism, weight or whatever they're better equipped to deal with excessive drinking than most other people. And the fact is, while some of them might be, most of them probably aren't and will just be fooling themselves.

Prolijo and Srilm--- excellent discussion, thank you – a lot to ponder.
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With my tv not working, I was planning, before reading your posts, on going out and having a few beers, but after reading this I may stay home, watch the rain and finish off my today’s 12 pack of Diet Coke.

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My best friend was the clock on the wall, and he turned out not to be much of a friend in the end

Are you kidding? Do you know what those artificial sweeteners can do you?!?!?