www.CostaRicaTicas.com

El Ciego wrote:



Interesting point EC and one that can be debated endlessly. I can only speak for myself.

Yes there are certain "American" things that I like to have while living in Costa Rica. I like American sports, American news media (I am still a citizen) some American TV. Does this mean I miss all things about the US, No. Do I want somethings that I enjoyed in the US, Yes.

I do not eat at American restaurants except of an occasional foray to Denny's for certain comfort foods or Outback for beef that I can actually chew. Most of my dining out is at local sodas, restaurants Tipico and alike. Every group has comfort foods they grew up on. Ticos, Cubans, Mexicans, Peruvians, etc. in the US will from time to time visit restaurants that cater to their homeland dishes. Does that mean they want Mexico City in the US? I do not believe so.

Why did I move away from Mom, apple pie and Chevrolet's?

To live a more relaxed life style in a country that has ideal weather, friendly people, not a terrorist target, lower cost of living, affordable health care, etc. In the US even with modern medicine and pharmaceuticals my blood pressure was a problem. In stress free CR my blood pressure last Friday morning during my routine Dr.s visit was 117/71. How many years can that potentially add to my life?

So at least for me yes I miss somethings from the US but if they are available here why should I deny myself having them? To me it is the best of both worlds...relaxed, pressure free, affordable living with some American perks.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

irish,

Yeah. I see what you mean. When you explain it as you just did, it makes more sense.

Americans abroad still want America abroad. No doubt. It's like Lincoln, Nebraska, except that everybody is friendlier, your blood pressure is lower, the cost of living (for now) manageable and the weather perfect. Best of both worlds.

I get it. Thanks.

Now, will you prognosticate a little? What happens to Paradise when every mom & pop soda is run out of business by McDeath and Murder King, when the Mercado Central is torn down to build a Super Wal*Mart, when American "real estate speculators" have driven the price of an hectare of land to 1000 times its 1980 value. How's your Paradise going to feel when Denny's "comfort food" is more prevalent than gallo pinto? Will our insistence on "creature comforts" from the U.S. destroy any semblance of Costa Rica?

I sincerely want to know what the expatriates among us think about this. It seems to me that American corporate immorality and "free trade" are poisoning costa Rica already, but as I don't live there, don't shop at RadioShack or the Gap in the Escazu' Mall, maybe I'm just plain ignorant. No, scratch that. No maybe about it; I'm just that ignorant.

And can someone tell me why when I first landed in C.R. in 2004 and passed three American fast-food restaurants (that we noticed) between the airport and hotel, I felt cheated?

100% USDA Choice Pura Vida.
Billions and billions served.

_________________
Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

No offense taken and please count me as properly chastised. To answer your question, I don't know if this would be true of anybody else on this board, but for me it was about the ready availability of girls.

Good questions El C...the easiest but not that easy answer on the Americanization of CR and elsewhere is...people just saying "NO". As we have documented often on this forum, these chicas are getting fat on McDs, Taco Bell and Burger King...hell, they even pack in to expensive KFC before going next door to half price rotisserie chicken Tico style. Explain THAT one...

All I can suggest is, the people themselves have to change the market with their lifestyle and spending habits. Without turning this into a political or philosophical debate, I would suggest that huge megastores and American marketing practices are unavoidable and taking over the world. There are many things in our lives that will be forever changed and a distant memory. BUT...sometimes there is a brightside. Personally, I like one big store with the best prices for everything versus driving around all day to 5 different small stores to do my shopping. That is in process in CR with Walmarts investment into one of the bigger like chains in Costa Rica. That doesnt rule out Ticos getting into more mass production and productivity versus staying in their mud huts selling small insignificant widgits. Some things we're just not going to stop.

BUT...diet, sexual choices, marraige...all these things are very much in our control...if we take the responsibility for ourselves. Should we blame the foodmakers, cigarette makers and alcohol makers for our gluttony bad health and addictions? Should we desire governments to "control" our markets and products at our disposal. Personally I dont want that at all. I rather like to think I can make up my own mind, thankyou very much. Thats why God gave me one.

As for the media issue...This will be another advantage of the free trade agreement if CR passes it. If AMNET doesnt find a way to provide the desired programming...someone will. The Sportsbooks and gaming companies are not reliant on ICE or Amnet, believe me.

Bookie,

I intended no chastisement. I'm just a simple man with complex questions.

Yeah... come for the weather, stay for the women. Or, C*m for the women, who cares about the f**king weather?

Your reason sounds even more logical than Irish Drifter's blood pressure reason.

Bookie, have you stayed busy with the poonie, or does it all get kind of repetitive after awhile? I wonder if I could live in a candy store without eventually developing an aversion to sweets?

_________________
Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

El Ciego wrote:



I have no idea of Bookies age but I think ones perspective on the importance of various things has some correlation to where they are in life.



I would assume the Americanization of the third world is inevitable. However, seeing it's progress in Costa Rica the past 16 years I do not think it will have a great effect on my life given the actuarial tables.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

El C;
Not to repeat ID's excellent reply to much but here are my reasons for living in Costa Rica:

1. On my early retirement, I cannot afford to live in the U.S.
2. The chicas. Most of the semi novias I have here would not even give me a second look in the U.S. (probably should be no. 1 reason)
3. The weather - I used to live in Las Vegas where many a summers day, its 115.
4. lack of stress.
5. Friendly people.
6. Easy access to pharmacuticals and inexpensive medical care.
7. My home is 3 times nicer than what I could afford in the US.
8. Friends that I have here - some on this board.

Sure, I miss some things about the U.S. It's kind of nice knowing that I can always get a grand slam at Dennys or if I get a hankering, I can drive 5 min. to McDonalds for a Big Mac. TV from the U.S. keeps me informed as to whats going on there, so that's why its kind of hard not having it all of a sudden. I don't think Costa Rica will become another U.S. south but if it did, I could sell everything and move to Nicaragua or Panama.
Don't forget, Costa Rica is still a sovergin country whose language and culture are much different from the U.S. So as long as it still apeals to me, I will continue to live here. BTW, Costa Rica is still not on board the CAFTA band wagon. They are resisting. They want to go thier own way.
If you get a chance, spend some time with an ex-pat and I'm sure you'll have a better understanding of what its like living here.

LVSteve

_________________
Just an old horney, fat gambler.

Geez,all I wanted was to be able to watch football and a little basketball at home,and look what happened. We expats are asked to justify why we live here in CR instead of the States or another Central American country. The answer is simply that I have been living here for 2 1/2 years now and I phucking love it. ALL OF IT I agree with everything LV Steve and ID have said and if I thought about it I could come up with several more reasons why I phucking love it here.

Vegas Bob wrote:



Well than good news for you VB. Channel 70 (CBS) is back on AMNET so you can watch the final four championship game tonight.

The bad news is it WABC in NYC rather than than the usual WSEE from Erie, Pa. Thats means no more "Joey" the weather man with the stuffed parrot on his shoulder.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

In addition, ABC just came back on. Thats chanel 69.
Guess we don't have to move to Panama after all.
LVS

_________________
Just an old horney, fat gambler.

I work here and that fills my time and gives me someting to be bored with. Because living and working with ticos is my daily reality it doesn't feel like a candy store to me. It does feel like a much saner sexual culture than the one they have in the US.

Bookie,

It seems to me to be a much saner culture in general, which is why I for one do not see the encroachment of Wally World, McDon's etc. as being positives. The same culture of greed so prevalent in the world is partly what has driven gringas out of the bedroom and into the workplace.

Incidentally, I am not asking anyone to justify where they live, Bob. I'm just trying to understand why someone would break from their U.S./Canadian home to move to C.R., then expect, no demand all the comforts of home. I have nowhere near the worldly experience of everyone else who has posted to this topic, which is why I'm asking the questions. No offense; I'm just trying to learn.

LVS, great list of reasons, although the cost of living and the nicer home are essentially the same reason. I'm glad that C.R. works for you (and for Bookie, Tman, V.B., I.D. and all other CRT expats living in Costa Rica and/or Panama.

_________________
Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

[url]It seems to me to be a much saner culture in general...[/url]

I don't think I'd agree with that. It is more relaxed, I'll go along with that, and more human in some ways--especially if you're a semi-bilingual gringo with money.

But the problem of machismo is a real problem both to ticos and their women. The problem of single-parent famlies, while a different kind of problem than it is in the US, makes for a lot of befuddled aching Ch*ldren. Many tico politician's contempt for the market culture, which it sounds like you would be sympathetic to, damages the aspirations that many Ticos have to lead materially comfortable lives (aspirations which it sounds like you would call greed).

I was also baffled by your idea that the problem with sexual culture in the US is that a lot of women want to have work lives. You see them as greedy? The career women I know want to have a chance to use their brains in productive enterprises. Saying that its greed that puts women in the workplace doesn't quite square with my sense of the collective motivation.

Your response to my statements are so good that I have to quote them to properly reply.

First of all, I am chastised; the words I wrote weren't adequately put to express my thoughts.



Nothing baffling about it really. The U.S. culture of acquisition has made women feel inferior if they don't earn. What you portray as positive motivating forces, I see as social and financial blackmail.

Why do you suppose the sexual culture is so much more "sane?" Is it perhaps that ticas still treasure the traditional role of mother and do not feel as compelled to work as their North American counterparts? Or is this sexual sanity born of dietary differences?
Or, are you daring enough to risk being labeled racist and say that it's based in ethnicity.?

Gringas work because they have to do so. The lack of northern sexuality is pretty simple to understand, even for me. She works, she's also trying to be a mom, and you want her to also have time to have sex? Well, that's the excuse I hear most often from sexless gringas.... "I have no desire/energy/time for sex. I work two jobs, have to take the K*ds to the Mall to buy the designer clothes they need (so they won't get beaten up at school for wearing the 'wrong' clothes), then I have to...." You get the idea.

You say, "Both partners need to work to make it" and I will reply, "Why?" So rotten little Billy can have a $250.00 Ipod? Maybe it's this "market unfriendliness" you ascribe to the C.R. government that has helped keep the attitudes toward sex more "sane" in Costa Rica.

Or maybe I'm completely full of mierda.

Okay, let's not call it "greed." My bad. Shall we call it "follhardy and wasteful acquisitivness" or simply, "life out of balance."

_________________
Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

It is cetainly my intention to live in San Jose as soon as; my K*ds get out of college I get a very good price to sell my business and house I plan to rent for the first year My blood pressure has risen from 120/80 the last 2 years to 140/100 so I could use a slower change of pace but mainly the chicas are the main reason also I live to live as cheap as possible