Life in Costa Rica

 

Many years ago I decided that my lifestyle and employment were not conducive to having a big retirement portfolio so I had better try to learn to live on my social security income when the time came.  Well, this wouldn’t work in the US except in an Arkansas trailer park, and Clinton had already trashed those by dragging $50 bills through them, but this was also years before Clinton and I knew nothing of this, of course, so I started scouting locations outside the US.  For many years every scuba vacation I took was to a different island location for this purpose.  As time passed I realize my three top priorities were: 1) a mild climate, 2) lower cost of living than in the US, and 3) a conventional country with a constitution and rule of law.  Later I added the very important 4) no hurricanes, as well as 5) no crushing poverty.  These ruled out virtually all of the Caribbean, and Hawaii had ruled itself out with cost of living.  Costa Rica popped up almost as a miracle discovery, it was not even on my original lists.

 

We have now spent over 6 years living here, and next year we expect to apply for citizenship, our first year of eligibility.

 

Costa Rica is a nice place.  Some call it paradise, but I think we are short of virgins, myself.  Paradise it is not, some North Americans moving here have even called it hell, but it isn’t that, either.  Heaven and hell are your own creations, I think.

 

This is a country struggling to find its balance between the 3^rd world and the 1^st world, hampered as much by tradition as the Muslims are in their own way.  Ticos are great people, very friendly, very helpful.  And by our standards, very backwards.  I’ll probably get in trouble over that one, I suppose.

 

From our standpoint they have little concept of time…although, since tourism depends on keeping appointments with gringos, they are getting better.  Part of this is a translation problem…for instance, mañana does not necessarily mean ‘tomorrow’ but, rather, ‘another day’ sometime else…   When you learn that then you get along better.

 

From our standpoint they also don’t recognize garbage, for instance.  We had a gardener for a while and one of his main jobs was to pick up trash.  He could walk right by old pieces of lumber, bolts, a hunk of rope, a dropped paint-brush, a rusty nail…he didn’t see any of those as garbage.  The one trait that is getting to me now is that our maid hangs the hose over the rail on the upper deck, after using it, so it dangles down the side of the wall all day, all night, all morning.  Is this attractive to you, I ask?  Blank stares…what is this gringo trying to ask?  Is this a trick question?  The hose has a hanger to coil it on, doesn’t it?  Oh.  That.

 

Still, we love them.  Our helpers are like family.  To us, at least.

 

We closed down operations in California and moved to Costa Rica in early 2000.  My wife has been back to Texas for the death of her father, then her mother, and I went back to California for the death of my mother, after which I brought my father here.  He died just last month at age 96.  If good friends and family did not live there, California would have zero interest for me.

 

Last year we wound up ‘adopting’ a young boy who turned 3 on April 10 of this year.

 

So, let me see…who am I, again?

 

From time to time I will comment on interesting things that happen here because I know there is a lot of interest in Costa Rica.  If you have questions, feel free to ask them.