Tiny Grass

There are tons of websites that show Costa Rica to be an absolute paradise. Gorgeous weather, beautiful land and prices that make you think you can live for a king on a pauper’s budget. They’re not wrong, but they’re not telling the whole story either. It’s not something you want to jump into with your eyes closed. There have been plenty of people who loved it, went down and decided to leave. I’m not ruling out that possibility for us, but we’ll never know unless we try. There are some realities to face, and knowing is half the battle. Here are 5 reasons why moving to Costa Rica may not be the best idea.

1. Crime

Those bars on the windows all over the place are there for a reason. Petty crime is not uncommon. Violent crime is less common, though there have been plenty of home invasions in wealthier neighborhoods. Tourists are targets - we knew that going down. I’d read about ladrones (robbers) poking a hole in a rental car tire, following the car and then ‘helping’ when the car stopped with a flat. The help usually involved grabbing stuff from the trunk & running.

When I first noticed the bars I was turned off, thinking of the spoiled views. Then I remembered that all the windows in India have bars too, and it didn’t bother me there. The average Costa Rican family makes about $500 a month. I’m not surprised that gringos living in expensive houses would be targets. Or gringos in general, especially when it seems that many live on way more than $500/mo.

2. Cost of living

I know - I mentioned this as a positive in my 5 good reasons post, but it’s worth heeding. It’s not hard to spend as much or more than you do in the US to live. Living in a popular gringo area will be more expensive. I’ve contacted lots of different people and gotten as many different answers on budgeting. From $1200 to $2000 to $4000 a month. Personally, I don’t see a point to moving to Central America to spend $4000 a month on household expenses. There are cheaper places elsewhere, including the US.

When we started the trip, I thought $750/mo in rent was doable, but that was a expat state of mind. We talked to enough people (peeps who have lived there for years) to realize that looking for something in the $200-400 range is a better idea. We paid attention to all the houses we saw, and the simple cinderblock Tico houses are good enough for us. Rent will be the biggest single monthly expense, but finding good value (see #3) can be tough.

Food is something else that can add up. To really save money, avoid prepackaged foods and go to ferias (farmer’s markets) for fresh and well-priced food. If you’re not into whole foods, the cost of food can be much, much higher. Some expat families there spend as much on food as I do for my mortgage. And prices have been rising steadily for a couple of years.

3. Real estate follies

When I first started researching it, I easily found all the good things about Costa Rica. Weather? Check. Wildlife? Check. Friendly peeps? Check. Really nice houses for good prices? Check. I joined a good Yahoo group and read up as much as possible. About a year later - the first hint that things may not be what they seemed was that many of the houses I’d seen at first were still on the market. Some of the houses are still on the market.

A lot of the Costa Rica websites are run by people involved in the real estate industry (which is practically everyone, since no licensing is required), and they are keen to paint the rosiest picture possible. I find tons of houses that cost the same as mine here in the US and that are much bigger and nicer.

But there are For Sale signs literally everywhere. With no MLS, it’s hard to compare. I think many people have For Sale signs in case some sucka tourist makes an offer they can’t refuse. But if you can’t sell the house for the same price, it’s not worth the money.

The other day I saw an international home shopping show where a guy who’d never been to Costa Rica went down, spent a week and bought a house for about $300k. That is just plain dumb. But that doesn’t mean that good deals don’t exist, but you need to get involved in a community and get to know people before getting a lucky break like so-and-so has an uncle who wants to sell their farm for $20k. More than likely, you’ll need to speak Spanish well for that to happen.

4. Culture shock

It takes 2-3 years to get settled into a new home, neighborhood and area. It took us about 2 1/2 years after we bought our house (clarification: our house in the US). And that’s in a place where we knew the language and were totally familiar with the customs and how to do everything. This is probably the biggest issue facing an expat - culture shock. Things aren’t just done differently - they’re often just plain different. And your social & emotional circle will not be there.

People aren’t kidding when they say things are done slowly. I can’t say that I really experienced this yet, so I don’t know how I’ll respond. Our motto for the trip was go with the flow, and we were pleasantly surprised whenever taxi drivers showed up on time. That’s not the same as trying to deal with a bureacracy.

Then there’s communicating with people everyday. I rarely met someone who wasn’t nice, and being able to pick up Spanish quickly helped a lot. Learning Spanish is key to understanding how things are done. I certainly haven’t faced the apparently common avoidance of conflict. You want something tomorrow? Sure, someone will reply tomorrow and not show up for days. Maybe weeks. It’s nothing personal, but I can see it really bothering some people.

5. Making a living

Tourists can’t work in Costa Rica. Neither can pensionados (retirees, who probably don’t want to work anyway). Neither can rentistas, which is a form of legal residency. A very expensive form, in fact - you need to deposit $60k into a bank to prove that you will have $1k/mo in income for 5 years. Thankfully kids are ‘only’ $30k each, so for us 4 it would be $180k (or $3k/mo - $1k each for Trish & me, $500 each for the kids).

If you have that kind of money, you should be ok with the income. If you don’t you have to try to make a living in a country where you are not allowed to work. You don’t want to get caught, as you’ll be deported for 10 years. So what do you do if you don’t have money to become a rentista? There is a residency type called inversionista (business investor), which requires investments ranging from $50-200k, and would allow you to work.

Tourist visas are granted for 90 day intervals. Every 90 days, you must leave Costa Rica for 72 hours and return. Some people have been doing it for years. Some people cross the border to Panama or Nicaragua, catch an immigration officer on a bad day and aren’t let back into the country. That would, in the immortal words of Beavis & Butthead, suck.

There’s apparently less chance of such entry problems by flying in & out of the country - but that also costs a lot more. There are, um, services that will get your visa stamp for a fee but would you trust someone with your passport? Someone involved in that service got killed while we were in Cahuita.

The aspect of making a living is probably the one thing that you can plan before heading down. Any business that can be run over the internet will work. But there may be additional expenses, like making visa runs. Or paying for residency.

Conclusion

Costa Rica has a lot things going for it, and a lot of things that need serious consideration. The best you can do is learn as much as you can, pay attention to the good AND the bad and be ready to really go with the flow. I think it can be as maddening as it can be rewarding. I probably won’t know if Costa Rica’s really for me until I get down there and experience it all for myself.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 7:02 am and is filed under reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.