Costa Rica

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by chasmyn on March 17, 2009 at 4:06pm

I'm interested in all of that. I'm focusing my attention right now on vilcabamba, Ecuador, and Costa Rica is not a bad option, either. My questions would be: what about the wildlife? It is my understanding that CR abounds with monkeys and snakes, so what to do to avoid those? (My brother has a friend who owns an island there (really) and he went for NYE one year, and he said he had to be accompanied by a guide at night to walk between the main house and the bungalows because of the wildlife there.

Two: forgive my ignorance - their growing season is year-round, yes? I understand there is a rainy season - is that like the rainy season in Ecuador where there is still sun during the day in between the rain, or is it more like monsoon season?

Is land inexpensive? How easy is it to immigrate there? What are the rules about foreigners owning land there? How cheap is it to build there?

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by G Love on March 17, 2009 at 6:25pm

Hi - I am interested in the place in Ecuador too - I know Mike Adams pushes that place.
But I love Costa Rica.
The reason why I moved to Costa Rica is because it is politically very stable, has no army, a highly literate populace and it is a close, quick flight to the U.S., and it has a great health care system. Hopefully we won't need it much living healthily, but it is all close by. It is a small country and most places are within 4 hours of the capital.

Rainy season brings rains in the afternoons and it is sunny in the morning. During the worst month, it rains a lot,usually that is October.

Don't worry about animals. Every country has snakes - anywhere you live in nature will havesnakes; they are no worse here than anywhere else.

Monkeys don't hurt people, although the howler monkeys could wake you up in the morning with their noise. There are no big cats here either, except the very rare and endangered jaguar that steers far clear of people and lives in the very remote areas.

Building costs are not bad here, as the cost of labor is cheap, but, it is not the same reliability as labor in the U.S., and it can get frustrating dealing with local workers for those used to the North American culture. Foreign nationals can own land with no problem at all - probably the safest country to own land in all of Latin America; especially if you are living on the land!

Getting a residency is not too hard if you have cash to invest here. Otherwise, most people just leave the country for at least two nights every 90 days. People either fly back to the states or make a quick trip to Panama or Nicaragua.

Land prices vary on where you are, like everywhere else. Beach prices are high, but it is all coming down now. I would not want to live right on the beach anyway. I'd rather see the ocean from the mountains and be able to go down and visit the beach when I feel like it.

Feel free to ask any more questions!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by chasmyn on March 17, 2009 at 6:42pm

So where are you living now? Do you have land, or are you looking to acquire it jointly? Do you have some links with photos of where you are? The place I'm looking at, NOt the place Mike Adams is talking about, but a place he is writing an article on soon, gardenofparadise.com - a hectare is about $80K I think? How would that compare to Costa Rica?

What currency do they use? If it is not the Us dollar, how does it compare? I am in Canada so our money sucks in comparison to Us right now :-)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by G Love on March 23, 2009 at 10:49pm

Hi there Chasmyn.
I live in the suburbs of San Jose, the capital, now, Gardenofparadise.com did not produce any websites, is it still coming? Adams just came out with a health retreat down there, did you see his promo video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ1VEeoLlUg

It sounds similar price-wise to Costa Rica, the 80K per hectare. Prices vary measurably due to location, altitude, views, etc. You can get some hectares for $7K in the lowlands on the Caribbean slope.

In Costa Rica we are on the Colon. It floats with the U.S. currency, but seems to gradually keep going down against the dollar. Most people accept dollars too here. Don't worry, the dollar finally has ended its bull market, in my opinion, and will devalue rapidly within the year. Canada might be sucked down a bit with it too from what I hear.

What I like about Costa Rica is how easy it is to get to from North America. You don't need to take 2 flights once you are in the country either (although you can) like in Ecuador. But I am sure that valley in Ecuador is incredible and according to Adams, the rain may be less than here during rainy season, which lasts here from around May to December.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by chasmyn on March 25, 2009 at 6:26pm

Oh! You're right, I posted the wrong link. It's here:

http://www.gardenofparadise.net/Garden_of_Paradise.html

Sorry about that.

Wow, that sounds wonderful - especially the part about being closer to NA. I do NOT like to fly, and we do have relatives in NA, so we'd be going there at LEAST once a year. The flights seem daunting to me.

I think you're right - Canada always keeps its dollar lower than the Us intentionally, and right now it is at an all-time low from what I understand. We are already being slightly affected by stuff in the US, and I am guessing will continue to be.

Perhaps I'll do some more research on Costa Rica - any thoughts on where to start? I do know there are some ecovillages there already - www.ic.org

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by G Love on March 31, 2009 at 8:11pm

Check out my friend Kelly's new site on Intentional Communities:

http://icccr.wordpress.com/

also, she created a yahoo group
Here are the details on icccr_community_board:

Group home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/icccr_community_board
Group email address: icccr_community_board@yahoogroups.com

In the future, she will post highlights, useful information, tips, tools, events, etc. on the ICCCR blog (http://icccr.wordpress.com/) and eventually the website.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by chasmyn on March 31, 2009 at 9:32pm

I subscribed to her blog, it looks fantastic!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by sara sara on October 28, 2009 at 4:12am

lol.....hawai'i has no snakes.........none.......pretty awesome, huh!??

thanks for all of your information.......love and space to you!

Xo

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Troy Santos on August 25, 2009 at 6:56am

I'm interested. What do you want from people who are interested in going there to live? I mean long long term. Tell me more please. Thanks much, Troy Santos.

▶ Reply to This