Anyone else living in Costa Rica?

@shindig, yeah man love fishing and always catch some nice dorado's which make for great dinner... Caught 27 of them one time I was out. Sounds like a fun time camping around the country.

@evolution, Alex is right about Jaco. It's ok and it's developed, but I don't like it that much. Only pro is that it's only 1 hr from San Jose.

Tamarindo is a nice beach and developed quite well, lots of surfers there. Other places you can try is Playa del Coco / Papagayo, Quepos / Manuel Antonio. Some other places that are not so developed but lots of people are going there...

Playa Dominical, Playa Hermosa, Playa Esterillos, Playa Samara, etc... Might be fun to hit a few places to find what you like best.

Internet is good pretty much anywhere. Even in Mal Pais which is fairly detached from the world has 5 mb of interwebz via DSL. Also in most places you can use a datacard as long as you can get 3G service.

You can get a phone and just teather it if you want. Providers here are Claro, Movistar, ICE and a few other tiny companies.
 


I'm in Costa Rica! Thought I would be like the only guy in IM living here, I was born and raised here, let's meet guys!
 
Any of you guys in CR mind if I ping you for some questions later this summer? The wife and I had planned on making the move last year, but with the baby we put it off. The desire to move has come roaring back, so I'm starting to look at what is available in the couple of places we're considering.
 
SkyFire said:
Any of you guys in CR mind if I ping you for some questions later this summer? The wife and I had planned on making the move last year, but with the baby we put it off. The desire to move has come roaring back, so I'm starting to look at what is available in the couple of places we're considering.
Click to expand...

Add me on skype. Fire away.
 
So not to shit on anyones home too much, but I spent a couple of months there last year. I had some fun, but was overall disappointed with the place. It had been hyped up too much. Out of my 3+ years of continuous travel, it's one of my least favorite places.

- Not overly pretty. It was dry season, so it resembled the innards of Texas.
- The locals were friendly, but couldn't be trusted one single bit. Theft is huge. They even say it about each other, not just a "stealing from tourists" thing.
- Bad food.
- Terrible road infrastructure. Going anywhere sucks.
- Expensive in comparison. I'm not a peasant, but if I'm paying premiums I expect good shit.
- Local girls are not hot. They all get American-fat.

The Good:
- If you're a total surf noob like myself, it was a great place to learn in Tamarindo.
- Freshly caught Tuna is super cheap.
- Plenty of tourist girls coming through for quick fun.
- Good coffee
- There is a budding organic movement. The food quality is probably going up quickly.
- The local Spanish is easy to understand. No weird accents.
 
evolutionvision said:
So not to shit on anyones home too much, but I spent a couple of months there last year. I had some fun, but was overall disappointed with the place. It had been hyped up too much. Out of my 3+ years of continuous travel, it's one of my least favorite places.

- Not overly pretty. It was dry season, so it resembled the innards of Texas.
- The locals were friendly, but couldn't be trusted one single bit. Theft is huge. They even say it about each other, not just a "stealing from tourists" thing.
- Bad food.
- Terrible road infrastructure. Going anywhere sucks.
- Expensive in comparison. I'm not a peasant, but if I'm paying premiums I expect good shit.
- Local girls are not hot. They all get American-fat.

The Good:
- If you're a total surf noob like myself, it was a great place to learn in Tamarindo.
- Freshly caught Tuna is super cheap.
- Plenty of tourist girls coming through for quick fun.
- Good coffee
- There is a budding organic movement. The food quality is probably going up quickly.
- The local Spanish is easy to understand. No weird accents.
Click to expand...

A lot of truth to the above. It's very expensive here. Some things are ridiculously overpriced. But I'm also from Vancouver, so I'm used to it.

It's also safe. There are no guerrillas, no cartels, no kidnappings or things like that to be worried about. Crime on tourists is quite low, and the people are generally happy (although they may not all love that we're here).

There are of course places you'll want to avoid (or visit, if that's your thing)... places like Jaco and Tamarindo tend to attract a lot of drugs and hookers and thus you can find some shadier people so they aren't the nicest towns to visit. I like the smaller towns, up and down the coast.

The country itself, is gorgeous there is a lot of cool shit here. There's a ton of different plants/greenery, beaches (300+), volcanoes, mountains, hot springs, flowers, wildlife, fruits, vegetables, etc. You have the Caribbean and the Pacific ocean just 4 hours from each other. I'm guessing you were here in the summer, and likely in Guanacaste which can be very dry and hot. If you want green, you need to head south. One of my favorite things about this place is you can get in your car, and drive just 1-2 hours and enjoy a completely different climate.

So once you weigh the good and the bad, at least for me, its a good place to be. I also speak fluent Spanish (But I'm not Latin), so it was a lot more appealing to me to move to a Latin country, rather than somewhere in say, Asia.
 
BUMP

I changed my mind about CR and thinking of heading down there with my gf for the month of March to see what it's like.

What's the best place to look for temporary furnished homes for 1 month? Craigslist and Airbnb don't have much and seem overpriced. Is this a good site? What's the best area to go if I want to be near the beach and have high speed Internet? Jaco has a bad name apparently, so perhaps Quepos? Or somewhere in Puntarenas?

Any tips appreciated
 
avatar33 said:
BUMP

I changed my mind about CR and thinking of heading down there with my gf for the month of March to see what it's like.

What's the best place to look for temporary furnished homes for 1 month? Craigslist and Airbnb don't have much and seem overpriced. Is this a good site? What's the best area to go if I want to be near the beach and have high speed Internet? Jaco has a bad name apparently, so perhaps Quepos? Or somewhere in Puntarenas?

Any tips appreciated
Click to expand...

*I realized I totally missed your question. If you are looking for a spot let me know. A friend has a real estate company there and they may be able to help find you something.

Depends on what you like. What are some of your interest besides pummeling the new sloobs on WF with knowledge?

Here/aqui is a couple depending on what you like.
- "Avatar" like setting > Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve
- Girls > Jaco
- Guys > private internet cafe in Costa Rica http://wickedfire.com
- Carribean > East side
- Rain Forrest > Osa Peninsula
- Volcanoes > Chirripo or Arenal
- Spirituality > PM me
- Beaches > There is a ton and you can drive along the coast and find spots you like along the way.

Hope that helps.
Pura Vida!
 
Check out VRBO, I always have the best luck with them. Also for rent by owner or whatever it is called. Google it. Those are the two where I tend to find deals.

AirBNB for CR... few people down here know it and that creates a negative supply and demand situation for you as a renter.

Also, people here are wildly optimistic. And you can tell from their pricing. Prices can go WAY down if you haggle. All you need is a few replies so you can bid them off each other.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back