by guestblogger Ticonuevo

Once you are committed to moving to Costa Rica, there is a huge amount of information to read and absorb. So, my advice again: be detailed, be methodical (even if it’s hard for you to do). I can’t emphasize strongly enough how important and helpful it proved to be to have built a database of Costa Rican resources, research and contacts.

Your vacation visit(s) will give you a snapshot of Costa Rica. Just remember you’re seeing the country in its most-perfect light, as a tourist. It’s different than actually living in Costa Rica day after day and dealing with the mundane issues of daily life and the bureaucracy. Your research will help to fill in the blanks and demystify Costa Rica. So, it’s very important to build contacts, read (discriminatingly) and record and file the details you collect from your visit and online.  

by guest blogger TicoNuevo

Here’s something to think about: a significant number of all of the expats attempting to settle in Costa Rica return home within one year. I have some ideas about why this happens, and how to avoid becoming a statistic. I’ll discuss the most prominent reasons for failure here.

A big reason influencing an early departure, I think, is a lack of preparation before potential expats arrive. Changing your country of residence requires an enormous, well-coordinated effort—lots of pre-planning. Unless you have changed countries of residence before, you have no concept of the volume and benefit of pre-planning your move.

by Ivo Henfling

In the beginning of the 80’s, I heard this great story that helped me understand the mindset of the Costaricans and adjust better to the culture and the way of life in Costa Rica. I was curious if I could find the original writer of this story on Google. I found a certain Mark Albion who claims to have written the story that he calls “The businessman and the fisherman” in 1999. His story is a North American version to the tropical version that I heard in the 80’s.  

I also found a reference to a short story written by Heinrich Böll in 1963 with the title “Anecdote concerning the Lowering of Productivity”. Heinrich Böll, I’m sure, has never been on a beach in Costa Rica but he understood the tropics as well as George Orwell knew in 1949 how the world would look like after 1984. I’d like to share this great story with you and give you another reason to move to Costa Rica soon.

by Ivo Henfling

Thanks to Liz & Tony, I got to know the best Asian restaurant in Escazu - Costa Rica, right across the street from where I live……..yes, it was right there and I didn’t see it. They say “see further than the end of your nose” and I have a big nose. The name of the restaurant is Banzai, a traditional Japanese exclamation meaning "ten thousand years". I hope they will be there at least as long as I live.

Their Sushi is bigger than it is anywhere else and the best Nigiri, Sashimi and Maki. Unlike most Sushi places, their Japanese food is also out of this world and at incredible prices. If you are a fan of Asian food, you really need to visit Banzai and be attended by owners Cassius and William and their staff. Cassius takes care of the Oriental cooking like Indonesian, Japanese, Thai, Malaysian and Vietnamese, and William does the Sushi.

by Ivo Henfling

In the last couple of weeks we had some new culinary experiences and I’d like to share one of these with you. Every time we go for lunch or dinner somewhere I am surprised how well the local economy seems to do because every restaurant we go to is packed when we are there. I must admit, I am writing only about the restaurants where the food as well as the service is outstanding. If not, why even write a blog about it.

To my opinion, the huge choice of restaurants in Escazu is one of the benefits of living in Escazu and surrounding areas. If you have traveled a lot, for sure you will enjoy the options for wining and dining you have in Escazu and Santa Ana, as well as great burgers & pizza. This time I'd like to take you to Asia.

By Ivo Henfling

Imagine never having to clean your house again, or having to do the laundry and ironing shirts and pants. Cleaning the windows, do the yard and clean your pool. You’ll be able to finally sit down on your terrace with a good book, or just have a rum ‘n coke and enjoy the views. You got it right, you have just arrived to Costa Rica.

The cost of living in Costa Rica has gone up but hiring a maid, gardener or caretaker is still very affordable. Being able to afford a full time maid or housekeeper to take care of your home is one of the main attractions of living in Costa Rica. While in New York you might have to pay $75 a day for a housekeeper, in Costa Rica you can have a full time maid for under $15/day.

By Claude Dugas in Atenas

I was born in Quebec, Canada and I lived there for more than fifty years. I knew from a previous winter spent in Amazonia of Peru that living in a warmer environment could contain its charms. Indeed, I have been suffering from the winter cold ever since.

So by the end of January 1993, I decided to come to visit Costa Rica to look at the possibility of making it my place of living.

I drove through USA and Central America and had the chance to live many adventures that could be the set for some very long and interesting blogs by itself. I still could speak some Spanish that I had so easily learnt in Peru so many years before.

by Shell Johanson

I would like to tell you all about this incredibly beautiful older home I just listed right on the Cariari golf course. This 6,600 square feet Spanish colonial was one of the first homes built in Cariari and has been continiously updated.

This almost 1/2 an acre property overlooks the length of the 8th fairway and its green and also the tee-off at the ninth hole of the Cariari Golf and Country Club. Very few Cariari homes for sale offer this kind of luxury setting.

The home is one of the finest golf properties availables in Costa Rica and offers five bedrooms and 4 bedrooms on the 2nd floor, all spaciously set up for the luxury lifestyle you are looking for, plus a second floor patio with a gorgeous veranda overlooking the golf course.

By Ivo Henfling

To a lot of people I know, Costa Rica is hell, they tell me all the time: Hell, its beautiful here - hell, the food is great here - hell, the women are beautiful here - hell, I’m having a great time, Costa Rica is paradise.

Young people and senior citizens alike come here on vacation and are sold to the country; they come back again and again until they take the big step: moving to Costa Rica. People from all over the world retire in Costa Rica, some love it here and some don't find that happy life they expect to find. But if you do all the right things, your chances to succeed are much better than if you start off with the wrong foot.

The wrong foot is where the disaster startes and 8 GoDutch Realty agents, all ex-pats who have made Costa Rica their paradise, are there to help you. To give you the Ultimate Costa Rica Real Estate Experience, for FREE, at no cost. Is Costa Rica paradise or hell? Find out in this blog how to make it paradise.

by Ivo Henfling

Who would not want to retire in the country where the happiest people on earth live? Costa Rica scores for the 2nd consecutive year # 1 on the Happy Planet Index with a score of 64 points of 151 countries analyzed. Costa Rica's HPI score indicates high life expectancy and high level of experienced well-being.

What is the Happy Planet?

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is the leading global benchmark for sustainable well-being.
The HPI measures what matters: the extent to which countries long, happy and sustainable life for the people deliver.

By Ivo Henfling

It is all in a lifestyle. I was reading on Glozal, a social network for realtors worldwide, an article about active Adult (55+) communities, which reminded me of several clients who moved to Costa Rica in the past. After some years, they thought they would be better off retiring to a real retirement community in Florida, where thousands of people retire to every month. Some of them never come back to Costa Rica but the adventurous ones realize that they made a big mistake by moving to Florida to retire and eventually end up in Costa Rica again. Let me tell you why.

Most of us, during our lives and our career, have acquired a lifestyle. Some love to read a good book or enjoy a nice glass of wine, others cannot live without concerts and theater and other just like to read a good book or live a different adventure every day. And that is what my blog is all about today.

By Ivo Henfling
 

In my first years of living in Costa Rica, I was always surprised that Costa Ricans have an amazing quality that most of us don’t have: patience. Over the years, I have learned there is more freedom of speech in Costa rica than in many other countries.

Costa Ricans have a huge quality that most of us foreigners don’t have. They can stand in line at the bank in Costa Rica for hours, no matter how long it takes or how bad the service is, they can stand stoically in line forever. I don’t know if it’s my Dutch up bring or that I am just an impatient person, but I generally cannot put up with it longer than 10 minutes. My wife does most such things that need standing in line. She is Costa Rican though she seems to starts complaining too. Even my 24 year old son is getting impatient. Impatience seems to be contagious. But if we get to change those things, everything would be just like we were back home again. It’s all about balance, and that is what we look for when relocating to another country.

By Ivo Henfling

Most Costa Rica realtors are afraid to write about topics like home invasions, robberies, squatters, expensive prices in the supermarkets and many other negative things you will read and hear about Costa Rica and most other places you might be researching to retire to. Most of you who follow my blogs, know by now that I am not. I just think people should be aware of what is going on around them and it will make them be a tad more careful.

The shooting neighbor

To start this blog, I want to call your attention to something that happened a couple of weeks ago: a good neighbor heard some noise ourside, found out his neighbors were being robbed and shot one home invaders dead, wounded another and saved his neighbors. Oh my God, I hear some of you say, how can anyone live there? Is it that dangerous to live over there? Where is this place?

By Ivo Henfling

Fantastic ideas and lots of dreams, they might all come true one day.

A very dear client, who years ago had planned an assisted living facility in Costa Rica, sent me a link that gave the recently released Cost of Care survey from Genworth Financial looked at the average prices of home care providers, adult day health care facilities, assisted living facilities and nursing homes across the USA, and unsurprisingly, found that there are staggering variations between states but all very expensive to Costa Rican standards.

Years ago, my client bought with his wife and several partners, a beautiful 300+ acre farm in the middle of nowhere from their preferred GoDutch Realty agent, with the fantastic idea of starting an assisted living facility on this land. Costa Rican governmental permitting and other circumstances slowed down their project and even before they got to completing it, their panorama changed completely.

By Ivo Henfling

When you move to a new country or a new city, you tend to look for somebody or something that feels comfortable, feels safe and helpful in your new environment. Everything is new and even though you welcome the adventure, you like the security of what is known as the Human Thermal Environment.

By Ivo Henfling

Find out if Atenas or Escazu - Santa Ana is the lifestyle you are looking for. I have lived in Escazu and Santa Ana for most of my life in Costa Rica, which 30 years ago were small towns and most of us did their shopping in San Jose. There were no malls and no traffic at the time and life in Costa Rica was a lot easier back then, you didn’t need much to live well here.

Growth of Escazu in the 90’s and of Santa Ana in the year 2,000, have turned both into one big city almost, not much different from any small city in the US. Before that, most of the well to do Ticos and foreigners were used to travel at least once or twice a year to Miami. Some would even keep an apartment on or around Biscayne Bay for those shopping trips or those visits to the doctor.

By Rudy Matthews

I thought it interesting that we sometimes feel everything that happens here in Costa Rica is projected toward us because we are Americans or tourist. Anyone that has traveled to other parts of the world knows that there are going to be those who try to "get over" on you because you do not know exactly what the norm is in their country. Costa Rica does not have the monopoly on this even though we are taken advantage of at times. I know I have been charged more here but the bill is still less than in the states so I feel it equals out that I am in a country with a high level of poverty and the plumber did not charge me $75 just to drive up.

The plumber charged me what I paid in the states years ago. I have found Ticos first give you a price which is their wish price - you can negotiate in most cases. I recently bought furniture at Artistica and they came down two times to a price I thought was fair. I always give a little extra here and find that when I call that person again or visit that restaurant - I am remembered.

By Ivo Henfling

Few Costa Rica golf communities in Costa Rica can boast the option of such a complete amenity in their community. Ciudad Cariari and Los Arcos, two small communities located just off the highway between the International airport Juan Santa Maria and San Jose, and very close to Belen, offer great homes for sale for those who like the quiet of the suburbs and the services of the city.

Ciudad Cariari and Los Arcos, both master planned subdivisions and very secure communities, where created by visionary developers in the 1970’s offer beautiful boulevards with trees and green areas everywhere. Both communities border the Cariari golf course and club so when you live in Cariari or in Los Arcos, you can walk to the club.

By Ivo Henfling

Everyone is talking about how much tourism got hurt with the 2009 - 2011 world crisis. Surprise! Costa Rica does not seem to have any problems as San José shows empty and everyone seems to be at the beach. During most of Easter week, San Jose is like a ghost town.

This means there is still money in Costa Rica, unless everyone is using his credit-card. Dany and I used to go to our apartment in Jaco Beach during holidays like this, but since real estate developers Joshua and Jerry ten Brink of Desarrollos Naturales got slam dunked by the banks, we have not been able to use our apartment for exactly one year now.

By Ivo Henfling

Great service, delicious food and easy to find location

When you plan to do your Multiplaza or Pricemart shopping around lunchtime, you need to take the time to stop by Sole Mío, an Italian Restaurant located 500 meters south of Multi Plaza in Escazu (that means going toward the Paco, or my office).

Dany, my wife went several times with her group of girlfriends, so I asked her to invite me the other day and she did.....