By: della dempsey

della dempsey — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:26:42 +0000

A dear friend of mine visited the ‘resort circuit’ as a gift, with her son and daughter in law, in Dec.
She fell in love, and wants to live in Costa Rica.
I agreed to go on a ‘real Costa Rica’ trip.
We made no overnight plans, just picked up a reserved 4X4 SUV, and headed out from San Jose the 27th of March.
We had a map of the country, and there were a couple of places she wanted to look into moreso.
We visited Montezuma, Arenal, all around the Nicoya Peninsula – usually seeking out a ‘cabinos’ for the night. We went way into the hills, down to the water, up and down, here and there, and had a grand time.
What an adventure we had. we are two seniors, and neither of us speak any Spanish to any extent but we did try to speak Spanish, and those we tried to communicate with,tried to understand, and the money part was pretty easy, because mostly they wanted ‘dollar’ amounts.
Pharmacias, bancos, the name of our destination we were trying to get to – all worked out fine – the people were wonderful, friendly and kind, we exchanged names, were shown private back yards beyond their little artsy front shed, and we saw native birds in gardens, glorious foliage, the family members, it was just wonderful, personal connection. We noted your information on the blog,
We did pay attention to your notes to take our things in with us, nothing was left in the SUV overnight, and in San Jose, we had a hotel that let us put our vehicle in their ‘basement’!!! overnight, the employees being very friendly and willing to share their knowledge, and learn from us,
and we just had he adventure of a lifetime, with only good news to report to you.
Natives were surprised, happy, and helpful to see two older women travelling by ourselves.
It really helped my friend to see the reality of Costa Rica, and she is still wanting to move there, but there are no rose colored glasses now. She will probably rent, and not buy, as property seems so inflated right now, and we paid attention to you there, as well.
The places we happened upon were clean, very reasonable, and the owners very accomodating.
I did most of the driving, and the roads were something else. I would not live there dealing with the lack of roads paved, I don’t think my back would survive in the long run – ruts and more ruts, the almost straight up the hills and mountains, and almost straight down, and the blind turns and narrowness of the – what I would call, ‘trails’ not really roads – but it was the best adventure I have ever been on. It was great to prepare with your help, and so thanks so much. Della

By: Costa-Rica » Costa Rica Inches Closer to CAFTA

Costa-Rica » Costa Rica Inches Closer to CAFTA — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:14:38 +0000

[...] Learning SpanishPlanning to move to Costa Rica to live, retire or work? Regardless of how well traveled you are, culture shock almost assuredly will be a big factor in how much you and your family will enjoy living in a foreign country and whether you … [...]

By: Learning Spanish makes your move to Costa Rica much easier

Learning Spanish makes your move to Costa Rica much easier — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:15:33 +0000

[...] just read a post over on The Real Costa Rica Blog that talks about learning Spanish before moving to Costa Rica. They noted a few stats that [...]

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By: della dempsey

By: Costa-Rica » Costa Rica Inches Closer to CAFTA

By: Learning Spanish makes your move to Costa Rica much easier