Pothole to Remember

Costa Rica is famous for its terrible roads and while the roads in and around San Jose are certainly not great, the real problems are on the coasts.

However, there IS humor in almost everything, and anyone who has had the pleasure of dealing with the thoughtful and always courteous taxistas in San Jose may well feel an upswell of emotion in this photo!

Photo copyright La Nacion

Visit the new Real Costa Rica

I am not sure what on earth possessed me to do an entire re-write of The Real Costa Rica, but I did and it is now online for your viewing pleasure or displeasure. The most obvious thing you will notice is the new color scheme and menu system. There are also a lot of new pages, new pictures, about 500 new links… ugh. I still have to install the new search engine though the olde one seems to be working perfectly. Go figure!

Thanks to those who tested the site. Reading the same old pages for errors is booooring, but you really helped!

Anyway… here it is: The REAL Costa Rica

Enjoy!

Residency Scams

Just like real estate reps, anyone can hang out their shingle and say they are residency experts. Now come the scams as the number of persons coming to Costa Rica increases. Immigration officials, tired of the recurring problem, have filed complaints with the prosecutor’s offices specifying cases where expats who live in Costa Rica have been swindled.

One U.S. expatriate was jailed for a brief time when Immigration inspectors discovered that his documents were forgeries. The guy said he had paid a man he thought was a lawyer to obtain residency for him several years ago. He has filed his case and was awaiting a decision by Sala IV (the Costa Rica constitutional court) to determine if he would be allowed to remain in the country.

As I have warned many, do NOT shop for the best deal in residency. It is a silly as shopping for discount brain surgery. Use well known and well established residency experts and check out the local users groups for information before you spend a dime.

The Bri Bri