On occasion though, I get a comment that really frosts my Twinkie.  This happened last night and I responded… but then I stewed about it all night!  The comment and my reply appear below.  I guess what really bothers me is that I spent a huge amount of time writing The REAL Costa Rica and then more time keeping things current both there and here on this Blog. I then get an email from someone who implies that I whitewash Costa Rica.  I know, of course that there are people who do not agree either with my opinion or my rather blunt style of writing.  Others love it as they really want to KNOW about this country, and they are concerned (rightfully) that they are not getting the facts from other sites that really do nothing but promote Costa Rica. I love living here but as I have written about 20 zillon times, this country is not for everyone. It is right for ME, but only you can decide if it is right for YOU.  Anyway, if you wanna listen to me rant a bit, read on. Her quote is exact.  No corrections or changes.

I have been in Cosata Rica now for almost 4 months..you web page very general and not realistic. I sat in room with 9 other people with similar crime experiences. Yes, CR was a nice place to visit and live once…but not any more. Since you like so much would you like to buy a house…we are selling and looking for a safer place to live.

Dear Person Commenting:

It is pretty clear that you did not spend much time at ALL reading the web site or this associated Blog.

Had you done so, you would have discovered that I cover the crime issue here VERY thoroughly and pull no punches.  I also publish nearly all crime related comments even though I am pretty sure that quite a few of them are fictional as those crimes never seem to be verifiable.

Further, you would also have read that I would NEVER buy property in Costa Rica whether there was crime or NO crime.

In fact, I tell people time and again to live here for at least a YEAR before even considering the purchase of property.

Nobody has ever made a good case to me for buying here at all, especially if you are over age 55 or so.  Younger people, maybe… but older folks?  There is no financial or logical reason to buy here when rents are dirt cheap and your money is safe and available. I can relate at least fifty stories of people saddled with unsellable property because they bought too soon and paid too much.

Had you spent ANY time reading the web site and/or the Blog BEFORE you arrived 4 months ago, you would not have to worry NOW about selling property you should not have bought in the first place!

I am truly sorry you are not happy here, but as I also state CLEARLY; over 50% of those who move here return home within a year and I urge people to do NOTHING here that cannot be “undone” with 6 phone calls or less.  I also can promise you that all the real estate will not be gone in a year, regardless of what some realtors tell you.

While I am sorry you are not happy, I am not at all sympathetic as it is clear you either came here totally unprepared OR you read all my warnings and chose to ignore them..  Either way… good luck.

To those of you thinking about moving here, by all means come and enjoy Costa Rica, but please read more than how wonderful is the weather here or how nice are the Ticos. This is a foreign country with different laws, traditions, cultures etc.

You will have no idea whatsoever if Costa Rica is for you until you have lived here at least 9 to 12 months, and that is regardless if you have lived in another foreign country. If you love it.. great!  Buy something.  Spend that money! Invest! Build a new life. Put down roots. Make Costa Rica your home!

But if after 9 to 12 months you discover Costa Rica is not right for you and you simply cannot live here for any reason, then just board a plane and return home with some great stories to tell, an adventure under your belt, and most important,  and NO financial loss.

Whether or not you are a supporter of the police, the one unassailable fact is that they represent just about the only line between you and a very nasty group of people who pay little attention to the law.  A complete lack of respect for law enforcement is a harbinger of anarchy.

When I arrived in Costa Rica, I rarely read or heard about violent attacks of any kind. There were some home invasions, but never if the home was occupied. Street crime was limited to pickpockets or street punks (chapulines) seldom armed with anything other than a knife and tough talk. Few or no gangs. Typical city crime.  Outside the cities, the crime rate was negligible.

Crime has changed here in Costa Rica. Now the street punks have guns just like in the USA. Assaults are more common. Home invasions occur whether the home is occupied or not. Costa Rica is reacting, hiring more police and if anything, I seem to have noticed a drop or at least a leveling off crimes here.

What has me troubled, though, is the ever increasing attacks on the police themselves… and worse, how the bad guys are seemingly getting away with it.  Just three days ago, a young (23 I think) police officer was shotgunned while making a check of a home. He survived… losing a lung. Another officer is in the same hospital after having been shot in the face.

I do not know any police officers here nor any agents of the OIJ, so I have no access to the hot skinny, but I am concerned that there is no news followup of the progress and activities and what they are doing to catch (avenge!) these shootings.  This could be just crummy reporting or perhaps the culture is different and the harming of a police officer simply is not a priority. I am hoping for the former!

My point is, the police and the government simply must make crimes against law enforcement a priority… even above crime to the populace. If they are not doing this, I believe the results will be disastrous for Costa Rica.

There are a huge number of Nicaraguans living here in Costa Rica. In fact, there are about eight times more Nicaraguans than North Americans.

There is some bad blood between the two countries dating back over 100 years, and while there have been no armed conflicts (thank God as we have no army here) there have been some wars of words about navigating the San Juan river that separates the two countries plus ongoing criticism of how Nicas are treated here. The was also the dog incident, since resolved in court and finding the police not at fault. Nicaragua claims that Costa Rica stole Guanacaste when they annexed it back in 1825.  Costa Ricans disagree, and if I have learned anything living here, it is to NOT even have an opinion oN this topic. It is, however, a thorn in the side of many Nicaraguans.

Some Nicas are here legally, but a fairly number are here without papers.  They arrive via passport, then like some North Americans… they never leave. Unlike some North Americans, they do not leave the country every ninety days to renew their visa (though this practice is not legal… it is still done by those scofflaws not willing or perhaps not having the money, income or respect for Costa Rica law) .

Many Ticos are not fond of the Nicaraguans and blame them for just about everything… from crime to bad weather.  I do not. My admittedly limited experience with Nicas in my home area and on some work projects has been very satisfactory.

While certainly those living in the slum areas (La Carpio for example) certainly commit their share of crime, their living conditions are awful and they do as most poor do in this world… anything to survive.

“I should like to see just how fast the Costa Rican economy would crumble if those undesirable Nicas should be deported from their low-income, blue collar jobs which most Costa Ricans think they’re too good for.”

He makes a good point.

You will have to search long and hard to find a Costa Rican housekeeper. It is the Nicaraguan women that clean the homes and raise the children of a whole lot of Ticos and foreign ex-pats living here. Many are not documented (here legally) and those who do make the effort to get documented (like Maritza, my housekeeper) have to jump through a LOT of hoops at immigration and put up with world class harassment when attempting to simply get their domestic work permit.  It can be done… Maritza did it.. but it is nasty hard. Why must it be so hard when someone wants to be legal?

These women often arrive in Costa Rica living their children behind.  Maritza makes one trip to Nicaragua each year around Christmas to visit her three girls, all under 15. I just cannot imagine how hard this must be, but with unemployment running over 40% (last I heard) in Nicaragua, she can earn a very decent living here.  Her salary, of course, is wired back to her kids twice each month. As she IS legal, she can cross the border without issue, and more important, she can return.

Many Niaraguan men come here with great skill in working concrete… something that is present in just about every new home and all office buildings in Costa Rica.  It is my opinion that Nicaraguans build, and have built,  Costa Rica.  I have had occasion to visit a pretty large number of building sites, and the workers are nearly all Nicaraguan.  Two homes were recently constructed near me and, being nosey, I supervised! I saw no goofing off, they showed up every day to work and the homes, now more than a year old, both look great.  OK, one doesn’t, but that is beause the architect had to have had a drinking problem.

As I write this, I am not sure what is my point.  Partly it is a response to EJ and an overdue validation of his comments, but more, it is to just try to focus my own thoughts as to just just why this tension goes on. It seems pointless… but then I think about Blacks, Whites and Latinos in the USA, and just think… oh, yeah… that!

I live here and I love this country so to write something bad just makes me very sad. Here again though, I must write about the crime that is causing serious issues in San Jose, the capital. Please note I am not writing about the whole country, just San Jose…  but for now, I must caution my readers to be very cautious if they must drive in San Jose, especially the downtown area.

The bad guys are winning.

To be clear, this post is about the theft of cars and the break-ins to cars left unattended. Especially violent thefts.  Those who travel via taxi, while certainly needing to be constantly alert, are not so affected.

In yesterday’s La Nacion, Costa Rica’s largest newspaper, there is an article about the breaking into and stealing of vehicles in San Jose. From January through November 2007, about 2,200 were stolen. That is one about every seven hours.

If you broaden the area to include the entire province of San Jose, 16 persons daily are victims, and many of those (786 according to the article) are subjected to violence. These figures include breaking windows and other crimes not directcted at the driver. While the actual numbers of these crimes is not increasing, the percentage of violent episodes is way up!

Now to me, this is just crazy. Costa Rica depends on tourism and not a few tourists like to visit the capital. The Teatro Nacional, Gold Museum and many other places are certainly worth a visit. Of course many tourists never visit San Jose, preferring the volcanoes, mountains and beaches, but still, the country just has to do something.

The Director of the Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ), Jorge Rojas, is seen at least weekly on local TV stating this is just getting out of control and begging for money to hire and train more officers. It appears to me that he is being studiously ignored by the government. If Costa Rica does not belly up and deal decisively with this problem, tourism will fall off and the cost then to add officers will be an even more serious problem.

One of the companies that I own deals with tourists and many times I must meet people at the airport. There are about 50 guys who work the airport, carrying luggage, helping visitors. This does not include the myriad of drivers looking to ferry folks to Jaco, Arenal, etc. I know them all. Everyone is complaining about how tourism is seemingly falling off. They blame the recent devaluation of the dollar, which is nonsense! Nobody is going to cancel a trip because of that. But I DO think that Costa Rica is gaining some international repute as a country where there exists violence. This (and really stupid things like requiring kids to have passports) is what I think is the real issue. The new tourist police force may be a step, but the crimes against Costa Ricans are at least as serious as those too make the news.

I sure hope someone high up (Don Oscar?) is listening as this needs to be addressed now.

I think the one police organization that receives the most respect is the Organism of Judicial Investigation (OIJ) and when spoken of locally is called the Oh EEE Hota.  They are sort of the FBI of Costa Rica, but with more powers and less silly limitations placed on their work.

They are certainly the most selective of all the police agencies and have a rather interesting criteria for accepting new recruits. Of every 100 applicants, only 10 make it. There are extensive psychological and physical tests that each must pass. They are also subject to an extensive background check that includes not only their behavior and records, but their life style and behavior within their own family. Automatically disqualified are those that show any signs of drinking problems, friendships present or past with anyone of ill repute, or any other behavior that shows lack of judgment.

Now couple that with the fact that the OIJ strongly prefers young people between 19-20 years old and you can see why this is a tough route. Hell, I did almost ALL my bad stuff at that age

OIJ Assistant Director Carlos Morera states it pretty clearly, “We prefer them young, approximately 19 to 20 years, we want them right out of the (high) school because this way we can begin forming (their behavior)”.  According to Morera, we sometimes recruit older people, but they just do not have the desire to make police work their vocation. “The problem is that some of them bring (bad) habits from other jobs. We want young boys, without prior job experience and of course, irreproachable conduct”, he said.

Now I am about 100% sure that some of you are saying things like: “How can they ask for ‘young boys’ or maybe how can they specify an age group. Well welcome to Costa Rica. Here, there are no rules as to advertising your needs. I have seen ads like, “Needed, receptionist, female 18-21, beautiful with excellent body”.  Different culture.  Deal with it.

About crime and enforcment here

People moving here from other countries and of course we who live here are justifiably concerned with crime in Costa Rica. Everyone speaks of the lack of police to prevent or investigate crime in Costa Rica.

What these people often seem to forget is the vast difference in the financial infrastructure. In the US, I had excellent police and fire services. Prompt response times. Ambulances equipped like mini hospitals.  I also paid over $8,000 per year in taxes.  Here, you pay almost nothing in taxes, so why be surprised that there not the same level of emergency services.

Remember when your daddy said something like, “You get what you pay for?”.  Well, he was right.

Crime here, it is getting worse and I have no problem saying so. It is certainly different than when I first stepped off the boat. Saying that though, the crime is pretty well confined to two areas: San Jose (the city), and areas where tourists congregate. It is NOT country wide.

This is true for the US as well. A small town in Iowa is NOT the same as life in LA.

Increasing also are the areas where North Americans tend to congregate… “Gringo Enclaves” such as Escazu or Santa Ana are reporting more and more crime.

I find this pretty amusing (the irony, not the crime) that Gringos moved there in the first place to be comfortable living with other Gringos. They perceive safety (in numbers) living behind those gated communities while not actually having to deal with the “natives”. They do not want to learn Spanish and have no desire to integrate into the Latin culture. That is fine and is their right!

This, however, lets the bad guys know where the (real or perceived) wealth is located and the most convenient locations for robbery and home invasions, the two most popular pastimes! They actually moved TO a targeted area!

The irony here is that those North Americans who do NOT live in the enclaves, but rather live in any of thousands of other areas NOT known for a Gringo population almost never report break-ins, robberies or for that matter ANY crime at all! In fact, in ALL the years I have lived here, not once have I heard of a crime committed against a North American family living in… oh say… San Isidro for example. Oh I am SURE there has been of course… I just never heard about it!

However, I know a ton of people who live in areas like San Ramon, Cuidad Colon, Grecia, Zarcero, Athenas and so on who NEVER have problems. Many never even lock their doors and still leave their car keys in the car!! A bonus! Their cost of living is a fraction of what it takes to live in an enclave!

The difference??

These folks came to Costa Rica for the reason they WANTED to integrate. They WANTED to learn the language and they see the far-older Latin culture as what it is… something special. As they can speak a bit of Spanish, they make (Tico) friends and those friends then watch out for each other!

My wife and I just had dinner last week with a couple (Barb and Wally) from Canada who bought a finca in Perez Zeledon. Ask THEM about crime. It does not exist for them except on TV and La Nacion.

So if there is an answer… or a lesson… examine why you are coming here and what are your intentions.

If you want to enjoy the expatriate lifestyle to the max by learning a foreign language… immersing yourself and your family in a wonderful culture, want little (or no) problem with crime, consider NOT hiding out. Rent or buy something in an area inhabited by Ticos. You will not be sorry.

However, if you want to rent or buy a home or condo in one of the enclaves, live in San Jose or in high crime tourist areas like Jaco or Tamarindo, well… you made the choice… now accept what goes with that choice. You will be at a far higher risk of crime.

or

It is also possible you just LIKE to live in the city! If so… learn to deal with the every day crime and violence exactly as you would if you lived IN Miami or Chicago.