As some of these were sent more than 5 weeks ago, I do appreciate your patience. I am just bombarded with email, especially now that readership in The REAL Costa Rica and this Blog is exceeding 63,000 new visits per month.

If this interests you, please read on.

Why have you stopped writing about the new traffic laws?

Because every few minutes the *&^(*^ government is changing their minds.  They have reduced many of the fines by as much as 66%.  The biggies have not changed (drunk driving, reckless driving, etc).  They have written a new law, but now there is pressure on the presidency to veto it! Despite the high fines, it appears the new (OK the old new laws of March 1) are quite popular.  Complicating all of this is that the transitos (traffic police) do not seem to be enforcing much of anything except the biggies. Basically, I just got tired or writing one thing only to have it change the next day.  Once the new new law has passed, I’ll probably update the info.

Car inspection was due by March 1. It did not pass. Repairs have been made; I have another appointment with riteve on March 26.
If I drive the car now and get stopped, can I be fined?  I have proof of the first inspection and upcoming one in the car.

Well here is a surprise!  It will depend entirely on the mood of the traffic officer who stops you.  He certainly can ticket you. Now whether he will???

What would be a good business to open in Costa Rica where I could hire local Costa Ricans to work it?  Retail or tourism would meet my needs.  Such as an inbound tour operator.  I am very experienced in this area.

There is probably no business more difficult to start here than anything connected with tourism. That includes hotels, B & B’s, travel agencies  or tours.  Marketing those businesses is nearly impossible without a huge advertising budget as there are only about 20,000 other companies here and in many other countries all competing for the Costa Rica tourist buck.  Good luck.

We’re on our way, driving!!!  Blake’s always wanted to do the PanAm highway thing, so we’re doing it.
…I’m planning on blogging our trip.  The link is here.   I’ve linked your website in several prominent places….thought you might be interested.      We’ll be in the San Jose area occasionally….hope to see you there.

I added this email so my readers who are interested can follow their adventure.  I get emails all the time about driving to Costa Rica via the Pan American Highway, so here is your chance to follow these folks!

For some reason there seems to be a problem with the website The REAL Costa Rica. When you hover over the links bar on the left (residency law, for example) it may or may not open the next drop-down box. But even if it does or doesn’t, you can’t access any other links without refreshing the page. I’m using IE8, and it has worked in the past. The only difference is that now I have Windows 7 instead of XP.

I actually have been receiving this question more and more since Vista and Windows 7 came out.

The issue is probably your PC.

VISTA and Windows 7 are memory hogs and really need a minimum of 512 MB of memory to work properly. One GB is preferred regardless of what Microsoft may tell you.  If you have less, you will experience these issues on many web sites using advanced scripting for menus.  In fact, your whole systems will operate slowly, especially if you have multiple programs/browser windows running.  If you do have sufficient memory, then the issue is very possible just that you are using an older PC running an old/slow microprocessor .

I read the article on gay and lesbian travel but what about interracial couples traveling in Costa Rica?  Is there an open prejudice in any area of the country?

Not really, at least none that I have ever heard of. In general, there is far less prejudice here of any type, though of course it may exist.  There are a lot of interracial couples living here and nobody seems to pay much attention. If anyone wants to comment on their personal experiences, please do so!

I am really a bit upset.  I wrote to you in January (copy attached) and just received a reply from (name withheld) yesterday! I suppose she is an employee?  That is 45 days.  If you cannot promptly answer people when they write to you, why do you even give that option?

Fair question!  When I first published the RCR web site, I received maybe 6-10 emails per month, and I answered all of them personally.

Then, about the time George Bush became president (maybe a year later), that number increased to about 10 per week and I answered all those emails personally.   W was none too popular!  Many of these people wanted to leave the USA and move to Costa Rica.

Then, just less than a year ago, the number of emails began to increase enormously with more and more people asking about getting out of the USA.  This was about six months after Obama became president.  It appears that he is far more unpopular than Bush ever was, and from the emails I receive, people are willing to do just about anything to just get away from the USA.  Very strange.  I guess things are very bad up there.

In any case, I am now receiving several hundred emails per week from all age groups and all political affiliations. Everyone seems to be scared of what is happening or what is coming and they want to get out of the USA ASAP.  Therefore, I have had to hire a person to reply to all those emails.  She just cannot handle the load and it can take weeks to get your reply. I am sorry that you had to wait, but the situation in the US seems to be just out of control.  NOTE: DO NOT make comments that I am anti Obama.  I am not… nor am I pro Obama.  I live here, and I do not have to deal with whatever is happening up there. I am just reporting a phenomena.

My wife and I are considering retirement in CR in a couple of years.  She is an excellent figurative sculptor, and would like to continue being creative.  She would like to sell her artwork on her own, or perhaps through a gallery, and may want to teach sculpting classes as well.

Artists are an exception to the work rule.  She can work her doing sculpting and sell her goods via a gallery.  As for teaching, I think not. There are many fine sculptors here so I am guessing that teaching would be questionably legal.  To be sure, check with Costa Rica immigration.

Remember though, she must have some form of legal residency in order to live here at all.

OK BLOG fans… that is it for today.  Thanks for being here.

As some of these were sent more than 5 weeks ago, I do appreciate your patience. I am just bombarded with email, especially now that readership in The REAL Costa Rica and this Blog is exceeding 60,000 visits per month.

If this interests you, please read on.

I made two comments recently to Posts on your Blog, yet neither is there.  Why?

I do not have many rules about people commenting. The few I have are:

1. You may not attack me or another person in a way that is rude, uses vulgar language, or is just over the top. That does not mean you cannot disagree with me or another person.  It just must be done in a polite manner. If I am wrong about something I posted here and you provide adequate proof (i.e not just your opinion), I will correct the original post, give you credit, and grovel.
2. The comment must have something to do with the Post upon which you are commenting. Commenting about how much you hate Obama in a Post that is about a recipe for Gallo Pinto is just dumb and I will not allow your comment.
3. No spamming. Any comment that even remotely smacks of promotion of a business or a web site totally irrelevant to Costa Rica will not be published. This includes links to any website that contains a virus, Trojan horse or any other malware that affects my readers.
4. Any comment that disseminates wrong information about Costa Rica. This may include the many “urban legends” floating around. For those, I normally respond via email to let you know your information is not correct.
5. Last… but maybe not least. Any comment that uses a false email address will not be published.

In your case, rule #2 was the issue for both of your comments.

We have a home in Costa Rica, and we are looking for the best book we can get on insects of costa rica with good pictures so we can key them when we find them.  Do you know of any such book.

Sadly, I have no bug books, so I cannot recommentd any.  However you will find what you are looking for by scrolling thrugh the books located in the Costa Rica Shop.

I’ve enjoyed your blog as a useful tool for some while now. Question,  have you heard of Cable Tica for internet? Any feedback would be  appreciated. We’re currently using a satellite service (know it’s illegal).

Yes, any satellite Internet service here IS illegal unless purchased from RACSA.  In my opinion, Cabletica is the best of all the Internet Service Providers, though to get Internet service,  you must order their cable service which not everybody wants or needs.

I will be moving in August to Ciudad Colon, just west of San Jose, to attend the United Nation’s University for Peace.  I will be bringing my 3 children (ages 9, 10, & 14) and am concerned about building codes in such an earthquake-prone area.  Is there something I should look for (like date of construction, specific building style) in an apartment building and in their schools?  I’m have a hard time finding anything online.

Building codes?  Building codes?  We don’t need no steenking building codes! Kidding, of course, but in reality, while they exist, there is no guarantee that the builder paid even the slightest attention to them… or if he did, followed them to the letter. I am guessing that if you rent in one of the newly developed areas and the place is less than 5 years old, you have a better chance of finding something “to code”. Saying that, the vast majority of homes (all but the oldest homes) are built with concrete reinforced with metal rods.  I live in a 20 year old home, and even the big earthquake (6.3)  a few months  ago did no damage, and we were only 15 miles from the epicenter. Also, as almost all home are single story,  the collapse of a building is not so much an issue. As for schools… most, I think, are pretty safe.  However if you are at or really near the epicenter of ANY strong (>5.0 for example) earthquake, the building construction is going to be pretty irrelevant.

Edited for clarity

… how do you handle the insistence of vendors quoting in Dollars but when offered a credit card billing in colones? … do you have any suggestions how to circumvent this underhandedness?   If I am quoted in $$ and my credit card account is $$, why am I charged the rate as if I were selling colones and receiving dollars?

First, and just a general reminder, I never shop anywhere that prices its goods in dollars. Although better than when I arrived here lo those many years, it still more often than not, is an indication that I will be paying too much.

Now for your question.  The reason (I am almost 100% sure) is because the vendor’s credit card processor is set up for colones, and not dollars. It would make no difference what your currency your card is using.

I am writing because I am a 28 year old American living in San Jose. I am finding it hard to meet people my age. I’m extremely outgoing and always up for an adventure. Please let me know if you have any advice for me!

I might as a matter of fact!  Click this link.  Once there, look for Calendar in the top right corner of the web page.  Click it and you will see that the Young Expats meet every Saturday in Escazu.  Click that link for info. I am presuming they are still active as they are on that site.  If not, please let me know via email or comment to this post.

I first came to Costa Rica maybe 15 years ago. It has changed significantly. My 15 years pales, however, next to Neal’s long term perspective of 46 years. I hope you enjoy it.  Click continue to read it.

(I) lived in Costa Rica in 1961 & 62, and attended La Universidad de Costa Rica, in San Pedro de Montes de Oca (brand new Ciudad Universitaria at the time). Have decided to return to CR to live (con Visa de Pensionado) and hope to move by September or October. The wife and our youngest daughter will be joining me once I’ve bought or built a home.

For (45) years I put-off the return visit for fear that I’d spoil those memories, but went back last February just to check things out. Alas I was right, CR is not as it was. I could have cried, and I kid you not, when I saw what San Jose and the Central Valley had become. San Jose was the cleanest and friendliest city I had ever seen, back in ’61, with the prettiest girls. I was 20 then and, after growing up in Montreal and Toronto, had visited Paris, Rome, and Beirut; none could compare to San Jose. (Later I lived in Santiago de Chile, LA, Portland, Vancouver, Stewart in Northern BC, and Whitehorse, none of these could compare either, although Stewart and Whitehorse each reserve a warm spot in my heart.)

Sadly, San Jose now is garbage strewn and dirty, stressed beyond its elastic limit, if you know what I mean, reminiscent in many ways of Santiago, Chile, in the sixties; even the Ciudad Universitaria is unkempt.

Fortunately, unlike the Santiaguinos, the Josefinos are friendly even now. (On day one of my visit they atempted to answer in English when I spoke to them in Spanish; we managed to overcome that hurdle on day two. And to think they used to call me ‘Tico adoptado’ and claim that I had no discernible accent.) At any rate, I plan to look for a home outside the Zona Metropolitana.

One of the most admirable things about Ticos, then and now, is their relative lack of regard for Social Status or Stratification, particularly when compared to Canada or other Latin American countries (Chile was worse than India in that regard). I can’t imagine being invited to any Canadian Prime Minister’s or American President’s home, for dinner, just because I met his son at a party. I was so invited to the home of Pepe Figuerez, a man far more worthy of respect, and far more admired by his people, than any Canadian Prime Minister or US president. (Very ‘simpatico’ and informal, we discussed anything and everything except politics.)

Another Tico quality was (is?) ‘helpfulness;’ kindness above and beyond the call of duty, so to speak. Public servants who would type out a letter of application, or correct my efforts (back then, official requests were very formal and flowery), no charge; store owners who would lead one by the hand, across town, to their competition, for a two-dollar item they did not stock.

Way back when, as they say, I traveled through and visited much of CR, but the only area I knew really well was SJ and surroundings; have joined ARCR, but still find it difficult to get information about the towns and areas of interest to me: Zarcero, San Ramon, Palmares, San Ignacio de Acosta, and others on the dry side of the cordillera (just for example), do you have any suggestions on how to get such info? It would be nice to have a general idea re. where to start looking.

Neal… I have sent you my phone number. Call me and we can discuss your interest in those locations. Thanks for your letter!