It is hard to not say I told you so…  I cannot.   Sorry!

On January 11, 2009, in response to a large number of emails and phone calls, I blogged about the proposed immigration law. One online newspaper told concerned expats, future residents and readers that the new law would be passed immediately… before the Christmas (2008) break!  They said it would be retroactive and even those folks already here legally would be affected and have to comply. Everyone panicked.

I tried to explain that nothing happens that fast in this country and that panic sells newspapers and increases readership and thus sells advertising. I also explained that it is against Costa Rica law to have a new law be retroactive. I suggested a wait and be patient approach.

Well that was January and this is August and yes, finally, the Asamblea Legislativa (the congress) has passed the new Ley de Migración (immigration law) which should for years influence the rights and responsibilities of foreigners coming to live in Costa Rica.  Note I use the word foreigner and not the words American, Gringo, US Citizen or other such word as despite our often enormous sense of self importance, this law is designed to affect anyone from any nation who seeks to reside in Costa Rica on a legal and permanent basis. It covers a lot more as well.  I held off a few days trying to get a more complete picture of this new law, but sadly, reliable details are not forthcoming so for those of you who are interested in this topic, read on!

First, I must say that everything I have read about the new law is just plain fair and is, in the years that I have lived here,  this is about the only law that got  it almost 100% right. It falls a little bit short of fully protecting Costa Rica, but I’ll discuss that later.

OK so what is in this law?  Here are the salient points!

• Costa Rica is getting tough on the trafficking of persons. This is now a criminal offense with much stronger penalties.  Trafficking can be for purposes of slavery, prostitution, or simply smuggling people from, to or through Costa Rica to other countries.
• Pensionados, those who receive a guaranteed income from US Social Security, a State pension fund or other “guaranteed” source, will be now required to show proof of $1,000 per month (US) income. There will be no deposit required.  This is spot on as it is just no longer possible to live here for $600.00 per month, the old requirement. All but a few recipients of social security should qualify easily.  The spouse is included in the $1,000 figure.
• Rentistas,  those who wish to live here legally but are too young or otherwise do not qualify for a pension like social security, will now deposit  $2,500.00 per month ( a one time deposit of $150,000.00 to cover five years).   I am presuming it will work the old way.  (Not 100% sure yet).  However the $2,500 per month is correct. Besides being 2.5 times the old $1,000 per month, this figure includes immediate family members and that may actually save money for a family with kids. However, it would seem to penalize single persons wishing to move here and thus is one of my few concerns  regarding this law.
• Marriages between Costa Rica citizens and foreigners can be brought under far closer scrutiny.  This has been a serious issue for years, with numerous marriages of convenience allowing low-lifes (and maybe some not-so-low-lifes) to purchase a Costa Rica spouse they perhaps have never met and immediately be eligible for Permanent Residency. Now a couple under investigation may have to  prove to immigration (migracion) that they are a couple, have been through a courtship-  both persons living in this country. In other words.. it’s love and not a scam!
• A new immigration police force will be formed, composed of specially trained officers from the Fuerza Pública plus existing members.  With this is the stronger enforcement which should allow Costa Rica to deal far more efficiently with the many illegals (often referred to as perpetual tourists) living here.  This new law will finally allow for active tracking of these scofflaws as opposed to the random raids now so popular. Costa Rica has a significant problem with illegals from Nicaragua,  the USA and Canada and with luck, there should be enough enforcement power to handle this problem.
• Owners and operators of hotels will now be required to maintain registers of all guests with residency documentation and backup, presumably similar to those in Europe.  Will they be required to hold the guest’s passport?  Unclear…  and we will not know until we all see the actual law. There was talk also of heavy penalties to employers of illegals and I have thus found nothing addressing that.
• It also appears that a new court will be formed to deal solely with issues and appeals of immigration.
• Foreigners will now have to join the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social or the CAJA as it is known.  This is the socialized medical plan of Costa Rica also covering pensions. CAJA provides medical care for all members without regard to pre-existing conditions and this is the other area where I believe the diputados  made an error.  While it is one thing to control the pre-existing rules within one country (like the USA for example) and between insurance carriers in that country, it is quite another to open the CAJA system to the world and allow anyone with a very costly illness to “buy” unlimited medical care for as little at $600.00 per month.  I fear this may come back and bite those legislators on their collective butts.
• Show me the $$$.  Where is the money coming from?  That is always a fun and interesting question in Costa Rica.  Sadly, the answer often is…  there is none.  There does, however, appear to be a provision affecting all immigration transactions (tramite) that may now carry a charge, in one report, $25.00 per tramite.  This is not a verified fact.
• Amnesty? One source indicates the the president of Costa Rica will now have the right to grant residency.  This was interpreted to mean that the president could grant a massive amnesty to illegals now here in the country.  I am not sure I agree with that leap of logic though it may be correct. After having asked around, I cannot very anything, but there is precedent for amnesty as it was twice given in the 90’s, in essence granting legal residency to all those who could prove they had lived here illegally for a specified period of time. Could this happen again?  Quien sabe?  It would certainly make the job of the new immigration police force a lot easier as they could start with a clean slate.

So what is next? When is this law? So why is this all not just clear?  For that, you must understand how things work here.

The next step as that the law must be signed by the president of Costa Rica, Don Oscar Arias.  Once that has been done, the law will be published in La Gaceta.  The law goes into effect six months after being published there. So that’s when we will  know everything right?  Nope, and this is a point that is often simply impossible to teach those from other countries, especially those from the USA where the law is the law.

Law is NOT law here. Yes, there is a law, but that law is then  interpreted by the agency involved, in this case immigration. They will then interpret and enforce this law as they see fit and enforce it as they see fit.  If someone does not like it, they will take it  to the Supreme Court and THEY will interpret it.   Sound easy?  Nope… because in the past, various government agencies have paid not the least attention to the supreme court decisions and have just continued to operate as they had before.  This has happened several times with immigration since I have lived here.  This time though, they have a pretty good law and the director of immigration seems to be an intelligent man… so we shall see!  In any case, the supreme court eventually gets torqued and starts handing out threats of jail, monetary penalties, etc. at which point the government agency involved does pay attention.. This issue just seems to make Gringos go crazy as it is anathema to the structured and well defined laws in the USA. Hint… If you are going to live here, you must understand that you are not in Kansas anymore and that what me be clear to you, is not clear at all.

Comments welcome!

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!

Here is her email, and if the topic interests you (and you can deal with my rant)… read on!

My family plans to relocate to Costa Rica, and I would like to know what your thoughts are regarding the recent activity by the Costa Rican Congress ending it’s 84 year old insurance, and telecom monopoly (CAFTA). How do you think this is going to effect the citizens of Costa Rica that have enjoyed a universal health care system, and what do you think the implications are for Americans residig in Costa Rica, that have been able to partake in this system?.

From the tone of your comment, and I get a LOT of these emails/comments, you are one of those believing anything having to do with CAFTA and the big bad horrible USA must be bad for everyone else. If I am wrong, I apologize in advance.

But you got some words right.. just not the facts which are more obscure… so let me explain.

1. The telecom monopoly, like the vast majority of monopolies is a huge, cost wasting enterprise, employing tens of thousands of workers, and is roughly 7 years behind the rest of the world in providing the things over which they have responsibility (technology).

In addition, as with most monopolies it gives awful customer service at ridiculous prices (for Internet and power, not for cell service). The “high speed Internet”, when it DOES work, is painfully slow, and the vast majority of Costa Ricans have access only to dial-up modem service in their homes. It has held the country back economically. strategically, and educationally.

The cell rates ARE well priced, but of the two systems here, the only one that works at ALL is the old TDMA system popular in the USA back in the 1990s. It works great!!

The “new” GSM system is absolutely horrible, works at best only 90% of the time and does not work at all in many locations… yet the monopoly is telling many, many thousands of Ticos to turn in their old working cell phones and buy the new GSM phones. For many Tico families, this is a MAJOR expense. Gotta LOVE those monopolies! In 2009, they will discontinue the only system that works.

This telecom also controls the electric power. Last year we went days and weeks suffering brownouts and blackouts. This was the result of an astonishing lack of simple population planning, and numerous families and businesses suffered greatly. The president had to spend a TON of money buying emergency equipment just to keep the lights lit.

In the history of the world, there have been good monopolies I am sure, but the vast majority provided lousy customer service, a crummy product, at unfair prices… This is why monopolies were outlawed in the USA about 50 years ago.

This model fits here… because there is no competition, they do as they please while giving the customers the one finger salute.

Insurance

You wrote …”the recent activity by the Costa Rican Congress ending it’s 84 year old insurance… monopoly” and “How do you think this is going to effect the citizens of Costa Rica that have enjoyed a universal health care system”

You have things pretty mixed up. First, the congress had absolutely nothing to do with any of this.

The Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was voted through by referendum…and was voted on by all Costa Ricans. The PEOPLE passed this treaty… not the congress. Hmmm. I wonder if the overwhelmingly super service provide by their telcom monopoly had anything to do with that vote!

After CAFTA passed, the congress had to alter existing laws to bring them into concordance with the terms of CAFTA that the PEOPLE OF COSTA RICA approved.

This is something that sorta grinds me in emails I receive… the perceived arrogance of those who think THEY know more than the Costa Rican people. I am not saying the writer said or implied this, but others have many times. The Costa Rican people are bright, intelligent, well educated people and right or wrong, they made their will known. Time will tell if it was a good decision, but I can assure you that never in my life have I EVER seen a more informed public on a topic up for referendum. Costa Rica could give civics lessons to any country in the world after the manner in which they handled the TLC (CAFTA).

So now there will be other insurance companies offering policies with wider coverages with larger groups and therefore possibly lower rates. There are dozens of huge international insurers who can now legally sell their products to those of us who live in Costa Rica. Now, perhaps a 50 year old women driver will not have to pay $1,400 per year for car insurance the same as her 19 year old son.

Oh… that’s right! There IS no compulsory insurance so only a very few people ever buy insurance because it can represent more than 10% of their annual income! Enjoy your next trip here! Drive defensively!

Your email implies that the “Universal Health Care” is going away. It is not. THE CCSS (CAJA) is alive and well. Good thing as my wife works for a CCSS hospital!

Oh… and to be clear… “Universal Health Care” is just socialized medicine… and just as in Sweden, Canada, England and other places, the system does not work for anyone except the very poor and seldom works well for them. Lines are huge. Several hours is common at my wife’s hospital. Generic medicine are prescribed to save money, but sadly they are purchased from a variety of countries and there is no quality control and therefore many medicines just do not work. I can vouch personally that that is true.

Waits for a doctors visit can take months and often DO. Waits for major surgery or even some minor surgeries can take years. The poor suffer with this crap as they have to… same as they will soon in the USA. Everyone else buys private insurance so they can see the doctor of their choice at the hospital of their choice a the time of their choice. For those of you who are “Universal Health Care” fans… I wish you well. It looks great on paper, but I have yet to see it work well. I can assure any middle class Gringo tht moves here that you will eventually get CAJA and buy private insurance in case you get sick.

So what do I think the implications are for Americans residing in Costa Rica, that have been able to partake in this system?. Not much… Nothing has changed, just more offerings and some of those are years away. If they use CAJA now, they will continue to use CAJA. If they buy private insurance now, they will soon have other options and perhaps better prices. If they are tired of paying car insurance as though they were an 18 year old male overdosed on testosterone… they will likely be happy with premiums that reflect their age, driving history and experience! Someone may come in and actually offer true hi speed Internet for less than $80 per month WITH reliable service and connections that actually do not die every day at 3 PM. Note I am referring here to TRUE high speed as you would find in most developed countries.

Costa Ricans will benefit I think by better services lower prices (or more for the money they do pay).

Even now, with the arrival of those big awful businesses from the bad ole USA, (like Walmart), customer service policies are changing country wide! Why imagine a Tico who can actually exchange a brand new and very costly TV (but one that was totally DOA right out of the box), instead of having to wait 3-4 months while it gets returned to the factory in Korea for repair!

Can you imagine?

And again… if I misread your email, I apologize… but that’s the problem with email… no visual or aural clues to clarify.  Also, enough others have written about how they hate the USA, big business, Bush, Obama, and God that I am just getting fed up with it.  As a famous bird once sang… Get Over It.

Easy answer! I have not a freaking clue!

Todays exchange rate of about ¢511.41 / ¢518.71 makes absolutely no sense whatever and to me, smacks of some serious manipulation.

I am not the only one who is raising questions about changes that fly in the face of logic. Sadly, Central Bank manager, Roy Gonzalez, rather than reply directly to the many questions, has stated more or less that we must defer to the vast experience of other central banks. Say what?? News flash! The dollar is DOWN. Just which central banker are you listening to? Certainly not the Federal Reserve as they most assuredly know the dollar is down.

Economist and expresident of the Central Bank, Rodrigo Bolanos, thinks that this strong growth that has occurred within the past few days due mainly to a change in the expectations of people. More people having dollars accounts. Say What #2 ??? Let me get this straight! The people decide the value of currency here? Well maybe if the colon were traded internationally in the currency market, but the colon has not yet attained the status of the Euro. Another news flash! There has ALWAYS been far more investment in dollars than in colones. That is why the Central Bank was so worried about “dollarization” in the Costa Rican economy.

The dollar is horribly overvalued here and probably should be floating arount the ¢470 area. The fact that it is not and is in fact being set at levels not reflective of how the dollar is really faring world wide indicates to me some serious hanky panky. Que sorpresa!

One the other hand, this is great news for those who ignored my warnings to get out of dollars (last fall) and later took it in the shorts when the dollar fell. Of course now that the people who DID heed my words are taking it in the shorts… though as they made a nice windfall last December, they actually have made money as they presumably earned interest on their wind fall.

My advice? Pay no attention to me. Take your best guess.

As logic (and the world economy) are clearly not what is affecting the US dollar, there is no point in even trying to make any sense of a system clearly controlled and manipulated by forces that we know not.

Me? As the colon is not reacting normally, I’ll probably split my $$$ equally in colones, dollars and euros, and try to figure out who really is manipulating the currency in Costa Rica.

The central bank had been concerned for some time, and with good reason, about dollarization, a trend toward the use of dollars instead of colones. For instance, I have often advised people to hold dollars and not colones. Not real smart to hold a constantly devaluing currency right? I also have advised people in The REAL Costa Rica to NEVER buy anything** priced in dollars as that is the equivalent af saying “please screw me”. You see this of course in all the tourist areas. The advantage (to the BUYER) is always to buy items priced in colones. Then negotiate from there.

So the Central Bank decided to eliminate this policy and instead publish a spread, MUCH wider (20-30 colones or more) than before and allow the financial institutions to set their own tipo de cambio. The Central Bank then polls those institutions to see what is the REAL exchange rate being offered and publishes that average on the web site. This was and is a pretty excellent idea but forces wise users of dollars and colones to think what may be best for them.

Here is a chart showing the ever increasing devaluation of the colone UNTIL the 17th of October. Note that on that date, the colone reversed direction and began to increase in value against the dollar. Recall that until the 17th, the central bank set the devaluation daily, but after the 17th, Costa Rica financial institutions were free to set their own exchange rate so long as it fell within central bank guidelines.

Well this is interesting stuff as it may have a profound effect on those of us who live here as well as the tourists who visit CR and bring those dollars.

Here are some of the things that people might want to consider and some oddities I have already seen and a couple of thoughts to ponder.

• If you do use US dollars to buy things here, the burden falls even harder on you to find out what exchange rate is being offered to you. This is true either when you are buying (exchanging dollars for) colones or paying a bill in a restaurant in dollars and will be receiving change. In the past week, I have been offered from 510 to 526 colones per dollar. THAT is a pretty big spread. In fact, I was given a 525 colon rate at a large restaurant just this morning. Looking at the chart above, I was offered more in change than the highest rate being offered at the banks! I chose not to use my credit card as I could make more on the exchange!
• Costa Rica has been for years one of the few locations in the world who did not screw the tourists by offering them a ridiculously low exchange rate. The San Jose airport was (and still is) the exception usually beating the poor tourists out of 15% or so. However the stores, restaurants, and many hotels gave excellent exchange rates, often as good or better than the banks. Sadly, this is changing and many hotels, expecially the higher end and boutique location now screw the tourists mercilessly apparently considering currency conversion as a handy profit center. The central bank changes will not affect this, so you tourist types, check the link above and learn how to convert currency.
• The exchange rate, while still devaluing, is doing so at a seemingly slower rate. I recently answered a question from a reader about interest rates in Costa Rica pointing out that the high 11-13% rates were not “real” as the colone was devaluing at about 12% annually. I expect these “high” colon rates will be dropping a bit to adjust for the (perhaps) lower deflation of the colon.
• Merchants who priced items in colones saw their profits (and inventory valuation) decrease daily along with the daily devaluation of the colon, so any slowing of this decline is really good news for them.

It is way too early to say what effect all this will have on those of us living here, but from the chart above, it is clear things are changing and possibly the colon is not loosing value quite so rapidly. Some math genius might make an argument that buying an 11% CD in colones might be a value depending on how goes the colone.

If the currency stabilizes, there certainly be less reason to “hold dollars”. The CD interest rate for colones may begin to fall though if devaluation is slowed. For now though, I still think it is wiser to spend colones but hold dollars.

** Exceptions are large value purchases i.e. cars, houses, rent, etc.

Well thanks to your local friends at ICE (why YES!, The very same ones who are fighting the Free Trade Agreement tooth and nail), the good old days are returning!

The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) – the state monopoly on telecommunications – announced that it had about 15.000 cellular lines left and THAT was a couple of weeks ago. Those lines are what remains of the “new” GSM service that was part of 600.000 lines that were offered for the first time last December. You DO remember that right? The 600,000 lines that never work?

Well just like the women who buy those awful pointy shoes because they think they are stylish and make their legs look great, this proves there stilll more than enough suckers in the world that over 585,000 of those barely working phone lines have been sold. Was at PT Barnum that said something about a sucker a minute?

According to news articles, ICE did not foresee the high demand (HUH????) and things will, in a matter of days, revert to the way they were before the “new” system was installed by the Ericsson company.

Of the old 400.000 GSM lines installed by Alcatel (that didn’t work either, BTW), there aren’t any left… and what us WORSE… ICE doesn’t even have any of the TDMA lines (also known as “the lines that really WORK“.

What sorta frosts my twinkie is that next week, we are going to face another ICE work slowdown… offices closed Monday and Tuesday… while ICE workers take to the streets to try to convince their fellow citizens that the Free Trade Agreement (TLC) is not needed because ICE is running efficiently and needs no outside interference. Okaaay. Yeah. Whatever.

Not too surprisingly, the bus operators decided to wait ten years to see what was going to happen. What happened, of course, was that the law is now being (sort of) enforced and bus drivers are being ticketed whose vehicles are not to the new level. To date, only 12% of all buses have handicap ramps installed.

This law covers all transport vehicles including those vans used to transport tourists. SALA IV, the Costa Rican equivalent of the Supreme Court decided that law was constitutional but that an eight year extension was not, so now the bus operators must act. They are saying this cannot be done, citing a variety of reasons and stating that bus fares will go up 300% and that 90% of the buses will be withdrawn from service.

Somehow, I am having a problem thinking that ten years was not sufficient time to phase in the ramps and spreads costs and labor over that time.

Meanwhile, the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes (MOPT) has given bus operators three months grace to comply or face fines of ¢10.000 colones (us$19.41) for each bus on the road and face confiscation if compliance is not met. The bus operators have vowed to pull all the buses off the streets in protest of the law. Now THAT would be interesting as Costa Rica runs on bus service.

In any case, it appears that this matter will now be dumped on the legislature for resolution… meanwhile… no ramps.

We now have a new government headed by Oscar Arias, and with the new government, we get new cabinet ministers. The new Tourism Minister, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, is finally admitting what everyone has been noticing for some time. Tourism is declining.

Benavides blamed the tourism decline on the horrendous condition of the roads here, security issues (read that as crime), inefficient and time consuming approvals that face potential investors. Bingo! Right on target!
One thing I guess I knew, but didn’t think was happening, is that while tourism brings in about 1.6 million visitors each year, only about a third are from North America. Many are “visitors” from Nicaragua are classified as tourists. This is, of course, silly. The vast majority of “Nicaraguan Tourists” are housekeepers, and laborers. They spend just enough while living here to survive, sending the rest back to family in Nicaragua. To count these individuals as tourists is really stupid, and worse, it is misleading sending the incorrect information and message to Costa Rica’s leaders and decisiopn makers.

Further, though I am not sure how much this skews the tourism data, there are a supposedly a “significant” number of North Americans, the well known perpetual tourists, who renew their tourism visa four time a year by leaving the country for 72 hours. I know these folks exist, but to think their affect on a tourism number of 1.6 million seems wrong.

Sadly, Sr. Benavides did, in my opinion, get something 100% wrong.

He tended to downplay the ever rising costs of tourism here in CR. The competition for the tourism dollar is fierce, and everyone today is looking for value. Costa Rica is difficult to reach and expensive to get to before the vacation starts. Rising gasoline prices make airline travel today a rich man’s game. Costa Rica was riding the light with ever increasing tourism up until last year, but clearly, this is changing. I cannot blame the hotels, B&B’s and restaurants for upping the ante to share in the bonanza, but now it is time to re-think that strategy. Hotels are empty and that is not good. Maria and I went to Arenal recently to find a 40% occupancy during semana santa, the Easter holidays! Unheard of! Also, the prices at Arenal were astromical.

It would be one thing if tourists arrived to find a spotlessly clean Costa Rica, free of crime and easy to navigate, but alas, they find none of these. The prior Pacheco administration allowed Costa Rica to decline and now, the piper must be paid.

In any case, perhaps the words of Sr. Benavides will have an affect on the Casa Amarilla. Arias is an enormously intelligent and dynamic leader with a world view, and for sure his vision of Costa Rica now and in the future is far broader than his predecessor.

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!