The REAL Costa Rica Blog

ICE’s Latest Fiasco

Back in June, I wrote about ICE's plan to discontinue the TDMA cellular phone system beginning in 2009. I had my doubts that this would happen, but I wrote about it anyway. Some background for readers. There are two cellular systems here, TDMA being the oldest and the only ...

Costa Rica Business for Sale

As a lot of my readers know, I first came to Costa Rica to retire. Many things came together while I was back in Chicago that allowed me to do this. One day, I realized that I really did not need to work any more. I had sufficient ...

Stand Proud America

Must be just that kind of week! I received another comment yesterday and again I have decided to reply here as I think more people read the posts than the comments. OK OK... it is sort of another rant and probably should have been posted on July 4th, but here ...

A Reader Asks About the Effects of CAFTA

Tonight I received a comment from a reader... and it pushed my rant button. I may be completely reading the comment incorrectly and assuming a wrong tone or meaning... and if I am, I apologize now... but the rant is still coming as I am replying to many others ...

Travels with Della and Joanna

This post was actually sent in as a comment to an earlier post about crime in Costa Rica, but after reading it, I thought it not really relevant to crime... or maybe it was as these ladies apparently did a lot of cool things and experienced nothing but a fun ...

The Bug Man Cometh

Ahhh Bugs! Bichos! Things with many legs! If you live here in the tropics, they are as much a part of your life as the sun, the beach, the mountains, and the bad roads! Certainly one of the most visited web pages in The REAL Costa Rica ...

Renewing Residency

It is a bit hard to believe, but in all the years I have lived here, I have never had to make "the trip" to immigration (migración) to renew my residency. I have always been "legal" but the rarely used form of residency I began with was a true ...

Learning Spanish

Planning 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 will be able to adjust ...

Oops!

I really do try to make sure everything I write is exactly correct (personal opinions excepted!), but on occasion, I experience what my late great-grandmother termed a "brain fart". She was an earthy sort of woman! This phenomena occured on 9 June when I wrote the post entitled "3,000 ...

Costa Rica Takes Action to Control Gasoline Usage Part 2

This week, the government of Costa Rica asked for an increase of ¢145 in the price of gasoline, this to offset their recent request to lower the price of diesel fuel by exempting diesel from government taxation. The price of super gasoline would go up to ¢801 per liter and diesel ...