Expat Interviews provides a Window to the World of Expats

Victor Volder lives in the Netherlands. Lizza Capucion lives in the Phillipines and the two of them run an interesting web site, Expat Interviews. They ought to interview themselves so we can all know how they hooked up!

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Questions from Readers

This is part of my continuing posts answering emails I receive from readers. Here are some more that I thought might interest you.

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Now Get The REAL Costa Rica Blog by Email

I have received several emails from people asking if they could get new posts and updates to The REAL Costa Rica Blog by email. They prefer to receive new Posts by email so as to not have to deal with RSS or visit a ton of blogs to see if anything new has been added.

This turned out to be a pretty simple request thanks to the folks at Feedburner, the company that handles my RSS feeds. Interested? To subscribe, just place your email address in the subsciption form at the top-right. You will immediately receive a verifying email which you must answer. Then you will be all set. The system will send you a copy of any new posts in HTML format at about 6-9 AM CST. No posts? No email.

Prefer a direct link to subscribe? Click Here

No More Cell Phone Lines… AGAIN!

For most of the years I have been in Costa Rica, you could not just run down to your local cell phone store or to ICE and get a new phone line. You could always buy the PHONE but not the line. Nope… You had to wait. You had to place you name on a waiting list… and wait. Sometimes a year or two. Once your name came up on the list, you could buy a LINE (presuming you were a legal resident, a citizen, or owned a corporation), and have it installed on the phone.

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!

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Basset Hounds Get Frequent Flyer Miles

We have been back from California for awhile. Before we left for our trip, I made a list of what we had to start doing. I used the Real Costa Rica suggested list that Tim has online, and edited it to fit our situation. I refer to it simply as The List, many times accompanied with a descriptive expletive, and it is taking on epic proportions. I can’t imagine trying to do this move without it, though. I am feeling overwhelmed today by all we still have to do. Continue reading »

I Heart Colorado

I am home, but wrote this while we were still traveling…

I am writing this from Highway 70, somewhere in Colorado. We have driven through desert and mountains and have seen the best and worst the US has to offer, I think. I will start with LA – which pretty much is the best and worst all rolled into one! My son lives in Ventura, about an hour north of LA on the coast. I like it there, it is beautiful and I love the ocean. The town itself is cool, a little funky and fun right now, but they are trying to make it more upscale like Santa Barbara. I think it will probably be ruined in the process, but I hope not. The downside is that it is not very affordable to live there, at least compared to the Midwest and the weather is cooler than I like.

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Considerations on Moving to Costa Rica – Part One

Actually, this is probably better titled: “Considerations on the Expatriate Life”. Certainly the things I am going to discuss apply no matter where you plan to go.

As you might expect, I get a lot of email from people who are either making the move to Costa Rica or are considering such a move. Some are baby boomers realizing that they may not be able to afford to retire in their home country… others are younger, asking about employment opportunities and lifestyle. They ask my advice on a variety of things,and I give the best answers I can. But over time, I have come to realize that there are a some questions that are never asked, but certainly should be asked, before making a move of this magnitude.

So here are my thoughts on this.

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Considerations on Moving to Costa Rica – Part Two

Here is Part Two written especially for the under 50 crowd.

Everything I wrote in Part One (for the over 50’s) is certainly applicable to the under-50 crowd of course. The biggest difference as I see it is that this younger group may not have financial independence, and thus they have to work in order to live here. With that in mind, their needs are clearly different.
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A Post from the Road

Well, it has been an eventful week – not much related to our move, though. But I will try and find a connection. I am writing this from California, where we are visiting my son Michael, who is a student there. We flew out and we will be driving his car back to Missouri to get it inspected and licensed, he is flying in next week and driving it back. When he comes home, it will be his last chance to go through the house and rescue what he wants before we sell it all. And that is the segue, I guess – we ARE selling pretty much everything.

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The Countdown Begins…Day 80

Hola! My name is Nora Schild. My husband, Dan and our two dogs – Hannah Banana the Satanic Basset and Toby, the kinder, gentler three-legged Basset are about 80 days away from making our move to Costa Rica.

We are both in our 40’s and visited Costa Rica for the first time a scant 3 1/2 years ago. It was a fluke that we wound up there, it was winter and we wanted a beach vacation. It was the first out of the US vacation we had ever taken, and we wanted a country that was interesting and not necessarily “touristy”. We did not want an all-inclusive resort, but something we could explore without feeling like we were taking advantage of a poverty stricken populace – we wanted to relax, not get bummed out and not feel guilty.

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