Live From Costa Rica its Exlrrp!!!

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Yes youre seeing what youre seeing: fence post that have taken root in the ground and started to sprout. Talk about fertile ground. the only place I ever saw this before was in Kauai

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I'll jjust use this as a recap.
Someone, Larry I think, asked me at the front tnd of this post: "Why Costa Rica?" Its bacause I'd always heard about it, many of my family had been there and I like going to exotic places where I can speak the language. This includes all of the western hemisphere except Quebec.
Its a terrific vacation spot and more affordable and easily reachable than Hawaii, especially for those who live east of the Mississippi.
look on the map: Its closer to New Orleans, or New York than ANY city on the US West Coast is. Its also in the same time zone that New Orleans is.
Now think about Hawaii, the only place in the US to compare to (not counting Puerto Rico) Anybody flying from the East Coast to Hawaii has twice as long a plane ride and has 5 hours of time difference to adjust to (6 in Day Light Savings time which HI does not use) Anybody in the US only has at most 2 hours of jet lag to adjust to in CR, no problemo for most anyone.
It costs about the same for us in Oregon to fly to CR as Hawaii--$500 and change-- and is also about what its costing me to fly to Atlanta. People East of the Misss and Dixie esp wiould probably pay a lot less.
Your dollar goes a lot farther in CR than in HI. See the room above we stayed in Jaco?? right on the beach, a whole lttle suite, for $126/ night--that included a 16% hotel tax. There's no place in HI where you c0uld have walked in the doors of that place for less than $300 and probably not that. With a little foresight, planning--and flexibility-- you can be sleeping every night in a great hotel for under $ 90, average.
What I like to do is book the first day I'm staying some where in advance--then if I see a better place I want to stay I move there. Its not hard to get another night if you like the place. Not going in peak season (Dec and Jan) helps this a lot.
ALWAYS ASK FOR A DISCOUNT!! Having been a licensed general contractor since 1980, I got this one down cold. Just ask for it: say: "I hear there may be discounted prices" I got $20 knocked off the Jaco room just asking for it. Doesn't hurt to lay a $5 bill down on the desk while youre doing this but don't start out like that, thats plan B. This almost ALWAYS works but not always. It NEVER hurts to ask.
San Jose, the capital city is worth a day to look at but no more. Make it your first day and you'll be anxious to get to the country. If you plan to move there or stay any length of time its worth getting to know the place, this is where you'll be doing your main shopping. But just for a week or so, hop in the car and drive to the beach on the first day, don't even go into SJ. Jaco is less than 3 hours drive away and there's closer beaches than that.
We went to 4 of the most desirable areas: Arenal Volcano and Lake, Monteverde Cloud Forest, Jaco and Manuel Antonio/Quepos.
Every one of these but Jaco either is a National Forest or is supprounded by them. CR is an invironentalist's dream, they really go to great lenghts to create tourism around these parks. Theyre wll worth seeing just for that alone.
Costa Rica is going to great lengths to develop ecotourism, but there's plenty of other kinds of action too, everything from casinos to ATV tours, white water rafting to ultralights, scuba diving to hiking and horseback riding,. We had a terrific time but there was a lot of things we wanted to do we didn't have time for, we'll be doing on our next trip. (lile ultralights!)
The zipline tour was fantastic, we'll be doing more of that.
There's development going around alomst all these places and they make it easy for Americans to look and buy. They want foregn investment but are looking far enough into the future that they don't want it trashy--anybody who's been to Acapulco or Puerto Vallarta will know what I mean. Anybody ever been to Zihuatenejo? I remember when it was good.
So there's development but its doesn't seem like it will overwhelm the place. Anybodyb intersted in moving down there should go several times, including the rainy season. There's a whole lot to look at to buy there, either lots or developed property including luxury gated communities. You could get a really nice lot and have a decent house built and furnished for well under $100K. If you had building skills you could get save a lot here.
Sue and I are already planning another trip here, its as cheap to get there as HI where I been going almost every year for ever and cheaper to stay there. And a lot more fun.
See You on the Road!
James