{"id":7675,"date":"2014-05-29T20:53:42","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T01:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7675"},"modified":"2014-05-29T20:53:42","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T01:53:42","slug":"american-expats-in-costa-rica-likes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7675","title":{"rendered":"American Expats In Costa Rica – What We Like"},"content":{"rendered":"

In mid-January 2013, we packed up and hit the road for Costa Rica. Jen had gotten a job teaching fifth grade at an English-speaking international school, and as long as I had reliable internet access, my work would not be affected. Our kids (ages 4, 4, 1) would be enrolled in day care. We didn’t want to wait until the kids were out of college and we were empty-nesters to do something crazy like this, so off we went.<\/span>
\n Sixteen months later we’re having hard time saying good bye to many friends we hope to stay in touch with. We’ll be heading back to the States in July. It\u2019s been a great experience filled with lots of family time, lots of great trips and many experiences that would not have been possible in the States. Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve liked about Costa Rica. My dislikes are\u00a0here<\/a>.
\n<\/span>
\n My Likes<\/strong><\/span>
\n Farmer\u2019s Markets<\/strong>
\n Access to dozens of fresh fruits and veggies at extremely low prices might be the thing we ultimately miss most about Costa Rica. Every town has a farmer\u2019s market \u2013 some are small, some huge. It has become our routine since day one to hit the farmer\u2019s markets every weekend to stock up for the week. Tomatoes (45 cents\/lb), cucumbers (35 cents\/lb), broccoli (45 cents for a huge head), red peppers (a bag of four or five for a buck), spinach, onions, butternut squash \u2013 all cheap. Bananas cost less than 10 cents each; huge plantains are 30 cents; strawberries literally picked hours before being sold are ~ $1.00\/lb. An entire bag of lemons or limes is less than a buck. Avocados are 50 cents each, and many fresh spices (Jen is addicted to cooking with thyme) are super cheap. Pineapples are 75 cents each. The list goes on. We\u2019re spoiled, so it will definitely be a huge adjustment when we move back. (I need to do a post highlighting the farmer’s market in Heredia, our favorite market, even after we moved further away)<\/span><\/span>
\n It\u2019s Safe<\/strong>
\n This is a reason we came to Costa Rica over other Central American countries. Petty theft is common, but major crimes are almost nonexistent. Several times during our first couple months here (while on the way home from a mini excursion), we had to stop and get directions. Never did my gut tell me I was doing the wrong thing. Never did the little voice in my head tell me: \u201cdon\u2019t you dare announce to everyone (via my lack of Spanish and obvious American origin) that you\u2019re lost.\u201d It never happened. I always felt safe on the road, walking around town, at the park, the market, everywhere. Even at the US vs. Costa Rica soccer game \u2013 I was warned by a friend from Argentina about the dangers of soccer games in Latin America \u2013 I felt completely safe.<\/span><\/span>
\n Disconnectedness<\/strong>
\n Someone in Great Britain had a baby…nobody here cares. Someone in the NFL is banging a Hollywood star…they don\u2019t care about that either. Coming from a country that is obsessed with celebrities, it\u2019s refreshing that Ticos literally don\u2019t give a crap. They mind their own business and work hard. The only time a local commented to me about a news event in the US was when Boulder, CO flooded, and that\u2019s because we\u2019re from Colorado and the Tico went to college there – we shared a bond. Otherwise, what happens in the US or anywhere else in the world (gossip wise) is not on Costa Rica\u2019s radar. That\u2019s nice.<\/span><\/span>
\n Cheap Travel Opportunities<\/strong><\/span>
\n Costa Rica is a very popular travel destination \u2013 easily at the top of everyone\u2019s list in Central America \u2013 but it\u2019s even better when you live here. We don\u2019t go to resorts during high season; we go at off-peak times and pay a fraction of the prices. High-end hotels that can cost $300\/night around New Years only cost us $125, and we\u2019re practically the only ones there. Many times it felt like we had entire places to ourselves, and very often our kids were the only ones in the pools. We’ve traveled all over CR \u2013 both coasts and the interior. Because we could pick and choose where we went and when we traveled, we never paid full price and we never had to fight crowds. (Should I do an entire post on all the travelling we did?)<\/span>
\n Kid Centric\/Family Oriented<\/strong>
\n Although CR is becoming westernized (fast food, PriceSmart (Costco), etc), much of the country is still old school. It\u2019s not uncommon for more than two generations to live under one roof, and it\u2019s even more common for extended families to live in the same area of town or on the same block. It\u2019s nice. Kids grow up seeing their grandparents daily, not weekly over a computer and a couple times\/year in person. And if I had a quarter every time someone patted one of my kids\u2019 heads and said \u201cque lindo\u201d (how cute), I\u2019d be negotiating with my wife that having a forth kids was an investment, not a cost. I\u2019m guilty of moving away from my family in the States (am from Chicago area, moved to Colorado), so I shouldn\u2019t complain. It\u2019s still nice to see families stick together here.<\/span><\/span>
\n A General Lack of Rules\/Lack of Regulations<\/strong>
\n When I first arrived, one of my initial thoughts was: \u201cmy goodness, this entire country is one big OSHA violation\u201d \u2013 and I liked it. The US has become \u2013 physically and mentally \u2013 overly politically correct, overly sensitive and overly careful. Four blades of grass are out of place at the local park might cause little Johnny to fall down and go boom. Don\u2019t come to CR if you\u2019re the type to complain about such things. This entire country will annoy you. Deep holes or trenches on the sides of the roads, no crossing gates at railroad intersections, missing storm sewer covers \u2013 all little things that remind me I\u2019m in country where people don\u2019t constantly bitch and complain about every inconvenience. And how many injuries\/accidents have I heard about stemming from these? None.<\/span><\/span>
\n We visited the water park in Orotina, where two water slides take riders on high-speed trip down several stories into an open pool. Any life guards? No. Any rules governing how people should act or behave in the area? None of those either. In fact not only were there numerous people standing around in the pool \u2013 often only a foot or two from the kamikaze sliders \u2013 there was a group of 15 guys who were going down the slides in rapid fire action\u2026one after another after another\u2026boom, boom, boom, they\u2019d hit the water no more than a second apart. It was very entertaining. Then I thought back to the States, where I had been yelled at numerous times for catching my 3-year olds coming down the water slide at the Golden Rec Center.<\/span>
\nIt’s Old School<\/strong>
\nDespite the westernization, much of Costa Rica is still old school. Garages are turned into little tiendas (shops) or supers (convenience stores), and living rooms (along with a front deck) are turned into small restaurants. I’d imagine this is what the US was like 100 years ago when families lived above the store. A family run business is truly family run – there are no employees except for the extended family (including kids – I’ve see 10 year old kids working the cash register at several supers). Entrepreneurship, as it relates to surviving, is strong here. It’s nice. I like the resourcefulness. <\/span><\/span>
\nPharmacies<\/strong>
\nIf your kid has pink eye, go the pharmacy and get some medicine. If your kid has an ear infection, same thing. Just go to the pharmacy and get some medicine. In the States, you have to make an appointment with your PCP (primary care physician), (this will take time because they will never have an opening right away, and hopefully you don\u2019t need attention after 5:00 pm because you\u2019ll have to wait until the next day), make a co-pay, see the doctor for about 30 seconds and then wait again for the prescription to be called in and ready to go. This extra step \u2013 needing to go to your PCP \u2013 wastes time and money. I like the system here in Costa Rica. Why can\u2019t Walgreens or CVS have someone on staff who can diagnose simple things? Oh that\u2019s right. The US intentionally adds extra steps to their inefficient systems – all in the name of making an extra buck. Any attempt to change this would result in the lobby for PCPs converging on Washington to make sure it didn\u2019t happen. <\/span><\/span>
\nSchool Runs All Year Round<\/strong>
\nKids in Costa Rica go to school the same number of days as kids in the States, but there are no super long breaks. This brings continuity to the school year, and teachers don\u2019t have to spend the first two months of a new school year reviewing the previous year\u2019s material because one grade smoothly blends into the next. I like it. The American school year originated when farming was the biggest industry, and kids were needed during the summer to plant and harvest crops \u2013 hence the big break. But this obviously isn\u2019t the current state of things \u2013 and never will be. I like the Costa Rican school year. School days are spread out over the year with the longest break being about six weeks. It\u2019s much more efficient because less forgetting takes place. It also better simulates what life will be like after school. <\/span><\/span>
\nCheap Labor<\/strong>
\nContinuing the cost theme\u2026labor is cheap. Whether your car needs maintenance, your house needs cleaning or your lawn needs mowing, labor is super cheap. Heck, my kid\u2019s day care (she\u2019s 2) is only $210\/month. In the States, day care would cost $1200. We got the brakes replaced on our car. A guy picked the car up at my wife\u2019s school, took it back to the shop to do the repair and then dropped it off by the end of the day. No charge for anything other than the brakes. Even doctors and dentists are very reasonable. A doctor\u2019s appoint here without insurance costs less than in the States with insurance. Coming from a wealthy country, cheap labor is a big benefit to being here.<\/span><\/span>
\n Jen\u2019s School<\/strong>
\n After writing this, I decided this deserved its own stand-alone post…check back in a few days. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In mid-January 2013, we packed up and hit the road for Costa Rica. Jen had gotten a job teaching fifth grade at an English-speaking international school, and as long as I had reliable internet access, my work would not be affected. Our kids (ages 4, 4, 1) would be enrolled in day care. We didn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}