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Living Realistically

14 years ago
Hello to all expats living in Costa Rica and to all the Costa Rica citizens who may follow this forum.

My wife and I have been researching life in Costa Rica for several months now, and thanks to the information you have provided, we have been able to recognize that life in Costa Rica can be rewarding and challenging. It is not a low cost tropical paradise, but it is a beautiful and affordable country.

We are considering exploring Costa Rica for a possible country to retire to in the fall of 2011.

We love the USA and are not moving to escape, but rather to experience the pleasure of meeting and making new friends of another culture.

We will be able to pay our own way, and we intend to continue living frugally.

We plan to use public transportation, and would like to live in a rural area. It does not matter if that is in the valley or near a beach.

Luxury is not a necessity, but a clean house or apartment is important. We also would like to have cable TV, and high speed internet is very important.

Safety is important to us, but them again, I assume that it is important to everyone. We do not want to be prisoners in our own house. Likewise, we do not think it would be goos to isolate ourselves in an expat community.

We are currently using a Rosetta Stone course to learn Latin America Spanish. We are really just getting started and we really like it. We want to continue learning Spanish in Costa Rica.

We are Baptist Christians and hope to attend a similar church In Costa Rica. Also, we do like to do (some) volunteer work. We enjoy working with children, the elderly, and animals.

We are under no illusions about the difficulty in adjusting to a new environment.

Having said all of this, what are your thoughts about what area we might consider living in, what are the opportunities for volunteer service, and your advise on how to deal with the "unexpected" in Costa Rica?

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