Our Experience in Costa Rica

After being in Costa Rica in our pursuit of happiness and seeing different towns, meeting new people and doing excursions, we have learned quite a bit about this country. First of all, Costa Rica is beautiful. Amazing landscapes, mountain views and deep green valleys with grazing cows. Top that off with great clouds and pretty fog above the mountains when the rain comes in (it is rainy season and rains at least every afternoon), it is something you won't see in South Florida.

On the other hand, it has been warmer than expected. Atenas is supposed to have the best climate in the world, but somehow we still find it too warm. Maybe it is because we are coming from South Florida and are used to the 81F (27C) and were hoping for cooler temps around the low 70s F (20C). Since we read about the average temperature being in the low- to mid 70sF, we are a bit disappointed. But at least at night it cools down to the high 60sF (18C) and one can sleep with the windows open, which feels really nice for a change. Thus, we have narrowed down our search for a rental house to the north of Atenas, mainly to the small towns of Zarcero and Sarchi. Since Zarcero is up in the mountains, it feels a bit cooler there. Unfortuately, the rental market is very limited here  (and so are real estate agents) and so far, we have not found anything affordable yet. Of course, you can rent vacation houses for $1,000 and up a month but that's not what we want/ need.

Typical (lower class) Tico Housing (no building codes whatsoever) and typical way to dry their laundry

This brings up another point about CR. It is not as cheap as portrayed in all the books and blogs we read. For example, gas is very expensive and since they have a cooperative setting here, every gas station charges the same amount per liter (744 colons per liter = $1.37). Although vegetables and fruits are cheaper than in the U.S. (but still more expensive than I thought they would be), meat and milk is very expensive and so are any other household items such as plastic storage boxes, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, toys, clothing, etc. And of course, all things electronic and cars are at least 30-50% more than in the U.S. as those are all imported. Which means that there is an import tax on top of it (i.e. for a washing machine that would cost $450 in the U.S., one would have to pay $800 in CR plus 13% tax).

Everyone parks their car in their gated front porch so no one steals it at night. Plus, there is no space to park on the road.

While the landscape is beautiful, unfortunately there are no hiking trails, close-by national parks, or other outdoor activities that one can do with small children. Most homes that are located in the small towns have no backyard and the people park their cars on the front porch, so you see a lot of kids and dogs (every family seems to own a dog in CR) walking and playing on the small paved roads by their house. I think we had to brake at least a dozen times because dogs came running on to the streets. And while most towns do have a playground and in the town center a small park, there is not much more to each town than that town square and some shops.  

Typical road conditions: small curvy roads and everyone walks on them

So after some debating and analyzing we came to the conclusion that CR is not the right spot for us and I don't think we will find our happiness there. There are just too many factors not adding up right and considering that we would leave everything behind for something that might work, it is not worth to us. Plus, the main factor of living cheaper and on a budget to enjoy more family time seems impossible now that we know what everything costs in CR. Therefore, we will continue with our pursuit of happiness till we find it....somewhere else that is. I guess it wouldn't be called the "pursuit of happiness" if one would find it right away!?! So, we are continuing with our journey and keep searching (new places to live are already being explored). For sure, we are happy that we went to CR and explored it and then made our final decision.

Goodbye Costa Rica, till we meet again some day