May 31, 2020 - Nine Years in Costa Rica!

From this (2007) in Cloverdale, British Columbia, Canada:

To this (2011) - Playa Doña Ana, Alajuela, Costa Rica:

Which location would you choose?

On May 31, 2011, we arrived in Costa Rica. I was working on this crossword puzzle on the airplane and kept it as a souvenir.

We have lived here for nine years and have never regretted our decision to move to Costa Rica. We’ve made lots of friends, both Costa Rican and expats from all over the world. Everything is so good - the weather, the Costa Ricans, the beauty of the countryside - my list would be endless.

To move to a foreign country sight unseen is a challenge, but a good one. We have learned so much - although our Spanish is, shall we say, una pequeña cantidad de español. But we try which is what counts. We did a lot of on line research once we decided to take this leap in life. And joined many, many expat groups. We recently received our permanent residency status.

Don’t live your life in a rut!

Cabbage Rolls, Rainbows, Haircuts and COVID-19 - Costa Rica

Here is an update on the coronavirus in Costa Rica as of Saturday, May 23, 2020, https://ticotimes.net/2020/05/23/coronavirus-in-costa-rica-7-new-cases-7-more-recoveries.

We are still on driving restrictions. We cannot drive on Fridays or Sundays (determined by the last numeral on our vehicle’s licence plate). No car travel at all between 10:00 pm and 5:00 am during the week and between 7:00 pm to 5:00 am on the weekends. The repercussions of not following these restrictions can be severe - heavy fines and removal of your licence plates to name two. Beaches have opened but only between the hours of 5:00 am to 8:00 am - I believe this is primarily for the benefit of surfers (world class) - and of course with everyone following the usual protocols for keeping distance, etc.

A well known landmark restaurant in Atenas - Kay’s Café Pequeña Polonia (previously Kay’s Gringo Postres) - has reopened with limited hours and takeaway. They have a free lending library. Since we needed new reading material and were craving cabbage rolls, I put in an order and we drove there last week and picked them up, plus some new books. One order had dill sauce and the other tomato sauce and the orders included mashed potatoes, pickled beets, and cucumbers and onions. The portions are really large (two rolls each) so we got four meals out of the one order. Here’s the dill sauce version:

It’s really important right now to support all your local businesses. This is a very difficult time for them and many have closed, some permanently. 

We haven’t been going to barbers or beauty parlours and Lance really needed a head shave. He has a set of clippers so I volunteered to do the deed. Turns out I’m pretty good at it.

Tools of my trade:

Here’s Lance ready for the clippers and pretty relaxed.

The one thing I stupidly did not do was take an “after” photo - but the buzz cut came out so well that Lance has said I can do it again.

We found face masks at Compre Bien in Grecia. This one is washable and made here in Costa Rica. We are using them when in shops or around groups of people.

We saw a double rainbow from our house the other day - very rare. Isn’t that tree amazing? It’s the Guanacaste tree I mentioned in a recent post and it’s absolutely enormous.

I have a couple of orchids blooming:

So that’s about what is going on with us during this awful virus time. We are happy to be in this little country. Costa Rica is doing an excellent job of controlling, tracking and treating. Citizens are taking the recommendations and restrictions seriously for the most part.

Kermit is wearing his mask. Are you?

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - April 2020

During April, visits to this blog were received from the following 16 countries:

At some time in April, the total number of visits to this blog since November 2012 exceeded a threshold of 40,000. These visits came from over 4000 different towns, cities and other places throughout the world including over 1900 places in the USA and over 500 places in Canada.

The following is a summary of the weather for the month in the area where we live:

The rainy or "green" season has begun. For the first three months of the year and until April 12^th there were only 3 days with measurable rain. During the remaining part of the month, there were 10 days.

There is a very large Guanacaste tree across the property from our yard. During the dry season, it loses all its leaves:

Then, the leaves start to come back as they did towards the end of April this year:

Now (early May), it is in full bloom:

The Guanacaste tree is the national tree of Costa Rica.

We Now Have Permanent Residency in Costa Rica

Just over a year ago, we finally applied for permanent residency status. We could have done it after living here for three years with legal residency - either pensionado, rentista or investor. We had pensionado status. We were just lazy in getting it started.

As is our custom, we always use a lawyer for anything relating to our residency and we have always used Romulo Pacheco at the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR). It was very easy - we initially met with Romulo, signed some documents, paid all the necessary fees then went home and let his staff deal with everything. Just over a year later, we were contacted by ARCR -  both of us had been approved. An appointment was set up to meet with one of the legal staff and he took us to the main post office in San José. This is where the last of the processing was completed. A small fee paid for the actual cedulas (ID cards), stamping of documents, photos taken and so on and we were done!

On April 27 of this year, we picked up our new cards.

Why have permanent residency? Here are some reasons:

•  you only have to be in Costa Rica one day a year to maintain this residency
•  you can now work in Costa Rica
•  you can own a company and receive income from it 
•  renewing your status is easy compared to renewing temporary status (not as much paperwork involved and not as expensive)

But I think the best reason is that it demonstrates a commitment to this country that so graciously permits us to live here.