Our move to Costa Rica This summary of our move to Costa Rica can be found at Living Abroad in Costa Rica a website/book/guide about moving to and living in Costa Rica. The fourth edition is coming out and our expat profile (a version of this article) will be included. by Erin Van Rheenen Kimberly Beck
Things to think about before you buy a farm in Costa Rica Not everyone comes to Costa Rica with a pension, finds an awesome condo right over the sunset studded Pacific Ocean and lives happily ever after. Some people seek out a different lifestyle all together. Some people choose Costa Rica for the cheap farm
2012 | Photography Exposition at the Antigua Aduana building in San Jose Costa Rica As a photography company in Costa Rica we were compelled to go to the Photography Exposition or Expo Foto near downtown San Jose. The Antigua Aduana (Old Customs) building was just right for such an event. There was attended parking for only $2, beautiful
Starting a business in Costa Rica I remember talking up our business plan to anyone that would listen back in early 2010. “We are going to build our portfolio as we drive across the U.S.A. and then open a Bed and Breakfast that offers Photography Classes in Costa Rica.” The star-shine in my eyes must have
Buy it or Make it? Do we have to buy everything or can we just make it ourselves? Barry and his Dad made an oven, Barry is making just about everything under the sun and I made curtains! On a recent trip to San Jose I found some lovely Guatemalan fabric in a store downtown.
Country Living in Costa Rica – Clinic Visit & Rollerskating You probably already know that we live in the country. After all, we do have a cow, pig and chicken farm to the North, South and East of us and the farms above us in the mountains are all grazing land for cattle. It might
Will Work for Beer – Finding Work in Costa Rica What if in some magical dreamland the “Will work for beer sign” that you kept under the bed just because you thought it was funny actually WORKED? What if it was a real job and not the here’s a six pack now get in the
Value of $4.50 in Costa Rica for an U.S. expat in 2012 There are a lot and I mean a lot of things here in Costa Rica that are more expensive than in the U.S. Most of you can go to the local Walmart and pick up a new coffee maker for $9.99. Now it
A video on making tamales for christmas in Costa Rica. How we did our part by getting leaves from the yuti growing in our yard. We were lucky enough this year to have some friends invite us over to make tamales, which is a Christmas tradition here in Costa Rica. Our involvement was to bring
Construction Project number two is going well This is phase 2 of our building guest cabins project down here. It is coming along nicely, albeit slowly. This structure will contain two guest rooms, one bathroom, a kitchen with a wood burning pizza oven and an area just for hammocks and lounging around. Barry and Alfredo
An Expat’s Experience visiting home for Thanksgiving. I recently returned from a 18 day trip to my hometown in the U.S., Cincinnati, Ohio. It was during Thanksgiving and the start of the Christmas season. I found Thanksgiving a great time to be home. During Thanksgiving week I saw family, old friends, new babies and people
I of course am talking about Firefly, the one season television series from Sci-fi. Barry watched it last December when we first arrived. He asked me if I wanted to watch with him and after hearing about its cult-like fan base I decided to pass. In the states, I saw the kind of people who drove
Starting a New Life at 40? What was I thinking? We stayed overnight at a friend’s house recently so that we could be there early the next morning to catch their great green macaw saying “Quiero Café” or “I want coffee”. Cocito comes into the house sits on the back of his own chair and
There are two types of sloths, one man and one animal *Looking back at this video is hard. It has horrible editing, bad grammar & all sorts of things wrong with it. Shows our early progress but not worth your time. Kim 2/14 Our video shows one of our cute sloths in his Guarumo tree,
Building in Costa Rica. Our all wood cabin and our new gravel road. This is our new road and our progress on the cabin. The road has all the material it needs but the caterpillar needs to come back on Monday to flatten it down and make it nice. We have been driving on it
Spooky Things in Costa Rica. Our first few months were a bit scary. Ewww, this video shows the scary side of Costa Rica. Our first few months here have been eye opening to say the least! Barry found what he thought was a Hog Nosed Rainforest Pit Viper above his head, but turned out it was
Swimming with birds & monkeys & Building the cabin in Costa Rica Enjoying Nature in Costa Rica while building the cabin, our video You may notice that Barry is editing this video. He claims that in the past I would make fun of him by being biased in what clips I decided to use. I vehemently deny the
Our New Apartment in Costa Rica and getting permission to cut a few trees. We moved to an apartment this week. It is only a 10 minute drive from our farm. It’s just one big room but its big enough for us and has a solid internet connection speed. The pictures are of the apartment
Our first days living on a Costa Rica farm. We were staying on a friends farm and learning everything including Spanish. You can’t expect to come to Costa Rica and just take the country by storm. Even if you have a building plan, money and big dreams, nobody cares. There are permissions, stamps and rules that need
Applying for Residency in Costa Rica In early August we went back to Costa Rica to apply for residency. We stayed in San Jose proper which is unusual for us, as we normally get straight on a bus to Siquirres and never get to see the big city. We decided that after business was was finished that
End of July Building the Starplate Loveshack It is the end of July 2009 and this is our loveshack that we’ll be living in while we build our house. It has all the walls now and has screen around the entire building. It is made using the starplate system. Barry & his Dad Peter built
Updates and Transitions – Preparing for the move to Costa Rica All kinds of fun stuff going on since the last post. Coleman got back to us with a big thumbs down on our trip sponsorship. The reason, no budget. Really Coleman? If your CEO decided that he wanted to finger paint our truck I