Living is Costa Rica is similar to surviving in paradise. The Costa Ricans refer to this as 'Pura Vida' -The Pure Life. Costa Rican is an excellent way, and place, to call home. The hardest part could be the decision on where you can live.
In a very small geographical area, Costa Rica can provide a cosmopolitan urban setting perfect for the socialite in you; tropical beaches for sunlight worshiper in you; hot, humid rain forests for the type lover in you; or temperate, mountain living for the adventurer in you. No matter how you would like to live, you can get a place to suit your desires, while only living a few hours away from a totally different climate and lifestyle.
Most Americans relocating to Costa Rica prefer to live in the temperate climates offered by the Central valley or the hillsides of the Nicoya peninsula in the Provence of Guanacaste. Both areas are higher in elevation compared to the coastal regions and have a drier, cooler, and more comfortable climate, to which most Americans tend to be more accustomed.
International Living, the magazine specialized in promoting and educating Americans about living abroad, lists both areas in Costa Rica as top places on earth where to retire. The benefits of Guanacaste are price, proximity to beaches, and development potential. The government has made a substantial commitment to improve infrastructure, especially roads, in your community to help promote development in the 'Gold Coast' of Costa Rica,
Once you decide on where to live, the next decision will be on how to live in your brand-new country. As in the us, you have a wide variety of housing choices. It is possible to rent or buy, live luxuriously or modestly, urban or rural. Here, again, the Guanacaste region offers the new emigrant all these choices. From modern beachfront condos to rural, agricultural opportunities, the choice is yours.
No matter where your home is, or how you reside in Costa Rica; one common denominator will be that you may live the lifestyle of one's choice much more inexpensively than you can in the U.S. From housing costs to food to medical expenses, almost everything you must live comfortably is less costly compared to the same item in America. Even property taxes are less taxing.
About the only items which will cost you more will undoubtedly be imports, as a result of high tariffs positioned on imports to the united states. For the savvy buyer, the Government has generated a duty free zone in Golfito, a small southern Pacific town. The maximum amount you can buy in this tax free zone has recently been raised to $1000 every half a year ($2,000 annually). The only real catch is that you need to spend one night in the area to qualify for the work free purchases.
Pura Vida is enjoying life as you find it. Which means eating pure, fresh fruit and vegetables available year round from local producers. Meat, fish, and seafood are all available locally and inexpensively, so eating healthy is one major benefit of surviving in Costa Rica.
Enjoying all the natural beauty the country has to offer is right at your doorstep. Costa Rica consistently ranks on top of every way of measuring environmentalism by numerous rating organizations. If leaving as small of a carbon footprint as possible is important to you, then you will undoubtedly be hard pressed to find a better place, and way, to call home.
Living on the list of Costa Rican people is delightful and rewarding. Costa Ricans rank first in the world in the 'happiness index', and so are ranked high in Latin America in almost every category that's measured. Most Americans feel right at home in a very short period of time after moving to Costa Rica. The culture and lifestyle is easy to adapt to and not as completely foreign as other overseas destinations could be. expat that an instant trip back to the states is only a 3-6 hour flight from Costa Ricans airports really helps to alleviate any 'homesickness' which could occur.
Come, begin your brand-new life, and help us maintain our number one 'happiness index' on earth. Pura Vida is Pure Surviving in Costa Rica.