A lot of my friends here in Costa Rica, as well as many people I’ve met in my travels, are moving to Atenas. More than a half-dozen couples and families in the last few months have arrived in this small town in the Central Valley.
Seven years ago Kristin Gilbert Ramirez was living the American Dream. She had a full-time teaching career, health benefits, a home, a car, and fancy electronics. And she was pursuing her master's degree in the beautiful countryside of Maine. Only it wasn't her dream.
My wife, Caryl, and I grew up together in a very small town in the rural Midwest. After leaving for college, marrying, and spending many years in the workforce, we returned to our little community—38 years after we left.
It’s a line you hear a lot on Costa Rica’s southern Pacific coast. “We thought about Panama—we almost bought in El Valle. Then we came down to Costa Rica’s Southern Zone and fell in love.
Anna Fishel, 63, was living and working in Colorado in early 2012, and retirement was still years away…or so she thought. “There was a change in management at my job that made it absolutely miserable for me to go to work. I had bought my house in Costa Rica with plans to move in a few years."
Costa Rica has been an expat haven for retirees and others for decades because of its low cost of living, high quality – and cheap – medical care, warm weather climate, bargain real estate, and no-hassle residency.
My wife is a very outgoing person. But when we moved to Costa Rica...things changed. I speak Spanish. Her? Well, she took a few semesters in college. She tried her best...but often got flustered when having a real-life conversation. So it was up to me to act as a translator and talk to everybody: the gardener, the maid, bus drivers, people on the street to get directions, our neighbors, the utility company...you get the idea.
Over the years, Barry and Claudia Leon lived happily all over the States. They both had full and varied careers in psychology, college teaching, business, and biology.
In two trips over the course of a year, Gail went to San Jose, Costa Rica, for her dental work, spending two weeks each time. Her total cost for everything, including flights, accommodation and her dental work: $14,000—well under half what she’d been quoted in the U.S. for her dental treatment alone. And the quality was first-rate.
Costa Rica is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. With just 0.03% of the world’s landmass, it has an incredible 5% of the world’s species. And you don’t have to visit a national park or a remote area to view this plentiful wildlife.