About Christopher Howard

Christopher Howard has lived, worked and played in one of the most magical places on earth for more than 33 years. His love for Costa Rica is so great that he became a citizen.

During this time, he has had the opportunity to gather a plethora of information about living, investing and retiring in Costa Rica. It is not surprising that he has first-hand knowledge and insight into all aspects of Costa Rica’s culture and its people. Because of his expertise, he is a frequent lecturer at numerous investment seminars.

Mr. Howard has an extensive foreign language background, having earned a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American studies and a Master’s degree in Spanish from the University of California and may soon be a candidate for a P.H.D. at Harvard. He also has credentials to teach Spanish at all levels from California State University, San Francisco.

Mr. Howard was the recipient of scholarships for graduate study at the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico and the Jesuit University of Guadalajara, Mexico in conjunction with the University of San Diego, California. In 1985, he founded a successful language institute in San José, Costa Rica. Mr. Howard has written three foreign language books including the one-of-a-kind “Christopher Howard’s Guide to Costa Rican Spanish”. It is the only Spanish book that teaches Costa Rican-style Spanish.

At present, Chris Howard has been busy working as a paid consultant for National Geographic Magazine, published articles and columns in Costa Rica Today, Escape Artist.com, Costa Rica Outdoors, Inside Costa Rica, AM Costa Rica, the real estate publication Casa Galeria, for various newsletter about living abroad and working on a feature action movie script to be filmed in Central America.

Mr. Howard also serves as an officer on the Board of Directors of the Association of Residents of Costa Rica.

In 1998 he wrote and published the one-of-a-kind “The Official Guide to Living and Investing in the New Cuba”. His most recent guidebooks are the third edition of “The Official Guide to Living and Investing in the New Nicaragua” (2008), “The Official Guide to Living and Investing in Panama” (2008), “Christopher Howard’s Official Guide to Costa Rica Real Estate (2009)” , “Christopher Howard’s Official Guide to Panamanian Spanish (2008) ”, “Christopher Howard’s Official Guide to Cuban Spanish (2008)” and “Christopher Howard’s Official Guide to Mexican Spanish (2010) and “Christopher Howard’s Official Guide to Colombian Spanish.” Finally, in 2012 he released the one-of-a-kind “Christopher Howard’s Official Guide to Costa Rica’s Legal System for Tontos (Dumbells)." All of these guides are the definitive books on their respective subjects.

Due to a multitude of requests from the readers of his guidebook books about retirement and relocation in Costa Rica, Christopher Howard began to offer relocation and retirement tours to Costa Rica starting in 1997. Since then he has personally introduced 1000’s of people to Costa Rica through his one-of-a-kind monthly tours, seminars and private consultation services. Please see www.liveincostarica.com information about his unique tours.

Christopher Howard is Recognized as a Retirement authority by Costa Rica
Noble Peace Prize winning Presidents Oscar Arias and Former President Alberto Monge

Another Honor for Christopher Howard
The new 15th edition of “Christopher Howard’s Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica” was recently chosen out of 125 books for the cover of the book trade publication “Publishers Weekly.” This guidebook is available from Amazon.com and in bookstores.