Yes, singles can find happiness here. Why? Because there is so much to do. As one long-time single resident once told me, “In Costa Rica there is something for everyone and everything for someone.”

You can see that singles can find almost anything they want in Cost Rica to stay happy during their retirement years.

There is a wealth of both indoor and outdoor activities to stay busy and happy. Just pick up a copy of the Tico Times and check out their weekend calendar  section and you’ll find hundreds activities, movies and clubs from which to choose.

You won’t be lonely here unless you choose to be. You can meet people easily through any of the activities I just described. On top of that, foreigners tend to gravita.te  towards each other when they live abroad. Believe me you’ll have no trouble meeting people with common interests here. I have more friends and acquaintances in Costa Rica than I ever had in the U.S. Everywhere I go I seem to run into someone I know.

If you are looking for someone for romance, Costa Rica might just be the right place for you.  Ladies will find gentleman admirers if they so desire.  Due to machismo, Costa Rican men are more flirtatious and aggressive than North American men.  Most Costa Rican men think foreign women have looser morals and are easier conquests than ticas (Costa Rican women).  Be careful to take time to develop a long-term, meaningful relationship and do not rush things. Many single middle-aged women have a tough time finding a mate because they cannot compete with the young curvaceous ticas. As one expat woman put it,  ”We just happen to live in a country of traffic-stopping gorgeous women.” However, I do know numerous American women who have formed successful relationships with other Americans or Costa Rican partners.

Men of any age will have no problem meeting Costa Rican women.  The women in Costa Rica seem to like older, more experienced men. It is not unusual to see a wife who is 10 to 20 years younger than her spouse.  This practice may be frowned on in some countries but is accepted in Costa Rica.  Many retirees we know claim to feel rejuvenated and to have a new lease on life after becoming involved with younger women.  Costa Rican women have an unparalleled reputation as being the most beautiful and accessible women in Latin America, including Brazil. The ladies of Costa Rica are more warm-hearted and devoted than their North American counterparts.  They consider you a joy.  One retiree we know boasts,  “The women here really know how to treat you like a king!” A man doesn’t even have to be rich to meet women; a $1,500 to $2,000 Social Security check translates to a millionaire’s pay in Costa Rica.

Here is what one expatriate’s Costa Rican wife said about her relationship with an older American man.  “Most of the time when a young woman marries an older man, people think she’s doing it for the money. I like older men. They are experienced; they’ve had a lot of fun in the past, so they start to think, ‘I want to stay now with someone for the rest of my life.’ Plus they have their life set up, so they have time to spend with their woman. With Costa Rican men close to her age, she says, their behavior changes after marriage. With Costa Rican men, you are a princess, but when you get married the whole thing changes: “You are going to have my children. I’m working, so you should make my dinner, wash my clothes.” The women get submissive and the Costa Rican men get possessive.

So, you can see that singles can find almost anything they want in Cost Rica to stay happy during their retirement years. In fact, they can have a new exciting lifestyle here that they could never find in the States or Canada.

For the past few days it has rained incessantly. If you didn’t know where you were, you’d think you were in Seattle, Washington. Cold, rainy, wet and gray skies is the kind of weather we’ve had. You would never think that you were in the  tropical country. By the way, in Costa Rica they call this type of incessant rain a temporal.

Unfortunately, October is the worst month for weather in Costa Rica. It coincides with the peak of the hurricane season in the Caribbean and we get all of the rain but not the dreaded hurricanes. Thank god! Nevertheless the last three or four Octobers have really been wet  I guess weather patterns all over the world have changed because man has destroyed and polluted the environment. These extreme changes in the weather are probably Mother Nature’s way of warning us that we are destroying the planet.

There are malls, where you can have lunch, see a movie or window shop if you get too bored at home.

By the end of the October nobody wants to see any more water. All the rain puts a damper on the outdoor activities here. I like to visit friends or go out to eat but when it is pouring I find it hard to get motivated to leave the house. Fortunately, I work at home and always have something to catch up on. There is a mall about ten minutes away where I can have lunch, see a movie or window shop if I get too bored at home.

The rainy season usually lasts about six months. If it rained like it is doing now throughout the whole rainy season, all of the retired people living here would probably leave and come back in November much like the snowbirds do in the States because of the snow.  One can easily put up with one wet month and enjoy  the  spring-like weather of the Central Valley most of the year. I don’t know of one person who has cancelled their retirement plans or moved back  to the U.S. because of Costa Rica’s weather. Usually the places where most people come from have scorching summers and freezing winters, so it wouldn’t make sense to move back to even worse weather.

Footnote: I wrote this article and the following day was beautiful and sunny. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

It is easy to over pay for something in Costa Rica if you haven’t done your homework.

“Is it safe to invest in Costa Rica?” This is one of the most frequent questions I get asked by the guests on my monthly retirement/relocation tours. During my nearly 30 years of living in Costa Rica I have had the opportunity to observe a lot of people make money and other lose it. I have also bought and sold a lot of property here and have currently have some sizeable money invested in property. Consequently, I have a good idea of what it takes to invest safely here and have seen many common denominators in cases where people have “lost their shirts” through poor investments, especially in real estate. The whole process basically boils down to perception and common sense. It is easy to over pay for something in Costa Rica if you haven’t done your homework.

Because there is corruption, bribery in Costa Rica and most people have heard or read about the horror stories, most English speakers assume that if someone speaks English they are trustworthy. This is the BIGGEST mistake you can make. Just because someone speaks good English or is from the States, Canada or Europe does not make the individual a good person. Some people here will take advantage of naive newcomers.

As I state in the fifteenth edition of my perennial bestseller “The New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica,” “One ‘dangerous breed of animal’ you may encounter are a few foreigners between 30 and 60 years of age who are in business but do not have pensions. Most are struggling to survive and have to really hustle to make a living in Costa Rica. Since they have no fixed income like a retiree they are desperate and will go to almost any means to make money including overcharging you. Notice I use the word overcharge. They may even have a legitimate business but most certainly try to take advantage of you to make a few extra dollars. Some of these people may own hotels, have tourism-related businesses, own restaurants or pass themselves off as local experts. Almost all of these characters have very convincing websites extolling their expertise and knowledge of the country. Most complaints we hear concerning people being “ripped off” are caused by individuals who fit this description.”

Here is an example. About four years ago while conducting one of my retirement tours near Domincal I met a portly North American who called himself Gringo Mel (not his real name but similar). He owned a hotel at the time and billed himself as the best cook in Costa Rica among other things. I should have known that anyone who was so full of himself had to be a conman. Anyway he told me he waned show me some property that he was selling because the owner was out of the country. We went there and I fell in love with the place. It had an incredible ocean view and a couple of building lots. I told him I was interested and to find out the price of the land and home on it. He told me was $165,000 dollars. A few months passed and the property and home had not sold. On my next trip to Dominical I mentioned to a friend who lives and works in the area that I was interested in said property. She told me she had talked with the owner and the real price was around $120,000 dollars. This meant our friend Gringo Mel was charging a $45,000 dollars commission as the middleman or a or 30 percent for his services. Needless to say, I never purchased the property but almost got taken to the cleaners by a fellow gringo.

On your first trip to Costa Rica you will probably be besieged by con- artists anxious to help you make an investment. Be wary of blue ribbon business deals that seem too good to be true, or any other get-rich-quick schemes i.e. non-existent land, fantastic sounding real estate projects, phony high-interest bank investments or property not belonging to the person selling it. If potential profit sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There seems to be something about the ambience here that causes one to trust total strangers. The secret is to be cautious without being afraid to invest. Before jumping into what seems to be a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity, ask yourself this question: Would I make the same investment in my hometown? A friend and long-time resident here always says jokingly when referring to the business logic of foreigners who come to Costa Rica: “When they step off the plane they seem to go brain-dead.”

Here is more advice from my bestseller. One should be extremely cautious when dealing with foreigners who consider themselves experts in Costa Rica. Just because a person was a professional in his home country or has gone through the process of moving here does NOT qualify him to be an expert here. Some foreigners consider themselves experts just because they have lived here for a short time. Remember, anyone can build a website and say anything about themselves.

We know people who move here, and go into business and miraculously become experts overnight. Costa Rica is indeed a magical country!

Many naive newcomers have been taken advantage of by other foreigners who call themselves “experts,” but are really incompetent imposters. So, be careful!

We suggest that if you happen to come into contact with any foreigner who calls himself an “expert,” no matter how convincing he may be, do all of the following:

1. Ask for references from other foreign residents who have used the expert’s services. Don’t rely on the testimonials that appear on a person’s website. They may be slanted. If your expert will not give you any references, you will know immediately you are being duped or sold shoddy second-rate services. Also, try to contact the person’s last employer before they moved to Costa Rica. Again, if they will not give you the contact information, you can bet the person is hiding something. If a person who is not of retirement age claims to have been highly successful in his or her former country, they may be trying to cover up something about their background.
2. Check with the Association of Residents of Costa Rica to see if they are familiar with the person’s services.
3. Enter the person’s name in a search engine such as Google to see what comes up. Be careful because many of these rascals use an alias. There are even companies you can pay to do a background check if you suspect something.
4. Ask how long the person has lived in Costa Rica. If they have been here for less than 10 years, be careful. It takes years to understand this country and more than a year or two to know the ropes. Many of these neophyte relocation gurus and entrepreneurs mean well but just don’t have enough experience under their belt.
5. Find out what the person’s educational background was when they lived in their home country and if they have any formal training in the Latin American culture, studies or foreign investments. If someone was a plumber, janitor, welder or doctor, for example, prior to moving here, this does not qualify them to give professional advice in Costa Rica.
6. Beware of colorful, well-designed web sites built by the so- called experts to express their admiration for the country to attract naive foreigners. Many of these sites try to scare you into to thinking their services are the only ones that can keep you from being taken advantage of. In reality they are manipulating you into doing business through them.
7. Be cautious of publications that appear to be helpful on the surface but incessantly hype the services of the person(s) or organization behind them.
8. Over the years we have run into so-called foreign experts who live comfortably in upscale in “Ivory Towers” and gated communities in gringo enclaves such as Escazú. The majority of their friends are other English speakers, so they have never have really immersed themselves in the local culture. They are virtually still foreigners living among other foreigners. These people live in virtual isolation from the real Costa Rica. Few of them have any contact with Costa Ricans except for their maids and servants and rich Costa Rican friends from the country-club set. They rarely venture out of their safe environment to gather the necessary experience to confront real life situations here. Most live as if they were still in their home country, and give advice about a country and culture they really don’t know.
9. Most important find out if the person is truly fluent in Spanish. There is no way a person can have expertise unless he or she can communicate with the locals and understand the nuances of the local humor, culture and language. Beware: there are many foreigners who say they speak fluent Spanish with a vocabulary of only a couple of hundred words. I have run into many of them in my 30 years here.
10. Always ask to see a person’s residency card with their real name on it. Many Americans are working illegally here. Would you buy property from an illegal alien in the U.S.?

With the current world financial crisis, especially in the Unites States, many people are having to postpone their retirement plans up to five years. In the worst case scenario some people may never be able to retire. Time is so important to everyone and can be our worst enemy.  Because of the current financial crisis thousands of people will have to continue working for a number or years may not live to see their retirement. No telling what people would give to not have to continue working and be able to enjoy their golden years. There is a solution for some of you. It is called  Costa Rica

Investment in emerging markets like Costa Rica is the way many savvy investors have made money.

Costa Rica can be the answer to your problems for a lot of reasons. First, you can down size and live for much less than you did in the States. Those who live on $3,000 per month in the U.S. can probably live on half of that here. The  person living on more can or less can also do the same. Why? Homes, rents, hired help, public transportation and non-imported foods are all more affordable. If you take into account that most Costa Ricans live well for far less than $1000 monthly and seem to be happy, you’ll see why you can live cheaper here without sacrificing your current lifestyle.

Many people can no longer afford medical are in the States. As you age medical care becomes more and more important. Here you can get insurance for under $60 per month in the public system. I belong to the private system and pay less than $2,000 yearly to insure my family. With the financial crisis in the U.S.  An increasing number of  people will have to give up their medical coverage just to make ends meet. I had a couple on one of my recent relocation/retirement tours who decide to more here because they could no longer afford medical care in the U.S. Costa Rica was the logical choice for them. They made the move and are  doing very well living here.

More and more people are investing offshore, especially the ways things are looking in the U.S.  Investment in emerging markets like Costa Rica is the way many savvy investors have made money. Fortunately, there are no sub prime mortgages here. Also, if you buy a home in Costa Rica you will have more money in your pocket  since property taxes are only a quarter of one percent of the declared value of your home. I have a large number of clients on my retirement tours realize good value when they see it and invest in real estate here.

If you take all of the factors I mention above Costa Rica may be solution many Americans are looking for, given world events. It is just are question of realizing the many opportunities  and options that exist here.

October is the worst month for rain

Recently,  a couple of people have written me about Costa Rica’s weather. They are thinking of retiring here but want to know more about the country’s climate. I’d like to start by saying that in the tropics the lower you go the hotter it is. Conversely, the higher you go the cooler it gets. You can choose between the mountains, Central Valley with its spring-like weather, the beach and all of the micro climates in between.

We have about five months of summer that lasts from the middle of November to the middle of April or beginning of May. From May until October is the rainy season or winter as it is sometimes referred to here. During the wet season the mornings are usually sunny with the rain coming in the afternoon or evening. Like other tropical places when it rains it usually pours torrentially. Sometimes the rain is accompanied by a lot of thunder and lightening. At the beach it seems to rain more frequently and harder than inland.

Traditionally October is the worst month for rain. It rains a lot and very hard. Sometimes you’d think you were in a tropical version of Seattle. My sister lives there and it seems to rain all the time. Luckily we only get this kind of weather in October. The rain is not unbearable but at times it does put a damped on one’s plans. When it is pouring  it can be really hard to get enthused about leaving your home. Traffic can be very bad especially if there is an accident during a storm.

The best thing to do when it is rains is curl up in bed with a good book, watch your favorite TV program, cook, go to the mall or rent a DVD. Fortunately, there are a lot of indoor activities in a country that is made for doing things outdoors. So, you should never be bored here during your retirement even when it rains. On my monthly retirement tours I go out of my way to tell my clients about all of the activities that are available here to stay busy and happy.