Yesterday I celebrated my 28th Christmas in Costa Rica  I must admit it takes time to adjust to living or retiring in a place where there is no cold weather or snow at Christmas time. Yesterday the weather was in the 70s and the Christmas spirit filled the air.

The first thing I did was take my son to visit his grandfather who lives in San José. Next, we went to see my friend Rico who was having an outdoor Christmas barbecue at his farm in the town of Santa Ana. The latter is about ten miles west of San José. Despite a lot of growth, some parts of Santa Ana still have a rural flavor.  Many retirees live in and around this area.

We spent about two hours at Rico’s and then had to leave to visit another friend who lives in the upscale Cariari area. In case you don’t know, the Cariari is a golf course community located about ten minutes east of the airport. Good shopping is only a few minutes away from this popular neighborhood. A nice mixture of Costa Ricans and foreigners live in the Cariari.

My friends went all out on their Christmas party. It was held in their large garden with a disc jockey and catered food. The guests were a pleasant mixture of Costa Rican, Canadian and U.S. citizens. Needless to say my son and I had a very good time.

One of the good things about living or retiring in Costa Rica is that it is very easy to develop a network of friends. The Costa Rican people are very friendly and foreigners tend to gravitate towards each other when they live abroad. I have more friends and acquaintances here than I ever had when I lived in the United States.  As you can see with a little effort you can have a really good lifestyle here.