Costa Ricans have a great sense of humor. When you retire here and learn Spanish you will learn to appreciate how funny the Costa Ricans can be. It seems they are always joking about something. They say that everything here is a vacilón (fun).

Here is an example of Costa Rican humor.

The ticos (Costa Ricans) say that the three most important things in a Costa Rican man’s life are: Beer, women and soccer. Not necessarily in that order.

They also say that the three biggest lies in Costa Rica are:
(1) This is last drink of the night or zarpe (as it is called here).
(2) I’ll pay you the money I owe you tomorrow.
(3) I won’t penetrate you when we have sex.

Here are the most common lies you hear from Gringos who have moved here. If you have resided here for any period of time I am sure you have heard most of them from your fellow countrymen.

(1) I speak fluent Spanish (In reality it takes years to speak the language well)
(2) I have the best lawyer with the best contacts in Costa Rica (every American brags about this to feel important)
(3) I am an expert in real estate (I have heard this one 1000 times)
(4) I am an expert on Costa Rica retirement (This one is getting really old)
(5) It was her first night in the brothel (I must have heard this hundreds of times from naïve males)
(6) I was  a Navy Seal in Vietnam  and war hero ( Believe or not I have heard different versions of this)
(7) I didn’t lose any money with the Brothers (a popular investment with foreigners that went belly-up a few years ago. Most people won’t admit they invested there or they say that they got all of their principal back because they didn’t let their money ride.)

Surely I will add to this list in the not too distant future.

While he rest of the world is going through a major economic downturn, things are looking good here.

With all of the doom and gloom saturating the media I am so happy to be living in Costa Rica.

While he rest of the world  is going through a major economic downturn, things are looking good here. The IMF recently gave Costa Rica’s financial institutions and fiscal policies a passing grade. Fortunately, the government has reserves, they did not make any investments on Wall Street and sub-prime mortgages do not exist here. We also don’t have the huge commerce and manufacturing sector like the auto industry which is be devastated in larger countries. Once again, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Small self sufficient countries like Costa Rica are just aren’t hit as hard as the big boys.

During the recent Christmas shopping season the store were packed with people out spending their money. So retail sales were good. On the other hand, the U.S. experienced the opposite.

Costa Rica is still affordable for your retirement dreams. People tend to compare the cost of living with depressed states like Florida to make it same expensive here. Property taxes, hired help, dining out, fruits and vegetables and above all high quality medical are still much cheaper than in the United States.

If you really want to see how affordable Costa Rica is then compare the prices here to Europe. A dinner for four in a good restaurant can cost $500 in Paris. Here the same number of people can eat for one-fifth of the that.

We will feel the trickle down effect from what’s happening in the U.S. but we will fare well. For example, our tourism doesn’t depend exclusively on the U.S. Market. A large number of European visitors com here very year.  Chinese tourists are now interested in in Costa Rica.