I just returned from spending almost one month in the U.S. visiting friends and relatives. My first stop was Seattle where my sister Sallye lives. She retired there about 10 years ago. The area is absolutely beautiful. Everything looks fresh and green with spectacular Mont Rainier looming in the background. Seattle is a very nice city with friendly people. Places like Pike’s Place Market make the emerald city unique.

The summers in are generally warm and the days are long with the sun setting around 9 o’clock. However, the rest of the year leaves a lot to be desired. As much as I love this beautiful area, the cool raining weather, cloudy skies and long dark winter days would make it impossible for me to live there.

After being in Seattle for a couple of weeks I traveled to my old stomping grounds, San Francisco. I lived in San Francisco for many years before I moved to Costa Rica. I remember vividly discovering Costa Rica while living there. As much as I enjoyed the lifestyle of the Bay Area I felt compelled to move because Costa Rica offered so much more for me.

I make it a point to visit San Francisco almost every summer and always have a fantastic time there with my old friends. As nice as it is I feel completely out of place. I guess I have become more Costa Rican than San Franciscan. The city is a lot nicer than when I lived there and there are more things to do, but honestly I have a much better life in Costa Rica. I cashed in my chips, moved from San Francisco, followed my dreams, have been very successful and have had a fairy tale life in Costa Rica.

Many Americans who move to Costa Rica to live or retire have similar experiences. Costa Rica isn’t for everyone but if it “gets under your skin” you won’t want to move back to the States for”all of the tea in China.”.

The municipality of San José, Costa Rica recently announced a program to castrate and deworm as many stray dogs and cats as possible. This is in an effort to prevent the spread of diseases and to reduce the number of homeless dogs and cats in the metropolitan area. The local counterpart of the SPCA called la Asociación Nacional Protectora de Animales (ANPA) will also help with this project.

On my popular monthly relocation and retirement tours I am always asked questions about pets in Costa Rica. I make it a point to tell my guests that I know a lot about the subject since I am a dog lover.

Presently, I have two black male Labs. They a really good dogs and I try to take the possible possible care of them. Veterinarians are excellent and charge a fraction of what their counterparts do in the States. They are also easy to find here in the Central Valley. Almost every neighborhood has one.

You can also find your your favorite dog and cat here. We have everything from Purina to Science Diet. The are even a few large pet stores that are similar to the U.S. Chain Pat Co.

By the way, it is not necessary to bring your pet from home since there are several places where retirees can adopt dogs and cats here.

Auto Mercado is Costa Rica’s high-end market that carries most brand name products from the United States and Canada.

Presently I am in Seattle, Washington visiting my sister and seeing the sites. I make a yearly visit to the States every July and enjoy myself. However, the more time I spend in the U.S. reminds me why I originally moved to Costa Rica.

Don’t get me wrong! I have nothing against my country of birth. The differences between the two countries stand out the more time I live in Costa Rica. I consider myself 100% bilingual and bicultural and can live comfortably in either place.

The U.S. has good roads making it easy to get from one place to another provided there is no traffic. On the other hand Costa Rica is still working on infrastructure and roadways. Great progress has been make in the last couple of years with the completion of the Costanera between Quepos and Dominical and the new highway to Caldera from the Central Valley. Other new highways are in the works. When everything is completed I believe the country’s major highways will be on a par with those of the U.S.

Shopping is another big difference between the U.S. And Costa Rica. There is no question about it shopping is better in the United States. However, things are slowly change here. When I moved to Costa Rica over 30 years ago you couldn’t get any foreign products. Now the stores are inundated with them. We don’t have the variety of the U.S. But are closing the gap. For example, the Auto Mercado supermarket has almost every food product you can dream of from the U.S. Products that are not available in Costa Rica may be ordered over the Internet and shipped via one of the private mail companies like Aerocasillas.

On my monthly relocation/retirement tours I spend a lot of time lecturing about the differences and similarities between the U.S.and Costa Rica. My tours are like taking a constant seminar. I try to provide as much objective information as possible for my clients to help them decide if the country is right for them.

For almost thirty years I have worked as relocation/retirement expert in Costa Rica. I have personally helped thousands of people relocate here through my retirement books and my monthly retirement tours.

During the time I have lived here I have had the opportunity to observe many foreigners. Some of them find their piece of paradise in Costa Rica while others do not. I would be lying through my teeth if I claimed that Costa Rica was for everyone. It simply is not. On my monthly tours I make it a point to get this across to my clients. Costa Rica is not for everyone. However, those who come here and find it to their liking would have to be dragged back to the States or Canada. They have discovered the incredible lifestyle a person can have her if he or she makes an effort.

On the other side of the coin are those who decide after a while that Costa Rica isn’t the place for them. For a variety of reasons the decide to move back home. According to the Association of Residents of Costa Rica, “cultural shock” is the main factor leading to people leaving the country. There are just some kinds of people who cannot handle the Costa Rican culture and all of its nuances. People from this group find it just too hard to adjust to the lifestyle here.

The language is another factor that causes many people to leave. It takes time and effort to learn another language, especially when you are older. This task is not impossible but requires a lot of dedication. You basically get out of it, what you put into it. If you don’t at least learn survival Spanish you will always be a stranger in a strange land.

Boredom is another reason. A lot of people do not learn Spanish well enough and they are isolated in their communities. Or they do not have enough to do. Costa Rica has a wealth of activities for foreigners. All you have to do is pick up the weekend edition of the local English newspaper, the Tico Times, and you will find hundreds of things to do where you can meet other expatriates. La Nación, the local Spanish, newspaper also has a long list of things to do to stay busy and happy. All you have to do is get up off your butt and make the effort.

You can only sit on the balcony watching a tropical sunset for so long before is gets very old. I have a friend who lived on the beach and said, “After a while all of the sunsets look the same.”

The single men tie up with women here and sometimes get stripped of their wealth which leads them to move home. Others do not do their homework and make bad investments which eventually causes them to move back.

Single women sometimes have problems finding male companionship and enough friends of the same age and
educational level.

I am sure there are other reasons why people return to their home countries but the ones I have listed above are the primary factors I have observed.

About ten years ago I wrote an article for my best-selling guidebook “The New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica” entitled “Dumb and Dumber.” I have included a new version below and added another character I call “Even Dumber.” The purpose of this article is to open men’s eyes to the possible problems of getting involved with “some” of the women here. Most guys don’t share the same fate but nevertheless it is important to be aware of the modus operandi here and save yourself a lot of money and heart ache. I was married to an incredible Costa Rican woman who unfortunately passed away. Thank god that during our marriage she always kept her family at bay and didn’t involve them in our personal life or have me support them.

Over the years I have encountered a lot of foreigners who end up not using common sense and get involved with people with whom they would probably never associate back home. This brings me to the story of “Dumb and Dumber.”

Dumb came to Costa Rica about 12 years ago from the United States, where he was a successful businessman. Almost upon arriving here, he became romantically involved with a woman of ill- repute. He was basically too lazy and busy getting drunk to find a quality mate. Over the course of his relationship, he lost about $300,000 because he entrusted his business dealings to his girlfriend. After splitting up with her and having to give her half of everything he owned because of their common-law situation, he went and got involved with another woman who will probably “take him to the cleaners” someday.

Dumber is even more stupid than Dumb. He came to the country as a millionaire. The first thing he did was get romantically involved with a woman of the night. Dumber also spent most of his time in bars, like Dumb. Consequently, when he broke up with his lady friend, after a few years together, he had to pay her about $50,000. He is now with another woman and most likely supporting her whole family. He will probably end up broke like Dumb. Neither Dumb nor Dumber speaks Spanish nor has made any effort to understand the locals and constantly refers to them in derogatory terms.

This brings me to ‘Even Dumber.” He came here many years ago to retire. He is bright and I am sure he has read about the two characters above according to what he once told me over a couple of beers. “Even Dumber” is a man of money who was a successful lawyer in Texas before retiring here. He had been married and divorced twice in the States and has a couple of grown children. Dumb lives near the beach and enjoys the outdoors. He still maintains a residence in the U.S. I give him credit because he has learned some Spanish and made an effort has tried to fit in with the locals unlike the two dufuses above.

About five years ago he met a curvaceous young Costa Rican woman with a couple of children from her previous relationship. Five months later he moved her and the kids in with him. The woman has been good to him and he has developed an excellent relationship with her children. The only problem is that “Even Dumber” is now supporting not only his girlfriend and her kids but his girlfriend’s parents and several other relatives, about ten people in all. Don’t forget if you hook up with a woman or marry her here you also get involved with the her whole family.

Older single men can be blinded by lust and a beautiful younger woman but have to remember that there is ALWAYS a price to pay…and it just may be exorbitant. Fortunately, this story has a fairly happy ending because this guy’s wife is honest, devoted and didn’t take him to the cleaners. He is just lucky to have deep pockets to support her extended family. Over the years I have heard many other stories with less happy endings.

I admit Even Dumber has a good heart and is a kind person but the “buck has to stop someplace.” Kindness is often synonymous with stupidity here. Americans are seen by many a winning lottery ticket and an upgrade in lifestyle. Unfortunately, many Americans are taken advantage of because of their good hearts. A lot of the locals take a lot more than they give in any relationship whether it be romance or in business.

The bottom line is that as foreigners we are guests in this beautiful country, but we should not go overboard with our generosity and let people take advantage of us. Unfortunately many Americans and Canadians “leave their brain” on the plane. I have seen this situation repeated over and over.