Chris Howard retirement tours is the only one that has a Declartoria Turística license issued by the Costa Rican government’s tourism institute (ICT #DL-231-2004)

Since Costa Rica is a nature lover paradise there are hundreds of tours from which to choose: white water rafting, surfing tours, wedding vacations, canopy tours, bird watching tours and a whole lot more.  Unfortunately, a large number of these nature tours and including retirement tours are not licensed and regulated by the government.

In theory all tour operators in Costa Rica should have what is called a Declaratoria Turística issued by the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism or ICT to ensure the quality and safety of the people who go on their tours.

In order to obtain the approval of said entity of the government, all applicants have to have an unblemished criminal record, the nature of their particular business has to be investigated and studied and the tourism department’s legal team has to approve the company. The whole process can take over a year in order to ensure the applicant and his services are REPUTABLE and to PROTECT the people who take the tours.

Unfortunately, enforcement of this law is lax and many companies do not offer this protection. Several tourists have died on canopy tours and on rafting trips because they signed up for tours offered from less than professional companies. Others have been cheated out of money or offered shoddy services by unregistered companies.

As for retirement tours there are now many including the original tour I founded around 20 years ago. Each company has  an angle and makes a lot lot of claims. I have never taken any of the other tours so I am nobody to evaluate them. The only thing I can state unequivocally is that none of the other retirement tours except for mine (#DL-231-2004) has a Declartoria Turística license issued by the Costa Rican government’s tourism institute (ICT).

There is nothing more comprehensive than a Christopher Howard Retirement Relocation Tour

Use the tour that…
is the ONLY retirement tour and relocation service LEGALLY APPROVED and LICENSED by the Costa Rican government’s tourism department. In order to obtain the approval of said entity of the government, all applicants have to have an unblemished criminal record, the nature of their particular business has to be investigated and studied and the tourism department’s legal team has to approve the company. The whole process can take over a year in order to ensure the applicant and his services are REPUTABLE and to PROTECT the people who take the tours.

Do it with someone who…
has lived in Costa Rica for almost 30 years, in Latin America for over 40 years and who has worked on special assignment for NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. Christopher Howard has written and published 15 editions of his perennial BEST SELLER, “The New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica.” Experience is EVERYTHING and Christopher stands out ABOVE the crowd.

Use the pioneer and inventor of…
retirement in Costa Rica and who put the country on the map for Baby Boomers with his books and tours. Because of this success, his tours and books have been imitated but NEVER equaled by anyone.

No imitations, use somone who…
has a Masters Degree in Spanish linguistics and therefore understands all of the nuances of the country, the Latin culture and mindset BETTER than any other foreigner in Costa Rica. He has written the ONLY Spanish guide to help beginners learn Costa Rican slang. This information cannot be found anywhere else in English. It has already helped 1000s master the basics of the local language. Knowing Spanish will save you TIME and MONEY. On the tour Christopher will share his proven SECRETS for learning the language faster.

Make sure of your connections because…
you will definitely NEED the RIGHT contacts to be successful in Costa Rica. You meet lawyers, moving specialists, medical experts, the BEST contacts in the field of real estate, people who have actually moved here successfully. Christopher has personally met with Costa Rica’s Nobel Prize winning PRESIDENT on several occasions. As you can see he DOES know the right people.

You need an authority on Costa Rica and don’t accept anything less
Christopher is the MOST widely read authority on living in Costa Rica and his retiremen/relocation tour has been featured on the NBC Today Show, CNBC World News and other international television and radio programs. In addition, he is the ONLY author of the guidebooks about living and retiring in Costa Rica who resides in the country FULL TIME. Thus, he stays up to date on every issue that affects foreigners living in Costa Rica. This ENSURES that the information you receive on the tour is ACCURATE.

Always use experience and don’t fall for amateurs like…
some of the guides who lead other tours and who have ONLY lived in the country a few years! How can you become an expert retirement guide or offer relocation services in such a short time? People think by just moving to Costa Rica and spending a few years here they are qualified. Indeed Costa Rica is a magical country!!! People can be turned into experts almost over night!!!

Become another success story …
and one of the happy people who has made the move easily.
The NUMBERS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES!
Over the last two decades Christopher has PERSONALLY HELPED 1000s of people relocate successfully to Costa Rica and live their DREAMS. NOBODY, absolutely NOBODY else can make this claim. You could NOT be in better hands and could NEVER learn what you do from Christopher on your own or from anyone else. Christopher takes great PRIDE in helping his clients achieve their GOALS in Costa Rica.

Deal only with winners…
and use someone that has a successful investment portfolio and who will SHARE his methods of how to profit by investing in Costa Rica, if you so desire. Christopher is on the verge of publishing his seventh guidebook soon-to-be best seller “The Official Guide to Real Estate in Costa Rica.”

Don’t get involved with self serving REAL ESTATE tours
that make you warm and cuddly when there and remorseful later on.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain -

Recently I received an e-mail from a gentleman requesting information about my monthly relocation/retirement tours. At the bottom of his letter I saw the quote by Mark Twain that is above. It really struck home for me especially in these troubled times.

There are a lot of Baby Boomers and others who have had to put their retirement and life plans on hold because of the current world financial crisis.

There are a lot of Baby Boomers and others who have had to put their retirement and life plans on hold because of the current world financial crisis.  They need not despair. Many of these people think that they have to work longer or wait until the economy and real estate market come back to get on with their lives. Few realize that Costa Rica may be the solution to their problem.

Instead of waiting five, ten or fifteen years to retire they may be able to do it now if they simplify their lifestyle by moving to Costa Rica. That way they can enjoy what time they have left and not regret later on what they didn’t do. Thousands who have already moved here have blazed the trail for newcomers. There are services like the ones I offer (www.liveincostarica.com) and those which the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR) provides which can make the move relatively painless and help people succeed here.

Really all anyone has to do is have a little adventure in their heart, work out the logistics and see if they can swing it with less money. Time is our greatest enemy and it is a shame not to do what life is for - living.

The Golden Door Retirement and Living in Costa Rica

The term self-help (or self-improvement) refers to self-guided improvement[—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. By all estimates the “self-improvement” market in the U.S. as worth more than $9 billion in 2006 — including infomercials, mail-order catalogs, holistic institutes, books, audio cassettes, motivation-speaker seminars, the personal coaching market, weight-loss and stress-management programs. All you have to do is wander into the local branch of your Barnes & Noble bookstore and look at the large number of books that are available in the self-help section. Obviously it is a popular subject.

Let’s face it. Everyone has some area in their lives which needs improvement. Whether it is doing exercise on a regular basis, improving one’s self-discipline or making money people want to improve some facet of their life.

As strange as it may seem moving to Costa Rica has helped 1000s of Americans improve their lives. Unplugging from their past and moving to a foreign country can make one feel rejuvenated and change your whole outlook on life. By living better with less as you can do in Costa Rica, people find their lives do change for the better. I have seen scores of people adopt a simpler and less complicated Latin lifestyle. You just get a sense by looking at many of the ex-pats here that they have experienced personal growth by immersing themselves in all that Costa Rica has to offer. You would probably have to live here for a while to understand what I mean, but the signs of renewed energy and vitality can be seen on most everyone’s face who makes the move.

However, I would be lying through my teeth if I said that everyone who moves here experiences personal growth. Too many people flee the States with a lot of  emotional baggage and expect things to  change automatically and with no effort. Everything good in life requires work and the same is true in Costa Rica. You get out of the country what you basically put into it. NO effort = no personal growth. A big effort can = a complete transformation.  I should know because moving here about 30 years ago to pursue my dreams which radically changed my life and helped me grow as a person and to find the happiness I was always been seeking.

This is one of the many subjects I discuss on my monthly relocation/retirement tours and when I give lectures about living in Costa Rica

Costa Rica’s natural beauty.

I just finished one of  my monthly Combination Central Pacific and Central Valley Relocation Retirement Tours. I had the pleasure of hosting four couples and a group of singles. There were Joe and Mary Ann from Ohio with their best friends Kathy and Steve. Richard and María and from Maryland, Audrey and Martin from Florida and Tony and Bev from California who rounded out the couples. The singles were Grafton, Debbie, Asher, Roger and Dana.

I am proud to report that all of my clients were 100% satisfied with what they saw and did on the tour plus the highly informative two-day seminar sponsored by the ARCR. I knew this because as they exited the tour bus for the last time all of them had a smile from ear to ear on their faces. I  sometimes feel sad when a tour ends because I really develop a close bond with the participants in a very short time. In fact, they bond with each other because of their common interest to move here and many become good friends.  For me it is a truly rewarding experience to be able to bring people together and to help change their lives by making their dreams come true.

Everyone on the tour fell in love with Costa Rica’s natural beauty, the people, the lifestyle and expressed a burning desire desire to relocate here. Unfortunately, most have to wait a couple of years to retire or sell their homes because of the current slow down in the U.S. real estate market. I am sure that when they do make the move they will be thoroughly prepared by what they learned on the tour.

Speaking of real estate, I offer a sampling of properties on my tour so that future residents develop a complete understanding of the local market. They only visit the most desirable areas in the path of progress. My clients see a large selection of single family homes, condominiums and gated communities at the beach and in the best locations in the popular Central Valley.

In the South Pacific we visit Dominical, Uvita, Ojochal and the future San Buenas Golf Resort. While touring the Central Pacific we stop at the increasingly popular Palo Seco area, Parrita, Esterillos Este, Hermosa,  neighboring Jacó  and the world-famous Los Sueños Resort and Marina where we have lunch.

On the first day of the Central Valley portion of the tour we travel through San José, Rohrmoser and the Sabana, Escazú, Santa Ana, Ciudad Colón, Puriscal, San Antonio de Belén, the Cariari golf course community, the city of Heredia proper, San Rafael de Heredia, Los Angeles de Heredia, San Isidro de Heredia and Moravia.

The next day we visit Atenas, Grecia and the other parts of Heredia like Santa Bábara, San Joaquín de Flores and San Francisco.

When I started my tours over ten years ago I didn’t offer real estate. However, at the insistence of my clients I changed the itineraries to include a sampling of different types of properties in different price ranges. I use the company Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties to select the properties we visit since they work everyone step of they way with tour participants many of whom eventually turn out to be buyers. It is my responsibility to put my clients in the best possible hands in order ensure their success.

On my relocation/retirement tour my guests are also introduced to a wide variety of Costa Rica’s mouth watering cuisine. They often joke that my tours are not  really for retirement but for eating their way across Costa Rica. They are amazed by the low cost of food and the high quality of the country’s restaurants. In Spanish there is a saying, “El amor entra por la cocina (love enters through the kitchen).” I think the same can be true of the great food here and the love foreigners develop for it.

2. Rentista income increased to $2,500 per month and applies to BOTH a single applicant and to a family unit (applicant plus spouse and/or other dependants under the age of 18). So, it does not make any difference if the applicant is single or is married and has a spouse and five kids, the applicant will have to prove exactly the same amount of unearned income: $2,500 per month.

3. No increased income requirement when renewing carnet. The second sentence of Articulo 263 - Transitorio II, which would have applied the new increased income requirements to all non-permanent residents at the time of the next renewal of the residency carnet, was deleted from the final text. So, if your residency was approved based on a pension of $600+, or $1,000 rentista income, you will have no changes in your income requirements when you renew your carnet after the new law goes into effect.

This key change in the text of the law came about as a direct result of our e-mails, which let the Asamblea know someone really cared about this issue.

4. Mandatory membership in CCSS. Residents will have to join “La Caja” and will need to present proof of membership when renewing the carnets. La Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social (La Caja) is the National Health Insurance System of Costa Rica. Membership in la Caja is mandatory for all Costa Rican employees, workers, managers, etc., but membership is currently voluntary for foreign residents. Membership fees (health insurance premiums) are very low compared to health insurance rates in the U.S. and other industrialized nations.

5. Law goes into effect six (6) months after the approved law is published in La Gazeta, the official Costa Rican government newspaper. Therefore, any residency applications filed prior to the effective date of the law would be treated as filed under the “old” income requirements of $600 for pensionado and $1,000 for rentista.

6. Many changes address human rights issues. This is not the right forum to address those changes but I want to mention that the new law creates an Immigration Commission and a system to appeal the rulings of Migracion y Extranjeria.

In addition, “Latin America in general, will experience a quicker recovery that the larger economies” according Nicolás Eyzaguirre Director of International Monetary Funds (IMF) for the Western  Hemisphere. He goes on to say that “Latin American and the Caribbean are not confronting a bank crisis like the United States and a large part of Europe.” He goes on to state, “Many countries in the region have responded to the crisis with policies which boost production and employment. The outstanding feature being that six months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, NO Latin American financial system has experienced a banking  crisis. Liquidity is good and Latin American banks have little dependence on foreign financing.”

In Costa Rica, I am proud to say we have Dr. Arieh Grunhaus. His last name is pronounced groon-HOUSE. He is a highly-skilled urologist. He only resembles the fictional character above in that he is a brilliant medical specialist.

Dr. Grunhaus was recommend to me by a friend a couple of years ago. I went to see him for a minor urological related problem. I was immediately impressed by his professionalism, flawless English, ability to make the patient feel at ease and the fact that he takes the time to answer all of his patient’s questions. In addition, he is also happy to provide the names of other specialists in a variety of fields.

On my monthly reclocation/retirement tours my clients always ask me about the medical care in Costa Rica. I give detailed accounts of my own experiences with the doctors here. I make it a point to talk about Dr. Grunhaus as an example of a consummate professional and the quality of medical care which is available to foreigners.

Aldolfo Garcia Adolfo is co-author the forthcoming “Christopher Howard’s The Costa Rican Legal System Made Easy”

On my monthly relocation/retirement tours I am always asked questions about how to find a good lawyer. What I have written below should help you select a good attorney.

If you plan to go into business, work, buy or sell property, form a Costa Rican corporation or seek long-term residency status in Costa Rica, you will definitely need the services of a trustworthy and professional attorney.

A few years ago I started using Adolfo Garcia as my main lawyer. Adolfo was born in Costa Rica but spent his youth in Miami. His English is flawless which makes his clients feel right at home. It is very frustrating to deal with lawyers who speak little or know English. This can lead to serious communication problems and most likely will affect the outcome of your legal affairs. If you are not fully bilingual, be sure to choose a lawyer who is. The secretary should be bilingual too (Spanish/English) so you can get messages to your lawyer.

It is also of paramount importance that your lawyer  be bilingual so he can help you understand the complexities of the Costa Rican legal system, which is based on Napoleonic law.  You are guilty until proven innocent, just the opposite of the system in the United States. A lawyer is one of the best investments you can make because he can assist you with bureaucratic procedures and handle other legal matters that arise.

Another thing that makes Adolfo a good lawyer is his accessibility.  I can virtually call him  at all hours.  Always make sure you have your lawyer’s office and home telephone number in case you need him in an emergency.  If you are told your lawyer is always “in meetings” or “out of the office,” this is a clear sign  your work is being neglected and you have chosen the wrong lawyer. This is not the case with Adolfo. He bends over backwards to help his clients. I have several friends who use him and they are satisfied, too.

For all of the reasons above and more I have selected Adolfo to co-author the  forthcoming “Christopher Howard’s The Costa Rican Legal System Made Easy”. This guidebook promises to be a blockbuster and outshine other similar books. Look for this publication in 2010.

You may contact Adolfo at 011-506-2201-0300 or 8381-3562

Although I recommend Adolfo highly, here are some general tips  for choosing a lawyer in Costa Rica.

1. Ask your fellow expatriates for recommendations. They have been there and done that.

2. Do not let advertising influence your decision. It is only a paid ad. Anyone can do that.

3. If you do have a problem, you can file a complaint against an attorney, but it is extremely difficult, if not impossible to get another attorney to represent you so be prepared to represent yourself which requires fluent Spanish.

4. Do not automatically trust someone that appears in forums as an “expert”.

5. Never, ever pay for the entire amount required up front. Pay no more than one-half initially and the other half upon completion.

6.  A good clue is if the attorney makes the appointment for 2 or 3 in the afternoon, it is possible that is when he begins the work day. Most government offices close from 3 to 4:30 for the day, leaving little time for attorney “work”.

8. Ask for at least Two recommendations for a particular attorney.

9. And if you are personally involved with an attorney, go elsewhere for your legal work.

10. Do not trust some lawyers (or anyone else) just because they speak English. Check out anyone you do business with.

11. Never take anything for granted. Refuse to believe that things are getting done, even if you are assured they are. Check with your lawyer on a regular basis and ask to see your file to make sure he has taken care of business. As you might imagine, paperwork moves slowly in Costa Rica, so you do not want a procrastinating lawyer to prolong the process.

12.  Check with the Costa Rican version of the Bar Association (El Colegio de Abogados) www.abogados.or.cr if you have any questions about legal fees. They establish minimum legal fees, however some fees are determined by the amount of the transaction.

Life is so much simpler here in Costa Rica.

A friend of mine who has lived here for a couple of years just returned from the U.S. He spent a couple of weeks in his hometown of Dallas, Texas. When  I asked him how everything went there, his reply was, “Life is so much simpler here in Costa Rica.”

About an hour or two later I started to think about what he had said and realized that he was right. I believe that the search for a simpler lifestyle is the driving force behind so many Americans who move here. They just want to take a deep breath and smell the roses after so many years in the rat race.

Costa Rica is a refreshing change and offers an exciting lifestyle for most people who make the move. It gives them the chance to start over and enter a new stage of their lives. I know dozens of people who relocate or retire here who are so happy to finally be doing what they want to with their lives.

The bottom line is “lifestyle” and that is what ultimately sells people on the country. It’s is kind of hard to explain unless you have experienced it. That is why you need to visit here and experience the country and all it has to offer to see if it is right for you.  It seems to have been the correct choice for many since Costa Rica has more American residents proportionately that any other country outside of the U.S. They can’t be wrong!

So, simplify your life. Come to Costa Rica. It may be just what the doctor ordered. Pura vida (pure life, pure living, enjoy life etc.) is the national motto and sums the lifestyle in a nutshell.