Hey I know those orange cone having, makeshift roadblock guys who extort tourists.
Funny. I'm in North Carolina now, been here about a year and a half. It's alright, I guess. Lived in Costa Rica for about a year back in 2017-18. Good coffee, I'll give you that, but my favorite part about there was leaving. = }
~Puravida!
Sorry to hear your time in a developing nation didn't develop like you hoped upon arrival. It's not for everyone, but for someone like me, its the frontier I was looking for.
I lived off-frid solo, on my 17 acre mountaintop livestock and equestrian laden farm for 6 years in western North Carolina. I was also doing a lot of gold prospecting and working some at a commercial tourist gold mine there as well as commuting 90 miles each way to Charlotte as a VP for a now defunct social media company. I was still there in NC when I first found what was then Steem at the time so many centuries ago.
Our paths have looped past each other in those places, but crossed here. That's why this place is so special.
We've definitely been in the same places, fascinating. Pleasure to be met.
We're in the Western Nc, too. Knoxvill'e about 30 miles away. Yeah, spent a year in CR, coast to coast and border to border, most of it's documented here back in the steem days.
No need to sugarcoat it, developing yata yata, whatever else you said. I won't be their sole income, that's all. Where the only safety is a deadbolt. Nah.
Man, we loved it—on vacation. Wasn't even until we moved there and got about six months in we learned vacation and living are very different things. Even the currency is different.
Outta everywhere we've been, our targets were never larger and more magnified than that place.
But it instigated a 5 year journey and then Brexit and then Russia, "uncle!"
Anyhoo.. Saw your Hive post the other day and now this reblog by coffee. Cool dude. Eh, you wanna know what's even hotter than Golfito Bay?
His coffee joint in Halifax!
Cheers.
hehe, I don't know, our experiences are very different. I love my home in Bijagua. My neighbors are fantastic humans, couple gringos, mostly Ticos/Ticas. Our community is strong and takes care of each other. The panaderia in my town has the best breakfast pastries and coffee I can buy anywhere on the planet for less than 2 bucks.
The helping hands from locals that I've been offered when I was brand new in the area to find basics like car mechanics, or various needed supplies or project help on the land have been nothing short of amazing.
The socializing with everyone in a 2000 person town that has exactly one six foot three inch tall slightly sunburned broken Spanish speaking gringo like me in it, have been heartwarming and heartfelt. I can't walk down the street without friendly folks I've met once or twice or more, honking and waving and shouting my name and inviting me to dinner and offering me a shot out of the mobile Cacique bottle in their cup holder. (Nobody said they take drinking and driving too seriously down there,)
Maybe it has to do with blending in, assimilating, living there in just one place on the daily, supporting the small sodas and the bakery and the local shops. Helping back, when needed, like setting up for a big holy season football match (soccer) between our pueblo and one nearby, and preparing the field with the other men from the neighborhood for multiple adult and child soccer matchups that day.
I don't know. I just went and started living. Been driving all over the country to sight see as time permits, and never once felt any risk. Sure, I've been to 17 countries, 10 of them solo and gone to some sketchy areas like slums in Kolkata, or Chinese-local's nontourist backroom casinos in Macau or whatever. The only times I met danger were being followed by chinese mafia (according to my taxi driver) out of the chinese casino with $400 in my pocket alone at night, and the other was being jumped and having to fight five 20-something year old street urchins in Bogota Colombia on Christmas day in broad daylight.
So perhaps for me, plus having been all over the lower 48 and all the worst cities in the US and some of the rest of the world as well, by comparison, Costa Rica is a piece of cake. And I never felt what you are saying was your experience at all.
But there's always another chance to be robbed tomorrow somewhere I guess. I'm back in Nashville right now handling business and seeing my 31 year old daughter, I feel more at risk here than I do in Liberia or home in Bijagua. So there's that.
Oh for sure the US is the most unsafe. What I appreciate about it is being culturally understood.
If we're going tit for tat, I think it's easier to say where I haven't lived. By lived I mean at least 30 days. I'm from LA though, tattoos, got a blonde/blue eyed wife, every LA stereotype there is so you already hated me anyway before we even got here. = }
Nothing should surprise you now.
Gotta appreciate the way you defend it though. Don't get it twisted, every one of those ticos offering assistance is getting their 10% cut, you know how it works.
I do know, but 10% of free is still a good portion of good will to be paid for being a nice person.
I will say, the very conservative Catholic country is less fond of the LA stereotype coming there than the guy with cows on his front yard and a willingness to swing a scythe on the futball plaza. Your mileage may vary. I also don't want to or ever do go to places like Tama-Gringo or Scam Jose. But the locals from outside those cities don't like to go them either or so they tell me.
Hahahah! Yeah, ok. Everything has a price there. C'mon man, "free?!" Lol.
I'm having a tough time decoding the tama one.
Scam Jose, funny, fuck that place at $1,000/night! Did some work at the Apple building there back in... '14, I guess.
Oh, you're talking CR, I thought we were still talking California! LoL!!
Scam Jose, works for both countries, funny. Sure, all it's good for there is residency.
Tamagringo, good one, where if they wear orange reflective jackets and direct you to park, they don't work there.
Oh, I think they hate me here even more than the Italians. I enjoy changing people's opinions of Californians, one person at a time.
I didn't say Costa Ricans didn't like us or were cruel or put on their real face, I just said I don't want to be their sole source of income. Deadbolts are for policia.
LOL, Tamagringo = Tamarindo, and yes I meant the CR S.Jose.
I don't leave my diamond and gold Mercedes unlocked at the beach in Playa de Coco -- or Cocoa Beach Florida either... but overall, I feel as safe or safer in CR than than in most countries.
People do describe vastly different experiences here. I can back up what Cork says about our neck of the woods. Michel and I have been in Costa Rica since 2021 and love it more every day. But we chose a very different path than most expats, for very different reasons. I have a good friend who was desperate to sell her home near the Caribbean coast at the same time I was planning the move here. She hated everything about Costa Rica, much the same way you describe. I don't think Michel's and my--and @Sircork's--good experiences here have been accidental. We avoid the high tourist areas like the black death plague and live very, very simply. There's no hot water in our home, no screens on the windows (or glass,) no indication of gringo wealth (which we don't have) and we blend in. I think that earns a certain degree of respect in these farming and ranch communities. They expect gringos to move in and start changing everything, but we bought our farm directly from a Tico family who'd owned it for generations, and we promised them we would not develop it in ways that would disrupt the community. I'm sure they were skeptical at first, but now they believe it, and are always quick to lend a hand any time we need it. So yes, different experiences exist. But to be noted: not everyone moving to Costa Rica would be willing to live like Michel and I do. Even Corky's gotta have his hot water. LOL
If I read between the lines correctly, you've mistaken us for a couple who lives on the hill, drives a fancy sidexside to the bar and distances themselves from their 'gardeners.'
I don't think we're too far apart—us. Lived out of one backpack and one suitcase each for five years. Doesn't make us any less unwilling to be labeled financial support in every province.
I'm glad you're enjoying yourselves, Pura Vida and all that, but you're pretending to assimilate where gringo tax is real and you'll never be a tica.
I was just enjoying some dialogue with Cork, never meant to be offensive if you got offended. When I said my favorite part was leaving, it wasn't an attack.
What is wrong with you? I was just sharing my experience. Not debating yours or even saying you were wrong about it. Go get a life, asshole. Take your drama with you.
I mean, with that attitude, I see exactly why you failed bigly in Costa Rica. Good friggin riddance.
That escalated quickly.
You know you tried to describe me as one of those gringos who wants to change the climate. I didn't misunderstood you so I won't apologize. I think you overreacted.
Expats hate it when they hear they'll never be a tica.
Life ain't bad, I appreciate your concern.
No, really..
I think this thread is dead. Adjustments made to staff settings.
Yes and we are all good with that. I will never take a role that requires me to be a dumping ground for the overspillage of a toxic personality. I can be nice, but only when "nice" is extended to me in return. Somebody wants to turn around and cop a squat on my attempt to be friendly, they're going to get called out for it. Overinflated egos don't last long in Costa Rica, and they don't last long in a conversation with me, either.
I didn't describe you at all. Period. I didn't talk about you at all. I talked about me, my friend, my experience. But when someone thinks the world revolves around their ego, that's what happens--they assume anything anyone says is about THEM.
Mhm.
My hot water is to combat symptoms of my physical ailments, you -- whats the mean word for people who make fun of disabled people again? I'm not one and can't remember the word cause nobody ever calls me one. Is it bigot? No thats for racists, right? Crap. Words. Suck.
I believe the word you were searching for is "ableist."
That one works. :) Thanks for the brain boost.