costa rica, pros and cons

[toyotaboy]

This isn't meant to be a nay-say, but rather pointing out the good and bad about migrating to costa rica to help dawn and drew decide. I'll start:

Pros:
1. warm weather year round
2. No more snow
3. pharmacy goods without prescription
4. zip lines and more zip lines
5. Lots of sloths
6. Cheaper cost of living

Cons:
1. Lack of stores
2. Lack of work (other than podcasting)
3. No AT&T data or phone service, bye bye iphone
4. Spanish speaking is practically a must
5. Import tax on vehicles is enormous, would have to sell the honda element and all VW buses.
6. Crime (lots of theft)

Here's a good reference I found today:
http://costaricainfoblog.com/2008/07/the-cost-of-living-in-costa-rica/

[FuriousFiber]

They have that 'squatting' rule...haven't found the timeline yet, but I am working on it!

[showbizflowergirl]

pro

one of the few countries that let you take dogs with no quarantine

[Wombat]

Pro? That would stop me taking any animal I own into Costa Rica

OK you know any pets you take in are disease free, but do you trust every one else?

Australia and NZ are the most disease free nations on earth (animal & plant diseases) because of their strict quarantine laws.

[showbizflowergirl]

But Dawn would miss the "kids" I want to leave Chicago for the UK, but I can't put my pet into quarantine for 6 months.

[richmanwisco]

My aunt and uncle lived down there for about 4 years but gave it up. You really have to think hard about giving up the things that you take for granted up here. You'll miss them more than you expect. Besides, where are you going to keep paulblann.com?

[MonkeyBucket]

jet blue just announced service to costa rica

[drew domkus]

lots of english spoken out here, and look at this about the iphone:
http://www.wikicostarica.com:16080/index.php/IPhone_in_Costa_Rica

[toyotaboy]

That seems pointless to hack your iphone (which you don't like doing) for 60 minutes of talk time and GPRS radio data (not even EDGE). I spose if there's enough wifi around then data won't matter.

[drew domkus]

i had mine in airplane mode the whole trip last week and just used wifi when i found it. plus i can broadcast wifi from the laptop if that's connected via ethernet.

[apotheosis]

Why is Spanish speaking a con? Learning a new language is a great thing to do and there's no better way to learn than through immersion.

[MuyLani]

To me, anyplace that has an Ocean near it is a pro. Not to mention that it's a warm, tropical ocean :-)

...*edit* thought of a con: Procompsognathus that escaped from Isla Nublar might eat your babies.

[drew domkus]

was that on site B?