Living in Costa Rica is "Pura Vida"

Living is Costa Rica is like living in paradise. The Costa Ricans refer to this as ‘Pura Vida’ -The Pure Life. Costa Rican is a great way, and place, to live. The hardest part may be the decision on where to live.

In a very small geographical area, Costa Rica can offer a cosmopolitan urban setting ideal for the socialite in you; tropical beaches for the sun worshiper in you; hot, humid rain forests for the nature lover in you; or temperate, mountain living for the adventurer in you. No matter how you want to live, you can find a place to suit your desires, while only living a couple of hours away from a completely different climate and lifestyle.

Most Americans relocating to Costa Rica prefer to live in the temperate climates offered by the Central valley or the hillsides of the Nicoya peninsula in the Provence of Guanacaste. Both areas are higher in elevation than the coastal regions and have a drier, cooler, and more comfortable climate, to which most Americans are more accustomed.

International Living, the magazine devoted to promoting and educating Americans about living abroad, lists both areas in Costa Rica as top places in the world in which to retire. The advantages of Guanacaste are price, proximity to beaches, and development potential. The government has made a significant commitment to improve infrastructure, especially roads, in the area to help promote development in the ‘Gold Coast’ of Costa Rica,

Once you decide on where to live, the next decision will be on how to live in your new country. As in America, you have a wide variety of housing choices. You can rent or buy, live luxuriously or modestly, urban or rural. Here, again, the Guanacaste region offers the new emigrant all of these choices. From modern beachfront condos to rural, agricultural opportunities, the choice is yours.

No matter where you live, or how you live in Costa Rica; one common denominator will be that you can live the lifestyle of your choice much more inexpensively than you could in the U.S. From housing costs to food to medical expenses, almost everything you need to live comfortably is less expensive than the same item in America. Even real estate taxes are less taxing.

About the only items that will cost you more will be imports, due to the high tariffs placed on imports to the country. For the savvy buyer, the Government has established a duty free zone in Golfito, a small southern Pacific town. The maximum amount you can purchase in this tax free zone has recently been raised to $1000 every six months ($2,000 annually). The only catch is that you need to spend one night in the area to qualify for the duty free purchases.

Pura Vida is enjoying life as you find it. That means eating pure, fresh fruit and vegetables available year round from local producers. Meat, fish, and seafood are all available locally and inexpensively, so eating healthy is one major advantage of living in Costa Rica.

Enjoying all the natural beauty the country has to offer is right at your doorstep. Costa Rica consistently ranks high on every measure of environmentalism by numerous rating organizations. If leaving as small of a carbon footprint as possible is important to you, then you will be hard pressed to find a better place, and way, to live.

Living among the Costa Rican people is delightful and rewarding. Costa Ricans rank first in the world in the ‘happiness index’, and are ranked very high in Latin America in almost every category that is measured. Most Americans feel right at home in a very short period of time after moving to Costa Rica. The culture and lifestyle is easy to adapt to and not as completely foreign as other overseas destinations can be. The fact that a quick trip back to the states is only a 3-6 hour flight from Costa Ricans airports helps to alleviate any ‘homesickness’ that may occur.


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