If anyone ever told you that living abroad in Costa Rica, or anywhere for that matter would be a magical, fairy tale paradisaical experience, take it lightly. Yes, living in Costa Rica is awesome, especially being at the beach.
However, when moving abroad you have to come with an open mind and open heart and be willing to be tested and put in tough situations at times.
It’s not easy moving to a brand new place, even if you’re in the same country. Costa Rica is no exception – many people market and advertise it as “living in paradise,” which it IS but that doesn’t mean coconut drinks on the beach and infinity pools everyday.
I think no matter how much research you do and how prepared you think you are, there will always be things that surprise you when you’re finally there. Some are good, some are bad but that’s what the experience is all about!
5 Things that Surprised Me About Living in Costa Rica
Immersing in Spanish – Como Aprender Español?
I’ve had quite a few friends who studied abroad for 6 months or a year and came back completely fluent in the native language. I kind of expected the same when I moved here. I would be immersing myself which apparently is the best way to learn and it wouldn’t be long before I would be watching telenovelas and reading los periodicos every morning.
Didn’t quite happen that easily. Since Coco is such a touristic area, many of the Costa Ricans speak English. And they love to speak English to you once they know you do! Many times I’ll have to ask them, podemos hablar en Espanol? so that I can practice. Plus I don’t expect them to speak Ingles to me at all, I want to learn and practice!
Also this one is kind of my fault but since Yeison’s English is damn near as good as mine, it’s just easier for us to communicate in English than me stammering, sputtering and mumbling inaudible and unintelligible Spanish.
I found that I had to learn on my own – can’t count on other people to do it for me. I buckled down and did my research. I love to learn on my own so I looked up apps and software to help me learn Spanish. I discovered that watching Grey’s Anatomy in Spanish subtitles helps a lot. Derek te amo. Eligeme, escogeme, amame!
Kindness of Costa Ricans
In the States, if you are an immigrant or foreigner and you don’t speak English very well, people aren’t that nice. I’ve witnessed this with my own eyes and ears as some Americans have assumed I don’t speak English, mocked me right in my face and told me to go back to China, telling me I’m not a real American. (I was born in the US if anyone is curious).
So imagine my surprise when I first moved down and how incredibly nice people were when I did try to practice my Spanish with them. Nobody ever made fun of me, nobody ever told me to go back home. Instead they patiently listened, gently corrected my mistakes and when I said the few words I knew, you could tell they greatly appreciated the effort.
Another example of their kindness. If you’re ever in an emergency in Costa Rica, you might be surprised as how many people are willing to help you.
One of my friends and her husband were driving in the middle of the countryside. Their car broke down, they had no cell phone and it was getting dark. A truck full of teenage boys pulled up beside them and instead of taking advantage of their vulnerability, they helped them push their car to the next town and let them borrow their phone.
Stories like this are incredibly common here.
I’ve heard stories where a tourist fainted and a Costa Rican stayed with the couple to show the wife where the hospital was, 40 kilometers away. Yeison is the same way, he’ll help anybody who needs it. They do what seems to be above and beyond for us foreigners but really it’s just normal for them.
Not All Expats Are Alike
You would think that every expat: American, British, Italian, Russian, whoever, would have the same mindset when they moved here. We’re here to experience a new culture, find a new life for ourselves and open our eyes to the world. We want to live in a peaceful country, to escape the rat race and the gossip and to just live simpler and happier.
Nope.
You ever heard the phrase “Some people never change?” It applies to people here too. We live in a small town and a small community where everybody knows each others business or they deliberately pry into each others personal life.
For some reason, some expats here still like to stir up drama. Some really are here to live a different life, some are here to live their same life just by the beach. I’m not really sure why or how they can expect things to be exactly the same as the States or Canada (or even Western Europe).
It’s Costa Rica, things are done differently here as it would be in any other country in the world. Costa Rica’s not a perfect country, there are definitely flaws but what system is perfect? None.
Why move here if all you will do is complain and why move to a country where you don’t even like the locals?
Diversity
Costa Rica has a population of about 4.8 million people. Not a lot but it is a small country.
The second time I visited Costa Rica we went to Limon and Yeison pointed out many Chinese communities to me. In San Jose, we met lots of Taiwanese people which I was pretty surprised about.
To be honest, I never thought of Costa Rica being one of the more popular places for people to move to. But in reality, it is.
I learned that Costa Rica has always been a popular country for people to immigrate to, especially from Asia and the Caribbean islands due to the huge appeal of the ability to make a new life and good money in the city.
Costa Rica is a large melting pot. You can find people from all over the world – heck Yeison is half Korean half Costa Rican! We’ve met many half Costa Ricans half Italians, half Costa Rican half Russian, half Costa Ricans half Chinese. Just all sorts of diverse people.
And if you’re born in Costa Rica, you’re a Tico or Tica. That’s it. Doesn’t matter where your parents were born, if you have an accent or if you speak a second language.
Subtle Culture Shock
It probably helped that I visited quite a few times before I moved here so I had an idea of what things were like. Living at the beach helped a lot too for sure. You always had a great central place to go to meet people, always had somewhere to go and something to do.
Besides the language, the rest of the culture shock was not as intense as I thought it would be. This time, I already had amazing support and experience which was more than anything I could ever ask for!
There’s always ups and downs to living abroad but I’m loving it everyday. I suggest everybody to go international for a little bit! It doesn’t have to be for a long period of time but just to experience something completely new and see the world in a different light.
If you enjoyed this post you might like my other living in Costa Rica stories!
Things I had to get used to living in Costa Rica
Sandy says
Sammi & Yeison, thank you so much for such a great forum! I am looking to retire outside of the US, and have been traveling a lot to scout out different places. I was in Tamarindo for a week last month and fell in love with the town and especially the people. Honestly the nicest people I have met in my travels anywhere. I am single and could probably live in CR comfortably on my retirement, as I am looking for a much simpler, and less commercial way of life. You mentioned you didn’t have any pets, but I was wondering do you know what the veterinary availability and quality of services is like in the Guanacaste area? I currently have 3 small dogs and a cat (not sure if I will have that many by the time I’m actually ready to make the move, as a couple of them are seniors), and their care is very important to me. I’m also looking at renting first, so do you know anything about the restrictions of renting with pets? Thanks so much!
Sammi says
Hi Sandy, we actually just rescued a dog this year so now we do have a pet and we live outside of Tamarindo. There are a bunch of veterinary clinics in the Tamarindo area and the quality is pretty good, the dog we rescued was very sick and he got good care from our vet and she also helped us get his papers to go to the US. Foreigners like to go to Dr. Cavallini because he speaks English but if you speak Spanish, there are a few in Villarreal that are good as well.
Sammi says
Hi Susan, I recommend checking out Grecia. That is the most popular “expat” town in Costa Rica. It is said to have the best weather because it’s 70 and mid 80’s all year long.
Susan Mix says
Greetings. Thank you for your great blog! We are 2 young retirees looking to move to CR. I am fluent in Spanish and English. We visit about 5-6 times/year. We have been to all areas of the country and love them all. We love the people, the food, the wildlife and the whole Pura Vida experience.
We are seriously considering moving there. We are looking for an area that is full of birds and wildlife, from monkeys to motmots, with an average temperature of 75-82 or so, not very crowded, but not terribly far from a good hospital, safe, and friendly. We don’t require an ocean beach. Of course it’s nice, though. We really don’t like wind. Any thoughts? I would like to subscribe to your blog or follow you. Thank you so much!!!
Pura Vida Forever,
Susan
Woody says
I’ve been to CR a couple and loved what I saw of it…considering a move but have not found much written on which coast is better: Carribean or Pacific …do you have any comments.
Sammi says
There are more places to live on the Pacific coast, on the Caribbean coast the only town for living is Puerto Viejo. It really depends on what you’re looking for since they are all different but there are definitely way more places on the Pacific coast. You have places from the very north near Nicaragua all the way down to the Osa Peninsula.
Cindy says
My family and I moved to CR 3 months ago from Florida, we live in Desamparados which 30 minutes from San Jose. Our biggest challenge has been income. We have no work permits so we can’t work and no matter where you go they ask for cedula. I’ve had trouble enrolling my kids into school since they don’t know any Spanish they recommend paying for a English private school which we can’t afford. Our goal is to move closer to the beach but without income that’s not going to happen. We feel stuck.
Does anyone know of online job that we can work from home? Any suggestions of what we can do?
yeison says
Hello Cindy,
We are sorry for your situation but unfortunately the immigration laws are very similar in all the countries, we will suggest you to try to go the immigration and look for a way to get at list a temporary residence I know there are some ways to get it. Living at the beach is more expensive than in San Jose there are thousands of USA immigrants living in cost, most of them are retired or entrepreneurs I would recommend you to try to join some USA immigrant groups they are super nice and friendly and some of them have been in your situation.
Mary says
From what I have gathered through research, work permits are very hard to get unless your talent is very rare and no Costa Rican can do the job. This prevents expats moving there and putting the locals out of work, which is a good thing. Your best option would be to find a job you can perform online. Do a search for online jobs and see what you find. I cannot give you specifics because you did not say where your talents lie. Good luck.
Ally says
After reading and enjoying this blog I began to read the comments ppl are making here. If CR is going to soon be filled with these personalities, I’ll gladly stay right here in the beautiful U.S.A. Maybe and hopefully they take their marching & rioting w/ them. It seems that these Americans are offended in the U.S. & don’t even realize that they are the ppl cramming & ramming their views down the throats of “normal ppl” YES, I SAID “NORMAL”, we know who we are. We never gave their way of life any thought until they “MADE” us. Please go to CR, I no longer have the desire to live there.
Sammi says
Hi Ally, everyone has different experiences living abroad but I always tell people it is what you make of it 🙂 There are good and bad things to every place in the world and this is why I always advise people who want to move to CR to stay down here for at least 3-6 months first before moving as visiting and living are two very different things. Sure CR isn’t perfect but no country is, it is what you make of it and what I love about living in CR is not the foreigners who move here either – it is the Ticos 🙂
hb;b says
if you are an immigrant or foreigner and you don’t speak English very well, people aren’t that nice.
Cathy Steen says
The beginning of your venture spoke about how kind and caring everyone was when you tried speaking Spanish. Then not so kind in the states when situation was reversed. It may be because thousands and thousands of English speaking people have not yet overrun them and taken their jobs. It may happen if too many Ex-pats happen to head that way..
Sammi says
True – because of all the North American foreigners in CR it has become greatly Westernized and the locals have come to expect foreigners not to try to speak their language despite living there for many years (which is the situation for lots of retirees to be honest in CR).
Sammi says
You can drink the tap water in most places in Costa Rica – I wrote a post about it here: Costa Rica tap water safe to drink.
Sammi says
I’d definitely visit several times again before moving down, a lot of people make the mistake of only visiting Costa Rica on vacation thinking they want to live there and find out it’s VERY different vacationing and living. I visited many times before moving down (and making sure that I wanted to be with Yeison ha ha). Work visas are nearly impossible to get for foreigners (they only give them to foreigners who are filling a job a Costa Rican can’t do which is pretty much nothing) and finding a place to live is pretty easy, you can find lots of Facebook groups that are for rentals and real estate (for example Tamarindo rentals and real estate, Puerto Viejo rentals, you can look up San JOse and I’m sure there is one).
John says
Hi Sammi – great article. I visited CR for the first time in Feb, and I met someone down there and recently went back to visit for a few days. I’m tossing the idea of a potential move to San Jose at some point in the future – one year? Two years? Not too sure, but I wanted to see if you knew much about work visas, job searching for someone who (currently) only speaks English, difficulty on finding an apartment or a condo to purchase, etc. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!!