To continue my reflection on completing my first year living in Costa Rica, I realized that there were a few things I wish I knew before moving to Costa Rica.
Maybe they would have helped me adjust easier and maybe not but I’m positive that they sure would have made at least a little difference!
So in case you’re thinking about moving to Costa Rica or wonder what it’s like, here are 6 things I wish I knew before I made the big move.
6 Things I Wish I Knew Before Moving to Costa Rica
How to drive a manual
I honestly regret not learning when I was living in the States because the driving there is so much easier for learning. Many cars outside the States are manual and renting an automatic is more expensive most of the time. So before you move to Costa Rica, learn to drive a stick! It’s incredibly useful for the rest of the world too.
For the first few months when we moved to Coco, we lived in a hotel on top of a very steep hill so I was stuck there quite a few times when Yeison wasn’t able to give me a ride. I would walk to town to get to work which took me nearly an hour under a sweltering 95 degrees.
If you’re planning on renting a car for your first few days before you decide if you want to buy one, take advantage of our exclusive car rental discount!
A basic understanding of Spanish
I came to Costa Rica with basically zero knowledge of Spanish. I wanted to take a class at my university but it wouldn’t fit in my schedule and I ended up studying French instead.
I knew some basics such as “hola” “gracias” and “estoy perdido” but not knowing the language is a huge barrier and made my culture shock much more intense. I did my research online and found a great website, Duolingo.com that helped me learn fast.
I’m not 100% fluent or anywhere near it but I don’t feel lost anymore when we’re having dinner with our friends and I feel confident to talk to people.
Ahorita, yo puedo hablar con más gente! Que dicha!
It’s a great feeling to realize that you can actually understand and you’re not behind the tree anymore. It makes meeting people much easier and I’m not restricted to only talking to people who know English. So before you make your big move, take a Spanish class. Try Duolingo for free! One of the biggest mistakes expats make is not bothering to learn Spanish since they miss out on connecting with locals and truly experiencing the culture.
Learn some basic Spanish with our introductory guide!
How to clean, and cook fish
Here in Coco, it is fairly easy to grab a pole and catch dinner. Yeison and a couple of our friends have gotten into fishing and they take it seriously, like going out to fish at 5 in the morning and coming back at 2pm with three coolers full of fish. He’s also recently gotten into sportfishing and have been catching super big ones!
I love eating fish but I never knew how to cook it. Or clean it. There have been so many times when Yeison comes back with bags of fish and I would toss it in the freezer and forget about it. Then I’d end up throwing it out because too much time has passed and the fridge was getting a funky smell.
Yeison’s fisherman friend taught me how to properly scale and clean fish and I’ve looked up some great recipes so now when Yeison brings fish back home, I immediately clean it and prepare it to make a delicious dinner instead of wasting it all.
I found myself cooking from scratch much more when I moved so I wish I knew more recipes by heart. But thankfully there is the Internet!
How to fix household items
A couple months after I moved, I noticed that my laptop charger stopped working. I was ready to throw it away but there was nowhere in Coco or Liberia to buy a Lenovo charger. Buying electronics is incredibly expensive in Costa Rica too so I was at a loss for what to do! Thinking that I had to order one online and have it shipped to Costa Rica, it never occurred to me to see if I could fix my charger.
This is a very “American” thinking because we are used to throwing things away and buying a new one once something stops working. However, what do you do if you can’t? Yeison opened up my charger and we found the broken wire, cut it and reconnected it. Como nuevo!
Sometimes you can fix it, sometimes it’s a complete loss but there is no 1800 number here that we can just call and have them ship us a new one so you have to improvise a little.
Yeison has shown me how to hot-wire a car, change a flat tire, fix our fish tank’s filter, fix a hot water breaker, clean a laptop fan, fix a hole in my bike tire and more. Wow I really didn’t know how to do anything before.
The world of blogging
We started this blog about 7 months after I moved to Costa Rica and I do wish we had started before I left. I would have loved to have kept a record of my progress since moving here and of our relationship.
I’ve always kept a written journal but it’s much more fun and efficient to have a blog because it just takes a couple of clicks if I want to remember about one of our trips or show pictures to my friends.
A blog makes it easy to be able to share my life with my friends and family back home. Having a blog also got me interested in photography which I wish I would have started learning about earlier so that I could have better photos of my first year in Costa Rica.
Since I moved down in the peak of rainy season, all my photos from the first few months are kinda grey and gloomy and I could have learned how to photograph rainy days a lot better.
Opened more credit cards
I should have looked more into getting credit cards for cashbacks, miles and points. After all the traveling and the money we spent traveling, we probably could have qualified for a few free flights and other benefits. Having a credit card that has no international fees would have been handy too.
Before trips we always stock up on items and it would have been smart for me to have a credit card that gave me more benefits.
What are some things that you wish you knew before you went abroad? I would love to hear your thoughts!
David laboc says
First I have to commend both of you lovely people for doing this blog for those that want to dream and find that it is possible. Thank you. My question is if you had a choice to do it all over again from scratch, could you possibly name the top five. and if I don’t like any of them I may ask for another five. I have five in mind right now and I am kind of hoping that one or two of them will be in your top five. Gracias, to both of you. My Duolingo hasn’t gotten much further, but it is working keep hyping it
Sammi says
Hi David, do you mean do the blog all over again or moving?
Sammi says
Hi Stanley, I recommend reading this post and there are some suggestions in there 🙂 Seeing a dentist in Costa Rica
Stanley Gray says
I’m thinking about spending maybe a week in SJO in May having some dental work done do you have any recommendations? Unfortunately I don’t speak spanish.
Stanley Gray says
I’m thinking about spending maybe a week in SJO having some dental work done do you have any recommendations? Unfortunately I don’t speak spanish.
Sandra F Clark says
Hi Sammi, March 19, 2016
My husband and I just bought property in Ojochal, Costa Rica and plan to build a modest home on the hill side. Winters in Illinois are getting hard on us. I am retired and my husband plans to retire before September.
We know the seller as he sold property to my husband’s sister’s fiancĂ© (boyfriend) 15 – 20 years ago. They have remained friends. Both of their retirement homes in Ojochal are near by (We all live in Illinois, USA). We have several referrals from them of people they trust to help us when the time comes to build. We are very excited about the future adventure. We have both visited the area during Nov/December of 2015 along with other family members and had a wonderful time.
Any suggestions for the new home builders ?? (My husband plans to be there during the time the house is built.).
Thanks ,
Sandy
Sammi says
The best thing for a foreigner to buy and build in CR is to get recommendations from other foreigners who have gone through the process before. It is incredibly common for this situation where a foreigner buys a lot, starts to build and then they find out the land never had the right permits or they never had the correct title, OR they find out it’s a lot more expensive than they thought and have to stop stop. There are abandoned, half finished buildings all throughout the country, left behind by foreigners because of these reasons. So do very thorough research and get recommendations. Unfortunately being a gringo it does mean you will pay more than the Tico price but that’s how it is.
Sandra F Clark says
Thanks Sammi for the quick reply. Information was very helpful. We have covered our bases regarding the purchased land. Can’t do anything about being gringos, but will be opened eyed when it comes to doing the actual building.
Sandy
Sammi says
Good luck! 🙂
Eduardo M. da Silva says
Dear Sammi
Nice posts and a bunch of useful information. I have always driven manual cars, speak Spanish fluently, live in a country that has the same problems of Costa Rica, but greater magnitude orders, that is Brazil, know how to prepare nicely fish and shellfish, and do not like US American industrialised food at all, therefore I have a good advantage to plan to live in Costa Rica for a couple of yeas. I intend to retire from my job as an university teacher, with a US$3000.00 montlhy, by the end of the year, and because of my age, 63 and my wife, 51, we care very much about a health insurance with full cover, would you have some information on that?
Cheers
Eduardo
Sammi says
I recommend researching if you will apply for a pensiando residency in CR, as that comes with health care options. You may also use private in CR.
Manon says
Hello,
Thank you for your blog which is truly interesting.
I am thinking of moving to Costa Rica for less than a year with my boyfriend. We are both 24 and wish to discover the beach lifestyle a bit before maybe moving back to the big cities.
Would it be a move you would recommend ? Can we find word there ?
Thank you so much for your answer,
Manon
Sammi says
Hi Manon, the beach is a really fun place to live in Costa Rica, especially if you just want to be there for short term. That’d be a great place for a gap year! But finding work is very difficult – it’s extremely hard to get a legal work visa so most foreigners work online or they work under the table bartending, waitressing and things like that. And you’ll be making the average Costa Rican salary which is around $800-$1000 a month.
Virginia Mills says
I’m moving to Costa Rica in the middle of the next year and this is going to be a great adventure for me. I’m going to work there and this makes everything much interesting. It’s good to read from a person who lived there and experienced so much. Thank you for sharing!
Sammi says
Hi Virginia, you’re welcome! It’ll be different for every person but it’s always interesting to hear about other’s stories. Good luck on your move!
Kathy says
Hi Sammi,
I am also loving your blog! What a wonder that we can learn all this BEFORE we go live there because you are doing this! Thank you! I have a question about earthquakes – from what I read on line there are 50+ earthquakes in Costa Rica every year! Are these an issue at all? I also read that there are alligators in your area…?
Thanks,
Kathy
Sammi says
Yes, they record earthquakes everyday in Costa Rica, majority are very small that you don’t feel them. CR lies in the hot zone for earthquakes (same reason California has many earthquakes). It’s not really an issue, it’s very normal here to feel a small one once in awhile. The last big one we had was in 2012. And no alligators, that’s Florida but there are crocodiles here.
Ron says
Your blog is a breath of fresh air. We are looking to retire in Costa Rica in 5-7 years hopefully. There is so much information on the internet and it is difficult to determine what is legitimate and what isn’t… people trying to sell you something, etc. I have found a lot of very good resources by reading your blog but I do have one question and it’s about food expenses. Are food prices mainly dependent on where you live in Costa Rica? I have read that a lot of fruits and vegetables are extremely inexpensive and meat is comparable to what you might find in the states. We don’t eat a lot of processed food so I don’t think that will be much of an issue but I do love my wine and I have read that can be very expensive there. I think I can learn to live without it though. Thank you for doing this. It is exteremely helpful!
Sammi says
Hi Ron! So glad to hear you enjoy the blog! Regarding your question, yes it really depends on where you are. For example, we live in Playas del Coco and it is noticeably more expensive in this town than other areas. Groceries are pretty expensive, most fruit and vegetables are reasonable except for some like grapes, cherries and apples but meat is a bit expensive. If you go to less touristic areas like San Jose, groceries are less expensive. As for wine, you can try this brand named Clos. It’s a box wine that costs about $5 but a lot of our American friends love it. Could be a decent enough substitute!