Author: Charlie

Retired American nature-lover, living in Costa Rica, photographing birds and other jewels of nature. This site simply reports on my joys of being RETIRED IN COSTA RICA!
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Going on the Tour

I’m now signed up for the “Live In Costa Rica” Tour later this summer. It doesn’t mean I’m moving, but that I am really serious about considering it. I’ll get to see my beloved country again and experience from a totally new angle. We will see some sights of course, but the focus is on living there this time, visiting in some expat homes, see what living is like in the city, valley, mountains, and coast. Then I am staying over 4 extra days to personally check out some rental houses, apartments and condos. The tour is not a real estate tour, but I want to see first hand what I can live in for about a third of what I’m paying now. I’m having some doubts and questioning a few things that hopefully the tour will help me answer and make my big decision.

Click here to see the itinerary of the “Combination Tour” which just means both the valley and the coast, since some select just one or the other. In between the two tours we have a two-day seminar which is really where I will get my questions answered and be more ready to make the decision. This tour will be the best part of my decision process. I will try to post nightly while on the tour, assuming I will have internet connections in all the areas, which is another qualifier for me. Of course they have satellite TV which I don’t even care about, but the promise of high-speed internet is essential for me.

Yes, I’m a little scared that I may be wasting money, though I always love being in Costa Rica. I’m reading a lot and even have two books ordered from Nashville Public Library, but this “boots on the ground” tour will be the real test and I will love it even if I decide to not move. At least I will have given it a whirl!

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Why I’m Considering a Move to Costa Rica

My photo of a Baird’s Trogon
Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

I pretty quickly narrowed it down to Costa Rica as my first choice IF I live internationally. Reasons are many and here are just a few including some reasons for moving at all:

  1. Of all my nature travels, Costa Rica is still my favorite destination. I’ve been there three times thus far. There have been great experiences and photo-ops in Panama, Guatemala, and Mexico which I could more easily get to if I lived in Costa Rica and at a whole lot lower cost than from Tennessee.
  2. I can no longer afford to do the nature adventure travel I love while living in expensive USA, while it would be local and nearby trips from almost anywhere in Costa Rica.
  3. In addition to travel being more affordable from there, it will cost me less to live and thus more money for travel.
  4. My retirement village in a suburb of Nashville is the most affordable one now but still takes most of my money while outside entertainment is more expensive here than anywhere in the world.
  5. I walk into my “independent living” dining room and feel like I’m in a nursing home, stumbling over walkers and wheelchairs.
  6. Costa Rica has the most peaceful and stable government in the Americas with no army and every single person well-educated. I’m a pacifist and would love to live in a pacifist country.
  7. The happiness index is challenged only by another favorite country, Canada. (But I don’t like cold! And they are expensive like the U.S.) The “Pura Vida” slogan for Costa Rica is so appropriate as the place where I have experienced the most happy and friendly people anywhere in the world.
  8. It has the tropics, nature and loving people like The Gambia I loved living in so much, but also stable government and good healthcare which Gambia does not have and caused me to not retire there.
  9. My most and best bird photos are from Costa Rica – with so many more yet to photograph!
  10. The landscape photography is also unlimited in this “Switzerland of America” it is called, not only for its political neutrality and peacefulness but for beautiful mountains, volcanoes, rainforests and beaches.
  11. The climate is perfect with temps between 70 & 80 all year and only a little warmer on the beaches or cooler in the mountains. I’ve lived in tropical climes multiple times and it is my favorite. No more snow and ice ever!
  12. The cost of living is lower.
  13. There are more discounts and helps for retirees.
  14. There are some money-making opportunities I may take advantage of.
  15. There are large communities of expats from the U.S. and Canada as well as from around the world.
  16. One of the best healthcare systems in the world with world-class hospitals for a fraction of the cost in the U.S. I can have healthcare insurance for a little over $50 a month where I spend hundreds per month here and still have high out-of-pocket costs when I need care.

The above list is from me and my heart and not a promotional list I copied from someone. I’m sure there are many other reasons. And I’m aware of some of the challenges, like I will need to slow down and be more patient with a slower moving culture (like Gambia) and slower government bureaucracies (like Gambia). I have just started reading Chris Howard’s detailed book The New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica. Some have called Costa Rica a “Post Hippie Paradise,” but mostly it’s an exotic tropical paradise that is perfect for someone like me who is always seeking adventure in nature. So read along or join me in my decision-making process to see if this really is the thing for me to do. Your advice is sought and welcome.

As Tony Robbins said: 

“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

Or maybe I like Mia Hamm’s even better:

“Follow your heart and make it your decision.”


And of course my life verse since teen years has been Proverbs 3:5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.

Feel free to pray for me to make the right decision, comment with your advice, feelings, or hard facts. I’m truly open right now and thus making my decision-making a public activity.    -Charlie

See this Market Watch Report on living in Costa Rica

In summary I quote from an ad for an International Living product: 

Why Costa Rica?
The most stable democracy in Latin America. Top-quality health care. Excellent weather. Low, low taxes. The world’s happiest people. And that’s not all…in Costa Rica you’ll find sun-kissed beaches, lush rainforests, mountain vistas, pristine lakes, and sweet small-town plazas. No wonder it’s one of the hottest retirement destinations on the planet. See it to believe it.

¡Pura Vida!

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Websites, Blogs, Books and Tours

“Costa Rica Sunset” photo I made in 2011

My initial thinking was either Panama or Costa Rica as a retirement home and at first I focused on Panama, my most recent visit. The InternationalLiving site and products were the first ones promising I could live very nicely on my social security check or $1,500 a month in most Latin American countries. Then I found both Panama and Costa Rica sites saying something similarly. My hope were up! I can live a tropical life and have money left to travel to the other countries I don’t live in and all over the one I live in. I subscribed to the InternationalLiving Magazine, which I now would not advise, though I’ve only received one issue. Actually, there is good information, but that organization is pushing buying property and I will definitely rent for many reasons I’ll list later. They also have a free InternationalLiving Postcard (daily email) which has some good stories of people who have retired in many different places around the world, but focused on Latin America which is good for me, but again they are selling something in each email. So I’m learning from these but peeved at the way they keep asking for my money.


The first focus on PANAMA led me to these sites with various amounts of help:

Panama City from Cruise Ship in Canal, Photo by Charlie
  •  Panama For Real which is an unprofessional blog kind of site by a young man from Tulsa who married a Panamanian is the “Panama Gringo” and writes straight-forward opinions about various parts of Panama with his added home videos. It is interesting and certainly not a hard sell on Panama. He only wants to sell ads on his site.
  • Panama Relocation Tours which is modeled after the long time tour in Costa Rica and would be a must to take if I were still considering Panama.
  • TheInternational Living Panama Page has different info and more links
  • Google will take you to many other sites including real estate sites, but my initial searches discouraged me on Panama and I started focusing on Costa Rica

So I started searching for COSTA RICA information and found much more:

“Blue Jeans Frog: in Tortuguero by Charlie
  •  Christopher Howard’s Live in Costa Rica Relocation/Retirement Tours which also has books, web information galore, a blog and simply the main guy to go to if thinking about moving to Costa Rica. I will be talking about him more in future posts.
  • The Real Costa Rica which is a less professional page with lots of information and his own tour
  •  InternationalLiving site has some good articles on Costa Rica too, but you have to sign up to get access to some of them. Again they seem to be more interested in real estate sales than anything
  • And of course Google will give you more than you want

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Background for Moving Overseas

HISTORY OF A TARZAN WANNABE
Dancing in The Gambia on a 2009 return trip, photo by Jill

I’m a person of adventure since childhood, always wanting to live in a jungle or rainforest, as a teen to be a medical missionary in Africa, not making the medical part and a marriage that didn’t do missions, I continued to dream. After divorce and early retirement, God gifted me with a 3-year job in The Gambia, West Africa. My favorite job and place to live ever! But mission board politics and philosophy was such that I wouldn’t re-up for another 2 or 3 years and retirement there was not practical because of horrible medical services and the unstable and corrupt government.

SO I TRIED THE CONCRETE JUNGLE

 

My Condo Downtown near State Capitol, Farmers’ Mkt.

Living 10 years in downtown Nashville in a condo and loving it! I traveled as much as my meager income would allow, including three trips to Costa Rica along with trips to Guatemala, Mexico, Kenya, Brazil, Tanzania and this year to Panama. The problem was I could not afford these trips I loved so much and was spending my very small savings. Plus I saw “the handwriting on the wall” in my condo of mostly mobile young adults in an aging complex that was going to start costing more for big repairs like roof and parking lot and I needed to “really retire” and not parent young adults. 

THEN I MOVE TO A RETIREMENT VILLAGE
My Cottage at McKendree Village, Hermitage-Nashville

Two years ago I picked the only one I could afford in an old suburb of Nashville, put my condo on the market, sold it in one week, and made the big move to an independent living cottage (2 bedroom house) in a beautifully forested neighborhood of senior adults, where I took up local birding, and making photo books of my experiences. I really like McKendree Village where I now live and if Costa Rica doesn’t work out, I will stay here. But I soon discovered that there are other expenses and my active lifestyle and love of eating out left me almost no money for travel. I was using my equity money for one or two exotic trips a year and that was not wise. Plus the management here was targeting or getting too many elderly in poor health, even in independent living, making me feel like I’m living in a Nursing Home as I trip over walkers and wheel chairs in the dining room. I still ride my bike 50 miles a week, walk a lot and do my adventures, but the money will run dry and the community is not one for my active lifestyle. Sooooo . . .

My photo, Resplendent Quetzal,
While on 2010 Bird Safari, Costa Rica
NOW I’M MAYBE CORRECTING MY LAST DECISION:
I started researching online about retiring in places like Panama, which I thoroughly enjoyed visiting last January and could live in. One thing led to another and I’m now big into checking it out now and refocused on Costa Rica. I know, I’m like a kid just out of college starting all over again and somehow that invigorates me!
 
A RECORD OF MY DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
One of the things I’m reading online are blogs from people who live in another country and they are sometimes helpful. So today I decided to start this diary of the steps I’m going through that might help someone else and give me an interesting record of what I went through, whether I move or not. This is in addition to 3 other blogs I write. But this will either have an ending or maybe be turned into a Costa Rica Blog. We’ll see!