Costa Rica is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. With just 0.03% of the world’s landmass, it has an incredible 5% of the world’s species. And you don’t have to visit a national park or a remote area to view this plentiful wildlife.
I'm a city boy through and through. When I moved recently to Escazú, a suburb of Costa Rica's capital San José, I figured I'd be enmeshed in urban culture. This is, after all, the biggest city in the country, and the surrounding area is home to three-quarters of the country's citizens.
It’s the friendly and welcoming people, the natural beauty, and the tropical lifestyle that will really steal your heart. “Costa Ricans are a gracious people,” says Rene Aoki, who has lived in the Arenal region for 19 years. “It’s an easy place to live where you can make close friends.” New expats find well-trodden ground and benefit from the experience of those who came before them.
Bruce and Karen Huss’s move to Costa Rica’s Central Pacific coast evolved over time. Their first visit was five years ago, when they spent time in the exclusive Los Sueños resort community in Playa Herradura
When Valerie and Gaylord Townley first visited Tamarindo, it was a simple fishing village. The only visitors were pioneering surfers (Gaylord was one of them) and sport fishermen
About an hour north of Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose, lies a little-known national park: Braulio Carrillo.
I checked out of the traditional career path—the “rat race”—about 10 years ago at the age of 35. On the surface, life in Texas was great for me. I’d graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in journalism and worked in the advertising business as an account executive (a “suit”) for about 10 years.
When you live in Costa Rica’s Southern Zone, the beach and the blue Pacific become a focal point.
I'm from Florida, where a day at the beach means fighting for parking—often for an outrageous fee—struggling to find a bare patch of sand, and spending the day listening to loud music and shouting kids.
Fancy a few hours battling a half-ton striped marlin Hemingway style? The fish can get so big off the coast of Costa Rica that the skipper straps you into a chair to fight them. The waters of both coasts, the Pacific and Caribbean teem with legendary fish like marlin, dorado, and tarpon that, for decades, have drawn serious sport fishermen (and women) from around the world eager for record-setting catches.