When he was 35, Colin Brownlee had an epiphany—a life-changing moment. He was staying at a small hotel on the beach, on Hawaii’s Big Island. The landscaping was lush and tropical, there were hammocks slung between palm trees. It was a homey place that guests raved about when they got home and came back to year after year.
The 2 million tourists who come to Costa Rica each year probably think they know this country pretty well. They relax on pretty beaches, zip-line across the tree canopy, surf the wave of the mighty Pacific and trek through misty cloud forests. But most tourists tend to stick to well-known beach towns and the Central Valley. That’s not where you’ll find the best property values right now.
I tried once to compliment a friend on her car and told her in perfect Spanish, "Me gusta su coche." She asked me to repeat myself a few times and with gesturing I was able to get the point across. But she still looked at me like I was crazy. What I didn’t know was that "Me gusta su coche" means "I like your cart" in Costa Rica, not "I like your car." I had just insulted her by comparing her car to a grocery cart.
When Willy and Monika Krauskopf visited Costa Rica’s Lake Arenal 20 years ago, it was a life-changing event. The couple spent 10 days driving around the country. But they found themselves especially drawn to Lake Arenal because of the natural beauty and unhurried pace of the area.
When Brian and Stephanie Gough went on vacation in Tamarindo, a stunning stretch of palm-fringed shoreline on Costa Rica's northern Pacific coast, their lives changed forever. They had such an incredible time that they couldn't bear the thought of going back to their old lives. So they bought a local restaurant. "We fell in love with Tamarindo," says Brian.
The story of how most expats ended up living in Costa Rica is so similar to mine: "I came to Costa Rica on vacation, fell in love, and decided to stay." But fell in love with what exactly? What is it about Costa Rica that entices someone to leave their home country and start all over in a foreign land?
Here in Tamarindo, on the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica, everybody knows everybody. Long-term expats number in the hundreds. It’s a walkable little 'burg—we can’t stroll through town without stopping several times to talk with friends—and the "Main Street" is lined with shops, cafes, and restaurants run by Costa Ricans, Israelis, Argentinians, Italians, Americans, Canadians...
I am not a "dissatisfied" American. I have never had a desire to move out of the country. The freedom and principles of the U.S. are a treasure, but living there has gotten very hard since losing my job in the recession. So imagine my surprise to find that while a Social Security income will give you a subsistence level of living in the U.S.—it will practically give you a luxury lifestyle in Costa Rica...
It just might be the most beautiful beach in Costa Rica. You’ll find it at the end of the road, literally, in the far southeastern corner, near the border with Panama. It’s on the Caribbean coast, the most undeveloped portion of the country. You drive two hours east of the capital San Jose, on Highway 32, and hang a right at the port city of Limon.
When expat Gloria Yeatman needed surgery in May 2010, money was not a worry. This U.S. expat, who lives just outside the Central Valley town of San Ramón, did have to chip in $55 for an ultrasound, $40 for a visit to the doctor…and then there’s that $42-a-month fee she and her husband Paul pay for medical care in Costa Rica. But that was it. And that’s from the initial doctor visit to the eventual surgery and recuperation.