A Costa Rica Update

Well, you’ve probably  seen many of the photos already, but it seems worthwhile to also do a short blog post on where we are with the grand Costa Rica adventure.

Overall, the answer  is “we are doing well.”  To be sure there are frustrations and delays, but in the long run we are well on the way to living our dream.

Let’s start with the house – construction is almost complete.  I was supposed to be finished by March 10, but there have been some delays, the most notable of which was a wait to clear customs (about which more below).  But it looks like we are now on schedule for early April.  The floor is mostly in; the tile is going up on the showers; the walls are getting painted; the roof is finished.  What lies ahead are the doors, appliances, furniture and such …  All of which takes time, but most of which looks pretty small next to the grand scale of the overall house.  One thing that doesn't need work, of course, is the sunset ....

As for customs – as Katy says if there is, in fact, a 7^th circle of hell, Costa Rican customs is part of it. Our goods arrived in Costa Rica on Jan 15.  When we left on Feb 29 they still had not been released.  Between slowness generally , a mistake by our shipper and overall bureaucracy we were royally screwed.  Our “favorite” (not!) part of the experience was actually having to go to the bonded warehouse and open every single one of the boxes to inventory what was inside.  We had an inventory of course – but we had to confirm exactly which box it was in and also declare that all of our used goods were …. Well, used ….  It was not pleasant at all.  As of the day we left we were going to finally pay the customs bill and have the goods moved out of the bonded warehouse to storage for our contractor to come collect.  All the door knobs; appliances and lights are waiting to go!  

On the other hand, much of what we are designing and building will give us great pleasure.  The picture below is the design for the gate to our house, for example.

Also, on the plus side, most of the rest of what we want to do is proceeding apace.  For example, we spent one full day at the immigration office (would you believe they have only a single office for the entire country??) going through the last steps to get our residency  permits.  We were approved – and if all goes well, the actual green cards (called Cedula, and not green) will arrive by mail later in March for our property manager to pick up.

And, of course, the major plus is simply that we love being in Costa Rica.  Everytime we go there, our blood pressure drops 10% just as we step off the plane.  Yes, it’s quiet and sometimes Paul misses the business of DC – but it is easy to go back and forth and, frankly , the weather is just perfect.  This year we enjoyed a bit more of the local culture, including going to a jazz concert in Escazu and the Atenas chili cook-off festival.  We also found a massage therapist to  use and Katy fell in love with a cat (sadly we can’t keep her!)

Current plan is to go back in April for a couple of weeks when the house is done and then to spend the whole month of July there putting it together, so that next winter we will really have our own home.  Wish us luck …