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Thread: Costa Rica

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    757

    Costa Rica

    We are seriously thinking of moving to CR. Very american friendly, very cheap to live, and the medical care is excellent. One deterrant for me is the poor roads, although they say road cyling races are very popular.

    We have a friend who has been going for 7 years and is building a home there now. Would love to hear your feedback if you have been!

    Lisa

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    2,841
    I was there for 2 weeks in November..

    The roads aren't as bad as they're usually advertised to be - the main roads are in fairly good shape - so highways and the big routes from city to city are in good shape. Those roads are being shared by horses, cars, tractor trailers, cyclists, and pedestrians, though. There are a ton of cyclists everywhere and people are generally pretty good about cyclists (we rented a car and drove for the 2 weeks)... I will say that costa rican drivers only seem to pass people on roads when there's a blind turn or something like that.

    There are a lot of people riding around in like full racing kit (spandex tights & matching shirts) on mountain bikes or something similarily incongruous.

    Here's pics that I took of cyclists when I was there:
    http://picasaweb.google.com/ImmunoGi...taRicaBicycle#

    If you go out to the main directory you'll see more photo directories with costa rica pictures - I think you should take up kayaking if you move down there as well

    And rent rooms to me so that I can go down there and stay.

    I did see a lot of americans living in gated mansion type communities isolated from the people of Costa Rica - who'd been living down there for 12 years and could barely speak Spanish - so I'd say... please don't be one of those! That's just sad.

    If you ask about specific areas of the country, I can tell you what I know about those - they do have a long rainy season, so if you want to avoid that - maybe move to the north west type area. the more rural you get, the worse the roads get though.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Sf Bay Area
    Posts
    455
    I went to Costa Rica several years ago but not for the bicycling, although I'm happy to hear that bicycling is picking up. I just want to tell you to be sure to visit the Sloth Sanctuary a few miles south of Limon. You'll be so glad that you did. Here's the link. http://www.slothrescue.org/

    My apologies for not directly answering your questions, but I just had to tell you about this place. :-)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    102
    I went mountain biking in Costa Rica a few years ago. I was really impressed - the place was beautiful & the people v welcoming. Virtually all villages had tap water we could drink. It was so fertile that the fence posts sprouted & grew!!

    Mountain biking was great - loads of trails & people not precious about trespass.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    757
    How safe it it there? Its funny, we have been to many of the Caribbean islands and bomb around in our car (we don't go to islands where you are forced to stay on the resort like Dominican).

    It seems like there are places where it is quite dangerous in CR, and they warn not to go out at night. I realize this is a "state" of sorts, not an island.

    Panama is another area that we are considering as the infrastructure is much stronger.
    Lisa

    Bacchetta Ti Aero
    ICE B1
    Bacchetta Cafe Mountain Bent

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    2,841
    Um. I saw people riding their bikes (kids, whatever ) and walking at all hours of the night. I didn't notice anywhere that I would have considered unsafe.

    I didn't spend much time in San Juan, but I went walking that evening without being worried.

    The only thing we were repeatedly warned about was not to leave anything visible in the rental car because it would probably get stolen. There were times when we had no choice but to leave all our stuff (luggage) in the rental car - and we didn't have anything stolen.

 

 

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