Guys In The Zone: Costa Rica Real Estate

I subscribed to a new blog on my Kindle last night.  I am now paying .99 cents a

Using my brain and drawing

month for content that can be seen for free by going to  www.sharpbrains.com

I am willing to make this investment cuz, as many of you know; I am finding that there are brain changes afoot at this period in my brain healing. I am right around the 20 month period from my brain trauma incident, and I am finding the doing and learning of new things to be right up there with some of the more enjoyable things that I have ever done in my life.

In my recovery I have had numerous fascinating interchanges with people who really have come out of the woodwork of my life to check in on me and see how I’m doing with my healing. One of these was a man who is a successful therapist of some sort from New York. He is the one that suggested to me that I might look into adrenal fatigue as a possible cause of my depression and tiredness. That mixed with a touch of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) can really goof a guy up. I set about addressing the symptoms of adrenal fatigue and I am now of the view that that bit of counsel was a huge help.

Right along with that choice morsel of guidance, he said “Ben, you should use your brain”. His feeling was that since I had parts of my brain now that weren’t being used, it was/is important to use my brain so that it is stimulated and I then can reduce the amount of atrophy in the parts that used to be used by what is now “missing” memory, and also the vision centers that my now blind left eye no longer needs.

This suggestion to “use your brain” is one of the coolest suggestions I think that I have ever had.  Now, as I go through my days, I am looking for ways to challenge the gray matter.  I am paying attention once again to Spanish as a language and am learning new words and aspects of the language that I didn’t know before. (I had gotten into a comfortable plateau with the language and had essentially stopped paying attention.)

I have also taken up drawing, which is becoming my heart’s desire. This is a very strong indicator of a fundamental change happening in my brain structure.

The high school that I went to was a private Quaker affair called John Woolman up in the foothills of the Sierras in northern California. It was a college prep type deal with a strong emphasis on the arts. The principal of the school was a phenomenal drawer-person.  He claimed that he could teach anyone to draw.

Now, this gent was no braggart. He was a very mild, soft spoken sort that was merely stating what he felt to be a fact. I was so far removed from being able to draw that I felt that this would be an interesting challenge. Right about in the middle of my second year with this man and his class, I handed him my drawing supplies and said “no you can’t” and left.

My drawings are nothing to talk about really, but they are an indication to me of the joy that I think we can all have, from the act of using our brains.

I’m sharing this thought as we start a new year.  I have recently tried to drink alcohol, after several years of not, and found that the effect on my brain was not so good.  It was really this that reminded me of my condition of being in recovery from brain trauma.

So, avoiding the conventional method of observing the digit change from 2011 to 2012, (I was in bed by 8:30) this benchmark is being observed in my life by writing this update… and drawing. I spent New Year’s day drawing the picture at the top.

The New Year coincides with the start of a New Season here in Costa Rica’s southern pacific zone. We have had a real press of visitors.  One would never know that there is a recession out there. I am among the worst offenders of being “unplugged” from the media world, and so I admit that I really have no idea what the media would like for us to be thinking at this moment. Maybe it is saying that there is a genuine recovery going on now, or maybe it is continuing the “end of days” mantra that it has been chanting over the last 3 years, I don’t know.  But, in looking around at the amount of activity that is going on in our little real estate office here in Uvita Costa Rica, and at the grocery store parking lot across the street, it would appear that people are still able to travel.

So, the blog mentioned at the outset promises to be a good find.  But I have also been using the web site www.lumosity.com.  I pay their annual subscription of $80 to have access to their “brain gym”.

Finally, as I progress along this path of recovery, each day presents new insights and reminders that “this moment” almost didn’t happen for me, and so I find myself fascinated by life’s moments, as they stream by. I try and slow them down so that this moment can really reach full saturation.

It is good to be alive.

When we foreigners first hear about the amazingly high tax rate on cars, we are shocked and wonder at how can that be?  This is lunacy!  There must be some way around it.

First off: there is no way around it, and as for the lunacy part, perhaps.  But there is a rather twisted sort of logic that I’ll go into later that may help to explain this.

What kind of car to own?

In 1999, when I first moved to Costa Rica, the world was a very different place. Not many Ticos had cars and those that did were driving cars that were considered classics by Gringo standards.  I was a bit surprised to see a number of Datsuns on the road. Remember those?

I discovered that Costa Rica is extremely hard on cars.  So, whatever car you see a lot of here, that car is likely a very good, very well-built car. The hot tickets were the late ‘70s Toyota Land Cruisers and Land Rover Defenders. They were all over the place – and diesel no less!  These cars in the States go for a pretty penny.  Here, they are not so much fashionable, as reliable and affordable.

My first car in Costa Rica was a 1978 Diesel Toyota Land Cruiser. Every grown up boy’s dream.  I LOVED it.  My kids didn’t like it due to the rough ride and the sideways facing rear seats.   So we ended up getting rid of it and getting an early ‘90s Isuzu Trooper, another of the immortal cars at the time.

So, back then, at the beginning of my Costa Rica saga, the amazing cars were:

1. Toyota Land Cruisers old & new
2. Land Rover Defender (old)
3. Toyota 4Runners
4. Isuzu Trooper
5. Mitsubishi Montero
6. Suzuki Samurai
7. Niva

Niva Russian made 4 wheel drive car

The Niva was an interesting car. It is from Russia and was built like a little coupe, but it was/is 4 wheel drive. I had some Tico friends that had one and they loved it.  I looked it up on the Internet and saw that there was some serious fever around this little car. There were clubs and some very souped up examples of the little vehicle around the country.

Now

I drive a 1998 Toyota 4Runner and I love it.  I am VERY hard on it, and it just purrs right along. This body style and 3.0 turbo diesel motor are a genuine classic here in Costa Rica, and you see lots of these cars around. Toyota continued this particular model until 2002. So, if I were to upgrade my Toyota, it would be for a 2002, but the problem is, I am quite happy with it the one I have now. I spent $16,000 on it 3 years ago. I am told that it would fetch $16,000 now.  I have a hard time believing that, but a quick check of what they are getting for them at crautos.com confirms that it has held its value very well.

I’m also a fan of the Suzuki Gran Vitara.  I don’t know if this car exists in the States, but here it is a long lived car, and so its presence is felt on the roads of Costa Rica. Concerns are: gas only, a little low on ground clearance.

The Mitsubishi Montero is a great SUV. There are 2 models, a Sport model and a larger, more deluxe model.  Both are good, but my preference still leans towards the 4Runner, mainly due to the larger 3.0 motor.  Although, you can get a 3.5 in the larger Mistubishi, but then you are in another price bracket.  Good clearance, stout, diesel.

Other popular makes & models are: Toyota Prado – very popular, most Nissan SUVs, Daihatsu BeGo is a small 4 wheel drive that is immensely popular.  Jury is still out on durability. I know that the back door starts to rattle almost immediately, but with their short wheel base, they seem to go anywhere. The smaller 4 wheel drive cars feel every bump in the road.

Samurai’s and Sidekicks hold a strong place in the mix.

You still see some of the older Landcruisers and Defenders around, but they are getting so old, and so beat up here in the Costa Rican life style that they are now starting to suffer from material fatigue. They seem to want to keep running, but even the raw material of the chassis is getting tired out. Still, there are some good examples around and you can have a lot of fun fixing one of these up.  I know of one right now for sale by my neighbor for $4,000, which I think is a decent example of their street value. Its in good condition and runs well.

Cars are the largest single expense in the Costa Rican lifestyle. Gas is running over $5.00 per gallon, and those taxes make just the buying of them painful, if not prohibitive.

Ridiculous Taxes Justified

So how is it that the high tax isn’t absolute lunacy?  The government of Costa Rica is saddled by an interesting challenge.  The land in the country has just recently, say in the last 15 years, started to have a value.  Up until then, all Ticos had land, land they didn’t have to pay for. For the most part, it was free!

Now people from all around the world are wanting some land in Costa Rica, so obviously the values on Costa Rica real estate have gone up. However, the government does not have the ability to raise the taxes on the land since this would impact a good sized majority of land owners in Costa Rica – subsistence farmers. So, I think without saying as much, and perhaps without even consciously recognizing that it’s what they do, they set out to tax the rich, and leave the poor alone.  This is done by high vehicle taxes, with exceptions being extended to common types of farm vehicles.

The government is now starting to look at other ways to tax the rich.  They are working on tax maps that will assign a tax value particular to certain areas ie. coastal areas would be taxed higher than inland farm territories and so on.

If you’d like to post your thoughts on cars in Costa Rica, please feel free to do so.

Boredom... or relaxation?

“You can only walk the dog on the beach and read in the hammock so much.  I miss my work” – this from an expat who achieved “the dream”. He and his wife had retired from their successful business in the U. S. and had bought land and built a gorgeous ocean view home here in Costa Rica’s southern pacific zone.

Hearing this statement set my wheels to turning. I can’t remember the last time that I was bored. Natalie either, we both need to set time aside and make sure that we spend some time every week walking the dogs on the beach and reading in a hammock.  These activities are downright good for the soul. However, I can definitely see how there is a limit to how much one can do of these activities before they get to jonesing for some activity of a more productive nature.

I work with lots of people that are re-locating or who are looking to make a connection of some kind to the zone.  In the consultation phase, I focus on helping with understanding the various aspects of life here that are different from “back home”. How to buy property, how to open a bank account, a corporation, how to learn Spanish, how to get health insurance, where is there a decent dentist and so on. In my consultations, I try and touch on the various points that are a concern to all of us as we integrate with life here in The Zone.  Up till this point, I had never really thought about boredom-management being a line item on my consultation list.

One of my dearest friends is, well how to say… along in years. Yeah, that’s it. His life has been one of extraordinary and high achievement.  He’s at the point now where they won’t sell him life insurance, (well, they will but at the price its more realistic to say they won’t.)  He tells me that a “long term” investment to him is measured in months, not years.

This dear old friend and I started doing business together some time back.  I’ll never forget when he said to me “Ben, you’re keeping me alive”.

Here again, a man who had achieved what so many set out to achieve, and now his life is being enhanced by being included in what I do on a daily basis.  I find this fascinating.  Is there something missing from “the dream”?

I’ve got to work. I have financial obligations and am not in a position to retire. So I look for ways to do this while living in this foreign land. I truly believe that working here in Costa Rica is an act of creativity. In fact, it was my efforts to be creative and to think outside of the box that initially drew my attention over to some of the potential business “assets” that I have available to me.  How about an older man that figured things out in his day back in the States?  Would he be interested in sharing his thoughts and perspectives on my business efforts? “Ben, you’re keeping me alive” he says. This is what I call a fit.

My dear old friend and my clients mentioned earlier differ in that Old Friend is happy and content here. The other is moving back to the States.  Granted, there are lots of reasons for moving back to the States. When our kids have kids we tend to lose our minds and feel that being with the grandkids is the thing that has to be done, regardless of what it takes. However, I’ve met a number of folks here that say that the kids can come here to see them, by golly.

I wonder if the difference really might be the activity/boredom balance.

Now in my real estate and relocation consulting service, I include this point about boredom in the schpiel.  Costa Rica isn’t like the States where so much of one’s time is spent shopping as a form of pastime or entertainment. You lose this habit here pronto.  Shopping here in the zone takes about 2 hours, tops, then you’re done.

You can make a day of it, and many do, if you want to go up to the San Isidro farmers market on Thursday and/or Friday. Travel time from Uvita is just under an hour each way.  It’s also quite the adventure to simply stroll the streets of San Isidro and window shop. This can be a lot of fun, but it won’t ever be more than the occasional thing that you do here.

Interesting Ideas

There are some interesting and creative efforts that have been made by folks who have chosen to make Costa Rica their home. In an upcoming article I’ll tell you about some of these efforts.  I’ve even got a favorite that I’ll share with you.

First, I’ll take the easy road and tell you what I do. I run the real estate company: Guys In The Zone.  My partner Rod Martin and I have forged one of the deepest working/friendship relationships on the planet.  Knowing that you’ve got a partner through thick and thin gives life a depth that it otherwise doesn’t have and I’ve got this in Rod.

So, we call it the business of real estate, but the funny thing is, we spend the majority of our time doing things that really aren’t “real estate” by definition.

All those points that I mentioned above, the points about bank accounts, learning Spanish and so on? We consider these topics regularly as we work with people on real estate.  Who would’a thunk that a discussion about how to learn Spanish or quieting the internal dialogue would be involved with the business of real estate?  Well, it’s all part of the package.  When you sell real estate in Costa Rica, you become the single point of contact for folks that are interested in The Zone either as a place to vacation, invest, migrate to for half the year, or full blown live here. I gotta say, this makes life interesting.

In addition to this I enjoy writing articles such as this one for our blog (www.thezoneblog.com), as well as publishing articles in the local Montañas al Mar magazine.  I’m involved with CAP (Crime Awareness and Prevention) and just try and find things that need doing. The Guys in the Zone also run a couple of the local web site portals  that serve as visitors guides to the area (www.dominical.biz and www.uvita.biz).

I say all that to demonstrate why the thought of boredom is a strange one in my world.

I’ll be posting some examples of the creative ways that expats not only fill time, but support their lives while living here in this sparsely populated area of the world.

Boredom... or relaxation?

“You can only walk the dog on the beach and read in the hammock so much. I miss my work” – this from an expat who achieved “the dream”. He and his wife had retired from their successful business in the U. S. and had bought land and built a gorgeous ocean view home here in Costa Rica’s southern pacific zone.

Hearing this statement set my wheels to turning. I can’t remember the last time that I was bored. Natalie either, we both need to set time aside and make sure that we spend some time every week walking the dogs on the beach and reading in a hammock. These activities are downright good for the soul. However, I can definitely see how there is a limit to how much one can do of these activities before they get to jonesing for some activity of a more productive nature.

I work with lots of people that are re-locating or who are looking to make a connection of some kind to the zone. In the consultation phase, I focus on helping with understanding the various aspects of life here that are different from “back home”. How to buy property, how to open a bank account, a corporation, how to learn Spanish, how to get health insurance, where is there a decent dentist and so on. In my consultations, I try and touch on the various points that are a concern to all of us as we integrate with life here in The Zone. Up till this point, I had never really thought about boredom-management being a line item on my consultation list.

One of my dearest friends is, well how to say… along in years. Yeah, that’s it. His life has been one of extraordinary and high achievement. He’s at the point now where they won’t sell him life insurance, (well, they will but at the price its more realistic to say they won’t.) He tells me that a “long term” investment to him is measured in months, not years.

This dear old friend and I started doing business together some time back. I’ll never forget when he said to me “Ben, you’re keeping me alive”.

Here again, a man who had achieved what so many set out to achieve, and now his life is being enhanced by being included in what I do on a daily basis. I find this fascinating. Is there something missing from “the dream”?

I’ve got to work. I have financial obligations and am not in a position to retire. So I look for ways to do this while living in this foreign land. I truly believe that working here in Costa Rica is an act of creativity. In fact, it was my efforts to be creative and to think outside of the box that initially drew my attention over to some of the potential business “assets” that I have available to me. How about an older man that figured things out in his day back in the States? Would he be interested in sharing his thoughts and perspectives on my business efforts? “Ben, you’re keeping me alive” he says. This is what I call a fit.

My dear old friend and my clients mentioned earlier differ in that Old Friend is happy and content here. The other is moving back to the States. Granted, there are lots of reasons for moving back to the States. When our kids have kids we tend to lose our minds and feel that being with the grandkids is the thing that has to be done, regardless of what it takes. However, I’ve met a number of folks here that say that the kids can come here to see them, by golly.

I wonder if the difference really might be the activity/boredom balance.

Now in my real estate and relocation consulting service, I include this point about boredom in the schpiel. Costa Rica isn’t like the States where so much of one’s time is spent shopping as a form of pastime or entertainment. You lose this habit here pronto. Shopping here in the zone takes about 2 hours, tops, then you’re done.

You can make a day of it, and many do, if you want to go up to the San Isidro farmers market on Thursday and/or Friday. Travel time from Uvita is just under an hour each way. It’s also quite the adventure to simply stroll the streets of San Isidro and window shop. This can be a lot of fun, but it won’t ever be more than the occasional thing that you do here.

Interesting Ideas

There are some interesting and creative efforts that have been made by folks who have chosen to make Costa Rica their home. In an upcoming article I’ll tell you about some of these efforts. I’ve even got a favorite that I’ll share with you.

First, I’ll take the easy road and tell you what I do. I run the real estate company: Guys In The Zone. My partner Rod Martin and I have forged one of the deepest working/friendship relationships on the planet. Knowing that you’ve got a partner through thick and thin gives life a depth that it otherwise doesn’t have and I’ve got this in Rod.

So, we call it the business of real estate, but the funny thing is, we spend the majority of our time doing things that really aren’t “real estate” by definition.

All those points that I mentioned above, the points about bank accounts, learning Spanish and so on? We consider these topics regularly as we work with people on real estate. Who would’a thunk that a discussion about how to learn Spanish or quieting the internal dialogue would be involved with the business of real estate? Well, it’s all part of the package. When you sell real estate in Costa Rica, you become the single point of contact for folks that are interested in The Zone either as a place to vacation, invest, migrate to for half the year, or full blown live here. I gotta say, this makes life interesting.

In addition to this I enjoy writing articles such as this one for our blog (www.thezoneblog.com), as well as publishing articles in the local Montañas al Mar magazine. I’m involved with CAP (Crime Awareness and Prevention) and just try and find things that need doing. The Guys in the Zone also run a couple of the local web site portals that serve as visitors guides to the area (www.dominical.biz and www.uvita.biz).

I say all that to demonstrate why the thought of boredom is a strange one in my world.

I’ll be posting some examples of the creative ways that expats not only fill time, but support their lives while living here in this sparsely populated area of the world.

Rod & Ben: It's been a long and amazing year.

I’ve never had a year quite like 2010.  Amazing, life altering, wonderful, scary and perplexing would be just a few of the descriptors that would sum this year up for me.

The Weather
At the start of the new year, we here in Costa Rica are still drying out from what has proved to be the rainiest “rainy” season in anyone’s memory.  Some say that the rains that accompanied Hurricane Thomas were the “100 Year Rains”.  No towns were washed away (that I know of), such as what happened to Portalon in ’07, but there were some deaths and certainly quite a bit of damage. Some lost their homes, and others are having to move lots of dirt & rock that slid down onto their properties and into their homes.  Roads were washed out, including the highway, south of Uvita.  Trucks were backed up and the country was at a standstill for days.

The Economy
The word “recovery” has been used quite a bit with respect to the economy.  I don’t benefit from a daily dose of media news coverage, so I’m never really all that sure of what the prevailing consensus is regarding the actual health of the economy, but from where I sit, it’s difficult to see how there can be a genuine recovery when there exists an un-payable deficit of $13+ trillion dollars in the US alone.  This doesn’t bring into account unemployment and the numerous other nations that are either belly up or very nearly so.

Real Estate
Having said that, we are definitely benefitting from ”the recovery” in my Guys In The Zone real estate office in Uvita.  Business is brisk and folks are buying land & houses at a rate that can’t be described as a boom, but it’s a sight better than what we’ve seen over the past couple of years.

Explaining the Increase:

1. Much lower pricing on properties in Costa Rica’s southern pacific zone
2. Improved access to the zone.  The coastal highway between Quepos & Dominical has certainly opened up the southern pacific zone as a vacation destination to more tourists.
3. Reduced quality of life “back home”.  This can relate to: insecurity & concerns over the economy, un-payable taxes, health care, the year 2012, etc..
4. The desire to live life now, instead of waiting for perfect conditions at some undefined future time.

Whatever the explanation, there is certainly a new “type” of visitor, investor, re-locator to the zone. Point #2 has a lot to do with this.  Simply getting to the zone required a certain amount of hardiness and a sort of unique drive in the individuals that felt compelled to make the trek.  Now, with the completed Quepos to Dominical link, we are seeing a new flavor of human being here in the zone.

Personal
The year 2010 is going down in the journal of my life as The Year. It was a year of massive change and new experiences for this 51 year old, father of 3 (just when I thought I had seen it all).

I was very nearly killed, and as a direct result, I had an experience that has altered my views on life, God and to a very large degree, my fellow man/woman.

The account of my incident is fairly well documented, so I’ll not go into the details of it again here.  Suffice it to say that, I chased a thief, got blindsided by a bat to the head, spent a month in the hospital (CIMA) where they at first didn’t know if I was going to live. Then they didn’t know if I was going to come back sane, or with all of my mental faculties.  Then when it appeared that I was going to recover most of my former self, the losses tallied were a blind left eye, an interesting affliction called adrenal fatigue, and a persistent numbness in my face and sinuses affecting my ability to taste & smell.  I am now back to work and for the most part, back in the swing of things.

Personal Changes
I used to think that I wasn’t a judgmental person. For most of my life I have been known as a generally good natured fellow that looked for the good in people. I now feel a little different, thanks to this incident that so profoundly affected my 2010. To be the recipient of an across the board, around the globe concern, and the outpouring of love from all quarters, I came to realize just how judgmental I had actually been.  I now aspire to be truly non-judgmental.  What this looks like is based on the first hand experience that I have had with men & women both in the inner circle of my life, and extending out to beyond the periphery of my life, acting in ways that I now feel really show what most of us have inside of us.  I think that we all want so much to be needed, to live meaningful lives, and to really be of service to each other.  Modern life doesn’t offer much opportunity to really feel needed and feel like we can make a difference.

My incident must have provided this sort of an opportunity, because the outpouring of support & love that I received, and the people that I received it from, made me really stop and re-think my viewpoint on humanity in general.

Now, going into 2011, when I have an encounter with someone, anyone, and I do my knee jerk assessment of that person (I think you know what I mean),  I now know that what I’m seeing is the thin wrapping that we all bundle ourselves up with as we present ourselves to each other in our day to day lives.  It’s simply the way we want to be viewed by others.  But this has so very little to do with the core of the person, and how we/they will be when the chips are down.  We humans are quirky – and God love us.

As we start 2011, I wish to express to all those that contributed to my current level of health and well being, my profound, inexpressible appreciation and reciprocal love.  Your gifts to me have left me a changed man and I hope to be as generous and loving as you all, when I grow up.

Gifts

• Donations that nearly paid $110,000 in medical bills.
• Hours of much needed therapy & consultations for my diagnosed condition of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
• Massages
• Chiropractic services
• Meals
• Music
• Fund raising benefits in my honor
• Lots of prayers, concern, visits and love
• Invitations to speak of my experience to local groups
• Have had people actually cross the street just to tell me they were concerned and how glad they are to see me up and about.

I have had some non-residents of the zone tell me that I must live in some kind of special community and that I must have some kind of special friends.

I am inclined to think so as well.  However, I wonder if maybe in reality it really isn’t all so “special” or unusual.  Maybe this is what humanity really is.

I’m hoping so.

or – How Media Saturation Robs Us Of Our Joy
or – an Original Thought is a good thing

We humans find ourselves intriguing, in fact – fascinating. Theories explaining the experience of being human abound .

One theory that I heard as a young man has stuck with me through the years. This theory now finds a rather interesting application in my life of living as an expat here in Costa Rica. I see the possible truth to this theory as I observe what I have come to know as “4th Day Original Thought Syndrome” or “4DOTS” in Costa Rica. Based on this thing that happens on day #4, many decide that they would like to either make Costa Rica Home, or to at least make it a big part of their life.

Observation:

Thinking Man Fires Off a Brain Circuit

4DOTS is simple – it’s really nothing more than relaxation. But I need to do a footnote definition here of what I mean by relaxation. It’s more than just having our neck muscles relax and our shoulders lower down by a couple inches, (which they do on day 4). 4 DOTS relaxation has to do with the mind.

The Theory:

It is thought that when we first have an experience as a baby, we fire off a unique circuit in our brain. The experience is profound and frequently pleasurable. We are drawn to the subject experience again and again to get better acquainted. We call this learning.

Let’s say that at the age of 1 year our Mother puts us on the warm, sunny lawn in our back yard to crawl around. A new circuit is fired through our brain and we are fascinated by the greenness of the experience and the warmth of the green. The texture is slightly prickly but not unpleasantly so. There is a humid component and a wonderful smell that we will later on associate with the word “earthy”.

From this point on in our lives this same circuit fires every time we experience warm green grass, causing a familiarity with the experience, and this we call memory. So the theory goes.

(As an aside, i t is thought that the psychoactive drug LSD causes variations in our established and familiar brain circuitry. This can be profoundly pleasurable (or disturbing) and cause fascination with what we adults would consider to be mundane things. This would explain why people on LSD can be seen studying their hand, or marveling at the grass they are standing on. ) Read the full story

Typical Latin American Greeting

When we first moved to Costa Rica in 1999, my son Neil was 11 years old and my daughter Hannah was 15.  In those early days, after coming home from a visit to the town center, maybe to the grocery store or whatever, they would complain “Dad, why do they stare?”

The answer was and is “because they are Ticos.”

One of the major reasons that I chose to move to a foreign land with my family was that we, as a family, would learn another culture & language.  Well, I’m happy to say that it worked.  We learned a language and a culture, but lord knows it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

It really helps to keep in mind the objective: that of learning a new culture.  That way when things are different, we can tell ourselves: “that’s why I came here.”  The problem is that sometimes different equates to strange and uncomfortable.

The eye contact thing was something that, for me, took a little getting used to, and even more so for my kids. In time we all have come to appreciate it.  In Costa Rica you always acknowledge the presence of the other person, whether it be driving along a dirt road and passing a guy walking along, or in the grocery store as you walk past the stocker.

I think that my gringo, privacy-loving heart, is a little afraid that if I engage with this person, they will take a bunch of my time, or need something from me.  I think that it was somewhere right about the 200th greeting – the 200th greeting that happened for the simple love of the greeting, I began to accept it.  Touch base, say hello, share a good feeling and move on with your day. Read the full story

“The chance to have a second life in the same body.  A life immersed in nature, and immersed in culture.  This would be to get involved in what is here as opposed to what I had already lived”.

After reading my article in a new magazine here in the zone, Raven’s flagship Montañas al Mar, an old friend approached me and took exception to one of my comments.  He was able to quote the article – the part where I mention how early land buyers here in Costa Rica’s southern Pacific zone were able to convert $1.00 invested in land into $120.00 by selling that land.

My old friend, who is seated squarely in the middle of the “early investors” group, made the point to me that the so called “early investors”, hardly had “investing” in mind.  This wasn’t what they were doing.  For some reason, this sparked my question: “Why did you move here”? And hence his answer as noted above, which I find to be profoundly beautiful, and the wisdom of which caused me to pause, and it set off a chain link series of memories as to my own reasons for moving here, none of which had to do with investing.

In my conversation with Old Friend, he talked about the day when you would buy a large piece of land, partly because that was all that was available and because that was the life that you wanted.  There certainly weren’t the conveniences here that there are now, but there was the serenity and quiet, and a chance to live “a second life in the same body”.  Granted, the thought of parceling off a piece of piece of that land in the future to reduce, or fully compensate one’s initial investment was present, but was not the key motivator.

Working in real estate in Costa Rica, one tends to get the viewpoint of valuing the land we work with in terms of “asset appreciation” and “investment potential”.  This is indeed what a certain percentage of our buyers are concerned with. However, just like some of the early investors, a number of our buyers now are life-stylers, those who are looking to live life in a way that differs from the way they’ve lived it up till now, and that have placed “asset appreciation” low on the list of criteria that they are looking for.

“Why did you move here” is a great mental exercise for us expats and migrators.  I suppose that there will be some that answer the question with: “I came to invest in land and make a lot of money”, but I think that they’d be in a minority among those that live here.

The beauty of buying land in an area such as this is that you can perhaps optimize your dreams in the buying of that land.  The land itself becomes the means by which you can live in this beautiful area of planet earth.  There are so many ingenious ways that expats find to support themselves here: vacation rentals, B & B’s, spas and retreats are all in full bloom here for this very reason.  One couple I know have cabinas, a highly rated restaurant, a decorative iron works shop and a petting zoo on their property, even though the property is a little off the beaten path.  Its hard to know if it’s a money maker, but it clearly allows them to live happily in Costa Rica.

There seems to be an irresistible push to make Costa Rica just like any other desirable destination, with all the services and conveniences of a Florida or a southern California.  There are a couple of factors here which may affect this “push” from coming through to full fruition. One is the topography.

Costa Rica is a geologically young country.  Pressed up by colliding plates, the country was thrown up by erratic tectonic pressures in an anything but orderly manner.  After living here for over 10 years I still have to carry a compass with me to establish “north” in a given location, so abstract is the lay of the land. Even if pure lucre were given free reign to define development in the zone, it would be limited by the radical nature of the topography.

And then there is the matter of consciousness.  Costa Rica news headlines are rife with reports of catastrophes and subsequent damage control that rampant development has caused in the earlier developed areas of Costa Rica.  We here in the southern zone are benefitting from the mistakes made elsewhere.  There is a genuine interest on the part of foreigners and Ticos alike to preserve this gem-like portion of Costa Rica, a consciousness that transcends the turning of a buck.

Well, we’re hoping so.

So much of how we’re doing here as a species, living in the finite space of this planet, is defined by our use of land.  Just in the last week I’ve enjoyed the conversation mentioned in this article, and others with developers, house builders and residents alike that are focused on “green” and “sustainability”, in their truest sense.

There is a construction company taking shape in Dominical that is no less than visionary in its approach to the building materials that will be used to construct human habitat.  There is a company in Canada that is about to make solar homes with thatched roofing affordable to land buyers here in the zone.  There are efforts on the part of developers to employ ecological easements to definitively restrict the further subdividing of their lots, into perpetuity – all good.

We are about to see a major change here in the zone.  More people are going to find their way here with the paving of the bumpy road that links Quepos in the north to Dominical, the gateway to the zone.  Development and progress are going to happen.  It seems to be an irresistible force in human society.  More, bigger, better.

So, why are we here?

Perhaps it’s the differences as compared to where we come from.  Perhaps it’s the value of quieting the inner dialogue that ran so rampant in our minds “back home” – freedom from media saturation – a connecting with nature and the spiritual side of things – an opportunity to “get involved in what is here as opposed to what I had already lived”.

How we answer this question may define how things look around here in the coming years.

 If you would like to send us your answer to this question, please fill feel free to cut loose with your creative thoughts.

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Very much in keeping with the theme of Costa Rica real estate, I thought I’d take advantage of the liberties afforded me as the owner of this blog and write about the death of a professional associate, and a friend, Sean McGraw.

Sean died Tuesday night, March 24th, 2009, in a car accident. He was 35 and is leaving behind his wife Jessica and 2 children. Living in a very small community here in Costa Rica’s southern Pacific zone, the feel of having just lost one that was known by so many is in the air – palpable.

Sean was one of four partners of Coldwell Banker Vesta Group here in Dominical, and he was a reader of this blog. He was also one of my competitors, and despite this unsavory handle, we enjoyed the opportunities that we had to work together with various clients, and on various projects. We also shared a definite interest in improving the overall quality of our currently un-certified industry. Sean was a student of the real estate business and on occasion was a help to me in understanding certain aspects of Costa Rica real estate law.

Living and working in Costa Rica’s southern zone is like living in old time, small town USA of a long time ago. You can’t go to the store, walk down the street, or even poke your head out of the office without the potential of bumping into someone you know and engaging in a brief “how ya doing?” session. Very few of these in these past few days have not mentioned Sean and the shock of his passing.

The word that pops into my mind every time that I think of Sean is “vital”. The man was very much this – full of life. Sparkling eyes and an ever present smile.

He is going to be missed.