So here's what is going on in my life. In the past 2 weeks I've sold everything I own but my Truck, Plane and House. I had to kick the wife out and we are going seperate ways.
I'm thinking Costa Rica. Maybe go fly for a Missionary or something. I have a good friend who lives there now and she loves it.
Anybody know anything about Costa Rica??

Sorry to hear that, Chicken. Hang in there.

What does your wife's lawyer have to say. Get a hold of Gump on this subject.

Tim

I hope this isn't inappropriate. But, I hear the women are beautiful. The beaches are great, too. Most Costa Ricans I've met through my travels and work have all been super friendly. Good people!

Large expat community. Not crime free but better than most. Advantageous tax structure. High on my list of places to live but then again I speak the language.

Traveled there a couple years ago. Geography mostly boils down to Caribbean side, Pacific Side, and Cordillera. Caribbean side has some surfing, but pretty quiet and not much development or infrastructure. I doubt there's a surfaced runway. Sketchier drinking water and malaria more prevalent too.

Pacific side has the bigger cities and ports. Nicoya peninsula to the nowrthwest, which gets a bit more of the gringoes-on-spring-break scene. Good place to start if you don't speak any Spanish. Down coast on the Pacific side is the Osa peninsula. Quite rugged and remote, and very beautiful. Access is by boat and dirt road, mostly.

The Cordillera has great sightseeing attractions like volcanoes and rainforest preserves. Arenal Volcano is famous for being in the cloud most of the time, and the rainforest could probably also be categorized as cloud forest, so in terms of the flying, probably a fair bit of scud to be expected in the Cordillera.

A word of caution- Driving in the capital of San Jose will make flying your Sportsman into LAX look like a cakewalk. We had four in the car, and it required everyone constantly on high alert calling out traffic, in order not to get lost and/or killed. Apparently it has the highest rate of pedestrians deaths of any latin american city. Then, there is the Pan American highway. I used to dream about riding a motorcycle along the length of it until I actually saw it. The section south out of San Jose is known as Cerro De La Muerte, which translates to "Mountain of Death." That seemed quaint until we came upon the first charred wreck, still smoldering. It wasn't the last.

Apart from that, the country is great. Especially if you can learn a little spanish, enjoy birds, sea turtles, monkeys, sloths and other tropical wildlife, and friendly locals once you learn the ropes and lose the tourist mentality. You can get a fantastic breakfast of beans, eggs, farm cheese and Lizano sauce which, taken in context, is just as great as the reindeer fry-up at Gwennie's.

Good luck, and sorry to hear about your troubles. Costa Rica sounds like as good a place as any to ride them out.

-DP

You may consider joining Baja Bush Pilots then e-mail Jack for info on flying there. He probably knows more about it than most anybody.

Tim

adventure dave lives and flies there ....sure Jose can give you some advice.....look for "pilit" post....hahah

Costa Rica is awesome. I lived there for a few years as a kid (17-20) and it was fantastic, but...to get the full value its good to like the latin way of doing things. If you've spent much time in Mex or similar places you'll know what I mean. Its not North America (which is good) and if you're looking for somethign different, it is.

Great beaches. Great mountains. Great jungles. Crazy wildlife. Great fishing. San Jose is really too big and crowded, but Guanacaste is a good place to start. There is a guy on the board here from Costa Rica - he just posted about landing in Barbudal. Get in touch with him.

Denali: You put a smile on my face with the talk about CR driving! That's pretty much where I learned to drive beat up jeeps and trucks and motorcycles. Made Tijuana seem tame

Here is another one of those friend of a friend story.

This guy went there a few times and loved it and was treated great. After his divorce, he went down with a Lake Amphibian and started a sight seeing business, mainly getting cruise boat people. He was gold when he was a paying tourist, but when he started to compete for those dollars, things changed.

One night he was beaten and dragged out of town like in the old westerns. He was inches from death. This all happened 7-8 years ago, and that is all I know. But the “friend" is coming to our fly-in next week, so I’ll probe for the rest of the story and report back.

Sorry about you luck. I still dream of Alaska and here you are leaving?

This site offers a lot of info and contacts!
http://www.therealcostarica.com/

Yeah, if you're going into business for yourself in any foreign country its good to make sure you have friends there and aren't stepping on any toes.

Another thing to remember is that lots of gringos turn up in Costa Rica with some bucks in their pockets and leave a year later broke. Things generally look rosier than they are when you first get there. My advice? Don't work illegally, and don't start a business until you've been there (or some other Third World school of hard knocks) long enough to really know the lay of the land. Its not what it looks like at first.

Still, a great place, but a gringo and his money can be soon parted, and you're not going to win against a Costa Rican very easily in a Costa Rican court.

Also, some great looking women, but don't fall in love too quick or too hard - you may find out that the authorities won't let you leave the country.

Hey Chicken drop me a PM, I have family who live there, been going down since 1979, about all that has been posted here is at least partly true, but dont let any of it scare you away. It is beautiful, friendly and a great place to kick back. Economy has hit them as well, prices are down on real estate, country has set up tax free zones so stuff not as pricey as before to set up house. What are you planing?
Fishing is great, weather great. Yes women are very lovely but not all are looking for sugar daddies. Many are smart, motivated...... Education system is very good, one of my brothers teaches at a college in San Jose. Tico status is getting harder to get, most are retired
few are business owners, and many are crooks in fact there are too many crooks in real estate and in several other areas. Be Careful with your $$.... I will be going down again after holidays, am thinking of building on a lot I have there, I also have some island property for sale off Golfito. Also have a house in Golfito and one near airport just out of San Jose for sale too. Sorry for you troubles,
Be Safe
paul

Hey Chickenair. I have been thinking the same thing. I sold a couple of work vans to a scrap guy that lives there from Nov to March. He loves it and he bought his citizenship for $60,000. You get instant citizenship and they pay you back with interest. He says he gets a check from the Costa Rican Government for $1,073 every month. Costa Rica has the third longest life expectancy and their Medical is second to none. With Citizenship you have free medical, dental, etc for the rest of your life.

He bought a condo there that use to sell for $275K and he bought it last year for $73K. 100 yds from the ocean and nothing but Beach between him and the water. He invited me down this winter and I might take him up on it. I went to Portugal last year to check that out, but their economy is worse than ours right now. Wonderful people over there and a really laid back country. It is just too far. One really big advantage of Costa Rico over a lot of other countries is that you can fly or drive there.

Before you sell your house you might want to rent a place there and see if it is really what you want to do. Go down for the winter and by then you will know if it's right for you. I don't have a lot of choice about selling my house since the FDIC sold my loan to some Aholes in New York. They refuse to take less for my buildings. Even though the buildings now appraise half what they cost to build. They are already threatening to take my house so I will sell it if I can.

If it has only been a few weeks since your life got turned upside down you might want to just take a vacation for a couple of weeks and think things out. Remember, time heals all wounds. Good luck whatever you decide. Stay in touch and remember you have friends here.

Jerry

Hell Chickenair, it ain't even winter yet. Here where I live, you don't lose your wife, you just lose your turn.

All joking aside, take care of yourself. Costa Rica doesn't sound half bad.

gb

Thanks for all the input guys. I see a Lawyer on Monday to see if it is possible for her to get anything I don't want to give her. I'm trying to do this with a dissolution of marriage. She has signed the paperwork and it is filed. My worry is at the hearing on 22 Nov, she can say this isn't what she wants and contest it. She is dealing with a bunch of Bar Room Lawyers who are right now filling her head with all kinds of crap. The Guy who cause all this works at the Military Legal Office and I can tell by the way she responds to me, he is coaching her.
By Nov 22nd, I will have everything sold. I will sell the house and Plane to someone who will sell it back to me if I want(I have some good friends). If she contests, I will be on a plane to Costa Rica on the next flight. Once I see what it is like there, I'll decide if I want to stay or not. Than I can work on flying my Sportsman down.
The person I know there is staying in San Jose. I would probably like the outlaying areas better. I'm not much of a city boy.

Well, good luck chicken, maybe u should give IDAHO a whirl...clean air, tons of flying,tons of fishing,mediocre hunting,truly beautiful cowgirls, and now cheap real-estate. largely a red-neck cowboy state, lots of guns and almost no freaks...going further to the south is for OLD folks, not you...!

"Flying" in Costa Rica is different than here in the States . Strictly controlled on when and where -There's a new guy here who fly's a 182 Ginno ? -He got his Licenses within last year and now has 200 hours in his log book. I've got a friend who goes back and forth states to Costa Rica who hires a Caravan to fly them around to his coffee plantations. Flamingo Bay has several fly-in spots for tourist types .

chickenair wrote:Thanks for all the input guys. I see a Lawyer on Monday to see if it is possible for her to get anything I don't want to give her. I'm trying to do this with a dissolution of marriage. She has signed the paperwork and it is filed. My worry is at the hearing on 22 Nov, she can say this isn't what she wants and contest it. She is dealing with a bunch of Bar Room Lawyers who are right now filling her head with all kinds of crap. The Guy who cause all this works at the Military Legal Office and I can tell by the way she responds to me, he is coaching her.
By Nov 22nd, I will have everything sold. I will sell the house and Plane to someone who will sell it back to me if I want(I have some good friends). If she contests, I will be on a plane to Costa Rica on the next flight. Once I see what it is like there, I'll decide if I want to stay or not. Than I can work on flying my Sportsman down.
The person I know there is staying in San Jose. I would probably like the outlaying areas better. I'm not much of a city boy.

AIDS ---- Aviation Induced Divorce Syndrome I had a ex who sold my Ag-Wagon without consulting with me - that's why she's a ex. First person to file and get to court house is the winner .Keep your head on straight .

Green Hornet wrote:This site offers a lot of info and contacts!
http://www.therealcostarica.com/

Thanks for posting this link yesterday, Green Hornet...
What a website to get lost in. Worse than Youtube!!

Chickenair - good luck and keep your head up.

I had a ex who sold my Ag-Wagon without consulting with me -

How in the world.........................
Did you get the Ag Wagon back?