Costa Rica-Real Estate Condos for sale in Guanacaste

I found out something very interesting today: U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) will be opening a new health center facility for the Caribbean Coast. Costa Rica does have a very nice health plan itself yet; some areas are a bit neglected mostly because they are so far away.

The United States Southern Command area of interest includes: The land mass of Latin America south of Mexico, the waters adjacent to Central and South America, the Caribbean Sea, its 12 island nations and European territories, the Gulf of Mexico and a portion of the Atlantic Ocean. They will be building a 345-square-meter clinic in Limón, Costa Rica’s main port and also the most problematic province. This new clinic will be built in the community of El Bambú starting this month. This is specifically located in Talamanca, near the Panama border.

In Costa Rica, Caribbean locations are very well known for their amazing beaches and food, yet a lot of the main cities like Puerto Viejo or downtown Limon seem to be having a lot of health and security problems, the fact that this clinic will be open in a far away location will help the access issues in the clinics down town and will provide assistance to the population in the nearby areas.

A lot of people get vacation packages in Puerto Limon. Costa Rica is really lucky to get this kind of assistance from the U.S since it will help increase tourism on the area. I wonder if they are thinking of expanding health facilities on the Guanacaste area as well. That will certainly sky rock the real estate business here, specially since in Costa Rica, Guanacaste is one of the most fancied areas for people who want to retire in a peaceful and paradise like location without losing any of the facilities and “luxuries” they had back home.

Yet, I do believe that this clinic is in fact a huge improvement for the entire Caribbean Coast. I will not be surprised if this area becomes a nice location to move in a couple of years.

Since yesterday’s dawn I just have been sort of falling in love with Guanacaste all over again. I went ahead and did some research about natural reservations in Costa Rica, Guanacaste national parks mostly. The biggest ones (or at least the most important ones) are Santa Rosa National Park and Rincon de la Vieja. Of course, at the national parks there are no homes for sale; Costa Rica legislations are very strict on this matter.

Rincon de la Vieja, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Rincon de la Vieja is located over the Guanacaste mountain line, about 17 miles north east from the city of Liberia. Regarding real estate, Guanacaste agents forget to promote the beauty of Natural Reserves, I am not so sure why, since they are quite spectacular.

At Rincon de la Vieja, Guanacaste’s variety of habitats can be experienced at its maximum, mainly because of the different types of altitude and the effect of the volcanic eruptions of the area. The park itself is huge; according to some research I made today it measures about 14.084 hectares! This is very impressive if you ask me. I am definitely working on a visit to this area as soon as possible, I’ll make sure to share the details with all. Apparently it is really easy to visit national parks, Costa Rica has many, and I mean travel agencies with very affordable one or two-day tours worth to check out.

Although Santa Rosa National Park is mostly known for its historical value (Costa Rica’s national hero and his adventure occurred there, I will tell you the story on another time), you can also enjoy natural attractions and it is not such a long trip either, like most of Costa Rica. Beaches on the surrounding areas area very quiet and peaceful, this is definitely a good place to relax in Costa Rica. Travel agencies of the area can provide you with all the information you need and even tour guides to take you there.

I am sure I am becoming a Tico: you come here once for vacations, Costa Rica opens up for you and you end up attached to the amazing ambience, the people, the places and mostly that feeling of finally being home.

I woke up this morning really early I went straight to get a cup of coffee to drink it on my porch. While sipping slowly I looked up and realized what a lovely view I get at home: the color shading between the darkness and the sun light, all the amazing shadows of the dawn the palm trees, everything was like a really peaceful picture, moving towards daylight.

In Guanacaste the weather is usually very dry and breezy, but due to the past storm, the ambience was getting kind of hectic. Now that it is over, we can actually enjoy the cleanliness of the air. It is really good to know that there was actually little damage on the area after all that rain, now everything is really back to normal.

Moving to Guanacaste was definitely not an easy decision to make, a lot of people told I should look further into Costa Rica real estate choices and move to a location closer to the city, they could not be more wrong, I found that out since the first night at the hotel. Guanacaste is a wonderful area, you can see cattle is one of the most common activities since the first day and, along with tourism, Guanacaste is the next big city in Costa Rica (at least Liberia is for sure).

Flamingo Beach, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Once you find the exact location you like, relocating to Guanacaste is relatively easy: make sure your property has access to supermarkets and stores and look on the ads, garage sales ads are everywhere and also in Guanacaste, real estate agencies often have information about places to buy furniture and household items. Also, one of the biggest perks about moving to Guanacaste: beaches you will have access to many different and wonderful beaches. A beach house in Costa Rica is one of the best purchases you will ever make.

Hotels in Guanacaste seem to prosper more and more, yet there are many residential areas around and since Liberia is becoming a main city, housing projects are big right now in Guanacaste. Costa Rica has many other wonderful locations for you to browse around for properties, I’ll make sure to provide more info once I visit more places.

After a while experiencing the wonders of moving to Costa Rica, agriculture has become kind of a hobby of mine. It is quite amazing to see how rich the soil is in this country, you can easily have all kinds of herbs and spices right on your backyard. When moving to Costa Rica, agriculture, food prices and even the culinary culture is a complete different world worth to learn and understand.

In Costa Rica, population increases depending on the location, in San Jose and some head cities of Alajuela and Heredia, they have some sort of street market every weekend called “La feria del agricultor”. Once you move here, you will see that Costa Rica food prices are actually quite cheap, and also, in Costa Rica, agriculture is one of the main economic activities.

At “La Feria” you can get the freshest products available: anything from a simple onion to different kinds of tomatoes and even home made cheese. In Costa Rica, food culture is wide and quite healthy; fruits are a big part of Costa Rican diets and legumes and vegetables are on the tables of every home, every day, is just how Costa Rica culture behaves.

The key to a successful trip to La Feria is getting there early, and I mean early as in the crack of dawn. That way you can be sure you will get the best of the best. Getting used to Costa Rica food is actually easy, and a lot better for an old guy like me and the fresher the products you buy are, the easier it is to get accustomed to some of the flavors. When moving to Costa Rica, culture may be a bit of a shock but is worth to learn it.

La feria del agriculture will take place near your home if you live in one the big towns. I have visited three so far: Plaza Viquez Feria, Zapote’s Feria and Guadalupe’s. The nicest one is Plaza Viquez’, but the easiest to visit is Zapote since it takes place on a big area and the vendors are better arranged. Many of the products can be found downtown as well as in the Costa Rica Coasts. Even on the Costa Rica volcano areas you will be able to find a big variety of products like cajetas, dulce de leche and grape fruits.

One good piece of advice is, if you are considering checking on real estate, agriculture, culture and even easy access to markets, such as La Feria should become part of your research. You need to make sure you will be able to find nice markets and butcher shops nearby, not always the best product are found in the supermarket. In Costa Rica, real estate agents are mostly savvy in the matter, don’t be afraid to ask.

I found something very interesting in the news this morning: tracking devices on sharks off the coast of Isla del Coco. Costa Rica’s Coco’s Island is well known for being not only an inhabited natural paradise, but also its amazing contribution to the world’s natural resources and was even nominated as one of the new seven wonders of the world.

This is one of the things that have surprised me a lot since I live here in Costa Rica. Fishing regulations are quite detailed as well as shark diving and now, as a contradictory resolution, these tracking devices will allow them to determine the local and regional movement of hammerhead sharks, silky sharks and galapagos sharks that travel through the waters of Coco’s Island. Costa Rica is now a science lab.

My main concern is if this is really something to help the shark. Fishing is already considered intrusion on this area, how is it that implanting tracking devices on the sharks is not dangerous to them? Call me old fashioned, but one of the reasons that brought me to move to Costa Rica is their rich wildlife and nature.

According to the press release of this project, “the final objective of the process is to have a database to better understand these animals’ movements and use this information to enforce conservation, as the species are in danger of extinction”. One can only hope they succeed.

All the scientists working on this project come from MarViva, PRETOMA and CIMAR (Costa Rican entities), Colombia’s Fundación Malpelo and Organization Charles Darwin from Ecuador.

At Coco’s Island, Costa Rica boasts more sharks per cubic yard of water than perhaps any other place on the planet, including white tip reef sharks, 40-foot whale sharks, and hammerheads, making sharks one of the most impressive tropical fish of Costa Rica. Will these experiments also help costa rica tourism and create some sort of awareness? Will these actually increase costa rica eco tourism?

I will leave you all with those questions in mind. Any comments on the matter are welcome.

This past weekend I was searching for deals to get some friends down here for a visit and it reminded me that the Costa Rica green season started over a month ago. During this time of the year, from May 1^st and until December 1^st you can get really cheap deals on airfare and hotel rates all over Costa Rica. Green season is the time of the year where the Costa Rica rainforest can be explored at its maximum and although some people may think that rainy season is unbearable (specially with the past storms) not all the Costa Rican locations are affected.

It is important to pay close attention to the quality of fishing during the green season: Costa Rica is well known for amazing sports fishing; Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast is actually quite dry this time of the year and the best months for tarpon fishing on this area are September and October.

It is also a good opportunity to come and check out locations, especially if you are planning on following my steps and moving to Costa Rica: cheap rates can be taken advantage of during this time of the year, especially if you are planning on doing business in Costa Rica. Real Estate is accessible and who knows, you might even get lucky and find the property you dream of in the Costa Rica paradise.

Also, I was planning on taking my friends on a couple of tours to get to know the place a little (I do plan on convincing my friends on moving to Costa Rica, this place is just too great). There are actually many places to visit once you find cheap flights to Costa Rica. Travel throughout San Jose City may not be the best bet, yet there are many museums, theaters, shows and activities. Costa Rica has that special way where you can easily find entertainment and awesome tours all year long.

So go ahead and browse around. I’m pretty sure you will be thanking me later for the word of advice.

Tropical Depression Alma developed on 28 May off the Pacific coast of Nicoya, Costa Rica, reaching Nicaragua a day later, on 29 May. Ever since, this first storm of the 2008 Pacific hurricane season has had the country on red alert. The Costa Rican regions of Parrita and Puriscal have experienced merciless, non stop rain which consequently caused landslides to occur (so far, 35 have been reported) and overflowing rivers that have inundated hundreds of homes.

No country is ever ready to deal with nature’s swinging moods, but Costa Rica isn’t the least bit ready for these types of disasters: the construction materials used and the lack of planning involved in building a typical Costa Rican home makes for structurally defective houses. As a result, over 55,000 Costa Rican homeowners have been affected after Tropical depression Alma hit the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Most humble, rural tico homes are built dangerously close to rivers or atop detritic and weathered soils with important characteristics and properties that make it unfit for construction.

A lot of these homes are improvised shacks built from materials like tin, plywood and sheets of zinc corrugated metal sheets. These type of Costa Rica homes are improvised dwellings that obviously did not undergo any type of studies about the use of the land or even follow any govt. stipulations regarding the area in which the home was going to be built. Although it is a bit too late to cry over spilled milk.

The Interamericana Sur Highway which is the road that connects Pérez Zeledón - San José, any other routes and bridges are collapsed. Aqueducts and drainage networks are destroyed; the communities in the area of Parrita have been paralyzed because they don’t have electricity and the telephones are shut down. The red cross is opening up shelters that will serve as provisional homes for more than 700 people from Parrita, Quepos, San Marcos de Tarrazu and León Cortes.

If you feel generous and want some good karma coming your way I think helping those affected after Tropical Storm alma hit Costa Rica would be a great thing to do. These people need everything you can think of: blankets, non-perishable food like tuna and other canned goods, clothes, baby food and diapers, mattresses, etc. While the Government pulls all its strength to clear the roads and restore Parrita, Puriscal and Perez Zeledon and get Costa Rica back to normalcy, you can contribute by donating your help or your time. You can visit the Costa Rican Red Cross website http://www.cruzroja.or.cr to help with the relief efforts after Tropical Storm Alma.