Since last week another great advance in the film industry for Costa Rica has hit the movie theatres: El Camino is another film that depicts the struggle two young immigrants go through trying to find their parents who migrated to Costa Ricain search of a better life.
The lead actress herself, 14-year-old Sherling Velásquez strongly identified the plight of her character: She never got to know the mother who left her and her younger brother with their grandmothers more than a decade ago to come to Costa Rica in search of a better life for herself and her children.
Every year, hundreds of Nicaraguans trespass the Northern border of Costa Rica due to the high level of poverty they have to live with in their country: once they arrive they get low paid jobs as security guards, construction workers and house maids in the best case scenario; some end up selling goods on the streets illegally. Although in Costa Rica education is free, these immigrants cannot complete their studies since the low salary they receive is hardly enough to get by and send back to their relatives in Nicaragua, so very few of them find better jobs than those, not to mention some might be staying illegally in the country.
In Guanacaste, Costa Rica has the biggest immigration rate of Nicaraguans, being the proximity to that country. Just like in the United States immigrants not always get to taste that so called better life they searched for and end up hanging out with the wrong crowd in some cases; you could say that the issues created are very similar to the ones we North Americans are used to living with Mexican immigrants in our country: some are real honest hard workers, some may be blinded by frustration and end up being a burden to society.
It is not good to assume that all immigrants will create problems or become criminals, the way Costa Rica handles the immigration problem is actually helping those who care staying here legally granting them the same benefits a regular Costa Rica citizen has so they can succeed, of course not everyone is willing to go through all that paper work and working illegally in any country is of course a problem.
Most of you are probably at home relaxing, spending time with your families or doing stuff you usually can’t find time to do, and some of you, I have learned took advantage of the long weekend and enjoyed a nice weekend getaway: Costa Rica beaches were quite crowded this weekend, at least in Guanacaste. The bad thing is that because of Hurricane Gustav, effective time at the beach was only in the morning time on this side of the world.
Me and family decided to go for ride and noticed how incredible some residential developments are turning out in Liberia: Big homes, nice details on the garden areas, well watched, I have to say Liberia is really turning into a big city, with all these facilities and access to everything. Costa Rica has the advantage of being able to build a city and not mess up with the natural environment and that is definitely a plus.
Small farm in Guanacaste, Costa Rica
In Costa Rica, Liberiaand San Jose are basically the most important towns when it comes to technologic adjustments and development. The main reason for this is obviously that these are the two towns where most of the visitors use to visit Costa Rica and because most of the companies and economic activities take place. This doesn’t mean that the rest of the towns and provinces are not well developed; some people come to Costa Rica thinking they will be arriving into a secluded jungle and that could not be further from the truth; the main difference between a regular town in the US and Liberia, Costa Rica is that we north Americans managed to erase all natural resources to develop a city, while they treasure the idea of combining both.
So far, I have become an expert when it comes to Costa Rica real estate, properties in Guanacaste and what to check on when purchasing a home near the beaches and mountains. Costa Rica has changed me from the boring business man I was for so many years, into a relaxed man, willing to learn about anything and everything. I could not be happier.
