Costa Rica-Real Estate Condos for sale in Guanacaste

Although Costa Rica religion is officially Catholic, a lot of people love doing Halloween parties for their friends or just dress up for the occasion as part of the party spirit of the country. This year I have actually seen at least 4 Halloween parties announced everywhere yet there is one that caught my attention:

 ASART is an organization that works with abused children in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, basically their job is to try and help these children go through the trauma through art therapy and monitored check ups with psychologists and social workers. This non-profit organization is throwing a huge Halloween party at Jazz Café Escazu on October 31^st and all the money the collect will go towards financing their work here in Costa Rica. Besides the party, they will have live music by local bands Cardamomo (who also presents belly dancers in their show) and the reggae sounds of Kingo Lovers. Another great surprise will be a Singles Auction to collect money for the organization as well.

Costa Rica has many non-profit organizations for many different and important causes, ASART focuses on abused children and UESPRA focuses on abused animals, the main thing these two organizations have in common is that they have managed to gather people to join and collaborate by giving the people what they want: entertainment. In the case of UESPRA, they have given huge concerts with local rock bands in their Rock Animal shows. Costa Rica organizations in pro of good causes are, in most cases, neglected by the government, therefore they need to finance themselves.

So now you know, if you are in Costa Rica during Halloween, get your outfit together so you can experience nice Costa Rica music, watch amazing costumes, help the Costa Rica children and maybe even get a date, who knows, maybe you will get more from Costa Rica than just memories and souvenirs.

Just a few months after Tropical Storm Alma caused several damages in the Pacific area of Costa Rica, just when most of the people finally getting back on their feet another bad weather strike hit them. At this moment there are 2400 people affected by two low pressure systems that started hitting Costa Rica since yesterday. At this moment locations in Puntarenas, Costa Rica such as Parrita are covered in mud due to bad floods and shelters have opened up to help the locals. There is an estimate of 600 homes that have terrible damages and 800 people are known to have lost access to clean water. Also 4 homes are reportedly to be completely destroyed.

This year, the rainy season has caused more damages than previous years, especially on the south border and in Guanacaste. Costa Rica is dealing perfectly with the situation, yet there is no such thing as damages without costs. As usual, people in Costa Rica are joining efforts to help all these people yet again, and hopefully the terrible weather conditions will stop in the next couple of days. Sunny season in Costa Rica is expected to begin next month; nevertheless October and September are known to be the wettest months of the year.

The whole country is now in alert just in case the bad conditions continue. Early this year bad weather even caused the main road towards the Perez Zeledon location to be completely closed due to damages; people were trapped for days without any communication.
Costa Rica again, has an excellent emergency plan and response when in comes to bad weather tragedies, and it is admirable how everyone is always willing to help those affected. Properties in Guanacaste are not affected by this storm, although it is still pouring in the area. In the Caribbean, Costa Rica is actually experiencing normal weather conditions with a few random showers.

Picture taken from Periódico Al Día.

Telecommunications in Costa Rica are always a subject on every table in this country: whether it is the high rates for electricity and phone services or the terrible cellular signal in a lot of locations as well as the long waits for services requests in some areas. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) is in charge of all these matters in Costa Rica due to the monopoly created decades ago in telecommunications.

Regarding internet connections, the services are offered not only through ICE, but also to Radiográfica Costarricense (RACSA) and cable companies, yet apparently the rate offered by the ICE is a lot cheaper, not to mention that they offer a faster connection, although some people who have requested this service (called ACELERA) have to wait for over a year to get the service. In Costa Rica, the ICE also offers and compensation program for damaged items while repairs in the electricity connections and power shortages, which is great, however, it is quite amazing how often they have to pay for these issues.

Right now, the entity in charge of protecting consumers have accused the ICE to black mail and push rate increases on their services through public statements and correspondence, claiming that ICE is forcing Costa Rica to pay more without proper studies. Costa Rica properties have increased their prices a lot and this increases will make things harder for potential property buyers in Costa Rica (locals mostly) since the real estate is already hard to afford for Ticos.

No one in Costa Rica is really happy with the services provided by the ICE and of course everyone is totally against any increase to benefit their “crappy service”. I personally think that the ICE is making a terrible mistake since in a few months they will no longer have the telecommunications monopoly due to the expansion agreed on the TLC between Costa Rica and the USA last year.

If you are planning on visiting the lovely Costa Rica during the holidays you better hurry up, there isn’t so much room and reservations are running out.

Costa Rica experiences its best weather from December through April and people (locals and visitors) do take advantage of this at its maximum. If you wish to spend a quality vacation in Costa Rica during December you will need to begin making your reservations now, otherwise it is going to be very difficult to find a place later, especially if you are planning on visiting Guanacaste. Costa Rica has many different choices: luxury villas, regular rental homes and hotels that vary from small cabins up to celebrity status accommodations.

Since I lived here for a while now, my recommendation is to get a rental villa, Guanacaste has too many beaches and they are all pretty close from each other so a villa in Guanacaste, no matter the location will give you different choices and you can use your time to its maximum: visiting natural reservoirs, volcanoes, beaches and getting into fun activities such as ATV, Canopy and snorkeling; also costs are lower, therefore you can also save some money to buy souvenirs and rent a car a for example.

Tourism in Costa Rica is one of the biggest products, sort of speak, it is one of the few countries in the world that haven’t compromise their natural resources to include technology and nowadays development. Vacation packages in Costa Rica are also not expensive at all and once you come here, you definitely fall in love with the place, I can’t begin to tell you how many people I have met that came here for a short vacation and decided to stay for good.

Another good thing about renting a Villa during you Costa Rica vacation is that you can get an actual taste of what living here is like and trust me, you cannot regret it. The peaceful ambience, the liberty of going wherever you want and the easy access to services, grocery stores and fun activities makes a huge difference, while staying at a hotel may not be so suitable for exploration of the area.

After months of expectation the Latin version of American Idol broadcast its final live last night. The show began with 12 finalists from different countries of Latin America: Chile, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Panama and Costa Rica and week after week one of them, the one with the fewest votes was sent home. At the end only Margarita Henriquez from Panama and Maria Jose Castillo from Costa Rica were left to battle against each other on stage.

Costa Rica went crazy: parties every where trying to collect money for votes, a lot of private companies such as Purdy Motor, ULACIT, ICE, Neutrogena, TCBY and more joined forces to support the Costa Rica girl that went beyond borders to make her dream come true. Although at the end of the show Margarita Henriquez was the one with more votes, Costa Rica has declared Maria Jose their own idol and both of the contestants ended up receiving the same prices: a new Toyota Yaris 2009, a signed contract with Sony BMG plus several other prices given by private entities, in the case of Maria Jose, she will be receiving a full scholarship at ULACIT, another full scholarship at Instituto Costarricense-Norteamericano to learn English, free voice therapy from Universidad Santa Paula (she ended up forcing her voice too much).

Maria Jose Castillo became a frenzy media star in Costa Rica, where celebrity status doesn’t really exist, also she managed to be a hero for all Costa Ricans who wanted her to become the next Latin American Idol and prove that there is talent in the country and all it needs is a break. Maria Jose will be coming back to a huge party and to a while different life compared to what she left behind 3 months ago. Hopefully she will continue to pursue her career in music, Latin America definitely wants more of her and after her recovery she should definitely continue.

The construction of the most expected new Caldera Dock in Puntarenas, Costa Rica will continue to be paralyzed; so far it has been for 19 months already due to issues with the Estate of Costa Rica itself and during all this time the costs of the construction have increased tremendously, so far it is estimated that the increase is for over $29 million dollars and the Sociedad Granelera de Caldera has already admitted that they cannot afford this huge increase.

The main legal issue that has delayed the construction of the bridge it’s a sue placed by the Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos (ANEP) claiming that the construction of the dock will compromise the right inhabitants of the are have to enjoy and healthy and ecologically balanced environment. The reason why this legal sue has taken so long to be taken care of is apparently an overload of work on the Sala IV which handles these types of issues. Costa Rica has a big trouble if the delay continues since money is being lost while the court can’t even look at the file itself. The Caldera dock needed to be not only rebuilt but remodeled since a huge percentage of exports in Costa Rica use this route.

So far, there are no resolutions and just the excuse of the overloaded Sala IV. Puntaremas will continue to use the old dock for every transaction, departure and arrival in the Pacific side of Costa Rica for the moment. The other main dock in Costa Rica is
Puerto Limon which receives visitors, works with exports and imports and handles most of the Caribbean side economic trades and apparently is handling everything perfectly for the moment. The Costa Rica government still has not made comments on the issue so far.

Alterra will no longer take care of the Costa Rica airport in Alajuela, Juan Santamaria. Starting this next December the US company Houston Airport System will take over the management of the Costa Rica airport that was previously handled by Alterra since 2001. Before finalizing all the process of changing management, Houston Airport System Development Company (HASDC) will have to cancel and clear all debts acquired by Alterra during the past 8 years which apparently is about $90 000 000 in total , owed to the IFC. So far, HASDC has 60 natural days to cancel the debt before beginning operations.

There have been many issues with the current management at the airport and the Costa Rica government has been way too patient with them, in addition, HASDC has offered not only to finish up with the construction of the airport but to also include $40 000 000 of their capital in development and remodeling the aircraft terminal creating new boarding rooms, customs an d migration offices.

Costa Rica has two big airports right now: the Juan Santamaria Airport in the city of Alajuela where access to main provinces such as Heredia, San Jose and Alajuela itself is easier; and the Manuel Oduber Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste mainly used for tourism traffic since it is closer to the most visited beaches and natural reservation areas. Also airports for smaller airplanes are located in strategic point such as Quepos, Golfito and Tambor Beach. The Guanacaste Airport, has been an impressive addition to the commercial development of the Guanacaste area allowing the economy of the area increase faster as well as access to high end technology, better education, and of course commercial development with the construction of Malls and the inclusion of big companies providing better jobs in Guanacaste.

There are high hopes for the HASDC management plan and hopefully, all the projects left behind by Alterra in the Juan Santamaria airport could now be a reality due to the high level of experience Houston Airport System has proved to have over the years.

If you have never been to Costa Rica, there are several survival rules to move here, one of them, and probably the most important one to know that the streets and highways are extremely dangerous due to several, and I mean several holes. For some reason in Costa Rica, the maintenance of the streets is very low or sometimes I even think non-existent, and driving has become a hassle, specially in the downtown area of San Jose. Costa Rica has an entity: Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transportes (MOPT) who is supposed to take care of the roads all over the country and watch for careless drivers as they are also what we know as the highway patrol.

Costa Rica roads are definitely not made for the amount of traffic found everyday on streets; just yesterday a 72 year old man went through hell when driving towards Mall San Pedro in San Jose and the street just disappeared below his car, apparently the issue began with the strong rains of the past few weeks that debilitated the sewer and caused the street to collapse. In Costa Rica, roads are definitely only safe for 4×4 cars and until the Government realizes that patches are not good enough and built proper streets drivers in Costa Rica are doomed to these dangerous situations.

Traveling throughout Costa Rica is actually a lot safer, since highways are a lot less neglected that main roads. Also it appears that sewer problems in that specific area in San Jose are very common: a few years ago there was a huge hole in the middle of a road in San Pedro, Costa Rica people even called it the “hellhole”, but it was fixed a few months ago. Hopefully this was just random accident and people from the Municipalidad de San Jose will push the MOPT into getting a real damage control plan for the area.

It is extremely weird how Costa Rica has now reached the highest inflation rate in 10 years and yet people continue spending money like crazies. The Economy in Costa Rica shows to be getting worse and worse every year, yet people get LCD screens, gaming consoles, cars and spend more money than ever. Costa Rica people are maybe not aware of what recession means and may be making the worst mistake of their lives.

According to a report by the Statistics and Census Institute Prices surged 15.77% percent over the past 12 months, the highest year-over-year increase since 1998, yet salaries raises are definitely not a match in Costa Rica. Salaries of a college graduate in the base salary list hardly reach the price of a low class Costa Rica home rent also the prices in food and beverages (non-alcoholic) were raised by 27.7% and transportation has increased a total of 19%. If add these prices to the incredible prices in Costa Rica real estate, we can easily see how it has become impossible for hard working people to get by and how come all these people are spending all these money in appliances and cars?

I have made previous entries on how prices in real estate in Costa Rica are only affordable for foreigners who earn in US dollars or Euros, now it also appears that basic products and services are not affordable for people in Costa Rica either. What worries me is that this kind of “big spender” behavior turns the entire economy problem in Costa Rica in something like Argentina went through a few years ago when trading became their only way of affording their basic needs. Argentina economy managed to emerge from that terrible economic low, but can Costa Rica handle such a thing? Hopefully people in Costa Rica begin to realize how big the issue is and stop using their credit, so far home financing in Costa Rica was stopped until further notice, I wonder if regular credit can be put on hold as well.

We are all very well aware that Costa Rica is indeed a paradise: pristine beaches surround the entire country with clear water and stunning views; the soil is rich and many vegetables are grown and commercialized every year as part of the best products; rain forests protect and hold beautiful animal species. The culture is rich and very interesting and Costa Rica is probably one of the most developed countries in Latin America when it comes to democracy.

It is also well known that a huge part of the economy of Costa Rica relies in tourism and although they seem to take advantage of it, I just saw a country that has gone even further into advertising themselves as a vacation destination: Panama.

The type of tourism advertising used by Panama is way more impressive, where they actually sell a product combining the cultural and natural elements of the country itself, making me think that Costa Rica uses to much the “word of mouth” type of publicity. While following the curse of Latin American Idol and all the support Costa Rica has given to their participant, Maria Jose Castillo; I noticed that Panama, as tourist destination was one of the sponsors of the show, why didn’t Costa Rica took advantage of this opportunity?

The show was followed by millions of people all over the continent, people with acquisitive power to consider visiting the Costa Rica where one of the finalists to become Latin American Idol is from; wouldn’t you say it could be beneficial?

I wonder if maybe the opportunity didn’t knock, or that maybe no one thought it until it was too late, yet Costa Rica as a tourism giant should be more focus on how to increase the income of one of the most important businesses in the country.