Costa Rica-Real Estate Condos for sale in Guanacaste

The US financial crisis is now hitting the pockets of Costa Rica workers and US companies in the country have begun taking measures to prevent terrible issues that are currently affecting all their Costa Rica staff.

Yesterday a friend of mine came to visit and while chatting two of his friends that work for HP (Hewlett Packard) in Heredia were telling me about how this year the company has let them now that there will not be a Christmas party this year, also that they will no give them any annual raises or Christmas bonuses due to the financial crisis. The seem to be very sad about since apparently they all worked extremely hard during the past year waiting to be recognized at the end of the year and now nothing is going to happen.

The sad part is that reading the news recently I remember an article stating that HP worldwide had an amazing increase of their profits this year, makes me wonder if perhaps they just want to take advantage of their Costa Rica employees, which if that is the case is really sad specially since they hire highly trained people for a lot less than they would pay in the US for less trained people.

Talking to some other people I found out that HP is not the only US Company in Costa Rica taking extreme monetary measures this year: At least 10 other companies have decide not to throw a Christmas bash for their employees and limit any type of financial recognition that workers are accustomed to until further notice, some crazy businesses in Costa Rica were considering holding salaries until the crisis disappear, fortunately that is certainly illegal in Costa Rica.

To be honest, it makes me really sad that huge companies may try to explode their hard working people using lame excuses like that, the crisis in Costa Rica hasn’t really done much damage and people are just playing it safe with their money, nothing crazy or as scary as all these companies make it seem.

Right now, the Costa Rica president Oscar Arias is in Singapore to start talks on a bilateral free trade agreement between the two countries. This should be a very positive step for both countries since either one has something valuable to offer to the other.

Singapore is known for having great free trade agreements with other Latin American countries such as Chile, Peru and Panama and they seem to be very interested in dealing with Costa Rica as well after witnessing the great business Costa Rica and China have developed, it appears that there is a bright future between Costa Rica and Asian countries.  

While in one hand Singapore is a lot more developed than Costa Rica, the country is smaller and Costa Rica can offer a wider market of opportunities, also the president of Costa Rica is hoping that this free trade agreement will encourage Singapore to invest in and develop Costa Rica Caribbean ports.

It is also known that in 2007, Costa Rica exports to Singapore were a total of $31.5 million and imports reached $26.4 million meaning that an agreement for business between the countries is set to be a successful venture.

Negotiations are just taking place right now, meaning that at the moment Costa Rica is just offering Singapore a deal, which will be reviewed by Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loon in the upcoming weeks.

As I was telling you guys yesterday this is definitely not a good time to visit the Costa Rica Caribbean. At this moment even US helicopters are helping with the flood emergencies in the area and besides them Costa Rica help crews have been collecting all sorts of donations: from food to clothes and even money to provide all the required assistance.

Right now there is actually lovely weather in Costa Rica, Limon and the adjacent cities are experiencing not so good conditions and a lot of damages have been caused due to the floods. We just went through the same problems here in the Guanacaste area a month ago. I do however have a couple of questions: if the people from Limon and Guanacaste already know there are going to be terrible rainy seasons, why do they continue building homes so low or close to the ground? A few months ago I did visit the Costa Rica Caribbean and some homes are built above ground to prevent flood issues, why don’t they all build their homes like that?

Costa Rica real estate in the Caribbean side is not something I have explored much, probably because the drive between Limon and Guanacaste is too long. Costa Rica has the most amazing rain forests in this area and visitors come from all over the world to experience living in the jungle for a couple of days all the time. Most of the properties in the Caribbean side are owned big banana companies but there are a few nice deals in the real estate market. Maybe I will take a look at the offer on properties in the Caribbean once it stops raining.

A lot of people are taking advantage of the low exchange rate in Costa Rica and decided to include a short visit to this wonderful location. I know this for a fact since the last couple of days have been quite hectic here in Guanacaste. Costa Rica is right now getting the warm weather back and people are enjoying it as much as possible.

So, since we are now having such nice weather in Costa Rica and visitors will definitely take advantage of this to drop by and relax or check out real estate properties in Costa Rica, I decided to share some pieces of advice to those who will coming down here:

San Jose is experiencing nice sunny days yet a cold breeze can be felt, so pack up a jacket and a scarf if you are going to be in San Jose, even for a couple of days. Guanacaste is now having warm temperatures, yet there were a couple of dark clouds surrounding us a little, nothing to worry about. The Costa Rica Caribbean is not a good place to visit right now, it is raining dogs and cats as we speak so try to plan your visit towards the Guanacaste area or maybe the south east beaches where the weather is better these days.

In the next couple of weeks there will be nice things to do in San Jose: Festival de la Luz will take place in down town San Jose and it is a fun carnival of lights, masquerades, cimarronas and more. Also the upcoming weekend the University of Costa Rica will hold the craftsmen fair and lots of souvenirs and Costa Rica hand made products will be on display, so people visiting Costa Rica can take advantage of this to buy nice and original Christmas gifts.

Also, the common traditional activities in Costa Rica like surfing, canopying and sightseeing are available to everyone.