Costa Rica-Real Estate Condos for sale in Guanacaste

After an entire week of storming rains and flood, Guanacaste is finally feeling a little bit of peace this morning when the sun finally shone over us. Tropical storm Hannah did not go through Costa Rica with all its strength, yet the little that crossed by put 1039 people in shelters after their homes were flooded and rivers overflowed over 1.30 meters above ground these past days.

Some families may have lost most of their valuables, however there were no human loses or even hurt people through out the storm. Most of the properties that suffer damage were small wooden homes, old constructions that were located in areas in Guanacaste that were known to be dangerous in case of bad weather. Costa Rica is now clear and the sunny weather is back, meaning that all that is left to do is start with damage control.

Some kids seemed to have fun with the water after all…

Some development projects had to be put aside during the past week due to the weather but everything appears to be good to continue for now. Although Costa Rica did not expect to go through any emergencies or damage caused by Tropical Storm Hannah, it is impressive how quickly they all reacted to the problem.

This week, the affected locations in Guanacaste will go through extensive check ups to see exactly what needs to be fixed first so most of the families living in shelters can go back to their homes. In Costa Rica, beaches and riverside residencies are built to endure any issues that overflowing rivers o bad weather can cause, yet some constructions are a little bit old and low budget houses are sometimes located in alert zones. Most of the luxury villas are located in high level properties in Guanacaste, yet if you are planning on purchasing land, make sure to verify if there are any alerts at all in the area.

Today I am afraid I have bad news: yesterday Tropical Storm Hannah left over 45 homes flooded in Guanacaste. Costa Rica has in fact been suffering a little with the rains and strong winds caused by Hannah passing by the near islands in the pacific. So far it there were only storming rains during the afternoon hours and a yellow alert, but yesterday, Hannah pulled her strongest pours on the north side of Costa Rica.

Apparently the storming rains will continue during today and tomorrow and the road between Malpais and Montezuma has been closed, so plan ahead if you were thinking of riding through that area. Costa Rica was not supposed to be so affected by the Tropical Storm Hannah so much, actually Gustav and Ike don’t seem to be close to the Costa Rica area at all yet, and yellow and green alerts have been set to prevent further problems.

Emergency in Guanacaste (picture by Periódico Al Día)

The main problem that caused the flood was that several rivers of the Guanacaste area, especially in Santa Cruz where locals experienced drastic overflowing of the nearby rivers which caused gutters to rise above the streets. The Comision Nacional de Emergencias is currently taken care of the damage situation and helping the affected families, thankfully, no human loses are reported so far. Costa Rica is so aware if natural disasters, their emergency teams are clear on how to proceed and the entire situation should be handled in the next 24 hours. Guanacaste beaches will continue experiencing rains and strong winds during the weekend.

I am trying to find out is any of the local help associations is receiving canned good for the affected families or clothing since they are located in temporary shelters right now. Although Costa Rica is always prepared for these types of issues, a little extra help is always needed. I will make sure I post any updates that may come.

While reading newspaper and random articles online I can see how people have different ideas and preconceptions about Costa Rica. Articles in some blogs are mostly written by temporary visitors and their views are completely subjected to the experiences they had on their trip, mostly I must say; news are always in search for stuff to amaze and get people’s attention meaning that they are focused on causing an impression whether it is good or bad. Costa Rica lifestyle is rather calmed and although some crime does happen or problems appear it is just like any other country, actually better than some.

Although I reside in a peaceful rural area, I have access to all the facilities and services I was accustomed to in the United States; I am not going to say that all rural areas in Costa Rica are this advanced, but at least the choice to have a peaceful home is available in a lot of areas. Real estate listings in Costa Rica don’t really specify what type of area a property located in, yet all the realtors have good knowledge of the benefits or lack of benefits of each location.

In my neighborhood things are calmed, sometimes maybe a little too calmed, but I believe it is because Costa Rica is a calmed place, not too mention that the coasts lifestyle seems slow and detailed. The most dangerous thing I have seen here since I moved was when some tourist got mugged at the beach in Tamarindo, they didn’t really got mugged, they just went into the ocean for a swim and left all their stuff unattended so it was bound to happen; overall Guanacaste is a nice place to call home.

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 Rica in 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, Liberia and 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.

The National Commision of Emergencies in Costa Rica has released a yellow alert in the Nicoya area. Costa Rica has in fact been affected a little by Hurricane Gustav, but yesterday it finally hit the Guanacaste town. The places that might more affected by the storm are in the North Pacific: Península de Santa Elena, Sardinal, Marbella, San Juanillo, Montezuma, Mal País, Tambor, Playa Naranjo, Paquera, Nicoya, Miramar, Sardinal, Puntarenas; en el Pacífico Central: Jacó, Quepos, Esterillos, Parrita; and Pérez Zeledón, Buenos Aires, Rivas, Río Claro, Golfito; Valle Central: Palmares, Grecia, San Ramón, Naranjo in the South Pacific side of Costa Rica.

Among the damages, some commercial businesses in Liberia were flooded during the afternoon hours yesterday. Right now it is estimated that Hurricane Gustav is heading to Jamaica at 7 kilometers per hour so they think the storms might be over by Saturday morning in the Costa Rica pacific.

The good thing is that since in Costa Rica, weather and natural disasters are a common problem, buildings, homes and structures are prepared to deal with them and loss control is very well planned. Hopefully the rain will stop during the weekend, for those who are vacationing in Costa Rica right now, the Caribbean side seems to be clear so Puerto Viejo, Cahuita and Uvita beaches are the best locations to visit.

Costa Rica did not expect to be hit by Gustav and although the whole thing was a surprise it is quite impressive how the emergency commission, the people and the Costa Rica government were ready to deal with any misshapen right away. Some of the affected families have been relocated to temporary shelters while the soil dries a little to avoid any more issues.

Costa Rica weather can be quite weird. Lately I have no idea if we are in the summer or the rainy season and most of these climate changes are part of the very scary tropical storm Hannah and devastating Hurricane Gustav. Right now Costa Rica appears to be far away from Hannah’s or Gustav’s ways: Tropical storm Hannah seems to be heading to the Bahamas right now and as for Hurricane Gustav residents of the Mexican Gulf and Louisiana were told to be prepared for anything and as matter of fact, Officials in New Orleans and nearby locations are already considering evacuate very soon.

Although I am miles away I am very concerned we may be facing another Katrina, hopefully it won’t become as terrible but one never knows. Here in Costa Rica, buildings are more prepared to deal with natural disasters specially storms and earthquakes, they do plan ahead. Costa Rica has gone through quite a ride when it comes to emergencies due to weather, just a couple of months ago the entire town of Perez Zeledon was incommunicado when a storm caused a road to be blocked by dirt and a bridge fell down.

The way Costa Rica homes are built take into consideration the tropical weather changes: materials are stronger, structures are meant to survive earthquakes and even paint is developed to last longer because of the rain and this is probably why buildings in Costa Rica are a little harder to maintain than US constructions for example.

Right now, we all hope that both that tropical storm Hannah and Hurricane Gustav move away from towns and that any possible damage they cause on their way can be controlled. Otherwise I assume that just like in any other natural disaster people unite to help those who get their properties damaged.

If you happened to live or plan to move to San Jose, Costa Rica and get a chance to use their buses there is a huge issue that cannot be miss: the poor planning on bus routes. In Costa Rica, public transportation has been going through several changes in the past few years, mostly because of the several efforts the government is making to safe gasoline and put an end to the very bad traffic jams in the metropolitan area. It is obvious that in Costa Rica there are more cars than the roads can manage, therefore traffic jams and huge ground holes are a common issue in down town areas.

One of the solutions was the addition of the Tren Urbano, Costa Rica’s old train back in business has become a great solution for people who need to travel from the east to the west and viceverse, cutting up traveling time by half and giving a choice for people who used their car on these route. They are actually considering including a route from San Jose to Heredia to help with traffic problems in the Prospero Fernandez highway, although it appears that including this route in Costa Rica transportation between provinces might cost more than expected.

Another awesome resort (still in the works) is the fist Interlinea buses in Costa Rica. This was offered a while ago and unfortunately there has been quite a lot of planning and several discussions about it, yet it appears that the issues preventing the route to begin operations are resolved and it might start running next month. Costa Rica business expectations with this new route is to avoid having people waste time going downtown to otherwise close neighborhoods.

This change will be very beneficial to properties in Costa Rica that are not so easy to access in the main cities and for sure will show a price difference in real estate. Costa Rica is now on great path with all these transportation improvements.

One of the most difficult changes one has to get used to when moving to Costa Rica is definitely the very weird weather. Costa Rica is located almost in the middle of the earth so there are a lot of differences between the seasons and temperatures here than the ones people who come for up north, like me, or people who come from the south of the continent. Tropical weather is in fact a bit warm, yet it does not mean that I will get cold; another thing is that is does rain a lot and that is exactly why all these tropical countries have such beautiful forests, beaches and mountains. Costa Rica is basically the best example of this type of weather.

Properties in Costa Rica are of course built to last under these conditions and more. Because of the volcanoes located all around the area, tremors an earthquakes are very common, so every single home or building in Costa Rica is designed to remain intact as much as possible in case of any of these natural disasters. Costa Rica constructors are used all kinds of weather swings so, no need to worry on that issue.

There are only two seasons in Costa Rica: Summer season and Rainy season. Although they are not so different from each other, there are certain details that separate one from the other:

Summer season: The hottest Costa Rica season for anything to do. During the months of November through April the sunny weather is enjoyed by thousands of people. There might be an occasional rain, yet it only makes things better for tourists and Costa Rica vacationers all over the place. The main difference is that during these months it is definitely raining in the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, for some reason, they have the seasons backwards.

Rainy season: This goes from May through October, being September and October the rainiest ones. Costa Rica takes advantage of this weather promoting the many pristine and beautiful rainforests in the area, completely worth to check out.

It is very common and necessary that your Costa Rica home has proper ventilation, also air conditioning and fans are a must. Make sure that when you are browsing Costa Rica real estate listings all those little details are taken into consideration.

When I finally made the decision of relocating to a environment my main goal was to find peace, although I was never looking to get away from learning new exciting things. Costa Rica caught my attention when I friend of my brought pictures of his last vacation: there peaceful sceneries as well as great variety of fun things to do, so I began my research about all the possible locations I might like in Costa Rica. Guanacaste was of course the winner.

I fell in love with the views: Guanacaste Mountains seemed like another dimension to me, being so close to the ocean, the way the colors looked and that calm sensation was priceless. I first came to Costa Rica to get an idea of what it may feel like to live in such place and it was exactly what I wanted. Then I visited possible areas in Guanacaste: Flamingo beach was nice, but the nightlife was a bit overwhelming for an old guy like me; I liked the marina, so I knew I did not want to be too far away from it. Next stop was Tamarindo: great for youngsters and surfers, my children would enjoy it and it was a pretty neat town, although I was not a fan of the tourists (ironic, isn’t it). Playa Panama was so beautiful I honestly thought it was the place, until I realized I was going to be too far away from commercial places like supermarkets and drugstores. One of the most impressive beaches in Costa Rica is Carrillo it has one of the top ten sunsets in the world but again, not so close to urban areas.

Yes, this could be your everyday sunset for the rest of your life…

It was a hard search and it took a lot of work to finally come to the conclusion that if I was going to enjoy Costa Rica, Liberia was the best choice: every single place I loved was close driving wouldn’t take me more than an hour in most cases and it had every single service and facility necessary to live comfortable. Costa Rica was exactly what I was looking for.

In Costa Rica, luxury villas a lot cheaper than they would be in the US, and a lot more luxurious if I may add: a four bedroom, 2 bathroom villa with air conditioning, nice size swimming pool and a very decent piece of land could cost from $225000 to maybe $900.000 and that doesn’t even count the incredible views, weather and variety of activities. Guanacaste also has many residential projects and a condo can be purchase a very fair price anywhere in Costa Rica. Schools are available anywhere and the most prestigious private schools have branches in Guanacaste as well, so if you have children, no matter if they are in elementary school or college, education is nearby and accessible.

As you can see, there was really no reason to hesitate on my decision. My only recommendation is to be completely sure of what kind of property in Costa Rica will work best for you and you half way there.