Interesting facts about Costa Rica

This is a recap, after living in Costa Rica for almost 2 years (and going up).
The good things and the not so good things.
Of course, nothing is black and white and the truth is very subjective.
These are points I’m writing as a person who lives here and not vacationing here, but it can come in handy for both people who are visiting and people planing to relocate.

1. Amazing Nature

Well, you have to start with nature, nature is present, you can’t ignore it or avoid it, it is here and it is powerful, for the good and also for the bad, when for example the rivers gets flooded or the soil in the mountains is so full of water it can’t absorb anymore and it tumbles to the surface (that’s when it becomes very dangerous to drive).

An unseperable part of nature is the animals. There are so many types of beings here. So many types of birds and beautiful memals and many types of insects with different sizes (you won’t believe how big) spiders and snakes. They are a part of Costa Rica and a part of the amazing nature here. Most of the beautiful creatures of nature that you’ll see in the national parks, you’ll also be able to see just walking in nature. Costa Rica is saturated with nature and animals, some of them look like they came out from the bible. It is very powerful and intense. You don’t need to be afraid but you have to be aware and be prepared. For example, I found out about the danger of the stingrays after living in here for a year and going to the beach almost every day… that was a very very painful experience which could have been prevented, you can read about here.

2. A different time conception

Time is different here. There is no winter time or summer time it’s stays the same trough out the year. The sun comes up at around 5:15 and goes down very early at 5:45. At 6pm it is completely dark! Since many of the roads has no headlights it is completely dark and when you drive it could feel like it is 11pm…

Your biological clock surrender to the local time and people often find themselves going to sleep at 8pm. The public schools start as soon as 7am for the same reason.

I’ll never forget one time when me and my friend tried to schedule a girls night and I offered to meet at 8pm after the kids go to bed, and she was so shocked how late was my offer. Where I come from we even used to schedule for 9 or 10 lol.

I like it actually because it’s like the old times and you just go to bed when your body really needs the sleep. I understood about 2-3 years ago that sleep equals health. You can’t be healthy or fully function without a proper sleep.

3. Expensive!! 

There is an expats joke here saying: how can you earn 1 million dollars in Costa Rica?
The answer is you bring 2 millions with you 😂
Costa Rica as a Latin country located in central America, is often mistaken to be cheap but in reality it is very very expensive. Of course it is very subjective and dependent on where you come from and your financial status, but if you compare it to the countries that surround Costa Rica, it is super expensive.
The monthly cost for an average family is about $5000, depending on your lifestyle of course but the monthly rent together with international schools cost a lot, the electricity is also pretty expensive and the most expensive cost you’ll have as an expat is FOOD. Fruits and vegetables which are local are very affordable, also grains. BUT, all the imported food is very expensive, and most of the dry food is imported besides rice and beans.

4. Pura vida

When you arrive to Costa Rica, you’ll hear very fast the words “Pura Vida”, these are not only a word combination, but a real way of living. The literal meaning is “pure life” and therefore it must be cherished and lived to the fullest. So, you can for example, go to the mechanic at noon time and nobody will be there and when you’ll try to find someone all the workers would be sleeping on their hammocks in the back (yes, that happened to us lol).
Another example is when I was trying to print labels and hang tags for my sustainable bathing suit brand and it took 83 (!!!) emails for the representative to start the development process with me. When I reached out to my friend who referred me to them, cause I didn’t know if I’m doing something wrong or is it because of the language barrier, she said that’s how it is, because they have to get to know me.
After living most of my life in a very fast beat stressful place it is the extreme opposite place, very very very slow. It takes a while to get used to it when you sit in a restaurant, or need any kind of service, you need to just chill and except the different beat.

5. No armi

Coming from Israel, which is a war zone and a country of constant stress due to the insecurity situation, Costa Rica is heaven on earth. Israel unfortunately is saturated with political problems, social problems and security problems. Joining the army is mandatory in Israel at the age of 18, whether you like it or not.
Costa Rica even mention a day in which they celebrate the abolition of the army. Costa Rica’s army was abolished after the end of the 1948 civil war on 31 October 1949.

6. Sustainability
Costa Rica was named the best Latin American destination by National Geographic a month ago.
Organic waste is thrown into the garden for the wild animals to eat. 
When you go to the supermarket, the default is no bag. The default is that you bring your own reusable shopping bags or just carry the groceries yourself because you usually buy them daily or any other day, so you buy fresh fruits and vegetables.
The electricity also works in a different way to be greener, as Lake Arenal Dam provides much of Costa Rica’s electricity, but it also causes many power outages, and sometimes it can damage your electronic devices, such as computers and iPads, by suddenly not responding. I highly recommend bringing a lightning shield to protect your electronics.

7. Gringo (or Green and go)

When you’re an expat, it’s pretty much a custom to charge you more than the average rate.
Why? Because they can! You’re in a new place, and you don’t know the prices (what you know is mostly based on other expats who pay too much themselves…), you probably don’t really know the language either, so you’re at a disadvantage.
When we came to Costa Rica almost 2 years ago, we noticed very quickly that we paid more for everything, especially the rent, which is very substantial. The locals will pay a few hundred dollars for rent, and the rent for the expat can reach a few thousand dollars. Of course, it’s not necessarily the same house, but sometimes, in some areas, it is! And it’s known that there’s a taco price and an expat price.
Even a week ago, we needed a small repair in the house, which is supposed to cost a few thousand colones, and the house manager told us it would cost 15,000 with her handyman. When we said it sounded expensive, she was shocked and said it was just 28 dollars…
So, many times you feel like a purse, a wallet, or, as our new neighbor said, an ATM… It’s still very challenging, but little by little you learn the prices and the language, and it gets better.

8. Local washing machine

This relates mostly to people who want to relocate but you can run into this machine in an Airbnb or anywhere you’ll rent for a while and has a washing machine. For me, this is the dark side of Costa Rica 😂Sorry for the drama but I feel very strong negative emotions to this machine… I don’t understand why it even exists… From a modern person’s point of view – I don’t get it – it doesn’t clean anything, it’s too rough with the clothes and ruins them and all the dirt and dust that comes off of the clothes doesn’t empty when you drain the water… it’s just stuck back to the clothes…
From an eco point of view, I just don’t get it because I don’t understand what’s the reason for producing such a product, to begin with. I end up doing 6 durations of filling up the water and draining them and doing the cleaning programs over and over, it takes up all of your day and the final result is that it’s not even clean.
We’ve been doing our laundry with this machine for 8 months until we moved, and to be honest it’s been a nightmare, I used to love doing the laundry, and with this awful machine it felt like I was working for it.

9. No toilet paper in the toilets

Soooo this is kind of a yucky point but it is important if you plan to travel to Costa Rica.
The toilet experience here is different from most of the modern world where you usually can just toss the toilet paper to the toilet and flush it. It doesn’t happen here. Here you throw the paper in the trash, it’s kind of weird in the beginning but you get used to it. You get so used to it, that when we came to visit Israel in November, the kids just kept throwing the paper to the trash.
There is no sewage system here, everything goes to a huge tank called a septic tank and every once in a while it needs to get disposed of… so if you know the situation of your kids throwing wet wipes to the toilet and causing a jam, here it can happen with just throwing toilet paper to the toilet.

10. Surprisingly great internet!
When we just moved here, we lived for a month in Montezuma and the internet was just horrible! I was working mainly as a freelance fashion designer, and I had to have a good, strong, and stable connection, so I was panicked! One time I had to send a heavy file with wetransfer (a website specializing in sending heavy files), so I sent it before going to bed, and when I woke up in the morning, it still hadn’t finished sending the file! That’s a file that would’ve been sent after 30 minutes with a decent Internet connection. 
I was really worried about the future of my work and my income, but a month later, when we moved to the Caribbean side, I was so relieved to find out that there is good internet in Costa Rica! Many places have optic fiber and just good regular internet, which provides a good, strong, and stable connection. 
Since then, most of the places we lived had a good internet connection, and when we went for a visit in Israel six months ago, we felt the internet was much better in Costa Rica 🙂