Thinking about a family vacation, relocating, buying property, starting a business?

I'll do my best to help out with any questions.

Pura vida!

Costs Rica is the nuts. super expensive though.

Road tripped the Nicoya. Highly recommend 4WD

Me and my friend are coming over there on 22. Feb and plan to grind for approx 3 weeks online before travelling onwards. Which site do you recommend for booking a place? Do you know any grindhouses/contacts (skype chats) who are staying there allready so we could get in contact? Which cities/places do you think we should 100% visit?
We play HS cash games/sngs with some Mtts .
Thank you for all the info and help!

Good to know you enjoyed it! Did you fly out directly to liberia and head out to the beaches directly? Or arrived at SJO and stayed in the city for a few days?. Yeah, unfortunately cost of living has gone up in some areas.

Any pics ?

Hey Rollinboy,

As always I would say it depends on what you are looking for. (Party every night, grind and go out for a bite, stay directly on the beach, etc..) With that said; You cant go wrong with Airbnb, I know even my sister was renting out some rooms in our house some while ago. Also, UBER is up and running, so depending on the area you stay, you don't need to worry about taxis overcharging the sh#$% out of you guys. I would definitely visit one of the non active volcanoes. (Irazú, Poás) Unfortunately I don't have poker contacts yet, but that was the main point of the thread to be honest.
Feel free to add me on skype s.desanti and I will do my best to help sort out anything I can.

Pura vida!

I drove down to Costa Rica from NC a few years back. 1983 Mercedes 300TD veggie diesel. Had a blast!

Sounds like an awesome ride!

How hard are visa runs to David (Panama) and Rivas (Nicaragua) nowadays? Does CR let people back in on the same day, or can it still demand 3 days of absence, depending on which border officer's shift it is? What are the standard fees / bribes on the borders (when travelling by bus)? As of late, has any runner been denied re-entry into CR at all (I mean, with a long timeout)? What's the probability of being allowed only 15 / whatever days of stay on re-entry instead of the full 30 extendable to 90*?

* 90 days straight away for such lucky countries as the US and the EU.

There are too many threads on the subject on the ExpatExchange forum and the testimonials are muy contradictory.

What % of service workers (and of the youth / population in general) in San Jose and its suburbs understands English well enough for communication, by your estimate?

Nicaragua is a better option than Panamá.

-"probability of being allowed only 15 / whatever days of stay on re-entry instead of the full 30 extendable to 90*?" Is very related to the fact of not staying the whole 3 days. As they will mention you are doing it as a permanent tourist...

-Bribes traveling by bus I would say are not as common, but that is where the "depending on the shift" that you mention. It might be $10-$30

If you want the "baller" less hassle approach, just take a flight out to Nicaragua and back. But in any case, I would highly recommend staying over the three days.

With the language it is hard for me to point out a specific % to be honest. Almost all restaurants and bars have English speaking staff; however, you might find a bit of a problem with supermarkets or small stores. Youth have less problem with it as we have a very strong background on IT/services/Betting/CS which are some of the major employers down here.

Pura vida!

Sure, I'll fire.

- How's the level of English in the capital city and outside of it?

- Any TEFL (English teaching) possiblilities?

- gambling legal? avg quality casino/rake/etc?

- rural areas safe?

Also, post some pictures of your favorite places.

Answered above

-Definitely, I would say to take a look at some ad postings and contact them in advance. But for example http://www.berlitzca.com/bolsa-empleo/

- Yes! Shady, good and nice. There is a regular $1-2 in Sheraton's Hotel Casino and they run $2-$5 (higher upon request) three times a week. NLH is predominant.

- Yes, but again... You can find ****ty situations everywhere, just try to avoid them.

-Ill get into that in a few hours, im not much into taking pictures myself, so the ones I will upload will probably look as taken by an expert, hehe.

flew into SJO, couple of days there, drove up to Tamarindo and made our way down the coast. I loved everything except Tamarindo. Then we drove inland to one of the national parks (Rio Celeste). 11 days in total. Our rental car got absolutely destroyed. Highly recommend an SUV with some height if you are driving (which I also recommend cause it was a blast)

How big is the competition for Russian language teacher positions (with no special linguistic education) in CR?

With all due respect, extremely hard for Russian teaching positions to even exist.
However; Pokerstars and other gaming company's are always looking for Russian, Dutch or German amongst others.

Yeah, I'd gladly accept an invitation from Americas Cardroom or whatever... if I weren't so asocial

I mean, I can speak English decently, but of course only native speakers have a realistic chance to get a language teaching job...

And anyway, I'd never let a job get into my online poker way. There are plenty of places that are happy to host me as a 'tourist' at least for a while, and I don't feel neither like playing this cat-and-mouse perpetual tourist game with the Costa Rican authority neither like getting a legit job or marrying for the sake of the cédula.

I am leaving my job in June to move to Costa Rica and play full time. Any idea what an American should do for Health Care? Do I get Heath Care from the States or do I get it from Costa Rica, or both?

Thanks
Chris

Sounds awesome!
Costa Rican insurance monopoly was broken down a couple of years ago. Let me ask around and I'll get you some better info as it depends on several factors.

Speaking of, it's a bit of an annoyance that legal residents have to make contributions into Caja (the governmental health insurance fund) even if they use private clinics instead.

On the other hand, it's unfair that diseased foreigners can come and leech on the Caja system.

All in all, in terms of the law and its execution, Costa Rica seems a big mess just like the rest of Latin America.

Yeop, you said it. Problems are going to be everywhere. I have contributed to it for the last 13 years, and have never used it once as the company's I've worked always gave us private medical insurance. However, it is good to know that when a tourist comes down and has an accident, they are treated fairly and with care. And that if at any point I need to use it, I would be able to do so even being unemployed.

But tourists can avail of Caja only in emergencies, right?

No sir, there is an international treaty, and they would probably even be looked at first, without a cost to them.

hi, I am looking into a one week vacation down south at the end of this month, Costa Rica would be a great choice, but why is the flight so expensive (from Toronto)? $1800 round trip. I can fly to any where in the world for much less than that.

Unfortunately I cant give you an answer to that... Im flying out to seattle in july and paid $1500

you must have brutal timing b/c usually something is avail $600 - 800.

Also I have to say Costa Rica is probably the best value for money with Aeroplan points.

You can usually do it for 45,000 points + around $125 fees. Way better value than say using points to go to Europe.