Covering the Mountains and Beaches
of Costa Rica's Southern Zone

I'm often asked, how essential is it to speak Spanish in order to live in Costa Rica?It certainly helps, but it's not entirely necessary.Costa Ricans are very patient with non-Spanish speakers. And most communicate quite well with English speakers. Many actually do speak it. And many who don’t have learned how to manage rudimentary conversations.I'm also often asked wheth...

Over the 25 years that I've lived in Costa Rica, I've seen dramatic improvements in infra­structure, especially with Costa Rica's roads.Nevertheless, compared to the U.S., Costa Rican roads are bad.In many areas of the country, the main road might be paved and quite good, but virtually all secondary roads will be dirt.And in some cases, a paved road can be worse than a dirt...

Since many of the folks making decisions to move to Costa Rica are what I would call "political refugees", the question many probably are pondering is, what's the political climate in Costa Rica?As a newly minted expat, even one with a residency, temporary or permanent, you won't be able to vote in Costa Rica elections. To do that you must take the step of actually becoming a c...