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Living Abroad in Costa Rica
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Average customer review:
Product Description
Imagine yourself living in Costa Rica. You stroll home past lush vegetation after a long day of surfing. You know the locals and speak Spanish with ease. You show visiting friends around with the confidence of one who belongs. Author Erin Van Rheenen shows you how to make your dream take shape. She left her life as a guidebook editor in the San Francisco Bay Area to make a home abroad in Costa Rica. While some give up—daunted by the financial, bureaucratic, and decision-making issues that accompany a move so extraordinary—you'll be led step-by-step through the information you need on visas, money, jobs, housing, safety, language, culture, and history. Erin has done the research and made the mistakes—so you don't have to. There's a place that matches your budget, needs, and dreams: perhaps it's an impressive new condominium in the upper-class San José suburb of Escazú, a wooden house on stilts in the isolated Caribbean coast town of Tortuguero, or a mountain retreat with a view of the Arenal Volcano. You can make it happen. With Living Abroad in Costa Rica, it's easier than you think.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #231560 in Books
- Published on: 2004-09
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 424 pages
Editorial Reviews
Review
If you're ready for a new life, consider Living Abroad in Costa Rica. This Moon book delivers indispensable advice for anyone contemplating planting roots in foreign soil or just purchasing a second home in an idyllic location. The author has homes in California and Costa Rica, so she can tell you what to expect when you wish to join the thousands of North Americans who have found new life in retirement here. -- 15 Minutes Magazine, January/February 2008
Customer Reviews
A Superb Travel and Living Guide to Costa Rica
Having traveled to Costa Rica several times over the last 15 years - for both pleasure and business - the idea of making The Move, of leaving yourself behind, is a reoccurring thought and increasingly dear to my heart.
In planning another trip this spring I came across Ms. Van Rheenen's splendid "Living Abroad in Costa Rica" doing a search on Amazon. Frankly, I expected one more of those endless travel book-of-lists, where one looks up a town or region only to find suspect hotel snap shots and questionable restaurant reviews.
Instead I found a wealth of very detailed information, thorough, logically laid out and well packaged. Further, the authors personal commentary is both insightful and often very funny. For example, her observation that the availability of single cigarettes at street kiosks allows you to "pretend you're not really a smoker" or in her discussion of the healthcare system; a fellow who had opted back into the state system and "was trying to schedule his operation within the next decade." Unlike most travel books, "Living Abroad in Costa Rica" is well worth reading cover to cover.
Finally, having actually read the book, I was struck by Mr. Taylor's odd review. He seems caught up in how much time the author does or doesn't spend in Costa Rico (how would he know?) declaring her not to be a "true" authority. Maybe he wishes he wrote his own book? I guess the drive by some folks to create a Social Register for the purpose of excluding others exists everywhere. I must say that in the specific areas in which I have experience, Ms. Van Rheenen was 100% on the mark, and I expect that holds true for the rest of the book.
Ms. Van Rheenen writes:
"If you want to sleepwalk trough life, don't come here. Being alert is the price you pay (or the reward) for not being told at every turn what to do. For those who adapt well to it, Costa Rica is the ideal place to live a rich independent life , and a great place to make a fresh start."
Best in Class
Having traveled over much of the world, I am not a newcomer to this type of book. I think this is the most comprehensive, best written book of its class that I have come across. My husband and have been considering retirement in Costa Rica (even more so since the recent election) and Ms. Van Rheenen answered every question we had thought of and some we hadn't. Her knowledge of the culture, history, geography, health care, etc. is obvious and I would recommend this as an essential read for anyone traveling to or thinking of living in Costa Rica
a fun-to-read travel guide
This is a brilliantly written travel guide that is genuinely fun to read. You won't find the tedious lists of restaurants, hotels, and attractions that are typical of other books. Rather, this book gives the unvarnished truth about the important issues for people wanting to stay for the long haul: how to get health care, where you might find work, how to fit in with Costa Rican culture, how to find a home off the beaten path, where to take Spanish classes.
Erin has a great style and an acute sense of humor. If you're interested in an extended stay in Costa Rica, or even if you're just planning a vacation and you want to get to know the country like a local, this book is a must-read.
