Road to Retiring- Day 3

2/10

We get up at 6:30 AM and make the short drive to Manzanillo where the fishing boats are.  We meet Romello who says it'll be a bit before they haul the fish in and we start a lively dialogue with him in broken Spanish and broken English.  He is 54 and owns all 10 of the fishing boats here in Manzanillo plus 7 more in Puntarenas.  We talk about how quiet and crime free Manzanillo is compared to even Santa Teresa, which suffers from the surf tourism that brings elements of crime and carelessness, as does Jaco and Puntarenas.  He is a funny and kind man, quick to laugh.  He likes it when I suggest John will work for him on the fishing boats when we move here.  The boys bring up the crates of fish which are weighed and the fish thrown onto ice on the truck. 

We buy an enormous red snapper for dinner to share with Lincoln and Scarlett- $14 and he throws in another fish- a mackerel about 2 lbs.

Back to the house where John cleans the fish and stores the fillets in plastic bags with some milk- a trick to cut down on the fishy taste. Scarlett's kitty, Popeye, eats his weight in raw fish.  He's probably only 10 weeks old and showed up there with a sister kitty a few weeks back, starving.  Sister kitty unfortunately was stung by a scorpion and was so small it killed her, though the scorpions here are not very poisonous.

Lincoln begs off surf until tomorrow as they have some business to attend to in buying their own property so we head down the bumpy road to Hermosa at around 9 AM.  Another beautiful day of swell and warm water.  Solid head high sets, clean, no wind but a light off shore, the swell still had 14 sec period with 2-4 foot SWS diminishing.  

We surf 2 1/2 hours and go back for some eggs with veggies, and a short rest.  The kitchen has everything one needs excepting an oven. 

After our rest we head to town to check with the real estate agents.  Janouel at CRProperties is the one Lincoln and Scarlett are using to purchase 9 acres that has an ocean view, right next to Giselle's property.  We talk to Diego, her assistant and he rings Jaoule for John to speak to.  She takes some info, has Diego get our contact info and we will try and connect later.  Another office- the 506 and handsome Sebastian from Quebec does the same info gather. We also meet Trent, the proprietor of Soleil y Cielo.  He's been here 12 years, and  he was probably a little more negative in his view of our move. We get the feeling he enjoys tapping into folk with great means and pensionados aren't his thing.  He warns us of how awful June- September are- hot, humid.  I tell him we live in South Florida where June to September are equally hot, humid and NO waves.   We also talk for a while with Sandy at ST CR- a fun t-shirt and art shop.  She gives me some good art intel about the area, including their Facebook Santa Teresa Art, and I share with her the fact that the Art Depot in Escazu will send stuff on the turismo buses.  It's difficult to get art supplies here and spendy! Visitors to Casa Haas, once we live here, will have a list of USA stuff to bring and we will pay for it and the baggage cost. Anyway, her boyfriend's art is very rat fink-esque pop art, she more Art Deco.   

Back at the house we fire up the grill for the fish coated with a garlic, basil butter and wrapped in foil.  I also cut up some watermelon and Scarlett has made cole slaw and potato salad.  We drink beer, box wine and eat the amazing fish along with grilled onion and peppers by the pool.  Off to bed and another full day of surf tomorrow.  God we love this peninsula! 

Pargo (red snapper) on the grill.

  

The Road to Retiring -Day 2

2/9

Playa Hermosa, Nicoya Peninsula

I am up at 4:45 am.  Slept well but I will say the howler monkeys were active last night.  At 5:30 I try and wake John but no go.  At 6 AM I jump on his head and he starts to rouse.  Come on Sea Biscuit, time to hit the race track! We have coffee, stretch on our yoga mats by the pool and hit Playa Hermosa by 7:15.  We give an amigo $2 to keep an eye on the car, and he is wearing a Seguiradad shirt- having been hired by the friends of Playa Hermosa to keep an eye on the small parking area. I surf the secondary swell and foamers and have a blast.  Light to no winds in the morning and wind texture was still light and waves well shaped when we left at 10 am.  Water is also warm and clear.  There are some amazing surfers, a handful of beginners courtesy of Shaka Surf School, a few dogs, and a couple of people sunbathing or reading on a giant stretch of beach. Heaven.  

View of the
"parking lot" from the waves

Using the Surf Lock.

        The swell is lovely, a few close outs, but they are much larger than they appear and John is surfing overhead and 2 feet overhead on the sets.

 

We come back for breakfast of eggs I cooked inside bread with a whole in the middle, and fresh basil courtesy of Scarlett and a local farmer who gifts it to her.  We popped into town to check e- mails as the WiFi is sketchy where they are no phone lines.  We also got some groceries for the rest of our stay in Santa Teresa.  They have amazing restaurants in Santa Teresa but if you've traveled in CR, you know it's not cheap, plus being South Florida residents seafood is not a novelty. 

Back to our digs after checking on 2 rentals.  One is on a pretty isolated road.  Lots of land and a small caretaker house, but the house is odd with an outdoor kitchen only.  The other we see only the outside, not inside,  but have a long lovely talk with the owner and her son.  It's right on the beach road and would be a short hike to the waves.  We exchange emails and Candie gives us fresh made coconut ice cream and passion fruit ice. The digs are not ideal but we are on a mission to gather options.

Fishing boats getting ready to go out for the night in Manzanillo

A little Winter Olympics viewing and a short nap and then we take the walk to Manzanillo beach to see if we can buy some fish for dinner.  It's all downhill and a bit slick with shale.  We watch the sun set on fishing boats but no fish to be had until mañana in the mañana- we will stop and get before tomorrow morning's session. We buy some chicken at the little store for a dinner of pasta with chicken pesto sauce, tomato and avocado slices.  We share cocktails and talk with Lincoln and Scarlett- such great info to be gleaned form people who have relocated here!  John makes a deadly margarita with tequila, the passion fruit ice, lime, basil and jalapeños.  Man that boy likes the "heat"!  More surf tomorrow!

The Road to Retiring in CR-Day 1

2/8

Ready to tackle Costa Rica again! Ferry to Paquera

Arrival at the airport was hassle free.  We had pre-printed out our boarding passes and pre- paid the board bag and breezed right through security.  We caught a brew in the bar because who doesn't want to pay $15 for a bottle and one draft?  But as fate would have it, an expat, Mike was there with his completely cool dog.  We got to talking about transporting pets, moving to CR, rents, electricity, etc.  Spirit will allow Emotional Support Animals on board with their owners and this dog was pretty good size.  A letter from a psych saying you need the animal with you, for whatever medical or psychological reason, plus the necessary paperwork from the Dept. Of Ag, and it's a done deal.  Mike was flying in the front row which only has 2 seats and costs more, but hell, I'd do it for Oddrie.   But we also gleaned some cool info regarding living in CR.  Mike was in the middle of a messy US divorce after which he would move permanently to CR where his Tico girlfriend is preggers- thus giving him residency.  I'd place him at 47.  And his CR digs and activities definitely put him at the "Well- Off" status, bordering on luxury.  Just guessing by the amount of Jack and Coke he was putting down at the bar at $10 each. Pura Vida. 

Well, enough with the easy stuff.  Arrival in Costa Rica lacked the pleasure and calm of our last trip. We got in and cleared customs at 2:30 AM and a shuttle took us to Holiday Inn Express since our favored Trapp Family Inn was booked.  Riding along was another couple, also laden with boards, and we were all ready for bed only to be told- after unloading our luggage-  that the Hotel had accidentally overbooked, and 4 rooms that were to be vacated had occupants who wouldn't leave, so we needed to be taken to a Best Western in Escazu.  NOT pleased.  And we were PRE- PAID!  This got us to bed around 4 am and of course derailed our pre arranged car pickup at 8 am. Several calls to Adobe, which is our preferred car rental, and we finally arranged to go back to Holiday Inn and meet a shuttle to get our car at their offices.  Last year's delivery to us at poolside at the Trapp Family Inn was much nicer!  We did get the room reimbursed so that was one free night but the hassle that went with? Priceless.

We paid for a GPS and told the agent we really needed it to get us the fastest not straightest course as the year before it had derailed us at the Pan Am highway from Liberia to San Jose and we ended up on a 4 hour mountain journey, but unfortunately the agent pushed the setting that avoided toll roads so once again we weren't on the spiffy and fast Pan Am.  Off on mountain roads again.  In Palmeras the GPS was sending us literally in circles.  So we started asking people for directions, which was getting us nowhere given our spotty Spanish and their lack of English.  Finally a guy on a nice bike with helmet stopped and spoke decent English.  He said "just follow me and I'll get you on the right road". So he altered his ride to lead us to the right highway.  Costa Ricans seem a little embarrassed by their lack of road signage and therefore usually willing to help. On the way our bike guide stopped in front of a lovely home and said, "This is my home.  Are you in need of a rest room, a drink or internet?  Please mi casa es su casa."  We politely declined as we really wanted to make headway, but talk about nice?

A slushie on the ferry.  What's the flavor?
The only one they had working- Blue.

We never connected with Pan Am 1 but we made it to Puntarenas and the 2:00 ferry, though we'd hoped to get there at the 11 am.  HA!  A pleasant crossing though John beat the living day lights out of me in Cribbage, but there was entertainment when the ferry's janitor put on an impromptu dance show.  It was quite good.  A local Tico woman, Laura, engaged me in conversation giving me a chance to practice Spanish. Ticos are super helpful when people try and learn their language!

Paquera to Santa Teresa is bone jarring but uneventful. We struggled to find our digs a little outside of Playa Hermosa (the one on the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula- there's four Playa Hermosas on the west coasts of CR)) and ended up on Gisele Bundchen’s dirt  road, asked for some directions from a woman who was not Giselle, and then corrected our travels to locate the place we are staying.  Lincoln and Scarlett are a beautiful English couple who have traveled extensively in SA and settled here. 

She's 6 months pregnant- residency again- and this is where they want to raise a family.  John and Lincoln discussed surfing and he'll join us tomorrow.  Scarlett had some great ideas about local rentals and we will check some of them out. The studio apartment we are staying in on their property is adorable and very posh. Well appointed kitchen, comfy King bed, and shared pool with them.

Manzanillo beach, a fishing village, just north of Playa Hermosa

Dinner down the road in Manzanillo- delicious but not cheap for a Tico spot.  $9 each, $2.25 beers, but great service and a view to die for, being right across the street from the fishing beach.  A tiny supermarket provided the fresh brown eggs, butter, bread, coffee, bottle water and a box of vino tinto, which we discovered to be pretty decent for a couple of wine snobs. 

Back to the apt. for a quick swim under the stars and hopefully a full night sleep.  John is like a race horse who's been penned up for far too long and the setting sun on the swell was about to put him literally champing at the bit to hit the water.    

Pics of the apartment:

Costa- Pre Trip Check List

Children's pool noodles at the $1 store- best rail and tip protector ever. 

Packing! 

We are guessing most surfers our age have done some traveling with their boards.  But we will still go on about what we are bringing for our 12 day, multi locale, surf trip to Costa Rica.  This Rip Curl bag has done some traveling!  John swears by it.  It's been to Costa Rica 3 times, California, Baja, Nicaragua, the Maldives all with John and to CR, Nica, and Puerto Rico on loan to other surfers. 

Spirit Air charges $100 each way for 2 boards- no size limit.  Did ya hear that?  No size limit, American Airlines! So for all that we scream about Spirit being rough- there is that. And our flight is 2 1/2 hours from Ft. Lauderdale so we can manage it. Another tip: those little alcohol bottles at the liquor store for $.99 can now go through the carry on.  Cutting prices again.Now we do have some purchased tail and nose guards too.  We are taking John's favorite 7'2"  fun shape- The Thumper, and my Surf Betty 7'6" NSP.  That's what I rented down in CR last time and when I got home I found one on EBay for $120 so I bought it for travel.  John is a little miffed he can't take his 6'11" gun for bigger waves but he uses The Thumper 90% of the time so I told him to suck it up.  He can rent one for a day if he needs it.  But I paid $100 in rental last year so he could bring 2 boards, so do the math! 

He placed my board first and then a yoga mat on top for protection plus that gives us 2 yoga mats while down there for stretching.  The Thumper also went into its board bag with a yoga mat inside, tight fit, but works and then on top of the NSP.
The fins, emergency surf repair stuff, duct tape, a first aid kit, towels, snacks, water shoes, trunks (4), bathing suits (4), rash guards (2 each), a soft Igloo brand bag to keep drinks etc. cool, and a small backpack that we'll use for our day surf trips - all going in too.  NOT going this trip is Rap Racks which are soft portable racks.  We took them to Baja where we rented a small sedan because the road to Cerritos is the bomb diggity now!  But in CR we get a 4 X 4 because the roads can be bad, especially in the lower Nicoya Peninsula.  We know Adobe is giving us a car that fits the boards inside.  Still these are handy.

Oh and don't forget the Surf Lock.  I wrote about this awesome thing last year.  We lock it to the car's undercarriage and then either of us can access the car for drinks, towels, etc during the surf day.  You can't leave even a towel on the beach in S.A. so we keep it locked up while we are in the water. I put a pair of reading glasses up to the open compartment so you could see what it holds- hotel key cards, credit card, keys.

OK... what's going on the plane with us?  The clothing we need in a backpack which counts as the one free thing you can take on for Spirit.  I have one largish Jansport backpack and I pack enough to wear everyday with no laundry. 4 T-shirt dresses rolled up, 4 sundresses rolled up, 4 T-shirts, 4 pairs shorts, 2 tank tops, undies, 1other bra, a T-shirt I sleep in, 2 pair flip flops, a short skirt, all the cords for the IPad/ IPhone/ the IPod, a blank zip drive, extra SD card for cameras (seriously folks you will NOT find this stuff in the CR surf type towns), hand sanitizer, toothbrush and paste, hair ties, vitamins, small hair brush, mascara, lip gloss, lip balm, razor, and travel size deodorant we will share.  John will carry less clothes- always- but he'll have the GoPro and the zoom lens for the camera along with a file with all our paperwork for our lawyers including copies of our passports to leave in the car 24/7  plus the IPad mini. The little purple frog purse on my back pack is where I'll put my smaller wallet, Iphone, Ipod and passport and I attach it to the backpack and they don't count it as a purse.  I don't take a purse.  Sorry ladies!  Travel leaner- you can do it. I like the "Froggie" purse too while we are out and about because it goes around my neck and shoulder and I can hug it to my chest. And my camera goes around my neck on the plane and also doesn't count as carryon by Spirit rules.  Wearing on the plane?  Both of us the only pair of long pants we are taking, a hat, t-shirt and a hoodie with Sanduks as our only closed toe shoe.  Flying out TONIGHT!

Costa Rica- What's An Apostille???

One week and one day countdown to leave for Costa Rica.  Above map shows our first stop where we understand a decent swell has arrived and expected to continue.  After midnight landing in San Jose courtesy of Spirit again ($196.00 R/T pp from Ft. Lauderdale), spending the night at a Holiday Inn (Trapp Family Inn was full- darnit!), we'll head to  the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula for 4 nights just to get back in the surf and check out rentals down there.

Then we will head back to the San Jose area and meet in person with Kevin of Great Sunrise Enterprise to start our immigration paperwork.  Here is what we had to amass for this process:
Already sent:
1) Photocopies of our passports to Kevin
2) A "Hola de Fillacion" paper for each of us with all the identifiers- name, weight, etc pre-sent to be translated into Spanish and ready when we are there to sign as we make Great Sunrise our legal representatives.
3) A money transfer to Great Sunrise to start the ball rolling.
Bringing With:
4) Newly issued birth certificates for both of us- need to be issued no more than 3 months before submitting for APOSTILLE*  I'll get to that!
5) Newly issued marriage certificate to be Apostilled
6) Letter from Nevada Personal Retirement System that says I get at least $1000 per month for the rest of my life. NOTARIZED!  and then Apostilled.
7) Form from our local police department for each that says we are upstanding citizens, no arrests, tickets etc. Notarized but not apostilled.  Post Script: 2 days later I find out is has to apostilled.  Off it goes Priority mail with $40 for the both of us and self addressed stamp envelope to the Great Sunrise's Miami address. Best laid plans of mice and men...

Hopefully the following account will be humorous as that is my intent NOW.  Not so funny while we were going through it...

Re #1: Kevin was great at sending us contracts and assurances that we were dealing with a reputable company, so that was cool to send the passport stuff.

Re #4:  John uses VitalCheck to get his birth certificate from Illinois and it cost $25 total and he got it in 6 days.  Really.  No joke. We then send it to the Secretary of State of Illinois for Apostille.  What is an Apostille?

The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, the Apostille convention, or the Apostille treaty is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. Such a certification is called an apostille (French: certification). It is an international certification comparable to anotarisation in domestic law, and normally supplements a local notarisation of the document.

It must be done by the Secretary of State in the state from which it originates.  What they do is then research the notary and give you a certificate that the notary exists and the certificate is real. In Illinois it cost $2 to send his birth certificate for this process.  We got it back in 6 days!!

My birth certificate? I submit my NOTARIZED request to California with $25, wait 4 weeks and get a letter back that I apparently don't exist.  No explanation.  I can only assume that I didn't fill out one of the foccacta boxes out right and they searched for my married name, not my maiden name.  My bad, but damn that's a long time! I use VitalCheck, pay $56 and it's back in 8 days! I then send it through certified mail to the Secretary of State for the Apostille at $20 per certificate with a paid, self addressed envelope, certified for return.  Surprisingly I get this back in less than 2 weeks from sending it off.

Recap:
John's birth certificate and Apostille?  $25 +$2 + 3 stamps = $28.47
Karen's birth certificate? $25.00 (first attempt) + $56 + $20 +$18 postage = $119.00

Re #5: Actually the marriage certificate went off without a hitch (Pun intended).  It's $20 per certificate in Florida and we got it back 10 working days after sending it off.  $20 + 2 stamps = $20.98

Re #6:  It takes 2 weeks to get the letter from Nevada verifying my retirement and then I send it off to the Secretary of State.  2 weeks later, it comes back- it wasn't notarized!  Can't Apostille it if it's not notarized since that's what an Apostille does- certifies the notary. Now I told them it was for Apostille.  The gal who did the request said she does these letters verifying retirement funds all the time and they never need to be notarized.  I can only assume that people from Northern Nevada are not moving to foreign countries. I may be happy about this- I don't know. She was super nice, created a new one, notarized it and then left it at the desk where my daughter, who still lives in Nevada, picks it up the next day and hand delivers it to the Secretary of State.  Thank God she lives in the capitol! But wait- the girl tells her that it will take 3-4 weeks and we are at 17 days and counting till we leave.  It cost $20 but for $75 more I can get it done in one day and with mailing I'll have it in a week.  She explains they are so far behind.  Well yeah!  Because people with money are paying to be ahead of everyone else!  The American way! I pay the money, they have processed the credit card and as of this writing I'm still waiting but it's only been 4 days.  It SHOULD be here in time.
Recap:  $95 + postage = $96.47

Re #7: John got his police form with a social security card and his drivers license last week.  Took 10 minutes.  I went today... surely I think I have run the gamut of glitches and it should go smoothly.  I've already passed a background check to be a teacher here so fingers crossed! First they give my form to the guy at Window 1 and I get his at Window 2.  That's awesome considering he's all of 25 years old and black! We exchange papers but wait....after I leave we realize they have given me the wrong form even after telling them I need the Immigration standard paperwork.  John asks if its notarized?  "No", then "Go back'.  I do- in pouring rain with zero parking spaces outside of small lakes possibly teeming with alligators- it is Florida- and get the right form and get it notarized.  Not one single paper with my name alone on it has gone without a hitch!

So if you're thinking of doing this, start as soon as you can at the 3 month mark!  It can take a long time if there's several states involved.
Last thought of this day:
Apostille California- $20 per certificate, Apostille Florida- $20 per certificate, Apostille Illinois- $2 per certificate.  Interesting....

Costa Rica with an Ex-Pat Pensionado Purpose!

John enjoying a surprise swell in the late afternoon, Juno Beach, Wed. 1/ 22/2014

Today- 12 days before we leave for Costa Rica, which I'll chronicle on this blog as it happens, I'm also going to include details of the process of becoming a "Pensionado" in Costa Rica, a form of residency that John and I have decided to do.  We think that our experience will definitely help others because it's confusing (!!!).  We haven't an exit date yet for moving there but the paperwork is so detailed and time exhaustive, we will have it in the can, or at least to the place where we can go legally, when we finally decide to do this crazy thing!

So...

I never finished the last 4 days of my last Costa Rica post. Mostly because we hit the Tamarindo area for the last bit of the last trip and it failed to inspire-literally.  We'd been there once before- shortly after we first met actually, and we'd had an amazing time.  BUT...Tamarindo compared now to other parts of the country is a disappointment in the waves, the beach crowds, the local attitude, the absurd meshing of really expensive restaurants and hotels to the extreme poverty.  YUCK! It doesn't feel like community and we really hated it.  I did have an interview for a teaching job though at a private school not far from Playa Grande and we would've taken it had it been offered.  But, they decided to hire in house and we breathed a short sigh of "Nyah" followed by a huge sigh of relief.   We definitely crossed this entire area off the list of potential, future retirement choices.  Sorry Tamarindo, but you get plenty of exposure and you are a place where folk can start a business easier than the wilder places, so that will net you plenty of other fish.

We've been talking since we met about living the dream, leaving the states and pursuing surfing, art, and just being together in paradise.  We tossed around several places.  Ecuador is supposed to be a really good spot for ex-pat surfers.  Bali calls to both John and I constantly!  But these spots didn't make the grade because of the cost of travel to and from.  We have kids and grandkids and my Mom is still with us.  Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama are not cost prohibitive for air travel.  Panama is supposed to be cheaper than Costa Rica for products, etc. but some investigation into that country kept are heads in CR.  Panama is supposed to have more political and police corruption, Nicaragua has the bandito issue.  A friend of mine who runs Rancho Chilamante there is widely respected and loved, yet he still runs afoul of the country's issues with being a Communist state. Let it be said here that CR has it's issues too and we aren't going with vapid, fairytale expectations!

But  Costa Rica it is.

I began the exhaustive Internet surfing, gathering info.  There are several ways to become a resident of Costa Rica.  From therealcostarica.com  

Costa Rica offers many alternatives for legal residency. Here are the most common and those that affect the majority of people moving here:

• a pensionado is defined as a person receiving a lifetime pension such as social security, state retirement benefits, military pension. or someone who has purchased or owns a lifetime annuity guaranteeing an income (for life) of no less than $1,000 US per month. While this residency is most common for older folks, there is no age limit. We have many retired military retiring here who are in their forties and are qualified pensionados.

• a rentista is a foreigner with a guaranteed income stream (rare) or who makes a deposit to a Costa Rica bank) in the amount of $60,000 (more common).
This deposit is the rentista's money and is paid out to him at the rate of $2,500 per month for 24 months. This residency is for two years after which it must be renewed (another 60,000) or you must leave the country. This new residency allows people to learn if they really enjoy living here.

• an investor, who has at least $200,000 or more invested in Costa Rica

• if associated while doing a foreign government assignment or an international mission.

• representante a person who is an executive of a company doing business in Costa Rica. Many restrictions apply.

The pensionado and rentista programs are the easiest and most popular methods of establishing temporary residency in Costa Rica. They are called temporary because both have expiration dates and must be renewed in order to stay here. After three years of either you have the right to “upgrade” to permanent residence. This implies at least ONE renewal after two years. Some residents, especially rentistas, can and should convert to permanent residency after three years to avoid a third large deposit of $60,000. Permanent residency implies permanency... not true. Permanent residents must also regularly renew their residency.

Well, we qualify under the "Pensionado" status.  My 24 years of teaching in Nevada paid off with a retirement plan that is quite generous. We won't be living in luxury, or even as one net spot termed it by incomes: "Well Off'.   We'll be: "Upper Class by South American Standards"  level.  Not sure where that puts us on the scale of "American Standards" where I think we are probably Low Middle Class.  But good waves everyday?  No work?  Fishing and shopping in green markets for our food.  Affordable health care( as of this post, John's is still covered at work- mine is $400 per month!  Costa Rica CAJA health care will run us about $100 per month for both of us!)  Priceless!  John won't have to take his social security till the latest, most lucrative age and we will do just fine- not fancy, but that's not us anyways.  And I'll be getting $500 a month social security down the road too from 8 years of working in a bank before becoming a teacher.  Plus we each have little 401K's tucked away.  We count ourselves pretty lucky to be the tail end of a generation where  some benefits are providing us with these choices.  Our kids, their kids- not so lucky! 

Important note here: People who used to just pop over to Panama or Nicaragua every three months as perpetual turistas are now often required to go home to their country of origin instead.  

One "Hitch"?  John and I weren't married and neither of us really cared to do it again, full commitment to one another notwithstanding.  I emailed SEVERAL companies who help establish residency to find out if they honor legal partnerships in Costa Rica.  Not one answered my question until I found Great Sunrise Enterprises on Craigslist Costa Rica. Kevin McNamee answered immediately and we decided to use them as our liaison for the legal process.  He'll Skype with you, answer questions and send a monthly newsletter with ex-pat details, new laws, etc. ALL without receiving a cent.  So that's why he gets our money.  You have to have someone to do this for you!  It's just too legal crazy and too many hoops.  Kevin has been doing this for decades and we feel good about him handling our paperwork, choosing the lawyers and everything else that goes with this insane process.

Ohhh...so we did have to get married because I'm the only one with the "guaranteed" monthly salary at this point and CR does not recognize "domestic partnerships".  

Hitched: Dec. 31st, 2014 at the courthouse in North Palm Beach.  

Next post: Starting the paperwork and what the hell is an Apostille?

Ending with a little video that was shot the other day on the above mentioned mini swell that unexpectedly came through Forida last week. SUP Surfing in Jupiter Beach, From the air!  John is paddling out at 1:18 on the video- shot by a drone!- and he is followed by my tiny figure on the shore with our black lab who is insane for the ocean as she jumps in chasing her toy.  Yes she is going with us when we move.