6 ms·

I've been pretty happy with spending most of my time in Costa Rica for nearly a decade or so. The pandemic numbers here have been really low, partly because peo

I've been pretty happy with spending most of my time in Costa Rica for nearly a decade or so. The pandemic numbers here have been really low, partly because people are fairly health-conscious here. Anti maskers are basically just gringos nobody likes or want anything to do with here instead of crazy people yelling vitriol in grocery stores. I don't live at the beach, because frankly it's kind of distracting having people come up to you wearing headphones asking why you're working and not vacationing, but if I want I can just go and hang out in a hammock in a less than 6-10 hour bus ride to whichever spot. There's also a LARGE amount of fibre optic internet rollout here, MUCH more than my 1st world home country that seems to be falling apart by the day, so I only have to rely on 3g/4g when the power goes out once in a while. If it stays out longer than my battery lasts I let people know I'm on a bus to find somewhere that isn't out after checking the power company website. Another thing about avoiding the beach is avoiding the hours long blackouts. As for my setup it's literally just my laptop and some notebooks in my bag. I have two bags, one carry-on and one backpack, and minimalize as much as I can so that if I have to get on a plane for whatever reason in short order I'm pretty much already good to go. The heaviest things I own are probably books, but they're pretty sweet books so I take the weight.

Shared404 6y ago
> The heaviest things I own are probably books, but they're pretty sweet books so I take the weight. What are they, if you don't mind me asking of course.
- jamal-kumar 6y ago
  I found this really old book from 1938 for learning German which is quite the artifact, one from 1944 on how to survive an atomic bomb which is also super old and has some funny advice/a picture on wearing a fedora to protect yourself from the heat flash... some book from 1924 on mathematics which takes a historical analysis approach to teaching called mathematics for the million which is pretty cool. It has a lot of 'field trip' kind of exercises which makes me feel like learning math was probably a hell of a lot more of a fun thing to people back in the day. a more modern book which is probably a lot better to be learning german from is in there, another one from 1950s with andy warhol illustrations for spanish learning called "madrigal's magic key to spanish" which i lend to friends when they come here to pick up some spanish fast I can highly recommend. I got a second copy after some absolute walnut took off on a plane with it and didn't even bother learning spanish, it's that good. I also got a couple of computer books. Concurrency in Go (oreilly) and this one thicc as heck tome which is the textbook for the SEED security labs which is also super good, because it comes with a bunch of virtual machines. Really nice source for levelling up your understanding of application vulnerabilities in C (and by extension other languages, but I was really glad to find something with these fundamental examples) https://www.handsonsecurity.net/ https://www.handsonsecurity.net/
  - cyberpunk 6y ago
    Oh, thanks for the seed recommendation, I was looking for something like this!
  - codewritinfool 6y ago
    Mathematics for the Million is a really good book.
    - jamal-kumar 6y ago
      Right? I am sure some of the info in it is probably like archaic or apocryphal/historically inacurate in light of recent discoveries like a lot of this old stuff can be but as long as you take it with that grain of salt in mind it's pretty cool
  - qorrect 6y ago
    That's weird, I was in Puerto Viejo when I found an original hard copy of "Where Wizards stay up late", something I couldn't find for sell in the US right before I left.
    - jamal-kumar 6y ago
      I think people take their favorite books and just forget them in places. I found a copy of robert anton wilson's 'prometheus rising' which was a fun read but old copies are pretty hard to find stolen from libraries and stuff
    - jsjohnst 6y ago
      I bet you could get it at Powell’s Books in Portland OR.
  - L_226 6y ago
    > one from 1944 on how to survive an atomic bomb which is also super old and has some funny advice/a picture on wearing a fedora to protect yourself from the heat flash 1944?
tayo42 6y ago
Which part of Costa Rica? Funny I was just looking at spending a month or two on a work-cation after getting vaccinated. Looking at Santa Teresa or nosara, keep reading the internet is unreliable. That was my experience after spending a few days in Santa Teresa a few years ago
- jamal-kumar 6y ago
  Yeah man I just hang out in San José for the most part. Pre-pandemic, fun party scene for sure which is probably one of the big things that kept me here. Now it's just nice to be able to spend like 5 bucks on an uber ride and go climbing nearby mountains and volcanoes when I get time off. Great climate in the city and surrounding area. I suggest here or some of the outlying cities and towns around Alajuela. Monteverde, atenas, that kind of place out in the jungle is super nice too and the internet just tends to be a bit better. I find Santa Teresa's internet to be somewhat worse than Montezuma area just to the south on the other end of the peninsula. Really though what kills things is power outages more than internet. There's co-working spaces with fibre optic, but you'd be surprised how many cheap hostels and stuff like that are buying into these plans becuase there's tons of competition all of the sudden. It's either Kölbi or American Data Networks serving it up for the most part, but the cable companies Tigo and CableTica are activating dark fibre purchases around too.
  - jamal-kumar 6y ago
    https://www.grupoice.com/wps/portal/ICE/en-linea/reporte-de-averias https://www.grupoice.com/wps/portal/ICE/en-linea/reporte-de-... Well it looks like they replaced their reporting website with a terrible app nobody seems to like at all. I guess now you have to rely on having decent Spanish and being able to navigate their phone line heh
  - res0nat0r 6y ago
    I have some coworkers in Costa Rica, it is close timezone wise to where I live in the USA now, and I saw this absolutely insane house at an unbelievable price a while back: https://www.coldwellbankercostarica.com/property/11337/ https://www.coldwellbankercostarica.com/property/11337/ It looks like a fantastic place to live.
tiltrus 6y ago
How's the process of getting permanent residence there?
- edorrington 6y ago
  It's not too difficult. There is a fair bit of bureaucracy, so I would recommend going through a lawyer here. The essential requirements are a fair bit of documentation (birth certificate, marriage certificate if appropriate, and your FBI report) each of which have to be apostilled and submitted within six months of the first documents date. Then once you've submitted all your paperwork you'll go in process, after which you won't need to leave the country every 90 days to renew your visa. Once you've been approved, if you're going to be in the so-called "rentista" category (i.e. not retired, but not working in Costa Rica) you need to show proof of bringing in at least $2,500/month to the country for 24 months. That can be done by transferring $60,000 into a bank here, which will dole out the $2,500 to you every month, or, in some cases, you can provide a different proof of guaranteed income. After three years you can apply for permanent residency, which at that point is more a formality, and is pretty automatic unless you end up with a police record or some other issue.
- jamal-kumar 6y ago
  They have a 'digital nomad' visa right now which grants you a whole year which you should try and score if you can, but the other stuff with the rentista is definitely recommendable as well and is pretty spot on advice (thanks!) https://ticotimes.net/2021/03/05/costa-rica-an-ideal-destination-for-digital-nomads-tourism-board-says https://ticotimes.net/2021/03/05/costa-rica-an-ideal-destina...
olladecarne 6y ago
Quick disclaimer as someone who lived in Costa Rica for many years: Costa Rica's prices for many things are comparable to the US. If it's imported stuff like cars or tech, then expect to pay 2-3x as much. The internet can be fast, but it's also expensive. Basically, expect costs to be closer to vacationing in the US than SE Asia. Other than that, it is a very nice country although driving there can be like an extreme sport. Also, make sure you have a remote job before going there because you can't work without a permit and even if you could the salaries are very low compared to the US.
- randomopining 6y ago
  Hah yeah I just got back from 3 weeks there. Driving was quite the experience. Pedestrians literally care 0%, some biker didn’t even look crossing the street and hit us while we were going 15mph. Other drivers go for super risky single lane passes on the reg, etc. Ridiculous.
  - jamal-kumar 6y ago
    yeah i just cross the street by standing on the yellow line as cars go zooming past me like it's nothing now, it's fun! try it sometime people do it every day to purify the vida
- jamal-kumar 6y ago
  I think the really low prices for food and rent have been offsetting my costs related to electronics by a long shot (Avoiding overpriced supermarkets goes a long way to that end), but that's definitely true otherwise. Bringing in stuff from cheaper places for that is highly recommended. And yeah the roads are nuts haha
randomopining 6y ago
Just got back from 3 weeks there, which was awesome. I found my spot so far that I would definitely chill at for at least a month or two. I find Tamarindo to have all the amenities, but also crowded and basic. Santa Theresa super overrated imo. Pretty sure they keep the roads dusty and rocky there to cultivate a certain vibe. Manuel Antonio mad touristy. Want to hit more Osa and Pavones next time. My favorite spot was between there and Jaco. How’s the pacific side? I heard the most party hardy crew is there. San Jose was great, went to brunch in the Escalares or whatever. Good vibes, low key, girls looked nice and friendly, fairly safe, and fairly reasonable prices.
- jamal-kumar 6y ago
  It's all pretty sweet everywhere I've been so far, I just don't really prefer the beach for work/heat/distraction reasons, but I do visit whenever I can take a day or two off. There isn't really anywhere I wouldn't recommend outside of the Limon/Moin port area (I don't know any good port towns in the caribe, to be honest, too much drug traffic drama)... just keep in mind the further from the city you stray the further from good internet you're getting with the exception of certain places... Puerto Viejo, it's pretty far off for example but they're well connected enough
- taurath 6y ago
  Tamarindo was sooo tourist oriented, you feel a bit like you’re a walking wallet - the vibe outside of town couldn’t be more different and it felt very manufactured and didn’t have much culture. Good place for people who like cruises. Very pretty though.
geverett 6y ago
My partner is Costa Rican and thus we’ve discussed living there for some chunk of our future. The thing I haven’t been able to get over is the lack of emissions standards: if you’re stuck in traffic (common around San Jose, or en route to any of the well known beaches), expect to inhale a ton of exhaust. For an otherwise eco-friendly country, this really stood out to me, and led to a lot of headaches (literally - air quality so poor I ended up with migraines). Beyond that: San Jose is great to work from, but I didn’t find reliable fast internet anywhere else.

Shared404 6y ago

> The heaviest things I own are probably books, but they're pretty sweet books so I take the weight. What are they, if you don't mind me asking of course.

jamal-kumar 6y ago
I found this really old book from 1938 for learning German which is quite the artifact, one from 1944 on how to survive an atomic bomb which is also super old and has some funny advice/a picture on wearing a fedora to protect yourself from the heat flash... some book from 1924 on mathematics which takes a historical analysis approach to teaching called mathematics for the million which is pretty cool. It has a lot of 'field trip' kind of exercises which makes me feel like learning math was probably a hell of a lot more of a fun thing to people back in the day. a more modern book which is probably a lot better to be learning german from is in there, another one from 1950s with andy warhol illustrations for spanish learning called "madrigal's magic key to spanish" which i lend to friends when they come here to pick up some spanish fast I can highly recommend. I got a second copy after some absolute walnut took off on a plane with it and didn't even bother learning spanish, it's that good. I also got a couple of computer books. Concurrency in Go (oreilly) and this one thicc as heck tome which is the textbook for the SEED security labs which is also super good, because it comes with a bunch of virtual machines. Really nice source for levelling up your understanding of application vulnerabilities in C (and by extension other languages, but I was really glad to find something with these fundamental examples) https://www.handsonsecurity.net/ https://www.handsonsecurity.net/
- cyberpunk 6y ago
  Oh, thanks for the seed recommendation, I was looking for something like this!
- codewritinfool 6y ago
  Mathematics for the Million is a really good book.
  - jamal-kumar 6y ago
    Right? I am sure some of the info in it is probably like archaic or apocryphal/historically inacurate in light of recent discoveries like a lot of this old stuff can be but as long as you take it with that grain of salt in mind it's pretty cool
- qorrect 6y ago
  That's weird, I was in Puerto Viejo when I found an original hard copy of "Where Wizards stay up late", something I couldn't find for sell in the US right before I left.
  - jamal-kumar 6y ago
    I think people take their favorite books and just forget them in places. I found a copy of robert anton wilson's 'prometheus rising' which was a fun read but old copies are pretty hard to find stolen from libraries and stuff
  - jsjohnst 6y ago
    I bet you could get it at Powell’s Books in Portland OR.
- L_226 6y ago
  > one from 1944 on how to survive an atomic bomb which is also super old and has some funny advice/a picture on wearing a fedora to protect yourself from the heat flash 1944?

tayo42 6y ago

Which part of Costa Rica? Funny I was just looking at spending a month or two on a work-cation after getting vaccinated. Looking at Santa Teresa or nosara, keep reading the internet is unreliable. That was my experience after spending a few days in Santa Teresa a few years ago

jamal-kumar 6y ago
Yeah man I just hang out in San José for the most part. Pre-pandemic, fun party scene for sure which is probably one of the big things that kept me here. Now it's just nice to be able to spend like 5 bucks on an uber ride and go climbing nearby mountains and volcanoes when I get time off. Great climate in the city and surrounding area. I suggest here or some of the outlying cities and towns around Alajuela. Monteverde, atenas, that kind of place out in the jungle is super nice too and the internet just tends to be a bit better. I find Santa Teresa's internet to be somewhat worse than Montezuma area just to the south on the other end of the peninsula. Really though what kills things is power outages more than internet. There's co-working spaces with fibre optic, but you'd be surprised how many cheap hostels and stuff like that are buying into these plans becuase there's tons of competition all of the sudden. It's either Kölbi or American Data Networks serving it up for the most part, but the cable companies Tigo and CableTica are activating dark fibre purchases around too.
- jamal-kumar 6y ago
  https://www.grupoice.com/wps/portal/ICE/en-linea/reporte-de-averias https://www.grupoice.com/wps/portal/ICE/en-linea/reporte-de-... Well it looks like they replaced their reporting website with a terrible app nobody seems to like at all. I guess now you have to rely on having decent Spanish and being able to navigate their phone line heh
- res0nat0r 6y ago
  I have some coworkers in Costa Rica, it is close timezone wise to where I live in the USA now, and I saw this absolutely insane house at an unbelievable price a while back: https://www.coldwellbankercostarica.com/property/11337/ https://www.coldwellbankercostarica.com/property/11337/ It looks like a fantastic place to live.

tiltrus 6y ago

How's the process of getting permanent residence there?

edorrington 6y ago
It's not too difficult. There is a fair bit of bureaucracy, so I would recommend going through a lawyer here. The essential requirements are a fair bit of documentation (birth certificate, marriage certificate if appropriate, and your FBI report) each of which have to be apostilled and submitted within six months of the first documents date. Then once you've submitted all your paperwork you'll go in process, after which you won't need to leave the country every 90 days to renew your visa. Once you've been approved, if you're going to be in the so-called "rentista" category (i.e. not retired, but not working in Costa Rica) you need to show proof of bringing in at least $2,500/month to the country for 24 months. That can be done by transferring $60,000 into a bank here, which will dole out the $2,500 to you every month, or, in some cases, you can provide a different proof of guaranteed income. After three years you can apply for permanent residency, which at that point is more a formality, and is pretty automatic unless you end up with a police record or some other issue.
jamal-kumar 6y ago
They have a 'digital nomad' visa right now which grants you a whole year which you should try and score if you can, but the other stuff with the rentista is definitely recommendable as well and is pretty spot on advice (thanks!) https://ticotimes.net/2021/03/05/costa-rica-an-ideal-destination-for-digital-nomads-tourism-board-says https://ticotimes.net/2021/03/05/costa-rica-an-ideal-destina...

olladecarne 6y ago

Quick disclaimer as someone who lived in Costa Rica for many years: Costa Rica's prices for many things are comparable to the US. If it's imported stuff like cars or tech, then expect to pay 2-3x as much. The internet can be fast, but it's also expensive. Basically, expect costs to be closer to vacationing in the US than SE Asia. Other than that, it is a very nice country although driving there can be like an extreme sport. Also, make sure you have a remote job before going there because you can't work without a permit and even if you could the salaries are very low compared to the US.

randomopining 6y ago
Hah yeah I just got back from 3 weeks there. Driving was quite the experience. Pedestrians literally care 0%, some biker didn’t even look crossing the street and hit us while we were going 15mph. Other drivers go for super risky single lane passes on the reg, etc. Ridiculous.
- jamal-kumar 6y ago
  yeah i just cross the street by standing on the yellow line as cars go zooming past me like it's nothing now, it's fun! try it sometime people do it every day to purify the vida
jamal-kumar 6y ago
I think the really low prices for food and rent have been offsetting my costs related to electronics by a long shot (Avoiding overpriced supermarkets goes a long way to that end), but that's definitely true otherwise. Bringing in stuff from cheaper places for that is highly recommended. And yeah the roads are nuts haha

randomopining 6y ago

Just got back from 3 weeks there, which was awesome. I found my spot so far that I would definitely chill at for at least a month or two. I find Tamarindo to have all the amenities, but also crowded and basic. Santa Theresa super overrated imo. Pretty sure they keep the roads dusty and rocky there to cultivate a certain vibe. Manuel Antonio mad touristy. Want to hit more Osa and Pavones next time. My favorite spot was between there and Jaco. How’s the pacific side? I heard the most party hardy crew is there. San Jose was great, went to brunch in the Escalares or whatever. Good vibes, low key, girls looked nice and friendly, fairly safe, and fairly reasonable prices.

jamal-kumar 6y ago
It's all pretty sweet everywhere I've been so far, I just don't really prefer the beach for work/heat/distraction reasons, but I do visit whenever I can take a day or two off. There isn't really anywhere I wouldn't recommend outside of the Limon/Moin port area (I don't know any good port towns in the caribe, to be honest, too much drug traffic drama)... just keep in mind the further from the city you stray the further from good internet you're getting with the exception of certain places... Puerto Viejo, it's pretty far off for example but they're well connected enough
taurath 6y ago
Tamarindo was sooo tourist oriented, you feel a bit like you’re a walking wallet - the vibe outside of town couldn’t be more different and it felt very manufactured and didn’t have much culture. Good place for people who like cruises. Very pretty though.

geverett 6y ago

My partner is Costa Rican and thus we’ve discussed living there for some chunk of our future. The thing I haven’t been able to get over is the lack of emissions standards: if you’re stuck in traffic (common around San Jose, or en route to any of the well known beaches), expect to inhale a ton of exhaust. For an otherwise eco-friendly country, this really stood out to me, and led to a lot of headaches (literally - air quality so poor I ended up with migraines). Beyond that: San Jose is great to work from, but I didn’t find reliable fast internet anywhere else.