tightasadrum
Full time employment: Posting here.
What a great way to spend a week! I got back on the 5th from a week in Costa Rica. Three couples. A five bedroom villa complete with a housekeeper to clean and do laundry, a cook to prepare gorgeous, gourmet meals, and an English-speaking bartender who tend to everything (transportation, drinks of all types, tours, local customs you-name-it). As much as I enjoyed myself, I think the women enjoyed it the most. The weather was decent even though it was the beginning of rainy season. DW swore she would never travel anywhere south of the border (she hates heat, grew up in Ga? go figure), yet she's ready to go back. I recommend CR to anyone looking for a place to kick back and relax.
A few observations:
1. Exchange rate is not an issue; they take $USD. I pulled $100 cash from an ATM. It only cost me $1.50 for the ATM transaction. Believe me, Scotland last spring was far more costly just to get pounds.
2. Prices are negotiable if you want to work at it. We talked about going fishing. First boat wanted $475, but we finally got an equivalent boat for $275. Ended up going snorkeling instead for $40 each.
3. Tourist resorts and villas are very nice. But locals live in very basic housing.
4. Daily construction worker wage for Costa Rican is $10/day; they pay $2/day to Nicaraguan immigrate workers. I guess every country has some sort of immigrate issues.
5. The water and the food are not a health issue at all.
6. The local people are very pleasant. This may be because tourism is their major industry.
7. If you want it, you can find just about every fast food restaurant we have here. They also have Walmart (with a different name), Target, etc. These stores were mostly in the "cities" however. We didn't see them in Coco Beach, the little town nearest to our villa.
8. monkeys, birds, iguanas, parrots, and other weird creatures abound
I'd certainly go again. The area I was visiting was on the northwestern coast. We flew into the Liberia airport.
Cost: $115/person per day (plus tip) complete. It was the "off" season. BTW, the villa we stayed in is for sale if anyone is interested: somewhere around $850000.
Oh, BTW: watch out for those tropical drinks until you get the hang of it.
A few observations:
1. Exchange rate is not an issue; they take $USD. I pulled $100 cash from an ATM. It only cost me $1.50 for the ATM transaction. Believe me, Scotland last spring was far more costly just to get pounds.
2. Prices are negotiable if you want to work at it. We talked about going fishing. First boat wanted $475, but we finally got an equivalent boat for $275. Ended up going snorkeling instead for $40 each.
3. Tourist resorts and villas are very nice. But locals live in very basic housing.
4. Daily construction worker wage for Costa Rican is $10/day; they pay $2/day to Nicaraguan immigrate workers. I guess every country has some sort of immigrate issues.
5. The water and the food are not a health issue at all.
6. The local people are very pleasant. This may be because tourism is their major industry.
7. If you want it, you can find just about every fast food restaurant we have here. They also have Walmart (with a different name), Target, etc. These stores were mostly in the "cities" however. We didn't see them in Coco Beach, the little town nearest to our villa.
8. monkeys, birds, iguanas, parrots, and other weird creatures abound
I'd certainly go again. The area I was visiting was on the northwestern coast. We flew into the Liberia airport.
Cost: $115/person per day (plus tip) complete. It was the "off" season. BTW, the villa we stayed in is for sale if anyone is interested: somewhere around $850000.
Oh, BTW: watch out for those tropical drinks until you get the hang of it.
