The Distract me from 2020s P&CE Thread Part Trois

Oww, that's where my mother was born and lived, until we were thrown out after independence.

 

Making the most of this surprisingly nice January weather. I was expecting rain, snow and cold temps for 4 months.
Last Thurs/Fri we checked out a little more of the Oregon coast. Cannon Beach, Manzanita Beach and Rockaway Beach...beautiful. Today, hiked a little over 6 miles near Mount St. Helens...over snow!

Cannon Beach
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Mount St. Helens​

 

Visiting Costa Rica for the first time. Spent time in the Osa Peninsula and Tortuguero before ending up on the Caribbean coast near Panama.

Playa Negra



Mirador de Manzanillo​

 

We'll be in San Jose tomorrow.

 

I worked in Tortuguero, Cahuita/P Viejo and Gandoca if you need any pointers. @Ponch is also a Tico IIRC.

 

I spent a summer in Costa Rica studying at Universidad de la Salle and had an internship essentially as an environmental lobbyist. My mom and her sisters are there right now on a trip through Road Scholar. It's on the very short list of places I'll retire. I been back a few times - once to a stem cell research place, another for a WC terrible (for the US) qualifier.

 

My brother and his husband retired there. They seem to be enjoying it well enough.

 

If I had to choose, I would much rather spend time in the Atlantic side than the much more "developed" (meaning, touristy) areas of the Pacific coast.

Tortuguero is amazing, incidentally that's where I proposed to my wife 25 years ago (damn, I'm old )

 

I was in Tortuguero during the rainy season, so it was just my group and one other there. The other group was a convention of lesbian gym teachers who were well humored about their fulfillment of so many stereotypes. We had great fun pounding some cacique.

 

Lesbian gym teachers are phenomenal at being well-humored along those lines. Props to them

 

No Cahuita Rum. I am disappointed.

And it is always raining, on the verge of rain or the rain has just stopped. I recall in 2004 that it rained for almost 2 months straight. It rained so much, you would forget it was raining. Ruined all my clothes with mold.

Tortuguero was the first and only time I saw a jaguar and cub*. We did early morning census patrols of tracks and would see tons of jaguar tracks. They would take out a green turtle or 2 per week. Only once did we see one, and she was unaware we were there. Hard to believe they are more scared of you than the other way around.

My wife expressed interest in retiring in Costa Rica. I know that owning property is tricky if you are not a Tico. Given the current political situation, I am thinking of exploring this option.

If I were ever to commit a crime and needed a place to disappear, Talamanca would be the place to do it. Puerto Viejo used to be a shady-a$$ town. Not sure since I haven't been there in a while. Trustafarians and general weirdos. Then you would run into an old Italian or Belgian guy that gave you "I'm here because they can't extradite me" vibes.

* by cub, I mean something along the size of a labrador. The mother jaguar was as stocky as 2 great danes stapled together.

 

My brother didn't have any issues buying a house there and he is definitely not a Tico.

 

Awesome to hear. You must have some incredible stories. Thank you for the kind offer!

And @Ponch, the Costa Ricans we've met on this trip been impressive in sharing knowledge not only about the natural world, but also history, politics, etc.

 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/it-was-a-good-day-actual-date

Happy anniversary!

 

I might have to reach out to a few Ticos I know and see about purchasing land.

 

I'm not aware of any policy that looks at country of origin for buying real estate in CR.

Maybe people got exposed to the tico way of doing things (as complicated as possible and taking as long as possible) and thought they were being singled out for being foreign?

 

Doesn't this belong on the Wypipo thread?

 

Silly rabbit, Ticos are Messican