Jim Paterson

In May, I said that I’d let you know about a trip to Costa Rica. Christopher Columbus was the one who named Costa Rica, which means Rich Coast in Latin. My main interest in going to Costa Rica was that over the last few years I‘ve heard of people vacationing there and even moving there. They raved about the warmness of the people, the safety, and beauty there. I had been to Guatemala in 1997 and I just had to find out why so many people loved this country. Maybe it was even worth investing money in land or a home there.

I traveled with my brother-in-law who speaks fluent Spanish. He had not been there but grew up in Peru and understands a lot of customs and the ways things work in Central and South America. So I had a clear advantage of traveling with someone that speaks their language and has a broad understanding of their culture. Lucho and I don’t agree on everything but we both came to the same conclusion: Pretty country, terrible roads, prices for everything are comparable to the U.S., and while the hotel and resort workers are friendly, the average citizen is lukewarm overall.

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It’s raining iguanas and frogs…classic example of why they call this a rain forest. Costa Rica has frogs that would win any frog jumping contest in the world. The only problem is on a two lane highway at night they make it about 1 1/2 lanes…then the on-coming car determines their fate for not having jumped the entire 2 lanes.