One of the things that seems to amaze many of the Uruguayos I meet is that I left Costa Rica to come here. After all, doesn’t Costa Rica have better weather? Isn’t it a world famous Expat haven where more than 100,000 gringos have found a home? How could anyone leave there for here?
Easy! After leaving there I felt like I had been promoted from a particularly nasty version of purgatory into the beatific vision.
The first things one learns, usually several thousand dollars too late, is that living in Costa Rica is like living the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I have never come across such a collections of liars and cut throats in my life. (And that is saying a lot considering I worked in Washington, DC for 8 years!)
There were three prices for everything: the local price (low), the gringo price (high) and the el gringo estupido price (ridiculous).
That wouldn’t be so bad, if you got value for your money. The electric rates were set by zones, so if you lived in a gringo area, you literally paid 5 times more per kilowatt hour than locals.
And the utilities…oh my God! They were state owned like here, but Antel and UTE at their worst are 100 times better than ICE (which did everything). It took 6 weeks to get a telephone line, 6 months to get ADSL, and it is easier to buy a hand gun than to get a cellphone. Every time I get aggravated here, I remember Costa Rica, and I smile.
Glad to hear it! We slogged through 4 semi-blissful years in Costa Rica on a remote farm and were finally driven-out by encroaching gringos, and the rainy season. We are recovering for a year in the Bahamas and planning to move to MVD next year!
Left by ranchovaleron on August 14th, 2007
Hi! I’m new to this blog and I’m very happy that a friend I met on the Urbanity forum www.skyscrapercity.com recommended me this site on the Uruguay section of that international forum. I’m very glad that foreign people can appreciate a country that we, Uruguayans, don’t value, because, Uruguayans are very negative persons and we easily find the bad part of EVERYTHING, lol. Perhaps I’m being negative when I say that we are negative, hahaha… I should focus on things like our willignes to help and solidarity to others, that also represents Uruguayans.
Left by nandoferuru on August 15th, 2007
[…] Here’s a link that expands the subject: Uruguay vs. Costa Rica: http://coastaluruguay.com/2007/08/15/uruguay-expat/
Left by Another Country to Scratch Off Your List « Coastal Uruguay on August 15th, 2007
That´s very surprising.
People here usually believe Costa Rica has a lot in common with Uruguay, from a cultural and political point of view.
I also believe it´s one of the few countries in Central America where soccer is the most popular game instead of baseball.
Left by Javier on August 18th, 2007