The Costa Rica šØš· Conundrumā¢
The pros and cons of "Pura Vida"
Costa Rica got me.
The country got the best of me. Sucked me in. Then spit me out, brittled and bruised.
See what had happened wasā¦
One of my companies was cooking. Weād seen a 400% increase in revenue over the prior 12-months and things looked to continue upwards.
Then we got punched in the mouth.
Our main vendor stopped paying us, threatened to sue us, etc. It took a full month of daily Mexican Modafinil to switch up our vendors and avoid a lawsuit.
The stress was overwhelming. Weekly all-nighters to make sure things got done. Work that would normally take my team 3-4 months, all condensed in one.
And on top of all that jazz, I had two kids in the house ā 6- and 18-months old. Two babies, business stress, and a missus who Iād been ignoring while working all damn day and night.
So we decided to book a 5-week trip to Costa Rica. Seemed like an ideal way to unwind and shed some stress.
It was.
We spent a magical month traveling throughout Costa Rica. Lago Arenal, La Fortuna, Playa Flamingo, Tamarindo, and of course San Jose metro area (Santa Ana specifically).
The whole family loved it. We didnāt want to leave. Fast-forward a few months later and weād booked another 2-month trip to Costa Rica.
That trip led to me spending over 15-months in the country with my family, buying real estate, and planning to base up in Costa Rica long-term.
Then the Costa Rica šØš· Conundrumā¢ reared its ugly head.
While Costa Rica is easily one of the best places to vacation in all of Latin America, actually living in the country is a different beast entirely.
Ask any real estate agent in Guanacaste why the vast majority of gringos end up moving back home within 2-years of moving to Costa Rica.
The āPura Vidaā Promise: What Costa Rica Gets Right
āPura Vidaā gets thrown around so much youād think itās just a bumper sticker for tourist shuttles.
Surprisingly, itās not.
I spent 15+ months in this country and can tell you ā it is how Ticos actually operate. The cashier at the AutoMercado, the guy fixing your flat tire on the side of the road in Guanacaste, the abuela selling mangoes outside the school. Thereās a warmth and ease to daily interactions that I havenāt felt many other places.
As a long-time expat buddy told me, āPura Vida actually means something to the local people here.ā Heās right.
Then thereās the nature, which is frankly absurd.
Costa Rica makes up 0.03% of Earthās landmass but contains roughly 5% of the worldās species ā over 500,000 of them. Highest biodiversity density of any country on the planet.
Caribbean coast on one side, Pacific on the other. Active volcanoes popping out of the earth like God just got bored. Cloud forests in Monteverde that feel like another dimension. Surfing on both coasts. Pristine beaches backed by mountains so green they look AI-generated. Theyāre not. Itās just Costa Rica.
Now, safety.
The stats have gotten worse ā no sugarcoating that. The homicide rate jumped from a stable ~11 per 100K to 16.6 per 100K in 2024, nearly all of it drug-trafficking related.
That said, in 15+ months living there with my family, I never once felt unsafe. The areas where expats actually live ā Santa Ana, EscazĆŗ, Guanacaste beach towns, Arenal ā are calm. The violence is concentrated in port cities like LimĆ³n and specific urban zones, not in your gated community in Playa Flamingo.
What sealed it for my family was the practical stuff. At least, thatās what we told ourselves.
Costa Rica is compact ā youāre 90 minutes from San Jose to the beach. Two hours to a volcano. Three to a cloud forest. The minimal language barrier helps too. Years of tourism have made English widely spoken, which matters if your Spanish is non-existent, like many of the gringos in the country.
International schools are solid and diverse ā kids from everywhere, not just American compounds. Thereās even solid international schools in some of the beach towns, like this one.
Oh, and itās a 4-hour flight to the USA. Practical. Easy.
