I just read a post over on The Real Costa Rica Blog that talks about learning Spanish before moving to Costa Rica.  They noted a few stats that didn’t shock me

“I was speaking to the owner of one of the larger moving companies some while back, and he told me that he is now moving back “home” more than 50% of the customers he moved here originally.”

For learning Spanish, TRCR blog mentioned Coffee Break Spanish, which I’ve been listening to for some time.  There are also a few other Spanish/language learning sites that I would recommend as well.

• The learn Spanish Survival Guide
• Insta Spanish Lessons
• Donquijote Spanish Word of the Day
• Learn It Lists
• palabea.net
• mango languages

They also reminded me that if you’re moving from the USA that it’s also a good idea to learn the metric system. It’s things like that, that will make your transition into another country/culture, so much easier.

Whether you’re an expat or an expat-to-be, you’ll be interested in these fascinating facts about Costa Rica, that’ll make you a further hit at parties and gatherings:

1. Its Official Name is the Republic of Costa Rica, La Republica de Costa Rica.
2. It contains 19,730 square miles. About the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined.
3. It has a population of 4.3 million.
4. Costa Rica’s capital city is San Jose with a population of 2.1 million.
5. Costa Rica’s literacy rate is 96%. Higher than the U.S.
6. The life expectancy is 74.6 years for men and 79.9 years for women. Both higher than the U.S.
7. Approximately 50,000 U.S. citizens, including many retirees, reside in Costa Rica. More than 700,000 U.S. citizens visit the country annually.
8. Approximately 31% of the country is contained in national parks or private preserves.
9. Costa Rica has one of the oldest democracies in the Americas. It became an independent nation in 1821.
10. Its present constitution was adopted November 7, 1949.
11. Its government is comprised of executive, legislative and judicial branches just like the U.S.
12. The country has seven provinces.
13. The GDP in 2006 was approximately $21.5 Billion.
14. 62% of the economy is devoted to the service sector principally tourism and related services and banking; 29% industry principally electronics, food processing, textiles, medical equipment and construction; 9% agriculture principally bananas, coffee, pineapples, sugar, rice, daily, fruits and vegetables.
15. The U.S. is Costa Rica’s most important trading partner accounting for half of its exports, imports and tourism and more than two-thirds of its foreign investment.
16. Natural resources include hydroelectric power, fisheries and forest products.
17. Costa Rica abolished its armed forces in 1949.
18. Major Fortune 500 Companies with significant investments in Costa Rica include Intel, Proctor & Gamble, Glaxo Smith Kline, Motorola, Abbott Labs, Baxter Health Care, Roche and Pfizer.
19. Costa Rica is served by three international airports at San Jose, Osa and Liberia. There are direct flights from Miami, New York, Houston, Atlanta, Denver, Washington, Los Angeles, Pittsburg, Phoenix, Charlotte and Ft. Lauderdale.
20. Major hotel and resort companies in Costa Rica include Marriott, Westin, Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons, St. Regis, Hilton, Hyatt, Ramada, The Palms, Wyndham and the Ritz-Carlton.
21. The country is investing hundreds of millions on infrastructure improvements including roads, telecommunications and services.
22. Costa Rica recently approved participation in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) which will attract continued investment to the country.
23. The Costa Rica Power Team is the leading real estate consulting firm in Costa Rica!

[VIA Costa Rica Power Team]

The Costa Rica blog news feed has a post in regards to to the Economic growth of Costa Rica. It was states by President Oscar Arias that it’s possible to eliminate extreme poverty in Costa Rica by 2013. Is that possible?

“The sharp drop in poverty to the best level in 30 years means that 56,000 families, representing 83,000 persons have left extreme poverty status since last year. And along with this encouraging figure is the news that underage employment has dropped and the kids are staying in school longer”.

You can read the rest at Costa Rica Blog

Somewhere in this lakeside Central American town, a child plays on a nameless street in Managua, Nicaragua. Nearby, there’s a woman who lives beside a yellow car. But it’s not her car. It’s her address. If you were to write to her, this is where you would send the letter: From where the Chinese restaurant used to be, two blocks down, half a block toward the lake, next door to the house where the yellow car is parked, Managua, Nicaragua.

If you’ve traveled in Costa Rica, you know the scene, as well. It’s not uncommon, in fact, to find a location without an address. Maybe just a geographic reference, such as “Up the Hill and around the corner from the Scotia Bank.” Check out this article from World Press that provides even better insight: www.worldpress.org/Americas

But, wait! Google.com announced this week an expansion of its Google Maps that can easily pinpoint your desired Managua, Nicaragua, destination. Click here to view the map.

Exciting news from Google.com: They’ve just added 54 new countries to Google Maps and more than doubled their coverage of Latin America and are now mapping three times as many countries in Asia as before. So if you’ve ever wanted to get the flavor of an energetic metropolis like Mexico City or scope out the relaxed vibe of a small island like Aruba, we’ve got you covered.

Here’s the full list of new countries:
Afghanistan, Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Mexico, Myanmar (Burma), Mongolia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Timor-Leste, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen

For more information, read: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/09/more-of-world-for-you-to-explore.html

Author and resident of Costa Rica for 10 years, Rosemary Rein, is often asked the reasons why she and her husband moved here in the first place. So, here’s the link to her terrific Top 10 List published earlier this month in InsideCostaRica.com. It makes for great reading for those of you contemplating your own adventure, living, working and or retiring in paradise.

Click here to read her story.

A New website launched this week that allows tutors to teach language online. TalkBean.com allows students to set up an appointment directly with their language instructors. All lessons are performed live, using webcams. As a tutor, you can set your schedule to show times when you are available or show your students when you are online if you choose to go live, making yourself immediately available to teach. If you have any additional lesson material, this can be uploaded to TalkBean from your computer, during the lesson only. There’s also other ways in which students can leave memos for you or notes on your message board.

A recent report shares an apparent few drawbacks to the site: the registration process is rather cumbersome, and you’ll need to sign on as a tutor, which requires a 4-page sign up as well as your Paypal information. There’s also no good system to find other users, students, or tutors, so I’m at a loss as to how students and tutors can best network with each other. Adding a search bar, a ratings system and other checks to ensure that the tutors on the site are reliable and helpful, as well as the ability to upload lesson material independently of live webcam lessons, would bring a lot of value to TalkBean.

Who tutors on TalkBean? Whether you are a university stident looking for a side job, or a professional tutor, you can advertise yourself on the TalkBean marketplace to find the right students for your class. According to the website, you don’t need special training to be a tutor, Just your passion and the Internet.

Live Tutor allows you to instantly create your own space to teach knowledge and experience to ESL students. After registering as a tutor, you post your program for students to find and enroll. All lesson are performed live using a WebCam and HeadSet.

Tutors get paid from a system that automatically secures payments from students to their tutors and, thereby, allows seamless international payments. Students must pay the full lesson fee upfront to TalkBean and once the lesson is complete. Lesson fee is deposited to the tutor’s TalkBean account as cyber money, which can be
withdrawn and sent to tutor’s bank account upon request.

Similar services include Grockit, LessonBites, Tutorom and xLingo.

I just read yesterday about a Real Estate company in Grecia named CR-Home. They’ve started getting into the home building business by offering a 1350 inside sq home that has 800 sq. feet of outside decking. This home looks to be little “rustic” for some but it certainly is a great option for someone who is moving to Cost Rica and doesn’t want to invest a lot of money into a new home. For more information, visit CR-Home.

Click floor plan for larger version

I read a post by Scott Oliver on welovecostarica.com that made a good comparison about murder in Costa Rica. I know a lot of expats are concerned with safety when they’re living in other countries. I’ve heard the same thing from a lot of people who I’ve told about Costa Rica, most of them say the same thing “isn’t it dangerous there”. I always answer no. I feel more comfortable in the places that I’ve been to in Costa Rica than cities like Houston, Miami or even New York City. I think petty crimes exist every where and Costa Rica is no exception. I think it’s usually up to you to be aware of your surroundings, and try not to put yourself in situations that could be dangerous. However, sometimes, situations are unavoidable and as we say in the southern USA, Shit happens. As you’ll see by the charts below Costa Rica as a country, has as lower murder rate per 100,000 than most major US cities.

via welovecostarica.com (password protected)

It’s always nice getting the point of view from someone who was born and bred in the country that you’re interested in moving to. In this case, Josue Salazar lives in Costa Rica and blogs about it. He also has a nice collection of photos which you can see here.