These days, there’s a lot of talk going around about moving out of the USA. After the recent presidential election, Internet searches for moving away abroad rose by 1,000 percent! Following any presidential election, folks looking into moving to another country is par for the course but this time, the interest in making the big move is unprecedented.
Make no doubt about it, it is a big move too, bigger than most folks realize. I won’t delve into reasons why someone might want to stay or leave their home country but will mention that folks have been retiring to Costa Rica for many years. I am friends with a number of those folks, and many of them are birders to one degree or another. I’m also one of those people and although I didn’t come to Costa Rica to retire, I’m still living here nonetheless.
What’s it like to move to Costa Rica? Even more importantly, what’s it like for a birder to move to Costa Rica? I’ll give some answers to these questions with insight based on many years of experience; personal and that of many friends.
Should You Move to Costa Rica?
I can’t answer that question and no one should except for the person making the move. It’s a huge decision and even if you are sure that moving will solve some of your problems, it might not. Certainly visit first, look into different parts of the country, and get opinions about everything from lots of folks who already made the move.
Not every person who moves here loves it, in fact, some move right back home. However, a good percentage of people who move to Costa Rica do enjoy it and wouldn’t have it any other way. These happy ex-pats are folks who enjoy or at least accept aspects of local culture that differ from their home country. They also tend to at least try to learn some Spanish, appreciate local customs, and make the most out of living in this beautiful country.
They also accept that there are things they can’t change and that they may need to travel back to their home country for certain medical procedures, to visit family, and for other reasons. For these reasons, it’s perhaps not surprising that most of the ex-pats I know in Costa Rica have already lived and worked abroad in other countries. Those prior experiences made moving to Costa Rica much less daunting than if they had never spent much time outside of their home countries.
That said, there are also people who have spent very little time abroad and love living here. In fact, I know one adventurous British woman whose move to Costa Rica was sparked by watching a presentation about the country. Yep! That presentation must have award winning material because she saw it, wanted a change in her life, and packed up and move here along with all of her stuff without even visiting Costa Rica beforehand! I should mention that Gillian had an interesting childhood living in Shanghai, China just before the Japanese Imperial Army invaded (a la “Empire of the Sun” although she got out in time) so that might come into play but, in any case, she ended up contently residing in Costa Rica.
Oh and if you are a birder in any sense of the term, yeah, that’s going to be exciting!
Feasibility of Moving to Costa Rica
Before you start to consider moving to Costa Rica, first, you need to see if it’s even feasible to do so. Sure, you can visit Costa Rica as a tourist but that’s different than being a permanent resident. A number of folks do live here as tourists where they leave the country every 180 days but I wouldn’t recommend that as a constant strategy. There’s always the chance that on one of your reentries, you won’t be allowed back into the country and who knows how long this loophole will last or be tolerated?
Instead, learn about the different categories of residency and see if you are eligible. There’s a lot to say along those lines but let’s just say that to live and legally work in Costa Rica, you need to either be a citizen or a legal permanent resident because you are married to or have a direct Costa Rican relative. If not, you can live but not work in Costa Rica by being an investor or a retiree who receives a pension of at least $1,000 per month.
Benefits for Birders
What can I say? The birding is pretty darn fantastic. Even if you live in an urban area with some green space, you’ll probably still see Crimson-fronted Parakeets, Hoffmann’s Woodpeckers, and widespread neotropical species like Great Kiskadees, Social Flycatchers, Lineated Woodpeckers, saltators, Short-tailed and Gray Hawks, Blue-gray Tanagers, and more.
Live in a rural area with some forest and your feeder birds can include toucans, oropendolas, and motmots. Not to mention, there’ll be dozens of other birds to look at in your neighborhood, maybe even birds as fancy as Long-tailed Manakins.
Garden or patch birding will be exciting but even better, literally hundreds of bird species will also be within easy reach. For example, although I live in an urban area in Heredia, I can drive 45 minutes into the mountains on good roads and maybe see a quetzal. Yes! The other day, while doing that, I saw a quetzal and Wrenthrush along with Fiery-throated Hummingbirds and other highland endemics.
I can also drive an hour down to the coast and watch Turquoise-browed Motmots, Scarlet Macaws, trogons, and a hundred other species in a morning. Or, I can drive a bit more than an hour to reach rainforest with Emerald Tanagers, antbirds, woodcreepers, and King Vultures.
Live in Costa Rica and a wealth of fantastic birding is always in easy striking distance (my year list is approaching 700 species). Oh and we also have a few birding clubs too; I have been to every corner of the country with the Birding Club of Costa Rica.
General Concerns
Living in Costa Rica isn’t always about marveling over Green Honeycreepers and Snowcaps. I wish but nope, as with every place, there’s other, unavoidable, non-birder factors. They include:
- Cost of Living- Costa Rica is still generally cheaper than the USA. Canada, and Europe but it’s not as low cost as it used to be. Imported items cost more, vehicles can be expensive, and even some food items are costly.
- Stability- So far so good! Costa Rica is a stable and healthy democracy with many political parties. The army won’t overthrow the government either because Costa Rica doesn’t have one.
- Infrastructure- Costa Rica is considered to be a developing country but it’s pretty darn developed. Roads have been much improved over the past 20 years, electricity, Internet, and water are reliable just about everywhere. Speaking of water, in Costa Rica, tap water is potable.
- Healthcare- Costa Rica has a national health care system as well as private clinics and hospitals. Residents must pay into the healthcare system, the amount of which is determined by your pension and other factors. Overall, health care is good although I know people who have traveled back to Canada and the USA for complicated procedures or, because they were put on a long waiting list. There are also clinics in most parts of the country. With that in mind, when looking into places to live, I would check and see how far the nearest clinics and hospitals are.
- Crime- Costa Rica is generally safe but as with any country, certain neighborhoods and situations are more dangerous than others. As with most places, it’s also pretty easy to know where those places are and avoid them. Generally, locals avoid crime with lots of prevention. For example, most houses have barbed wire even in places with very little crime, and gated, guarded communities are popular and common. I live in one and although there’s very, very little crime nearby, having security guards controlling who enters my neighborhood makes me feel even safer. For example, in my neighborhood, residents leave bikes, scooters, and all sorts of stuff in front of their houses and I’ve never heard of anything being stolen. I wouldn’t do that outside of my neighborhood though.
- Tropical diseases and animals- Thanks to the healthcare system, we don’t have a problem with various tropical maladies that are a concern in some other countries. Dengue has been increasing but the healthcare system does their best to control it through education and spraying if necessary. I should mention that Dengue has also been increasing in many parts of the world, several places at much higher rates than in Costa Rica, and it could start happening in some southern parts of the continental USA. As far as animals, yes, there are lots of insects in Costa Rica and there are snakes but high numbers of insects also means more birds. Bugs are normal, as humans, we need to learn to live with them, at least in our gardens and wild places. As for snakes, sadly, I rarely see them. I have seen far more snakes while counting birds in southern Illinois and Colorado, and have heard about many more snake encounters in the southern states than Costa Rica.
Part-Time Living in Costa Rica
What if you can’t get residency status or just don’t feel like living in Costa Rica all year long? No problem! I know several people who spend the winter in Costa Rica, or live here on and off. They just make sure they leave the country every 180 days. Most have a house and have someone watch it when they are out of the country.
I could say a lot more but I’ll leave that for other posts. I hope to see you here, there’s a lot of birds waiting in Costa Rica!