Costa Rica

Costa Rica is again on several lists as a top retirement destination: #2 by International Living #5 by Money/Time top 24 by Forbes (Forbes did not rank the 24 places against each other). In naming Costa Rica as the #2 retirement destination (behind Panama), International Living cited Costa Rica’s healthcare accessibility, abundance of outdoor activities and stable democracy. Indeed, Costa Rica abolished its military 70 years ago. …with a dozen [...]

The 2018 edition of the Miss Universe competition was held this past weekend. While Caroline and I didn't watch it, I did see in one of my news feeds that Miss Philippines was the winner. Given that Caroline's heritage is the Philippines and we love travelling there, I of course mentioned it to her, and she recalled that this isn't the first time recently that Miss Philippines won. In fact, [...]

Since Costa Rica is the place we are adopting as our new home away from home, one of the things we would love to learn more about is the history of the country. One of the things that makes Costa Rica unique is that it has no military. From LA Times: To this day, Costa Rica has no army, navy or air force, no heavy weapons of any kind. There [...]

I almost missed this news, but thankfully I noticed this mention in my newsfeed, from Q Costa Rica. Today is Guanacaste Day! "In 1824, the Central American Federal Republic passed the law and signed it on July 25, allowing the Guanacaste province to become part of Costa Rican territory. Nicoyans decided to be part of Costa Rica instead of Nicaragua." Guanacaste is the province where Tamarindo is located, which is where we have [...]

An article about a new collection of Google Street View photos of popular places in Costa Rica led me both on a discovery of the beauty and sights of Costa Rica, and also down the rabbit hole of Google Maps Street View.

As surprising as it was for me to find out that Costa Rica was playing in the 2018 World Cup, and the United States was not, I was even more surprised to find that Costa Rica's first match of the tournament (at 8am on a Sunday morning no less) was being televised live on free TV in the United States, on the Fox network. This is notable for me because [...]

I have a lot to learn about Costa Rica sports, but I'm happy to start with following the Costa Rican team play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. I was not aware that the United States team failed to qualify in the same tournament that Costa Rica did qualify, with Costa Rica beating USA twice, and once in the New York area. As the Costa Rica team prepares to play in the world cup, I outline their journey to get there, and the path ahead.

In my view, low tide is the best time to spend at the beach in Tamarindo.  The waves break pretty far out, which leaves lots of room to enjoy relatively calm water closer to shore, and provides plenty of sand for walking around and collecting seashells.  It also exposes many large rocks, as seen above, which are completely hidden at high tide. The beach at Tamarindo is always spectacular.  Even [...]

*** UPDATE *** A helpful reader points out that it is actually illegal to take seashells from the beaches in Costa Rica, and to take them out of the country. We still believe it is a fun activity to look for shells on the beach and take photos, but agree they should be left at the beach when you are done. They provide habitat for little creatures like hermit crabs, [...]