Your Friend Donaldo on: Doing Your Relocation Research - SRS-CR: Summerland Relocation Services

This is not advice … Just me, Donaldo, and my ramblings

A couple of friends of mine were wondering about “What’s Up” with me as there have not been any ‘Ramblings’ for some time. Well, I have been busy and just plain lazy, but as always I can yak about something. Just ask anybody that has been sitting around with. HA!

We have had a few people moving around. One resident here left for Mexico, a lady moved here from Mexico, and a couple that I know moved to Panama.  Is there anything to be learned here?  Well, I think so and it can be summed up with some words that I have used several times before.  “Do Your Research”. Let’s take a look at each of these. From my perspective it might stir up your brain cells if you are thinking about vacationing here or looking at a retirement area.

Person 1 – The lady that moved to Mexico, went up and found a house to rent on a lake. But the house has a wall around it with that very sharp wire on top of the wall. No sitting on the patio and watching the sunrise or sunset. That house is a ‘nope’ for me. The razor wire also says something to me.

She didn’t know that the lake was polluted! No swimming. No fishing. No, no, no. When I was looking at Mexico in the 1980s, I found out that this lake was polluted, that it was being over fished and that the area was getting overpopulated. Gee, has anything changed in 30 years? Yup, it sure has. As more Gringos moved in English was spoken more often by the locals. This is a positive for most of us as our Spanish is mostly limited. More Gringos also provides more Gringo social activities. More Gringos generally means more USA type of goodies, as goodies are market driven. Mexico is cheaper than Costa Rica, from what I see, so the Quality of Life might go up based on cost. But, the razor wire on the walls?  How about drug gangs?  Mexico seems to have a lot of Narco controlled areas so if you are thinking of Mexico please check it out.

Yes, we have drugs and gangs here in Costa Rica, just like other countries. But they are mostly centered in the cities, tourist areas, or Caribbean Coast. Mexican people are very nice, much like the Costa Ricans, but I give the edge to the Costa Ricans. I have had many experiences with both groups over the years and am trying to be as unbiassed as possible.

Person 2 – She moved here from Mexico and from what I see has a hard time adapting. It was too ‘hot’ in Mexico for her. But what about the mountains? Hmm. Mexico, like Costa Rica, has many climate areas. Beach is hot, mountains are cold, and in-between is someplace ideal. At least for me and My Lady.

Listening to Person #2 it seems like she did very little research and was surprised by the cost here as things are cheaper in Mexico. Costa Rica is apparently the most expensive country in Central America.  Each country does have its own high dollar and low dollar areas, which allows you to find an area that fits your personal finances and then enjoy life to its fullest.

Person 2 also has a difficult time adjusting to the local conditions or the way things are done here. This happens quite often with a lot of people and does cause some of them to leave. There are two important words here to learn in order to deal with the frustrations of setting up a new life.  They are “Patience and Tranquility”.  YOU must be patient and practice being tranquil. Now take a deep breath and repeat and repeat until all of your tension has dissipated. Feel better? I do.

Person 3 – Is actually a couple. Nice people and sad to see them go. They lived here in a warmer part of Perez Zeledon as the elevation at their place was lower than at our place. Where are they now? Panama. They went over to Boca Chica, which is located on the Caribbean Coast of Panama. It is mostly an island area offshore of a large mainland farming area. Liking the looks, feel and it being less costly they found a rental and trucked on down. The rental is on an island and gives them time to further assess the local living conditions.  Yes, they researched first and then took a look-see trip. Living conditions, climate, housing, people, and costs. As Boca Chica looked promising, they acquired a rental and then went on over to really get the feel of living in another paradise. I understand that the people there were like the Costa Ricans. Friendly! We will see how it goes and maybe give you an update on their adventures.

What is the take away here?  It is once again to do your research for any travel. Vacations, exploring, investigative or what not. Use the internet, libraries, and whatever else you can find, but as always you must evaluate what you find. Why? Some info is just flat out wrong. It could be out of date or not providing the full picture. That is why I feel that you need multiple inputs, pros and cons.

What else is going on? I could really go off the deep end here as the world is full of happenings and a lot of BS. But, what can affect us? Anything to consider? Whoa there folks. Our electric just went off and boy is My Lady ticked! She just put some avocado muffins (gluten free based on banana muffins) into the gas oven which is temperature controlled by an electric control panel. So, no electric, no oven, but we can still make coffee.

Losing electricity is a topic all of us should pay attention to. Last month about 40 million people in South America lost their electric.  There was an article on the extremely fragile USA electrical grid about the same time. Take a look around your house, work area, food supply and you should figure out that it is not good losing your electric. From what I have read the USA electric grid is almost toast.  So what is the local, state or federal government doing about it? Not much that I can see.

Have you driven by an electric power plant or sub-station? See those big transformers? Not many of those bad boys on the shelf and the ‘build’ time is over a year.  Most of the info that I see is pointing towards a massive power problem when something happens.  How many years ago was it when the East Coast was shut down (black out) for days? Was it a tree branch that fell on a major power line causing a relay to trip which then cascaded into a grid down? This effected many states, parts of states and even Canada. What would life be like if your state and all the surrounding states lost power for 2/3 weeks or a month? Or even longer? Not a good thought!

Another thing in the news, is the climate. Yes, it is changing as it has done since this tiny rock popped into existence. Why is it that a lot of climate predictions are based on the last hundred years of temperatures instead of the last 15,000 years of temperatures? The info is available and occasionally used but doesn’t seem to be by the lame mainstream media and their sheeple readers.

What has a very large affect on the earth’s temperature? Go outside at about 1300 (that is 1 PM) on a bright sunny day and just stand there. How long are you going to stand there? Until you are crispy? Less than an hour? The sun has a huge effect on the heat of the globe, but the sun seems to have gone to sleep. It is now at a solar minimum. Not a lot of solar flares and other stuff being flung out into space towards us for now.

So, what does that mean? How about Global Cooling for the next few decades? We will see, but many temps in North America are running below average about 4/5 degrees F this year. Conclusive? Nope, but worth keeping an eye on as in the 1700s New England had frost and snow in July. This caused crop failure and lots of hunger. Coming again!?

We get solar minimums about ever 11 years.  Every few hundred years seems like we get a real doozy. It this that time? Should we pay attention? Who knows? Other than temps is there any other way a solar minimum affect us? If the crust of the earth cools then it should contract, shouldn’t it? Heat expands and cold contracts is how I remember it in science class. What would a cooling of the earth’s crust do? Would it cause more earthquakes as the tectonic plates tighten up? Seems plausible to me.

Speaking of earthquakes, we just got some over on the West Coast. No real damage so that is good. Enough is enough. So anything here? Maybe drought that is/will cause crop failures around the world? Just thinking about what if ______ happens.

Our new road, which replaced the road that was washed away during Tropical Storm Nate, is holding up well to the rains. Had 3.5 inches a couple of times and other than some boulders bouncing down the river towards the sea all is well. Road is doing well. As we now have a new road, my Lady and I added a sign so you could find us easier. This sign was built by me and the local workers. The artwork is by a local self-taught friend of ours. The name of the road Calle del Rio is from My Lady as we started out our married life on River Road in Shepherdstown W Va. and once again we live on River Road, but it is now #2. The 2 was added by the leader our town of San Martin because the paved road is referred to as #1. It’s all good.

The dog in the photo is ‘Foxy’ and came to live with us from a lady that has since moved. Foxy was a stray that she took in and cleaned up. Foxy simply loves to be petted, so come on over and spend an hour or two petting a happy, loving dog.  Free licks, if the petting is satisfactory.