On July 4th we left for Costa Rica for business,
not vacation time, to get the process underway for building and applying for
residency. Why residency? (And no, we are not giving up our US citizenship,
only applying to become legal residents of Costa Rica.)
This is what we see when driving to our nearest town, Pejibaye. It is an amazing drive though the mountains, very picturesque but at times very narrow road. I had to remind myself the first trip that there is no snow and ice to worry about on these mountain roads.
There are many reasons to become a resident but here are few
off the top of my head.
·
You don’t need to leave the country every 90
days as you would with just a passport.
·
We can participate in Costa Rica's excellent health
care system.
·
If there are any problems with the law, such as
an accident, things go much easier if they know you are legally a resident and
can be easily located.
·
We won’t need to stand in Passport Control when
entering CR. Yahoo!!! The line is horrendous, at least a thousand
deep each time we have gone there.
We needed to go to the US Embassy for paperwork filing, a
police department for fingerprinting, get our pictures taken and open an
account with a CR bank to deposit money to show we can take care of ourselves
and won’t become a burden to their system.
(If you have Social Security or a Pension, this is not necessary.) Now our CR attorney will have all the many documents we had to accumulate
here in the States translated into Spanish.
He will file the paperwork and the process is underway! It will take about a year for us to receive our
Cedula, legal resident certificate.
When you hire someone to help you with this process they
walk you through it so you aren’t floundering out there on your own. We had a set price of what it cost and they
picked us up and took us where we needed to go.
It wasn’t really all that hard, just seemed daunting until we made it
through everything. It took 2 days to
accomplish, aside from the work we had to do at home getting a police report
and notarized copies of legal papers.
John picked these Mandarin Lemons across the road from our lot in Serenity. They looked and smelled like oranges but WOW! what a punch when I popped a section in my mouth! I squealed very loudly! But they made a great drink back at the villa using cane juice they gave us in our distribution of produce and eggs for our stay at Osa Mountain Village, Serenity's sister community.
After our time spent in San Jose (CR's capital) for the above
meetings we spent 5 days at Osa Mountain Village meeting with the developer
about Serenity Gardens, meeting our architect, meeting builders and talking
with residents of Osa about all the little tricks they have learned. Such as, we will be able to call back to the states
and you will be able to call me for free if we get Magic Jack. You don’t need MJ, only us! How cool is that?!?! (I will also be available by email too, we will have internet.)
The biggest news from the developer is that one road in
Serenity will have commercial power, not just off-grid power. And we have a lot on that road! (It was the lot we wanted to build on first
so it works out fantastic!) This means there won't be delays due to lack of
off-grid power in starting our house.
Permitting and obtaining machinery for off-grid power has taken much longer
than they were first lead to believe.
Not a real surprise but nonetheless disappointing. So we
will have a house at Serenity Gardens with full power, we are elated! I am excited, John is pleased. Who knows, we just might stay in this house!
Our view from the lot we will build on early next year.
John has been asked to be on the energy team for Serenity
Gardens to help move along the off-grid system.
We have been offered free housing (a new house in Serenity by a lovely
river!) to come down as soon as possible.
This means we can be on-site to build our house! Perfect!
Currently we are thinking January 1st but really don’t
know. We have so much to do here to get
the house ready to sell, sell most of our belongings and pack. It really is a huge undertaking when you have
not only a home but a farm too. With my
foot and torn tendons messed up for over 3 months, I have accomplished
little. I can’t even keep the gardens
weeded! My front cottage garden looks
like a jungle. I can’t even look at the
side garden. I had such big plans for this summer’s
perennials beds!
This is the front of Serenity Garden Eco Village. There is a river along the rocks but you can't see it very well. I have sturdy water shoes ready for us to try out the river. There will be a pool at the Community Center but the river is just so pretty!
A house at Serenity, the Octagon House. Very cute, very nice inside, but too small for us.
Now we are back home and I am just starting to walk again
after having my foot reconstructed and tendon repaired. Getting around Costa Rica on crutches was a
pain but going through the airports as handicapped is simply divine!! We were whizzed through long lines and even
upgraded to first class on our flight home!
What a special treat that was!
Sure would like to experience first class again!
Brahman cattle are common in Costa Rica. Isn't she cute?!? Love those pink ears!
