Costa Rica Real Estate Challenge: Party House With a Pool

The house-hunt goes on… and on… and on, or so it seems. For a while, there seemed to be few real estate choices or what was available didn’t have what we wanted or they were too expensive at more than $1000 a month, often plus utilities. Now we have a surfeit of options, all with most of what we are looking for -- extra bedroom, office space, a good kitchen, a swimming pool, close enough to walk to town or on a bus line and, of course, priced right. Not only are there now several to choose from, but also it seems that once the owners meet us or communicate enough by email or through a realtor to realize we are good tenants, they start courting us! We’ve had two homeowners offer to lower their price by $100 to entice us to rent their place.

Now THAT's a kitchen!

The first home is probably our favorite so far and if the owner -- a Russian, we’re told -- agrees to a few accommodations, such as paying for the gardener, we will likely take it. It’s a nicely furnished two bedroom, one a large master suite, with a gorgeous kitchen, an important feature for this semi-gourmet cook and enthusiastic party hostess. Plus, it’s in a great location, walking distance from town but with buses nearby as well. It has a swimming pool, which is shared with the other house in the compound, and a charming little “dipping” pool with a swim-up bar just off the patio. It even has an old basketball court in the front yard. Its main drawback is only one bathroom in the house, although there is a half bath off the big, shared rancho in the common area.

The Santa Eulalia "Tico" house 

That's NOT a kitchen!

The main competitor to this house is an amazing Tico house in Barrio Santa Eulalia, a jungley, hilly Tico community about a 15-minute drive uphill or in our case, a 25-minute bus ride. That distance is one concern for us as we want to have parties and entertain, and although the house is perfect for such events, even sporting a pool table in the lower level and extra guest bathrooms (a total of four!), the distance from town makes it less than ideal. The really big problem with this house is the kitchen, or lack thereof. It’s a “tico” kitchen - meaning only one sink, no hot water (quite common here), no cabinets or drawers, although it does have a pantry. There’s not even a range with an oven, just a built-in counter cooktop. The owner really liked us and we liked him as well; he has agreed to several significant upgrades, including a new stove, trying to make us happy but I’m not sure our objections can be overcome. Still, the reduced price from $800 to $700 and several other features keep it in the running, as we mull our options.

Still another possibility is a temporary three-month rental in an area of Costa Rica several hours from here that we’ve been told is very nice, just up the Pacific slope from Dominical beach. We had turned this offer down a while back -- even though the place is a total mansion with views and a pool and a huge kitchen -- only because we don’t want to be house hunting so soon after a move. But when the owner had no other suitable applicants, he contacted us again recently saying he really would like us to take it and to help us out, he has been trying to locate a suitable place where we could move at the end of the three months. He and his wife have invited us to come for a visit and stay at their place to look around the area. It’s basically a house-sitting situation and he really wants us to look after his gorgeous home.

It’s so nice to be loved. ;-)

Of course, we aren’t sure we want to move away from Atenas. Having been here over a year now, we know our way around, have made lots of friends, Tico and Gringo alike, love the weather and appreciate the fact that we can bus into San Jose in just about a hour for about $3.00 total each way or to the beaches at Jaco in just over an hour and a half. We like having good health services here in town and value the friendliness of the local people.

But living in different areas of the country also has a certain appeal, as it would allow us to experience living in a beachside community or up in the mountains. And in fact, we have been told that Atenas, being such a desirable locale, has more expensive real estate and rentals than in other parts of the country so we might be able to save money by living elsewhere. Particularly now that the new highway is open between San Jose and Atenas, realtor friends tell us that well-to-do Ticos are relocating here and commuting to their jobs in the city, a pattern that is also driving up prices.

Even in the short time we’ve lived here, we have noticed an increase in the Gringo population (not counting ourselves!) and a trend of development of gated upscale communities such as Roca Verde, which covers a beautiful green hillside overlooking the town in a way that seems somewhat supercilious to us. We have looked at houses there but turned them all down, partly for the reason that I am just not comfortable in such an enclave.

But there remains a charming small town feel to Atenas, exemplified by such ironic scenes as these two horses grazing happily in a lot just a block from downtown, and with only a ragged excuse for a fence and that missing a gate, allowing them to walk out any time. But knowing horses, they would probably stay there so long as a green blade of grass remained.  

So we continue to scour the real estate ads, websites and harass our local realtors in the hope of finding what we are looking for. We don’t want much: just the “perfect” place! 

(Remember, you can click on a photo to enlarge it.)

Happy Costa Ricans!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

         So check this out: in the last blog post I talked about Irazu Volcano, right? The sleeping giant just a few thousand feet up the slope from us. And I bragged, perhaps prematurely, that it has been quiet since 1996. Well, in the last couple of days, local residents in towns on the flanks of Irazu have felt a series of small earthquakes! Now that could mean nothing or it could mean … Dum, ta dum dum … Something!

         Of course, none of these tremors have been more than 3.0 on the Richter scale, so likely it’s just the Goddess of Irazu sighing or shaking her hair a bit. But it does make for a little drama in Costa Rican life.

         We took another trip to the mall today, still searching for clothes for me better suited to the climate. (On our next trip, I’ll pack heavy on loose-fitting cotton shorts and lighter on jeans and jackets.) Once again we needed help in selecting the right bus. The red and white one that pulled up to the stop had signs in the window for locations we never heard of, with nothing about central Heredia, our destination. But as we shook our heads and backed away from the door, a woman from the nearby shop asked where we were going and when we said “Heredia,” she urged us onto the bus, saying it would get us there. And indeed it did, leaving us unclear as to the meaning of the window signs. Obviously, we still have a lot to learn about the bus system.

         While waiting on a bench for the bus, a woman and her little girl walked up. I moved over and said to the child, who was perhaps five years old, “Sentado?” offering her a seat by me. Like many Costa Rican children we’ve seen, she was stunningly beautiful, big dark eyes, straight black hair, exotic olive complexion. But oh, so shy. Still, she took the seat by me and now and then looked up to meet my ready smile. After we were seated on the bus, in what were very tight seats (one of the major differences in the various buses is comfort level), another woman and her little girl sat down in front of us. Perhaps four years old, this nina had dark brown curly hair, pulled up into little ponytails on each side of her head, sparkling (could they be diamonds?) earrings decorating her small pierced ears. Sitting in her mother’s lap, she would peek over her mom’s shoulder to flirt with Layne, a bashful smile animating her pretty face. With saucy Latin music wafting through the bus for a change, and our timid little friend flashing those pretty eyes our way, our ride into Heredia was most entertaining.

         Layne and I theorized that these happy children could explain the January 7^th New York Times report that Costa Ricans are the happiest people in the world, according to three different surveys in recent months. (See story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/opinion/07kristof.html. The US came in 20^th on one, just for comparison.) If children are loved, as these clearly were, are well-fed and comfortably housed, as most Costa Rican children are, have the security of government-sponsored, excellent health care, as they do, enjoy the benefits of free education, as Costa Ricans have, and live in a country without warfare since they abolished their army in 1948, there is every chance they will grow up to be happy adults. This is not to say, of course, that all Costa Ricans are happy nor that there is not poverty in this beautiful land. We see the shantytown below the bridge on the way into San Jose and it’s not a pretty sight. But fortunately, it is a rare sight.

         Here in San Rafael de Heredia, we see parents walking children to school and back home every day. The kids are in uniform, dark pants and white shirt, a policy Americans could learn from since it eliminates the kind of competitiveness over clothing - of all things! - that we see in the USA. As we stroll along residential streets here, the houses are not fancy but they are secure. The kids are not inside watching TV or playing video games so much as they are outside playing soccer, a national obsession.

         The young adults we have met have generally been in college or working as was Roy, the pleasant young man who sold us our GPS device at the mall. His efforts to practice English and mine to practice Spanish resulted in some humorous exchanges but we did communicate, due more to his advanced English than my pathetic Spanish, I must say. At one point as I was struggling with a Spanish phrase, Layne said to me: “He speaks English, you know.”

         “Yes,” I answered, with Roy smiling in agreement, “but I’m trying to practice my Spanish on him and he’s practicing English on me!”

          We’ve lusted after a GPS unit ever since riding with Jean-Pierre, our real estate friend, out to Grecia. (See post http://fabulistadecr.blogspot.com/2010/02/in-search-of-perfect-rental.html) As I’ve mentioned before, Costa Rican streets generally have no identification, no numbers and no names. But Jean-Pierre drove through the maze of San Jose streets using his dashboard-mounted GPS, confidently following the pathways delineated by the device. We were pretty wowed and realized that, despite the price, a GPS would be invaluable to us in this unfamiliar country.

         So we now have our GPS, I have a new pair of shorts, and my Spanish is improving every day. (Can’t say the same for Layne’s, however!) We’re still evaluating Costa Rica as a permanent residence, but if measured by the happiness of the people here, it’s a big winner.