VickiLloyd

Thanks everybody! (this is my 45th post.) I think I'll go post 5 more times today and see what happens tomorrow!

I've been a member here since September 2012, and have posted 42 times without getting censored. When will my status change from "New Member?"

I just renewed my passport at the US Embassy in San Jose. Really pleasant & easy! I had an appointment for 9;30 am, but arrived there at about 9:15. They finished the 9:00 am appointments, then took me. I was done by 9:35! They didn't take my old passport at that time. I got an email from them 7 days later that my new one was ready to pick up. (I didn't pay a rush fee, they were just that quick!) I didn't want to make the 4 hour drive back to pick it up, so I asked if I could have a friend pick it up for me. I just had to send my receipt for the $110 I paid for the new one, along with my old one and a note that my friend had permission to pick it up for me. They punched holes in my old one and sent the new one back with my friend.

I will add to the advice above to rent first! I have been renting in the Playa Hermosa area, and while I love the community, I have found that the longer I live in the area, the more opinionated I become about what I really want in a home. The first house I rented for only 3 months was nicely furnished and decorated and had a pool in a nice convenient location, BUT it was located "under the canopy" with lush foliage all around it. The mosquitos ate me alive there and I couldn't even use the pool! I'm currently renting a beautiful 3 bedroom condo with a fabulous ocean view, walking distance to the beach. Much as I love this unit, I have found that I would not buy on this side of the building because of the hot sun hitting most of it in the afternoon. The concrete block construction is solid, but it absorbs the heat, and I often find the walls to be still radiating heat well into the evening when the temperature has dropped outside by 20 degrees! This are just a few small examples, but there are many others that you should spend time discovering over a period of time. Good luck! Vicki

Wow! $300 for a 5 hour trip is really high! Is that for just one person? I just returned from a wonderful trip to Granada Nicaragua. Spent 3 days at a cute hotel (Casa San Francisco) that cost about $62 per night for 2 of us, and included breakfast. We went by bus from Liberia, which took about 4 1/2 hours each way, including the time wasted at the border. The bus trip was in a luxury bus with padded seats & A/C, cost was $52 round trip per person and it is the same price if you get on in San Jose. Border fees were $14/per person going in to Nicaragua, and $4 coming back. (That included an add-on dollar for the bus driver to process the customs forms.) We did a previous trip to San Juan del Sur, where we had a lobster lunch for about $12 each, in July. We parked our own car on the CR side of the border ($8), walked across, paid about $12 for exit fee, or something official, then $30 taxi to San Juan del Sur, each way. Total was less than $125 for 2 of us including lobster lunch & couple of beers!