Happier Than A Billionaire: The Escape Manual

By Nadine Hays Pisani

The Escape Manual is your guide for moving to, living in, or traveling through Costa Rica.

In this perfect blend of information and entertainment, Nadine Hays Pisani answers all of your questions in her patented comedic style.

She introduces you to her colorful cast of characters as you laugh your way through reading how to obtain residency, avoid crime, get a driver’s license, meet a trustworthy attorney, find quality healthcare, choose an area that is right for you, and much much more.

Nadine interviews friends and experts on a wide variety of Costa Rican topics that are sure to be of interest to any aspiring expatriate.

You’ll never have so much fun while learning the steps it takes to move to one of the happiest countries on earth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nadine Hays Pisani
• Release date: Oct 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311993786

Nadine Hays Pisani

Nadine Hays Pisani continues to write about her love of Costa Rica and is currently running The Happier House.

Book preview

Books by Nadine Hays Pisani

Happier Than A Billionaire: Quitting My Job, Moving to Costa Rica, & Living the Zero Hour Work Week

Happier Than A Billionaire: The Sequel

Happier Than A Billionaire: The Escape Manual

By

Nadine Hays Pisani

Copyright 2014 Nadine Hays Pisani

All Rights Reserved

Smashwords Addition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

Dedication

To the Costa Rican people, thank you for your kindness, patience, and understanding.

Acknowledgments

There are many people who made this book possible, and I would like to thank Ale Elliot, Aaron the Blue-Eyed Builder, my attorney Gilferd Banton, architect José Pablo Acuna Lett , Rancho Margot, Essence Arenal, The Butterfly Conservatory, Anne Foster, Brooke Bishop, Bob and Stacy Lux, Sky Maricle, Wild Animal Rescue Center, Colleen Ouellete, Donald and Patricia, and Kelley Spell. A special thanks to Eliza at Clio Editing for sloshing her way through this manuscript.

I am grateful to all my friends, who were more than understanding during the writing of this book: Randy and Kim Toltz, Sarah, Bill, Denio, Ewa, Jamie Peligro, Brian, and Joyce.

A big hug to my family back in the United States. Thank you for being happy for me. I miss you every single day.

And I could never forget to mention my wonderful husband. The man who worries about me, puts up with my moodiness, and continues to make me laugh. This journey would be boring without you.

Table of Contents

Other Books by this Author

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Map

Part I: Getting Started

The Unofficial Guide

The Person with a Story

Exit Strategies

Book’em, Dano: Crime in Costa Rica

Stuff: Keep It or Start Over?

You Can’t Convince Me Otherwise, I’m Keeping My Stuff

Fido Leaves the Rat Race

Airports

Transportation

Your Personal Driver, Plastic Surgery & Girls Gone Wild

Sloth Money

The Roaring Twenties

Part II: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Costa Rica: The Original View-Master

Road Trip: The Central Valley

Housing: The Trade Offs

Living at the Beach

The Pensive Thirties or Why My Wife Won’t Do It

Education

Landlines, Internet & Cell Phones

Buying A Car

Road Trip: The Beaches of Guanacaste

Car Talk

Real Questions Emailed to Happier

Forties or Why We Both Can’t Do It

Road Trip: Caribbean

Part III: The Heavy Lifting

Visa Runs, Perpetual Tourists & Fumigation Facials

The Finally Free Fifties or Why My Husband Won’t Do It

Fifty Shades of Residency

Road Trip: Lake Arenal

You Have the Right to an Attorney

Obtaining a Driver’s License

Rob Loses His License

Banking in Costa Rica: Where’s My Free Toaster?

Rodrigo the Repairman

Will I Be Able To Work in Costa Rica?

Jamie Peligro Bookstore

Losing Weight, Getting Healthy & Sun Salutations

Land, Villas & Condominiums

Close-Enough Plumbing

Standard & Luxury Real Estate Taxes

Building Your Home, Architect & Water Rights

Part IV: The Journey Continues

Healthcare

Oops, He Did It Again

A Stomach Bug Causes This Much Trouble

Colonoscopy in Paradise

The Retiring Sixties: I Finally Made It!

Road Trip: Pacific Coast Highway

Firearms in the Fireplace

Dental Care

Real Questions Emailed to Happier

Farmhouse and Horseback Riding

Wild Animal Rescue Center

Embassy

Rodrigo Fixes the Air Conditioner

Road Trip: The Osa Peninsula

Happier Than A Billionaire

Accommodations

Links to Additional Resources

About the Author

MAP

Part I: Getting Started

The Unofficial Guide

My sister loves her unofficial, kid-friendly guide to Disney World. Essentially, it tells you where to find the shortest lines, what the best places are to watch fireworks, and how to avoid getting trampled when Mickey Mouse comes out for pictures. I think the directions to the nearest bathrooms are what appeals most to dads, since they tend to hide there while little Jimmy throws a tantrum.

My dad would have loved an unofficial Disney guide since it probably would have warned him not to stand on top of a bench—unwisely positioned under a spiked, wrought-iron lantern— to get a better view of the Electric Light Parade. What transpired next was my dad suffering a head wound that was not very kid-friendly at all. Nothing like a geyser of blood squirting out of someone’s cranium while It’s a Small World pipes into the crowd.

Luckily, Disney’s first responder came in the form of an anthropomorphic dog sporting a tall hat and turtleneck. Goofy was kind enough to escort my father to the nearest first aid center where a qualified nurse wrapped his head in a turban of gauze and propped him against a lamppost on Main Street. We drove straight back to New Jersey the next day.

The good news was that my father’s blood loss left him surprisingly indifferent to the shenanigans that went on in the backseat of our Chevy Impala. Consequently, my sister and I got to smack each other with wild abandon for twenty-four glorious hours. I couldn’t imagine a better ending to our family vacation.

This book is my unofficial guide to navigating Costa Rica, along with a little humor and a few life lessons thrown in. I’ll be including the things that I feel are most important, answering the questions people ask most often, and leaving out the things that you could easily find on the Internet. My goal is to inform but not overload, while sharing some laughs along the way. If you are looking to buy a teak farm, I’m sorry. I can’t help you with that. But if you are interested in moving here, or even traveling throughout the country, you may find some of these chapters useful.

If you haven’t read my previous two books, Happier Than A Billionaire: Quitting My Job, Moving to Costa Rica, and Living The Zero Hour Work Week and Happier Than A Billionaire: The Sequel, then my occasional tangents may surprise you. I have a tendency to share a lot of my life, especially all the funny (and not so funny) things that my husband ropes me into. Some have made accusations that my stories never happened, or that I’ve exaggerated. But I can assure you, once you decide to really start living—and take a chance on adventure—you tend to find yourself in one crazy predicament after another. This is my blueprint so that you can create all of your own incredible stories that no one will believe.

These adventures were exactly what I was searching for when embarking on this crazy odyssey, and I suspect you too are searching for something similar. You might have even ordered this book without telling your spouse. My husband, Rob, started researching our escape before he ever officially announced the plan to me. He knew where we should be long before I ever considered it.

I applaud you and want you to know that there are plenty more of us out there. It wasn’t until I became an expat (expatriate) that I met so many interesting people looking for a different kind of life. They did exactly what I did, and had equally interesting (if not better) stories.

This book is designed for everyone. For those who’ve already bought tickets and are making Costa Rica their home, and for those who read a chapter a night under the covers after they put the kids to bed. There is nothing wrong with dreaming of moving here, and armchair travel can take you many places you may never get to see in a lifetime. Through great books I’ve imagined living in Tuscany, climbing the tallest mountains, and traveling into space. Reading has given me more joy than I can possibly quantify. Therefore, this book is dedicated not just to those who want to live the pura vida (common phrase in Costa Rica meaning full of life or going great) lifestyle, but also to those who want to imagine the adventure. Because in many ways, I’m still doing that.

So come along and I’ll try to keep you from smacking your head into jagged lanterns. But remember—sometimes you’re going to have to do that to see the parade.

The Person with a Story

In the summer of 1964, my mother traveled throughout Europe. She saved for years and went with a few girlfriends, one of whom fell in love with a French waiter. The man became their own personal tour guide of Paris. Sadly, her girlfriend gave a teary goodbye to her new love when she boarded the plane back to the United States. They never saw each other again. I am enamored by these stories. These women did something I secretly longed for; they had a story to tell.

My brain overflowed with wanderlust while working in my office. I ached to be one of those globe trekkers that recited clever anecdotes next to the cheese platter at parties: If it wasn’t for that extra granola bar and Zippo lighter, I would never have made it out of there alive.

Unfortunately, my adventures were more along the lines of cleaning out gutters and plowing snowy parking lots. Not the nail-biting cliffhanger that gets you invited to the after-party. It was then I decided to carve out a plan. From henceforth, my stories would be about airplanes and mountains, bugs and oceans, odd fruit and equally odd people. Moving to Costa Rica accomplished these goals, and then some.

After writing my first two books, I received emails from people with dozens of questions about moving to Costa Rica. They wanted information on more practical matters that I hadn’t covered. What I thought was just a fun narrative about two people leaving the rat race turned into something bigger. Although getting chased by killer bees and wading through crocodile-infested waters was entertaining, these people were looking for how to information on gaining residency and getting their driver’s license. It is because of them that the The Escape Manual was born. It was a challenging birth, with lots of mood swings and binge eating in the middle of the night. But I knew I had more to say, even if my husband was looking forward to the day that I would have less to say… specifically about him.

Go ahead. Write this book, but maybe we could make this installment less about the dopey things I do, he pleaded. I nodded but knew deep inside I could never resist writing stories about my husband.

When I told my dad over the Christmas holiday that I was writing a how to book on Costa Rica, he gasped. I wasn’t sure why the news had elicited such a reaction, but I figured it was polite to return an unwarranted gasp with an equally discernible one. There we stood next to my mom’s glazed ham, gasping at one another for what felt like an unrelenting amount of time, until he finally explained his irritation.

Nadine, I’ve read these books, he said. Lord knows I’ve tried to get through them, and let me express my concerns. To put it simply, nobody reads them. There are times when it’s hard to tell how my father feels about a certain topic. This was not one of them.

Okay, Dad, I’ll consider that, I replied, trying to end the conversation as quickly as possible. It appeared I was ruining our festive Presbyterian Christmas, one overflowing with long-upheld traditions of stoic silences and subliminal resentment. To think, I was under the impression I was actually livening up the place with talk of my travel guide.

The type is always small, my dad said. And when you add the glossy white of the stiff pages, it becomes even more difficult and aggravating to read. In summary, they are heavy, boring, and awkward. Once you make the supreme effort to read it, there is nothing but a dull textbook quality as you peruse the standard sections: hotels, sights, weather, and criminal activity. On and on they drone. In the end, they all end up in the corner of one’s garage.

Received the message, Dad. Loud and clear, I moaned. But he was unforgiving. After this pep talk, I had little confidence beginning this project.

Perhaps I should listen to him, I thought. He’s a smart guy, a man who would skim the whimsical pages of Soviet Life during his leisure hours after work. While other families discussed their day, my father would lecture on the inevitable fall of Communism. It’s no surprise that my spontaneous dissertations on rationed cooking fuel never garnered a bigger crowd during gym class. A bunch of pinko commie sympathizers for sure.

All this made me wonder if this Escape Manual would end up like other poorly received sequels, such as The Godfather III or the Rocky installment where he goes back to his old working-class neighborhood after filing for bankruptcy. Somehow the Balboas are so broke, Adrian is forced to wear her black-rimmed glasses again. She even ends up working at her old job in the pet store, spending an inordinate amount of time feeding turtles and staring at the ground. This could be my future if I wasn’t careful.

Therefore, to avoid having this book get demoted to a corner of your garage as my dad predicted, I decided that I’d make this road trip exciting. We’ll be taking a tour of the country, selling our junk, shipping some things, finding housing, and boarding a plane with our pets. We will apply for residency, wait for residency, and reapply together. Perhaps we’ll stop by and visit a doctor. Hopefully, we won’t be spending too much time in any hospital. But don’t worry—if you need medical attention, I’ll drive you to the best facility outside San José. That’s if the roads haven’t destroyed my car by then. It smells like the transmission is burning. If not that, something else is on fire. Eventually, the entire engine is going to blow. But even that doesn’t stress me out anymore. Since moving here, I’ve found that my anxiety is nowhere near the levels it was when I was working. It’s one of the greatest gifts Costa Rica has given me.

We’ll even be visiting some luxury homes. At the end of the Accommodations chapter, I’ve included the wow factor: links to fabulous houses so that you can snoop around and peer into other people’s kitchens. It’s the perfect way to enjoy the experience of an open house without ever leaving the couch.

Before we begin this road trip, remember to pack your sense of humor. We may encounter some frustrating times as we embark on this journey, but I promise we will have equally hilarious moments. Navigating a foreign country while sorting out cultural misunderstandings can be funny if you take a second to look at the bigger picture. It’s one of the reasons my husband and I have had such a positive experience here. Rob can laugh at anything. Me? It’s a skill I’ve had to learn.

If you’ve been following my adventures, you know that everything wasn’t always hammocks and palm trees. There were many formidable situations that tested my last nerve. I never knew where the last nerve was located, but if I were to ask my mom there is no doubt she could tell me exactly how to find it. (Apparently, I had been hanging off hers between the ages of thirteen through seventeen.) But I never considered calling it quits. I knew that if I could just laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, the obstacles would eventually work themselves out.

Although The Escape Manual has a nice ring to it, my husband felt we should call it Costa Rica: Results May Vary because our experience will be vastly different from yours, and yours will be different from the next guy’s. He also suggested My Husband Is a Genius, which quickly got placed on top of my things-that-are-never-going-to-happen pile—a pile that includes chapter ideas such as: First Aid and Duct Tape: Your Personal Guide to Affordable Healthcare, How to Safely Hide Firearms in Fireplaces, and Fix Anything With Bungee Cords and Underpants: A Love Story.

Varying results are something you will have to get used to while living here. One agency will never know what’s going on with the other, and you can never predict what may or may not transpire. Something you thought would take an hour might take the whole day. So pack a lunch and a very entertaining book. I recommend the Happier series for maximum mind-numbing enjoyment.

A perfect example of bureaucratic confusion is when we applied for residency. Before you can finalize the paperwork, you have to pay into the CAJA (healthcare and social security system). When we went down to their office to open an account, I was told you have to be a resident first. But you can’t become a resident until you enroll in CAJA. You will encounter situations like this regularly. And don’t be surprised when another expat, with similar credentials, just parades right by you and opens an account.

In the end, you’ll win some and you’ll lose some. Some things will be easy while others will be challenging. Moreover, predicting what may take a day and what may take many months is nearly impossible. But trust me, there will be times when the magic fairy of Costa Rica will rain her monkey dust down upon you. You may get lucky and easily obtain residency, or have a phone line that rarely goes down. You could be the only one on the block that still has electricity during an outage, or someone who never loses their water supply. Although you will rarely have all of these things at once, when it happens you will shout out pura vida with gusto.

One way or another, you’ll have a story to tell. And shouldn’t we all have more stories, more French waiters we tearfully wave goodbye to while boarding a plane? (Costa Rica fact: 10% gratuities are usually included on your restaurant bill. See that, Dad? Useful information cheerfully presented without any difficult pages to turn.)

I can’t guarantee you a perfect plan, but this trip will beat sitting in rush-hour traffic. Now let’s get started. Find your passport and order your airline ticket. Tell your boss you’re taking a much-needed vacation, and make sure to pack enough sunscreen for the entire family because it’s super expensive here (another fun fact skillfully delivered without any noticeable side effects).

But it’s important to remember—and I can’t stress this enough—results may vary.

Exit Strategies

There is no doubt that Rob and I did something drastic. We weren’t happy, and we had to do something about it. But the difficulty is that knowing you have to change your life is not enough. To get to where you want to be, you actually have to figure out the part on how to change it. For me, the only way out was to start fresh and begin a new and uncomplicated life in Costa Rica, but untangling the complexities of one’s life is challenging. Perhaps this is where you are right now. You look around and think, I need to find an exit strategy. Where do I begin?

There are many different exit strategies, and you should consider them all. You don’t have to do what Rob and I did to find the perfect solution. Who says you need to be all-in in the first place? I went that route because I was totally burnt out. I’m not even sure how I found myself in such an unhappy place. It’s amazing how quickly you can lose touch with what is most important in life when you concentrate too much on the superfluous stuff surrounding you. Costa Rica helped me find balance. Now all the things surrounding me are monkeys and parrots. Seriously. As I’m writing this, there are monkeys outside my window, and a flock of parrots just flew overhead. This is how my day begins. It’s like waking up to the best day ever, every single day.

Let’s consider the ways you can design a similar plan. I’ve met some people who take a year’s sabbatical to travel and search for a different lifestyle. If that doesn’t work, others elect to spend a few months out of the year in Costa Rica: the snowbird option. I like to call it the expat-lite lifestyle. For many, this is the perfect amount of time in Costa Rica. The obstacles you run into are not that upsetting since you will be returning home in a few months anyway. It’s such a great choice for those who can afford it.

Then there are those who simply come down for a vacation every year. Costa Rica has resonated so deeply with them, they look forward to returning. I love meeting these people. They don’t have the ability to move here permanently, but they love it nonetheless. They take advantage of all the fun activities and leave refreshed and ready to tackle their jobs again.

Many of these decisions depend on finances and how much risk you are willing to take. I’ve met people who have made it work and others who return home after six months. Your road need not mirror anyone else’s. Make it your own. Results will vary, but you will have a better shot if you understand that there’s no guarantee that things will work out.

Take a moment to develop a different plan for each of these scenarios:

A two-week vacation.

Spending a month.

Spending three months (that way, you can leave before your visa runs out).

Spending half the year.

All In: The big move.

Or no move at all! Simply dreaming about it is good enough.

Consider how you can finance each of these. When we first moved here, we were able to stick to a budget of $1,000/month. However, that was when we resided in Grecia. Now that we are at the beach, products are more expensive and there are a lot of activities we find ourselves doing. We spend closer to $1,200 to $1,300/month. You may require a bigger budget, or be able to squeak by on less.

There are other questions to ask yourself, some that are more personal and might take a while to answer. Like this one: what exactly are you looking for?

Are you ready for retirement and looking for an adventure? Or do you want to find another job in a foreign country? (That is not the easiest route and I talk further about it in a later chapter.) Are you unhappy at home and feel a change in latitude will help? Do you have enough money to float for a while, but you will eventually need to find a job or open a business?

Knowing exactly where you are, financially and emotionally, will help to make this trip a little easier. For me, I wanted the adventure. I wanted a different way of life but knew that I couldn’t live like this forever without finding some sort of income down the line. But I was willing to take that shot. Others may think this option is too risky. I don’t blame them. Rob and I did something so outrageous that I think back and wonder how we were brave enough to see it through.

Everyone you meet will tell you their story, and many of these people will insist that their way was the right way. We have all made mistakes when moving here, but that is exactly what happens when you commit to making the move. It’s part of the journey, and unavoidable.

It’s about this time in the book that I should be leaving big gaps of space for you to write your notes. I can never understand why travel guides do this; I’ve rarely written anything in a book since college. And even then it was probably a doodle.

Anyway, note sections burden me with feeling like I should be jotting down ideas. Way too much pressure, especially for those reading this on a Kindle, where you can’t write anything clever if you wanted to.

Enjoy the ride, and let’s discuss what is near and dear to everyone considering a move to Central America: crime. Am I going to get kidnapped?

Book’em, Dano: Crime in Costa Rica

Is there a lot of crime in Costa Rica?

I know that there is a good portion of you who skipped straight to this chapter. It’s the number one question most people ask, and the reason I put this topic toward the front of the book. Upon my own investigation on relocating to Costa Rica, all the crime-related ranting on the Internet immediately terrified me. It almost stopped me from moving here… almost.

What I have since learned is that when someone is negative on a topic, they’re going to write a lot about it. Happy people don’t do this because they are too busy being happy. They are off doing happy things and don’t feel the need to write about it since they think you are having a similar experience. So I’m going to give you my take on crime, from the perspective of someone who is very content living here. I should also point out that I’ve never been a victim of any crime. But there is always a possibility my house will be cleaned out by noon, and if that happens, I’ll be sitting on my floor, pounding away on my invisible laptop, and possibly painting a completely different picture of this subject.

There is a good amount of petty theft in this country. If you leave your backpack lying on the beach unattended, chances are it will disappear. However, a friend recently forgot her purse on the beach for a good fifteen minutes. When we ran back to retrieve it, remarkably, no one had stolen it. We’ve even forgotten things on the beach, only to find them lying there an hour later. But don’t count on this. I’d