Semper Fi
William Jones
USMC Ret.

Some of the larger tourist towns (like San Jose and Jaco) do have their crime, but still, Costa Rica is still the safest country in all of Latin American. People do not worry about drive bys or random shooting as Mexico is known for. And yes we have heard all the stories, but 90% of those are caused by people being stupid, like the egoistic Gringo surfers who start wave hogging, and cutting locals out of waves. Then they go back to the SUV they rented and find it broken in and all their stuff stolen.

Here read this How Not to Get Robbed

Years ago when the sewer systems were not up to standards it became a habit of not flushing toilet paper (lines were to small) because they would clog. Many joked, the reason for this is that Costa Rican would then make a habit of flushing anything down. However, North Americans do not do that, and the current homes being build are built to American standards which use larger sewer/drainage pipes and thus there is very little or no problems. Septic tank lines are also made bigger and spread out over a wider area, again to prevent stoppage.

You will still see in homes, small hotels and restaurants etc, a waste paper basket next to the toilet, old habits are hard to break.

The tourist areas with larger hotels and restaurants, do not have the “little waste paper basket.”

I have two friends; one a Tico who is a prominent lawyer in San Jose and the other a US Citizen. Together they own a 30 acre parcel in the Caribbean coast in the Gondoca National Forest which they have owned since 1987. This is under the direct control of the Minaet which is a government ministry that is responsible for the Environment, Communications and Energy. The local officers of the Minaet in Talamanca and 4 of the 6 directors of the municipality have banded together to steel this property. It began in 2002 and although the local court sided with the theives, they had no evidence and it was overturned by the National Appeals court in 2004. Still they did not give up and they continued to try and extort money out of the owners. Then earlier this year they aparently chased away the security guard and proceeded to build a house, a road and a bridge across a small river to the property next door that they own. All of this without permits in a protected reserve. They removed all documents from the municple records and replaced them with their own documents in defiance of the National Court of Appeals.

The Tico partner and his assistants visited the property and were threatened by the Minaet officers.

This begs the question as to whether you can trust an investment in Costa Rica as a Tico much less being a foreigner when you can’t even trust the very offices who are employed to protect your rights.

Fortunately, this case is being brought to the highest levels of the Costa Rican government because one of the two owners is an attorney in San Jose and is really pissed off. Not just because it is a threat to his personal investment but because Costa Rice relies heavily on the over USD$1 billion in revenue spent by tourism and foreign residence annually. Neighboring countries such as Panama are looking more atttractive due to their rating far higher on the list of countries that protect foreign investors. Costa Rica rate in the bottom 10% of countries who do not protect foreign investors right next to Iran.

If Costa Rica intents to improve its track recoord it should start with assuring that its own public officers uphold the laws of the country.