Not interested in hanging around gated compounds with expats and tourists.
I'm not anywhere close to retirement age and my job is what enables me to surf.
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Mexico/Central America retirement
- Thread starter tsenn
- Start date
Panama Vs Costa Rica: The Tropical Titans FIght It Out
Panama vs Costa Rica! We compare both to find out the strenghts and weaknesses of each country. Discover more about these two expat favorites.
www.liveandinvestoverseas.com
Good article. Pretty much spot on. Costa ricans are more educated as a whole. Like if you went to a bar or a restaurant, they’d have better service. Costa rica is more expensive. Surfwise very similar i’d say. They do have more of a “surf scene” ...♂
Maybe i miss interpreted what you were saying ... if so my apologies ... Mrs. Flyinraptr recently discovered Bloody Mary's and i have been trying to teach her the finer points of them. No - we do not live in a gated community. When we first invested and moved to Nica - yes it was in a gated community but sold our properties and moved out of it over a year ago. We discovered visiting a gated community on vacation is far different than living there. Felt like we were back in high school - with a bunch of people who hadn't matured past high school and wanted to Americanize everything. We much prefer where we're at now. One of the best experiences we've had is attempting to learn a new language in a country where you don't speak the language. It's not always easy and can be frustrating but the rewards are greater and more often than not the locals appreciate that you're making the attempt and go out of their way to help. A typical scenario - is often - myself trying to practice Spanish with a young Nicaraguan .... who is in turn attempting to practice their English at the same time - it can be rather comical as Mrs. Flyinraptr can attest to.
El Ogro - we initially built two properties - one a vacation rental and the second was our home within an ex-pat community. We've sold both and moved just outside a town called San Juan Del Sur. We are in the process of building a new home - maybe 1-2 months away from completion. The town has no shortage of restaurants/bars - etc. - obviously things have slowed considerably with Covid. The chicken, beef, fish is really good - but have to know what to look for .... can be different levels of quality. The way they cut meat is a little different - as an example - recently picked up a piece rib eye steak i think it was around 20lbs - was about $70 US - but we were able to cut it up into 17 individual ribeye steaks for grilling. We also have a deep drop-in freezer - about every 6 weeks ... we make the trek into Managua - to go to the PriceMart - about 2 hours each way - but worth it. Surf spots - they are about 5 different surf spots where we're at - all about 15-20 min car ride away.
Oh i don’ t blame you. Nicas have a weird accent.
have good friends there. And that Flor de Caña
i wanna go surf those famous beachbreaks
have good friends there. And that Flor de Caña
i wanna go surf those famous beachbreaks
Yup, can totally relate.
In the right scenario would end up telling them I was from elsewhere - a country where I was sure they wouldn't know the language, like Croatia, Serbia, etc - and therefore minimal English.
This!^^^^^^^^
I had to ask my Australian friend if the local VN guy was trying to pick up on me. I didn't want to over react.
He just shrugged and said he was friendly.
At I certain point, a short time later, I had to say, "Um, it's time to go. Things are getting weird."
We jumped on the scooter and raced off into the jungle night.
Besides substance abuse the quickest way to go insane is to try and live in Gringolandia.
When i go into town - to a store or restaurant etc - i never speak English .... always attempt to do everything in Spanish .... unless i'm talking to an ex-pat.
CR family makes fun of how Nics say light bulb all the time
Yeah - someone i know who teaches English to the locals ... tells me that Nicaraguans don't exactly have the best Spanish grammar.CR family makes fun of how Nics say light bulb all the time
After a slow month of August and a solid week of heavy rain, onshore wind .... this weekend looks promising ...
This is the first property we built in Nica - about a 100 yard walk to Colorado's. Subway and his wife stayed here a couple of times. This is what started it all for us.
This is the house we originally built to retire in .... about a 10 minute walk to Colorados or Panga Drops - 2 minutes by golf cart! Yes- that is a pizza oven.
This is the view from the bedroom of the house i'm currently building. Overlooking the bay at San Juan Del Sur - if you look closely you can see the statue of Jesus on the hilltop to the right of the bay. Before Covid - we would see Cruise ships dock in the bay - at night when they were all lit up - pretty cool to see. Can't wait to check out the view from the pool with a cold one after a surf session.
So to answer some questions - we originally had been taking some vacations in CR before convincing Mrs. Flyinraptr to give Nicaragua a try. One walk on the beach - and she proposed the idea of buying property in Nica - i suspected her of smoking weed behind my back. We built the rental place initially and made 2 or 3 trips annually before the idea of retiring and moving to Nica became a reality. We knew the rental property would not be big enough - so we went forward with buying another lot and building the second house. My Spanish - experience consisted of listening to Pimsler Spanish tapes on my way to work - prior to moving ... needless to say my Spanish was very very limited. Having never purchasing property outside the US - the idea of buying property within a gated community with an existing infrastructure seemed like a safe bet ... we had read about and talked to people who bought property and built houses with no water, electricity, roads, security, etc and it sounded daunting and way over our heads at the time. Now that we have been living in Nica for 3 years - and have a better understanding of how things work and the lay of the land - building a house is still an extremely challenging experience and way more hands on than we had anticipated. But at the end of the day ... i think the third time will be the charm and the thought of not having to deal with an HOA or other ex-pat @holes is worth the effort.
This is the house we originally built to retire in .... about a 10 minute walk to Colorados or Panga Drops - 2 minutes by golf cart! Yes- that is a pizza oven.
This is the view from the bedroom of the house i'm currently building. Overlooking the bay at San Juan Del Sur - if you look closely you can see the statue of Jesus on the hilltop to the right of the bay. Before Covid - we would see Cruise ships dock in the bay - at night when they were all lit up - pretty cool to see. Can't wait to check out the view from the pool with a cold one after a surf session.
So to answer some questions - we originally had been taking some vacations in CR before convincing Mrs. Flyinraptr to give Nicaragua a try. One walk on the beach - and she proposed the idea of buying property in Nica - i suspected her of smoking weed behind my back. We built the rental place initially and made 2 or 3 trips annually before the idea of retiring and moving to Nica became a reality. We knew the rental property would not be big enough - so we went forward with buying another lot and building the second house. My Spanish - experience consisted of listening to Pimsler Spanish tapes on my way to work - prior to moving ... needless to say my Spanish was very very limited. Having never purchasing property outside the US - the idea of buying property within a gated community with an existing infrastructure seemed like a safe bet ... we had read about and talked to people who bought property and built houses with no water, electricity, roads, security, etc and it sounded daunting and way over our heads at the time. Now that we have been living in Nica for 3 years - and have a better understanding of how things work and the lay of the land - building a house is still an extremely challenging experience and way more hands on than we had anticipated. But at the end of the day ... i think the third time will be the charm and the thought of not having to deal with an HOA or other ex-pat @holes is worth the effort.
I'm a bit of a cunning linguist and my pro tip for learning any language faster is to learn how to ask, "What do you call this?" in the desired language. Then you can practise with absolutely anyone, anywhere, anytime. This really does expedite your expansion of your vocabulary.
If you can learn at least one new word a day that is great. Keep a note book and carry it around with you.
Don't be shy to sound silly with mis-pronunciations because the locals get a laugh and appreciate you making the effort to learn their language. Can be a great ice breaker.
Thai has 5 tones and their are sometimes quite a few words (for example 'Mai') without the tone but are completely different words when using the correct tone. Use the wrong tone for that word in a sentence the locals will still know that you are talking about 'silk' for example rather than a 'dog' and everyone will get a laugh.
I mention this because Autoprax has been discussing Vietnamese which actually has 6 tones.
Now use those new words. Don't be afraid to use them in a sentence where you are speaking English and you know a "Spanish" word (for eg) that go in part of that sentence. No use learning them if you don't use them.
If you can learn at least one new word a day that is great. Keep a note book and carry it around with you.
Don't be shy to sound silly with mis-pronunciations because the locals get a laugh and appreciate you making the effort to learn their language. Can be a great ice breaker.
Thai has 5 tones and their are sometimes quite a few words (for example 'Mai') without the tone but are completely different words when using the correct tone. Use the wrong tone for that word in a sentence the locals will still know that you are talking about 'silk' for example rather than a 'dog' and everyone will get a laugh.
I mention this because Autoprax has been discussing Vietnamese which actually has 6 tones.
Now use those new words. Don't be afraid to use them in a sentence where you are speaking English and you know a "Spanish" word (for eg) that go in part of that sentence. No use learning them if you don't use them.
My daughter is learning Japanese on her own and told me that Japanese is a pitch shifting language - that you slide the frequency of the word for emphasis unlike English where we vary the volume for emphasis. She said Chinese is like that too. Once she said it I realized I'd heard it but didn't understand what it was.