The Good, the Bad and
the Ugly About Costa
Rica Forums
By Sidney Shank
With a growing number of
people relocating to
Costa Rica and many
waiting to do so, a
number of forums have
sprouted up on the
Internet. A wide range
of information is
disseminate daily
through these groups.
I have lived in Costa
Rica many years and
occasionally learn
something new from the
many on-line forums to
which I subscribe. Good
information about
banking, immigration
matters, the cost of
living, finding good
doctors and moving to
Costa Rica may be
obtained at times from
these chat groups.
Unfortunately, there are
a lot of trivial
conversations about
meaningless subjects and
misinformation
discussed..
Consequently, it is
imported to separate the
wheat from the chaff.
I have witnessed on more
than one occasion people
talking about such
meaningless topics as
how to get rid of ants,
complaining about the
quality of butter in
Costa Rica, the fact
that there is no good
Mexican food in Costa
Rica, lack of American
products, bashing and
praising the Costa
Ricans and people
wanting Costa Rica to be
a clone of the USA etc.
What you basically have
is people with different
opinions on life, many
of whom want everything
to be perfect here.
More alarming is the
fact that you have many
amateurs doling out
advice about
investments, real estate
and the economy. Most of
these people have only
lived in the country for
a short time, are still
struggling to adjust to
the new culture, don't
even speak the language
well enough to
understand the country
in depth and are not
economists. I have
noticed repeatedly that
once these neophytes
start to express
erroneous information
about the local real
estate market and the
economy they open a
whole can of worms. The
erroneous information
often spreads to other
chat groups, websites
and the media like
wildfire, thus becoming
counter productive.
Foreigners who live here
and chat group members
in the States then
confuse distorted
information with the
reality of the
situation. This often
causes a lot of panic,
anxiety, can even effect
the stability of the
market and above all
creates confusion about
living and investing
here.
The obvious solution is
to take a lot of what is
written in these forums
with a grain of salt and
ONLY seek information
from time-tested
reliable sources and the
real experts .
|
