Cindy Hewett

How Do You Eat That? (By Cindy)

I’ve had multiple people back in the US ask me how we are enjoying the wonderful fruits and vegetables here in Costa Rica. They must imagine that we are able to stroll pleasantly through farmer’s markets with a wicker basket in hand, stop at stalls and chat amiably with the local vendors, discussing their wares, and then return home to prepare an authentic meal. This scene is a staple in House Hunter’s International, which would lead a person to believe that all expats are able to enjoy this romantic scenario. Our reality is different.

US Consul Zoom (by Cindy)

Our friends Bill and Randi reached out in early March to ask us if we’d heard about an upcoming Virtual Town Hall to be presented by the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica on March 16th. They heard about it from a local Facebook group that they belong to. They sent us a copied notice from the Facebook group, that looked like it was copied from a US embassy notice. The notice stated that they (the US Embassy) appreciated any assistance in getting the word out to the US community in Costa Rica, as the Town Hall was open to all US citizens living in Costa Rica. The notice gave the date and time and stated that people interested should reach out to the Embassy directly for the Zoom link information. Of course, we were interested!

Buddy Update May 2021 (by Cindy)

If you have been following our blog, you may remember that when we lived in our apartment in Escazú, we volunteered to take care of the plant of a neighbor friend, John H. John H works for a logistics company and he is responsible for all aspects of setting up a new office in Costa Rica. John H has an apartment in the same apartment complex where we lived, Escazú Village, which is how and where we met him.

When COVID began to be a concern in the spring of 2020, John and his company decided that it would be best to postpone the Costa Rica office opening until things quieted down. John H went back to the States in March 2020 and asked if we would take care of his plant while he was gone. After we agreed, we found that he had actually named the plant “Buddy” and that Buddy seemed to require a lot of care. We thought John H would return to Costa Rica shortly, so it wouldn’t be a big deal. We were wrong.

It’s been over a year since we talked about Buddy in our blog, and surprisingly, people do inquire about him, so we thought we would let everyone know what happened to Buddy.

We Love to Go A-Wandering (by Cindy)

The development where we are currently renting, Mar Vista, has a few nice amenities – 24-hour security, an on-site restaurant, tennis courts (presumably clay, but maybe just hard dirt?), “paved” roads, and the newest update –hiking trails.

The Trip to Miami – The Epilogue (by Cindy)

This is the fourth and last installment of our four-part series on our trip to Miami.

The entire reason we went to Miami in the first place was because we needed to be able to retain driving privileges in Costa Rica, as non-residents, to beat the March 2^nd tourist and driving deadline.

As a reminder, if you are not a Costa Rican resident, and if you have not applied for residency, you must leave the country every 90 days, no matter what. If you are not yet a resident, but have applied for residency, you are not required to leave, unless you want to be able to drive in the country. If you want to drive, you are treated as a tourist for driving purposes and still must leave every 90 days. Before COVID, expats living in the country would do border runs every 90 days to meet the requirement.

With COVID, and the resulting border closures in 2020, tourist and driving deadlines had been extended until March 2,2021. It appeared that the government wasn’t going to extend tourist and driving extensions again, since the air and sea borders were open. We felt the need to do our border run so we were safe when March 2^nd rolled around and ended up flying to Miami. Our border run was successfully completed on February 28^th, beating the deadline by just a couple of days.

So, what happened on March 2^nd?

The Trip to Miami – We Make It to Miami (by Cindy)

When we arrived in the airport in Liberia, for our trip to Miami, we found that it was not too busy. Still, it wasn’t completely empty – there were people there.

This is the third installment of our four-part series on our trip to Miami.

The Trip to Miami For Real – We Need to Get Ready (by Cindy)

February 2021 – It Starts Anew

In December and January, with the holidays (obviously during which we stayed put in Costa Rica), the start of the new year, and everything else going on in the world, we’d managed to push the March 2^nd tourist and driving deadline out of our minds. But all of a sudden, it was February, and here we were again. This is the second of our posts about our trip to Miami.

The Trip to Miami – Prologue (by Cindy)

These may seem totally unrelated, but in November 2020, due to the confluence of our need to drive, COVID, and driving restrictions, we found ourselves scrambling to book a trip to Miami. (This is the first of several posts about our trip to Miami.)

Marchamo 2021 (by Cindy)

On Monday of the last week of 2020, our friend Bill, in Costa Rica, reached out to ask a favor. Would it be possible to drive him to the bank the next day so he could pay his Marchamo? Tuesday is the weekday that he can’t drive because of his license plate number. (Costa Rica still is restricting travel on weekdays due to COVID. The weekday we can’t drive is Friday.) The Marchamo needs to be paid by the end of the year, and he was concerned that if he waited until later in the week, that it would get too busy with everyone trying to pay last minute.

We happily agreed, since we were on Christmas break from Spanish school. But it got us to thinking. Did we need to pay the Marchamo too?

Buying a Vehicle in Costa Rica (by Cindy)

We lived a year in Costa Rica without a vehicle of any kind. Our apartment in Escazú Village was located just across the street from Walmart, that proved very convenient for obtaining groceries and other household items. We were within walking distance of PriceSmart (very similar to Costco in the US). There were also restaurants, pharmacies, a home improvement store (EPA, like a Lowes in the US) and other grocery stores nearby. Additionally, we were able to walk to a large mall, the Multiplaza. We could walk to our Spanish classes, when they were held in person, before COVID. And, when we needed to go somewhere where it was too far to walk, or we wanted to purchase more than it was feasible for us to carry (think large quantities of paper towels from PriceSmart), it was easy to get an Uber. Admittedly, it was weird for us not to have a vehicle of any kind for an entire year. In the US we had always owned two cars, one for each of us.

Now with our impending move from Escazú to the Playa Flamingo area, we needed to have a vehicle. There is nothing within walking distance of our new rental house in the Mar Vista development. In fact, it takes about five minutes’ drive time to get to our rental house from the Mar Vista security gate. And we needed to get it soon, as we had about a month until we were moving.