January 27, 2010
El Valle, Panama
For a future expat, there are three places worth seriously considering in Central America– Panama, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Much is written about Panama, and rightfully so; the country is the most stable, economically liberal, and business oriented.
Not to be completely ignored, though, Costa Rica has its own merits that are certainly worth an honorable mention.
First, to understand Costa Rica, you need to get a feel for the country’s life cycle. The original North American expatriate movement started with Mexico right around the time of US prohibition. Everything fun in the United States became illegal practically overnight, and Mexican border towns became a rally point for the disillusioned.
Mexico’s expat domination lasted for several decades until finally, around the 1980s, people became dissatisfied with the large number of foreigners living in Mexico, as well as the rising cost of living. They sought greener pastures further south.
Costa Rica became the obvious choice– Panama was a complete disaster between Torrijos and Noriega, Nicaragua was embroiled in civil war, and Honduras was quietly exterminating its socialists.
Initially there were only a handful of expats living in Costa Rica, but eventually the word got out that living in Costa Rica was cheap, beautiful, and spiritual… it was like the India of the western hemisphere, cheap drugs and all.
For the next two decades, the steady inflow of North American tourists created steady demand, and new developments sprouted up all over the country. In time, the ‘cheap’ cost of living in Costa Rica had risen sharply, rivaling that of Mexico.
That’s when the expatriate market turned its sights on Panama in the early 2000s– the Canal had been turned over to the Panamanians without disaster, and the country had managed to build a stable government and society in the 15-years post-Noriega. At the time, Panama was much, much cheaper than Costa Rica as well.
Today, I find the costs of living in both countries to be comparable, as well as the real estate prices. But I find that, putting the two countries head-to-head, Costa Rica has the following advantages:
1) Costa Rica has no military. Technically Panama has no military either, but with so many national police (green uniforms), tourist police (tan uniforms), and Presidential guard (black uniforms) running around the country with automatic weapons, they might as well be an army, albeit a poorly trained, dysfunctional one.
I doubt that the Panamanian police forces have the capability or iron will to go house-to-house against the locals, but Costa Rica lacks the manpower resources altogether.
2) Environmental sustainability is much more prevalent in Costa Rica– and I’m not necessarily just talking about tree hugging… Costa Rica is simply cleaner, especially compared to Panama City.
Panama City’s boom has come so quickly that the city has experienced significant growing pains– notably with its infrastructure challenges. You see a lot of garbage, sewage, etc. piled up where the city hasn’t figured out how to deal with its problems.
To be fair, it’s not the same outside of Panama City, but head-to-head, I would still say that Costa Rica is cleaner and more pristine.
So what are Costa Rica’s chief flaws compared to Panama?
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Costa Rica,
expatriation,
foreign real estate,
panama