Greetings All.

Greetings All !


Just a quick introduction.

As my wife and I get set to go headlong into another polar vortex, the prospect of an early  retirement becomes increasingly attractive from our perch on the shores of Lake Simcoe in Ontario, Canada.

Realistically, we have a few years left to endure before we retire, but it gives us time to do some investigating and ground truthing on potential retirement locations, having looked at and dismissed a number of Caribbean locations such as Belize, the DR, Mexico and others our interest has turned to Costa Rica.  We want to start by visiting some prospective areas based on the feedback from the members of this seemingly helpful and friendly forum.

I have had the benefit of living in many countries around the world including India, Ethiopia and Haiti, so we are reasonably aware that living in a country like Costa Rica has its own unique challenges and benefits that make it infinitely more  interesting and satisfying than living in a  make believe world like Florida.

We are interested purchasing renting a home or condo in a gated community or secure neighbourhood that has some of  the following criteria;

- located in the mountains with views of the ocean, preferably from our front veranda - moderate daytime temps.
- less than 215k or 1000/1500 month rent. 
- situated in or near a small village or town that has basic amenities such as a farmers market, shops and services and a few restaurants choices - we don't consider McDonald's or fast food as equivalents.
- a vibrant community of expats that offer a good analogue social network.
- proximity to health care and reasonable distance to a good hospital and airport connections such as Liberia.
- access to a friendly beach , golf course for the occasional day out.
- available access taxis or buses

Interested on some suggestions commentary  on towns or villages that you are aware of or currently living in if it exists

Cheers

Mike