The multi-tiered expat life

I have discussed my surprise at the different set of expats I’ve met here. After being here a while longer, I have seen a bit more nuance.

First of all, everywhere I’ve gone there have been a couple types of expats, and what I really mean is people from outside the region. (Yes, Cameroonians in Nigeria are expats, but already have a lot more cultural similarities.) I have always met some younger folks living paycheck to paycheck usually living there as a short-term adventure. There is always the “core” group of businessmen. Then there is the small sliver who have made a permanent home somewhere.  

Here there are a lot, and I mean a lot, of Americans or others who are making it by the skin of their teeth. The difference is that frequently it isn’t a short-term thing, like it is in other countries (the 20-something with his guitar bumming around until the money runs out and he returns to the U.S.).  I met a guy who had just moved down and was looking for work and I had given him my phone number in case he needed something. He gave me a call a month later and just chatted, but the gist was that his housing situation (where he could live free in exchange for maintaining the grounds) had taken a turn for the worse, and that things were tight. He didn’t ask for anything so I didn’t offer, but I’m pretty sure he was essentially fishing for some help.  I met one late-20’s American single mom who moved down here with her kid expecting to get a job and stay here, and only after that realized it would be difficult to get employment because she needed a visa.

There are a shocking number of older (65+) Americans who are living here, and a decent number that I've met are in tight situations.

View from the Volcan Poas hillside into the valley; San Jose is in the distance on the right.


There is also a good section of people who came down with good jobs, then left the good job when it would have rotated them elsewhere and just decided to scale back in order to live here.

Finally, there are expats who have decent, live-anywhere jobs. I’ve met people who run call centers, lots of people in IT who are working remotely, and several people working on/off jobs (e.g. a guy who operates ship engine rooms and does 1 month on in Singapore, 1 month off at home in CR).