Today is my birthday! I am now 46 years old. We wanted to go to a movie last night, but could not find anything that was appropriate for the whole family. The rating system here is quite different from the US. Sex is acceptable for young people, but violence is not. Therefore, a lot of movies that are rated PG13 in the US, are rated as being acceptable for everyone here. Anyway, I’ve gotten way off the subject!
We’ve been looking for a house to rent ever since we arrived (it has now been two weeks). The problem is there is not very much for rent in Puriscal. Another problem is that there is no sharing of information between real estate agents. There is no MLS system like there is in the states. So, each realtor has his own clients and will only show you properties that are listed by him. Also, the homes that are for rent are often not even advertised. They sometimes don’t even have a “for rent” sign on the property. This makes it really hard to find the places that are for rent. Another problem we face is the fact that Tico homes are quite small, don’t have hot water anywhere but the shower, and often don’t have an outlet for a dryer. There are a number of US style homes here that have been built by Americans. However, the owners are usually not interested in renting. The typical American that comes to Puriscal usually ends up purchasing a home from another American, or buying property and then building a home on it. So I guess we are the odd balls here. Rent varies widely. We have seen properties as low as $350, and as high as $1,100. We thought we had found an acceptable Tico home for rent for $600. It was larger than most and had a beautiful yard with fruit trees and a fantastic view. However, when we looked at it a second time, we noticed that there was black mold growing on the walls. We did a little asking around and found that mold is just as hard to get rid of here as it in the states. Therefore we have decided against renting that property. We have now decided (I think) to rent a home built by some Canadians as a vacation home. It is in a housing development that contains several vacation homes built by North Americans. The problem is that the property is 30 minutes outside of Puriscal and the rent is $1,100 a month. However, we feel like we really need to have our own space and must must have high speed internet to keep in touch with the world. Therefore, we have decided to move out there for the month of October. Hopefully, by the end of October we will have found something closer to town. We really don’t want to live out away from everyone in an exclusive housing development.