Costa Rica Expertise LLC

By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

What does it mean to be carbon negative or carbon positive? What does it mean to be carbon responsible? The country aims for carbon neutrality by the year 2021. Expats living in Costa Rica can be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

Carbon may also be good business for Costa Rica. The country’s carbon real estate business is still in its development stages but it's heating up fast. There are also ways to use the Costa Rican civil code to build carbon responsible communities.

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Big step is electronic signatures

By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

Expats need to prepare themselves for Costa Rica’s Gobierno Digital and Notaría Digital.

The digital government is slowly but surely taking over tasks that were terribly inefficient. Two examples are the issuing of drivers' licenses and passports. The Banco de Costa Rica, a key player in Costa Rica’s digital government, has begun taking over both. As of July 1, the bank had given out 10,500 appointments for renewing driver’s licenses and passports.

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By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

The rule of thumb in Costa Rica is when you cannot plan — or do not plan — panic.

This malady is part of the culture. People in the campo, the rural areas, learn this from childhood. Parents instruct kids sent to the pulperia, the corner mom and pop grocery, to buy one egg for breakfast. Not two, one for breakfast and one for lunch, or three, one for breakfast, one for lunch and one for dinner. Just one. One for breakfast.

Why, because the parents were not taught to plan and organize by their parents, so they do not teach their kids to do so.

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By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

Electronic banking in Costa Rica has grown up. It is now easy, fast and efficient.

Transfers from Banco Interfin last week to the national banks, Banco Nacional, Banco de Costa Rica and Banco Crédito Agrícola de Cartago, worked without a hitch. Transfers from Banco de Costa Rica to the private banks Banco Interfin, Banco San José, Scotia Bank, and Banco Cuscatlan worked just as flawlessly. All banks in Costa Rica are currently interconnected. Transfers can be made in either U. S. dollars or Costa Rican colons.

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By Garland M. Baker
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

Twenty-four hours a day people are exposed to an array of electromagnetic fields. Inside the home TVs, stereos, VCRs, computers, almost everything electric, most machines and lights bathe everyone with waves, and the list goes on and on.

Outside radar, communication dishes, TV transmitters, cellular phones, high-tension power lines and even the electromagnetic fields generated by vehicles create additional waves.

Unless one lives in some remote corner of the planet, there is no escape. Simply put, growing exposure to electromagnetic energy fields is a concern, and some see it as a serious threat to health.

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