From the States
to the Gold Coast
I'm Robbie Parker. I live in Playas del Coco, Guanacaste, and this site is everything I've learned about being an American expat in Costa Rica, written down so you don't have to learn it the hard way.
How I got here
Like a lot of expats, I came down on vacation and did the math on the flight home. The weather, the pace, the cost of a good life here versus what I was paying for a stressed one back in the States. It stopped adding up in America's favor.
So I moved. Not gracefully, either. I made most of the classic mistakes: trusted the wrong advice, underestimated the paperwork, overestimated my Spanish. But I figured it out, settled in Playas del Coco, and eventually built my work and my life here on the Gold Coast of Guanacaste.
These days I run a real estate and property management company in Coco (that's Expat Properties | CR, my day job). Which means I spend all week talking to people who are exactly where I was: excited, overwhelmed, and drowning in contradictory internet advice.
Expat In Paradise is where I put the honest version. What things cost, where to live, what the paperwork actually looks like, and what daily life feels like once the vacation glow wears off. It's the site I wish I'd found before I moved.
[ Robbie: this bio is the designer's draft. Swap in your real story, dates and details, then delete this note. ]
What I believe
Real numbers
No "you can live like a king on $1,000 a month" fantasy. Actual costs, from someone who pays them.
Both sides
Costa Rica is wonderful and also inconvenient, bureaucratic, and humid. You should know all of it before you move.
Everyone's welcome
Retirees, remote workers, families, people just done with the news cycle. If you're kind, there's room for you here.
Life here, actually
The dogs, the work, the friends, the wildlife on the trail. Not a brochure, just what it looks like.
Want the shortcut?
Skip the forum threads. Book 45 minutes with me and get answers for your exact situation.
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