Quantcast

°•○●□■Derp Uno■□●○•°

eaterofdog

ass grabber
Sep 8, 2006
9,207
2,728
Central Florida
Well I was having a bad day till I watched a video at lunch of a Russian getting blown in half by a drone and both halves are on fire and the dude is like "...fuck." Really puts things in perspective.
 

rideit

Bob the Builder
Aug 24, 2004
24,889
12,645
In the cleavage of the Tetons
My company just opened an office in Costa Rica, in San Jose, and there was a position available to go for 16 months all expenses paid to stand things up. I thought hard about taking it, but did not. A friend ended up taking it and is moving his family down in a month.
/coolstorybro
After having recently spending a month in San José, even in a nice situation with family, and access to a beach house on the weekends, (~2 hours away) I wouldn’t do it either unless the pay was absolutely stunning.
San José itself is not a great city. Traffic is fairly bad, and you basically have to live in a gated/fenced compound. It’s not as bad as many other Latin or South American cities, but still. Pretty much always have to have your guard up. Riding is extremely limited, and requires driving to private bike parks or much farther away in the country. The beaches close to S.J. Are a madhouse on weekends, and traffic to get there and back from Thursday-Sunday is kinda like I70 to Vail, but on two lane roads. those beaches are also 100 degree hot.
The food can be O.K., (there are certainly notable exceptions) but in general, they are as afraid of spices as your average Midwestern. I brought my own bottle of hot sauce with my everywhere.
in Nick’s position, with a good relationship, great riding out the door in Golden, etc, I would choose the same.
If I were in my 30’s, single, gunning to move up in the company, etc, it would be a very different decision.
Pros: The women, especially the euro/mixed, are just outright gorgeous, and generally friendly to gringos. It is a very casual country, people tend to treat each other with respect on the street, rich or poor. It’s easy to meet people. (Spanish or English, most of the country has studied English through high school). I have not been to the Caribbean side, though, which I hear can be a (little) bit more racially and socio-economically divided.
 
Last edited:

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,913
10,024
Crawlorado
After having spent a month in San José, even in a nice situation with family, and access to a beach house on the weekends, I wouldn’t do it either unless the pay was absolutely stunning.
San José itself is not a great city. Traffic is fairly bad, and you basically have to live in a gated/fenced compound. It’s not as bad as many other Latin or South American cities, but still. Pretty much always have to have your guard up. Riding is extremely limited, and requires driving to private bike parks or much farther away in the country. The beaches close to S.J. Are a madhouse on weekends, and traffic to get there and back from Thursday-Sunday is kinda like I70 to Vail, but on two lane roads. those beaches are also 100 degree hot.
The food can be O.K., (there are certainly notable exceptions) but in general, they are as afraid of spices as your average Midwestern. I brought my own bottle of hot sauce with my everywhere.
in Nick’s position, with a good relationship, great riding out the door in Golden, etc, I would choose the same.
If I were in my 30’s, single, gunning to move up in the company, etc, it would be a very different decision.
Wife and I spent a night in San Jose prior to flying back from our honeymoon. In my admittedly non- extensive travels, SJ had the least safe vibe of anywhere.
 

rideit

Bob the Builder
Aug 24, 2004
24,889
12,645
In the cleavage of the Tetons
Wife and I spent a night in San Jose prior to flying back from our honeymoon. In my admittedly non- extensive travels, SJ had the least safe vibe of anywhere.
TBF, I felt much safer in *Most* of San Jose (during the day) than in the sketchier parts of *most* American cities that have even a hint of poverty (which is most). There is absolutely NO homeless problem in the entire country, their social services, mental health, addiction, welfare, and pension programs are quite robust, and prevent people from living on the streets, unless they really, really are far gone.
There is (essentially) zero gun violence or ownership.
One indicator of quality of life for most Costa Ricans is that we almost NEVER hear of Costa Ricans migrating across the northern borders, it’s extremely rare, as even the poor do better in C.A. than most poor immigrants. This is obviously opposite to some of their neighbors, (Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras). Panama is the same, from what I gather, I have never met an undocumented Tico or Panamanian, now that I think about it, lol.
There is also *almost* no gang activity visible at all.
It is quite expensive for Latin America.
 
Last edited:

Montana rider

Tom Sawyer
Mar 14, 2005
1,969
2,698
Eh, I'd move to Costa Rica (for 180 days at a time as per the US tourist visa) in a heartbeat.

No standing army, 100% renewables energy, a really high literacy rate, and a robust safety net for most.

As rideit said CR and Panama have the best (most stable) economies in Central America.

My buddy who's a DA down there, says the locals are getting salty about all the illegal immigration from Honduras etc.

But I sure as fuck wouldn't move to San Jose.

That said I'd be happy in the mountains of Peru or Bolivia as well... But obviously not Lima or La Paz
 

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,913
10,024
Crawlorado
TBF, I felt much safer in *Most* of San Jose (during the day) than in the sketchier parts of *most* American cities that have even a hint of poverty (which is most). There is absolutely NO homeless problem in the entire country, their social services, mental health, addiction, welfare, and pension programs are quite robust, and prevent people from living on the streets, unless they really, really are far gone.
There is (essentially) zero gun violence or ownership.
One indicator of quality of life for most Costa Ricans is that we almost NEVER hear of Costa Ricans migrating across the northern borders, it’s extremely rare, as even the poor do better in C.A. than most poor immigrants. This is obviously opposite to some of their neighbors, (Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras). Panama is the same, from what I gather, I have never met an undocumented Tico or Panamanian, now that I think about it, lol.
There is also *almost* no gang activity visible at all.
It is quite expensive for Latin America.
TBF, our experience was likely tainted by the fact that we needed a budget hotel to spend 12 hours in and we certainly got the budget experience. There was a small park outside with several passed out druggies in it and some dodgy looking folks loitering about.

But that's likely a reflection of that area moreso than the city at large. Most cities tend to have pockets like that. The remainder of the city could be perfectly lovely, much like our time in Quepos and La Fortuna.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,228
22,259
Sleazattle
I had a 1:1 meeting with my manager today, who I actually respect. I did have a bit of a problem as I recently had my "skill code" classified as a systems engineer instead of a controls engineer which I am not happy about. When I walked into the meeting room he was there as well as the person who will be replacing him in a month. I jokingly asked whether I was interrupting or if management was ganging up on me. He said they were ganging up on me and I replied "good, it will make it more of a fair fight".

I thought it was funny, they thought I was serious, and I am pretty sure they were a little afraid of me, so I went with it and leaned in on him and caused some squirming. Kind of funny but at least my new manager will know how things stand.
 

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
25,004
16,712
where the trails are
Worked, told my brand new boss I’m miserable, swapped snow tires for summers.
Decided to part out the RFX. Sweet deals on good antique parts coming. Selling the V10 too. Gotta clean that up and take pics.
 

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
11,186
8,888
Exit, CO
well, at least you are getting it checked out. Any Idea how you did that?
The original wound is a pressure ulcer from my ski boot. I got the shell punched out in that spot, but not before it caused the ulcer. I’ve been dealing with it for a few months. The infection is new over the past couple days, not exactly sure where/how/when but assuming it had something to do with activities on the riding trip I was on this past week. We rode wet trails, stayed in a hostel with a communal bathroom/shower, I wasn’t keeping up with general wound care like I normally would, we were riding a lot and drinking beer and not resting like I do at home, etc etc. I’m on a course of bactim now, one dose in and the redness has already receded a little and the swelling and pain are also reduced.