No my 33rd reason has nothing to do with Taco Bell.  I am what we call in Costa Rica a “perpetual tourist.”  And here is why?  I came here in 2001 on a business deal and for the next two years was traveling back and forth almost every month, therefore the thought of establishing “residency” never even occurred to me.  Then in 2004 I started Package Costa Rica and for the first two years of that business I also was traveling back and forth and the idea of residency did not seem necessary. Okay in 2006 I made my permanent move and finally residency became important to me.  So I got an attorney who promised that he could make my residency sail through the bureaucracy like grease through a goose.  A year later I was told that it wasn’t going to be as easy as first thought.  At that point I was frustrated and decided to hire another, more reputable, attorney, who again told me pretty much the same.  A year later, still no residency.  So here we are in 2008 and after all is said and done I am still a @#$%*&^ tourist!  So, what does that have to do with the title of this post?  Well as a perpetual tourist, I have to leave the country every thee months for three days in order to renew my tourist visa.  I can go anywhere I choose, as long as I cross the border and stay put for three days, or seventy-two hours.  That is why there is that question on the immigration form you sign when you enter the country whereby you swear that you have been out of the country for seventy-two hours (look closely next time, it is there).  So what’s to love about that you ask?  Well it kinda forces me to get to know our neighboring countries, like Nicaragua, Panama and even Colombia, which I visited in January of this year.  These places are actually very special too, despite political and social problems that still linger (especially in Nicaragua and Colombia).  It is like getting to take a little mini-vacation every three months.  Truth is, Costa Rica has an immigration problem.  I have heard there are some 500,000 illegal Nicaraguans living within these borders, not to mention Colombians, Panamanians, Dominicans, etc.  Proportionately speaking, the problem is much greater than in the U.S.  I don’t want to be part of that problem.  So, I am still trying to fight through the beaurocratic maze of Costa Rican Immigration and get my residency (although I really think at this point an “honorary residency” is in order…..sort of along the lines of the “national convenience” decree that was issued to the billionaire Steve Case).  When I do, I plan to continue taking my little vacations to neighboring countries (I really would like to visit Peru). But at least I won’t carry around the stigma of being a “mojado indocumentado” any longer.

P.S.  For those of you out there who acquired your Costa Rican cedulas painlessly and effortlessly…..GET A LIFE!

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