Moving to Costa Rica- My STORY

Thinking about moving or retiring to Costa Rica? Then CHECK -OUT the following VIDEOS of our MOVE to Costa Rica.

Hey EVERYONE! I get a lot of emails asking how me and D'Angelo ever found our WAY to La Fortuna Costa Rica. So I'm going to tell you. And now I have ALL 3 videos in ONE place....Whoo hoo!

Ours is a STORY of deception, shady land dealings, sketchy business practices and a CAST of characters who should have their own REALITY SHOW. But the 'sketchiness' of it ALL is not really the point, the point is we want to share our experiences so YOU can learn from our MISTAKES, so many mistakes in fact, a 'Comedy of Errors' would be a vast understatement if our MOVE to Costa Rica were made into a broadway show... funny-stupid, BUT unfortunately for us, TRUE. *We've learned a LOT in the last 6 years, which is partly the reason we started our websites and blogs, to pass along our experiences, living, traveling and doing business in Costa Rica, to YOU.

So, here's Part 1 of how D'Angelo and myself came in contact with Gene Conti, 'the peddler of Paradise', and decided to pack it ALL up and make the move to La Fortuna Costa Rica.



Hey GUYS! This is the second part of 'Moving to Costa Rica- My STORY'. In this video I'll tell you the MANY mistakes we made when D'Angelo and myself decided to make the move to Costa Rica and give it a GO.

Gene Conti, owner of Palo Verde Resort didn't have to work very hard on selling us on La Fortuna Costa Rica- we were ALREADY impressed.
And if you're even THINKING about moving or doing business in Costa Rica, well, then you don't want to miss this VIDEO, because it just might save you from some BIG TIME, potential headaches. Just because we learned EVERYTHING the hard way, doesn't mean we want you to do the same.

I have to admit, it's HARD to tell our story without coming across as the victims (we're definitely NOT), or perhaps complaining, or having 'sour grapes', and I can assure you, that is NOT our intent. We're merely trying to INFORM. BUT, this is our story based on OUR experiences with certain people, such as Gene Conti, but I encourage you to do your own homework, draw your own conclusions and form your own opinions, I don't ask that you believe or dis-believe anything I say.

*If you're INTERESTED in following our on-going fight with the owners of Arenal Bungalows and Palo Verde Resort, then visit my other blog: Arenal Bungalows

K, here's part 2 of 'Moving to Costa Rica- My STORY':



And not the FINAL CHAPTER of OUR MOVE to Costa Rica:

Hey EVERYONE, here's the 3rd part to our STORY on making the move to Costa Rica. So, we were down here 3-4 months and things didn't work OUT.....now what do we do? Go back to the States? Try and find something to get into, WHAT?



TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 Oh, and we also have all the INFO about GAY Travel in Costa Rica. ENjoY!

Moving to Costa Rica- My STORY pt 2

Gene Conti, owner of Palo Verde Resort didn't have to work very hard on selling us on La Fortuna Costa Rica- we were ALREADY impressed.
Hey GUYS! This is the second part of 'Moving to Costa Rica- My STORY'. In this video I'll tell you the MANY mistakes we made when D'Angelo and myself decided to make the move to Costa Rica and give it a GO. And if you're even THINKING about moving or doing business in Costa Rica, well, then you don't want to miss this VIDEO, because it just might save you from some BIG TIME, potential headaches. Just because we learned EVERYTHING the hard way, doesn't mean we want you to do the same.

I have to admit, it's HARD to tell our story without coming across as the victims (we're definitely NOT), or perhaps complaining, or having 'sour grapes', and I can assure you, that is NOT our intent. We're merely trying to INFORM. BUT, this is our story based on OUR experiences with certain people, such as Gene Conti, but I encourage you to do your own homework, draw your own conclusions and form your own opinions, I don't ask that you believe or dis-believe anything I say.

*If you're INTERESTED in following our on-going fight with the owners of Arenal Bungalows and Palo Verde Resort, then visit my other blog: Arenal Bungalows

K, here's part 2 of 'Moving to Costa Rica- My STORY':



TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 Oh, and we also have all the INFO about GAY Travel in Costa Rica. ENjoY!

My FIGHT with the BIG BOYS

My FIGHT with Arenal Bungalows, Robert 'Bobby' Blair, Eugene 'Gene' Conti, Larry Bernstein and Nico Pisani is a personal everyday STRUGGLE and this blog is not the appropriate place to either write about, nor air those ISSUES.

BUT, if you're interested or EVER considered re-locating, buying land or doing business in Costa Rica, then you probably should be interested, I've created a NEW blog solely to document my personal struggles with the above folks so you can follow ALONG and maybe LEARN how NOT to do things if you've ever considered the MOVE.

Here's a snippet from my NEW blog, Arenal Bungalows.

"Robert Bobby Blair owner of Arenal Bungalows has a few problems and ONE is ME. I'll get to that in a minute. Robert Bobby Blair is a real estate 'flipper' and he also will TEACH you his SECRETS in his Seminars. Nothing wrong with 'flipping'- made some money doing it myself, NOT sure you need Bobby Blair's SECRETS in order to do it, but whatever. So, I'm assuming, with strong evidence of course, Bobby Blair is attempting to 'flip' his newly acquired purchase of the Palo Verde Resort, which he smartly and quickly re-named, Arenal Bungalows. *I know he's at least attempting to 'flip' Arenal Bungalows because he has already advertised the property on Craigslist."

....read the REST of the STORY.

THERE you have it. Follow along if you want, but 'Do'in Costa Rica' will be what it's ALWAYS been: my perspective and experience on traveling and LIFE in Costa Rica.
Thanx for understanding.

TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 Oh, and we also have all the INFO about GAY Travel in Costa Rica. ENjoY!

the MOVE to Costa Rica- My Story

Somethings FISHY, Arenal Bungalows in La Fortuna Costa Rica WAS the Palo Verde Resort just a short time ago. WTF? Why can I smell ROTTEN from here? Because I'm a 10% owner of Palo Verde Resort and I don't know ANYTHING about Arenal Bungalows. Can you say, "Out of the LOOP?"

*Changed the name to Arenal Bungalows, but judging by the pics (above) on BOTH websites, STILL looks like Palo Verde to me.

*If you happened to find this post by GOOGLEing any of the following names or places, this post (video) may be of some interest to you: Robert 'Bobby' Blair, Eugene 'Gene' Conti, Arenal Bungalows, Palo Verde Resort, Craig 'Nico' Pisani and Larry Bernstein.

Hey EVERYONE! I get a lot of emails asking how me and D'Angelo ever found our WAY to La Fortuna Costa Rica. So I'm going to tell you.

Ours is a STORY of deception, shady land dealings, sketchy business practices and a CAST of characters who should have their own REALITY SHOW. But the 'sketchiness' of it ALL is not really the point, the point is we want to share our experiences so YOU can learn from our MISTAKES, so many mistakes in fact, a 'Comedy of Errors' would be a vast understatement if our MOVE to Costa Rica were made into a broadway show... funny-stupid, BUT unfortunately for us, TRUE. *We've learned a LOT in the last 6 years, which is partly the reason we started our websites and blogs, to pass along our experiences, living, traveling and doing business in Costa Rica, to YOU.

So, here's Part 1 of how D'Angelo and myself came in contact with Gene Conti, 'the peddler of Paradise', and decided to pack it ALL up and make the move to La Fortuna Costa Rica.



Part 2 is coming SOON! Don't miss it, it gets BETTER.

TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 Oh, and we also have all the INFO about GAY Travel in Costa Rica. ENjoY!

La Fortuna Costa Rica- OUT of a JOB

We had some money, but by no means could we hang out in a foreign country with no income for any length of time. We knew the way they ran Palo Verde that we would never see any monthly income, and almost 3 years later we were right - haven't seen a dime. We could last awhile, but we had to find something we would both be passionate in doing and that would pay the bills. The positive is the bills are about 1/3 what we were paying in the states. Unless you own your own business in Costa Rica, you can't really work for someone else, well you can, but it's under the table and there's really no future in it. You need to come up with your own source. We were thinking the computer was the way to go so that's where we headed. But what to do? My computer skills were/are fairly lame, although D'Angelo more than makes up for my shortcomings. T-Shirts? So all you have to do is design and market your website and the company (Spreadshirt or CafePress does the printing, shipping etc.) We realized we wouldn't get rich off this, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I still think it was. We have t-shirt website called: Gay Boy Tshirts. Boy was it hard, and what a learning curve. You need to learn new programs, how to market on the internet, site optimazation, linking and the list goes on. It didn't take long to realize you can have the sweetest website on the internet, but if no one knows about it, then well........

We finished the t-shirt site and there it sits, hopefully working its way up in the search engines (we're on page 4 of google if you search gay t shirt...whoo hoo). Our neighbor and eventual partner told us about an idea he was kicking around- a website devoted to Costa Rica, but in a youtube type format- total video. He had a computer designer programmer/designer in San Jose already working on it. We thought it was a great idea (still do). We realized he was on to something, so we asked if he wanted our help. We knew he would say yes, cause he needed some capital. So, the CostaRicaTravelChannel.com was born. That was Sept. 2007. Now the website along with it's sister website TravelCostaRicaNow.com take up all our time. And is it ever fun. It is already, but will be an even bigger website- hundreds of videos about ANYTHING Costa Rica- vacation, travel, beaches, surfing, music, education, adventure, information, travel tips, you name, we have it. Then there's the other part of the site, which is total 'content,' written pages about the same things, pretty much like a lot of other Costa Rican websites, only ours is better..hehe. Eventually we will have a virtual store, forums, sell tour packages etc, the whole nine yards. Our attempt is to put Costa Rica all in one place. But what D'Angelo and I do is video tape travel tips, sort of a video Lonely Planet Tour book. We travel around the country and tape our views and opinions about Costa Rican destinations and anything we else that seems interesting.

WE HAVEN' T MADE A DIME YET! It's been over a year now. But we don't care. It will work out. It's a great idea and we'll just keep plugging away. We have good people working on this and it will be a success, we'll have it no other way. I think we found our passion!

If you need Costa Rica Travel Information then CHECK OUT our travel guide at: Travel Costa Rica NOW and see all our Costa Rica Travel Tip Videos on YouTube.

La Fortuna Costa Rica- Gotta Start Somewhere pt 2

I swear, I WILL get to more relevant topics about Costa Rica that you the reader actually care about, but just need to finish up the story of how we got here and decided to stay. Bare with me-

We moved right into the resort we're part owners in- Palo Verde Resort (pic on the right). It's sits almost at the base of Volcan Arenal in La Fortuna and comes with stunning views, and is surrounded by lush vegetation and howler monkeys- we're so excited to jump into our new life. So, we end up making a contract for us to manage the place. The major share holder, the guy I met in Vegas, had been running the place, and how do I put this delicately- he is not the manager type, but he seemed aware that this was the case. Without complaining, whining, or saying how we were deceived, I'll just say- things didn't work out. Luckily it only took us about 4 months to realize we were basically deceived and somewhat manipulated- I did in fact trust him and did think we were friends, so I did believe what he told me. The positive part about this story is our investment into the place and the buying of the land was actually a great deal for us. To this day we still own a 'piece' of Palo Verde, a quarter acre lot and its still a great investment. We just don't have anything really to do with it. Tensions had gotten so bad, we had to leave the resort (which we wanted to do). But this was a big shift, we didn't really have an option B. We had sold everything to make this happen........

Now what? Dreams crushed? Do we move back to the States with our tails between our legs? I think not and actually it was never an option- that was almost 3 years ago. We moved to the center of La Fortuna, right next to the park. We have a small apartment overlooking the park- and it's great. But what do we do now as we are not wealthy and we need to make money. I'll get to that later....

What't this mean to YOU? In your decision to make a major move, you really do need an option B, C, D, and probably an E just to be on the safe side. Things don't always work out as planned, especially here, where you run into A LOT of unanticiapted obstacles- especially in the areas of shading gringos, shady investments, shady tico's looking to take advantage (gringo pricing), and just plain bad information that could not have been foreseen. Looking back I'm not sure I would have done anything different, like I said, the investment was sound and it wasn't a 'shady' deal- and I really thought we were kindered spirits of sorts. But the BEST part- I (we) live in Costa Rica and I (we) wouldn't have it any other way.

If you need Costa Rica Travel Information then CHECK OUT our travel guide at: Travel Costa Rica NOW and see all our Costa Rica Travel Tip Videos on YouTube.