I'm Planning a Vacation to Costa Rica, What's the Health Care Delivery System Like There?

This is from an article written by Jo Stuart for the daily  English  language online newspaper "AM Costa Rica".  Jo, as she is called by her friends,  is a long time resident of Costa Rica and here she talks about her experience with the government sponsored universal health care insurance offered to everyone.

She writes "While the health care and medical insurance debate rages in the United States, most of the rest of the civilized world has long ago found it's own solution.  Costa Rica is among them. It has a government sponsored universal health care insurance available to all for a fee each month.  This fee is determined by the income a person makes.  In other words a person pays according to his means. "

In addition, private health care insurance is available  from  many different companies.  One of the biggest sellers of this private health insurance is the Instituto National de Seguros, a government sponsored program known at the INS.

Jo explains that when she joined the government universal health care system she was assigned a clinic and a hospital in the area where she lives.  If a doctor of a particular speciality is not at this hospital and she needs to be seen by him, then she will be given permission to go to a different clinic or hospital.   This insurance does not disallow anyone for a preexisting condition.

Jo applied for a gold card (65 or older)  With this card you get certain privileges such as riding public buses free.   Also, with this gold card you can go to the front of the line in the public banks.

Also at the health clinics this card will allow you to go to a special window where you do not have to wait for a long period of time.

The universal health insurance also covers  dentist but you have to go to a dentist who works with this insurance.  And eye care is covered, again you have to go were the insurance is accepted.

On the other hand, private health care is reasonable.  Much cheaper than the US and on the whole very good.  Two private hospitals Cima and Clinica Biblica are very popular with the English speaking people.  One can purchase a health insurance policy which will send them to one of these two hospitals.

The Costa Ricans differ in their opinion about the government  run universal health care.    Some talk about long waits and standing in long lines.  But, Jo says that over the years she has received as good a care as she did while living in the US at a fraction of the cost.  She states that she had her pacemaker replaced (this pacemaker was originally put in when she lived in the United States).  Jo said that  she was very pleased with the doctors  and the hospital in Costa Rica  where her pacemaker was replaced.

People who move to Costa Rica and take residency will now have to enroll in this government universal health care system, whether you choose to use it or not.   It is my understanding  that you  will not have a choice.  Although I have been told that  the  monthly premium is not a great deal of money.

You  can read more of Jo Stuart's interesting articles by googling  AM Costa Rica.  Her column  is called "Living in Costa Rica".....where the living is good.

Here at costaricalearn.com we would love to share your experience with health care in Costa Rica, just click on comments or reply at the end of this article.

A Good Car Rental Company in Costa Rica, Solid Car Rental

[caption id="attachment_2183" align="alignleft" width="320" caption="Suzuki Jimmy 4x4 I rented while visiting Costa Rica"][/caption]

I would like to tell you about a car rental company in Costa Rica that I have twice rented from and have been very pleased with their services.  The name is Solid Car Rental company. I rented from their main office near the San Jose International Airport.  A young man named Jonathan, who speaks very good English,  was assigned to help me.  He was courteous and prompt.

I rented a small vehicle, a Suzuki Jimmy 4x4, for my husband and me.  There was room for 2 more passengers in the back seat, plus a couple pieces of small luggage in the area behind the back seat.  But is was just my husband and me so we had ample room.  I choose the 4x4 because we planned to drive outside the central valley and some of the roads have potholes.  The vehicle was a 2008 with all new tires.

They delivered the car to me at my hotel located about 12 minutes outside Alajuela,  the town located right near by the San Jose International Airport.  Rates for car rentals are very similiar among all the many car rental agencies in Costa Rica.  But do look on the car rental web sites for any specials that might be offered, and do ask for specials if you call and speak to a sales person.

Please read my article "Guide to Renting a Car in Costa Rica, Saving Time and Money"  It's under that same name in the categories.  There I talk about, among many other things, the importance of obtaining collision insurance through you major credit card company  BEFORE  you depart from you home country.

Solid Rental Car company has satellite offices in Liberia at the Liberia International Airport and in most of the other heavily trafficked tourism destinations.  All these are listed on their web site.

Learn more about Solid Rental Car Agency at www.solidcarrental.com Rates you see there DO NOT  include the insurance.   Call their 800 toll free number listed on the web site to ask all your questions and get  personal service.

Here at  costaricalearn.com we would love to hear about your experience with renting a car in Costa Rica so we can share it with our readers.  Just click comment or reply and let us share your stories.

Costa Rica Road Maps, Find them at www.costa-rica-guide.com

Many of my readers have asked me about where to find road maps of Costa Rica on line.  I found good maps at www.costa-rica-guide.com When the page comes up look to the left and click on Costa Rica Maps.  These maps are by regions so just click on the region you are interested in.  These maps show the MAIN roads, not the secondary roads.  If you are renting a car be sure to ask the car rental agency  for a Costa Rica road map.  They give them for free and these  are good maps which show both the main roads and the secondary roads.   Remember it takes longer to drive around Costa Rica than it looks on the map because the country is mountainous and mountain roads are winding and sometimes narrow.  Also weather conditions determine what speed you can drive.

Costa Rica's Exotic Flower, The Orchid Plus Other Exotic Plants

[caption id="attachment_2170" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Yellow Iris,  Lake Arenal"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2171" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Very Rare Cattleya, Scent of chocolate, La Paz Waterfall Gardens"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2172" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Passion flower ,  Arenal Volcano"][/caption]

Exotic Fan Plant,  Tortuguero on the Caribbean

Miniature purple orchid on a bromeliad, Lobby Ramada Hotel

[caption id="attachment_2173" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Flame Azalea, High Altitudes around Poasito"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2162" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Phalaenopsis, among the easiest to grow"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2163" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Phalaenopsis pale purple"][/caption]

Costa Rica Spotlight: At The Botanical Orchid Garden in Costa Rica, Learn about the Life Cycle of Orchids

[caption id="attachment_2157" align="alignleft" width="640" caption="National flower of Costa Rica "La Guardia Morada""][/caption]

If you are vacationing in Costa Rica and have a free morning or afternoon and you are an orchid lover, come on over to The Botanical Orchid Garden, located off the Jaco exist in La Garita de Alajuela.   Departing The San Jose  international airport,  head north on the inter American highway  (highway 1) and take the Jaco exit and turn left.  Complete directions listed below.

If you are curious about these exotic plants and want to learn more about how they are grown and their complete life cycle,  then The Botanical Orchid Garden is the place to visit.  It was established precisely for that purpose:  to educate people about the beautiful orchids and to remind people to slow down and enjoy what nature has to offer  and the importance of conserving it.

The owner Claudio Salas  said that he and his family have spent more than thirty six years developing the garden which opened to the public two and one half years ago. Mr. Salas explains that of the 25,000 species of orchids in the world,  1500 are found in Costa Rica, which has all the right conditions for orchids to thrive.  There is the combination of heavy rainfall, high humidity, and warm tropical temperatures and tropical breezes.

A thousand things must occur, all at the same time  for an orchid to thrive, Mr Salas explains.  Typically a tropical orchid seed in the wild will take growth on the trunk of a tree, and if all these conditions are right, the orchid seed will sprout and grow into a beautiful adult orchid.

We enter the first greenhouse filled with potted orchids which is a kind of laboratory where we can actually see the cultivation process of the orchids, from seed to full maturation of the flower.  This taught me more than I could ever learn from reading a book about growing orchids.

The second greenhouse  is home to dozens of orchid varieties in full bloom and what a beautiful sight!   Mr. Salas explained  the different varieties and what makes one different from the other and how to care for each variety.  I left feeling like I could actually grows orchids myself with a little  help from mother nature .

Getting There: From San jose international airport continue on highway 1  until you see the Jaco Exit (12 km) 7.5 miles. At the top of the exit ramp take a left turn.  Go 3 km or 1.8 miles to La Fiesta De Maiz Restaurant.  Take a left turn here and go 800 meters.  You will see the entrance on the left to the Botancial Orchid Garden.

Hours open:  8:30 am to 4:30 pm Tuesday thru Sunday.  Closed on Mondays.  Entrance fee $12  Kids are $6  ages 5-12.

The Vanilla Cafe, located on site offers food and drinks.

Read more  about the Botanical Orchid Gardens  www.orchidgardencr.com

Highly recommended!  If you love orchids and would like to tell us about your Costa Rica orchid experiences, we would love to share it with our readers.    Thanks,  costaricalearn.com

Costa Rica's Sloths Hang Upside Down in the Rain Forest and Sleep 10 Hours a Day

Sloths live in the tropical rain forest of Costa Rica.  If you really want  to see sloths go to the Caribbean low land rain forest  where hundreds of sloths make their home.  They hang  mysteriously, upside down, clinging to the tree limbs with their toes or claws.  Enchanting creatures!  But with strange habits.  They sleep around ten hours per day, and the other time is spent eating mostly tender shoots and leaves of the Cecropia trees. These leaves provide very little energy and do not digest easily, therefore, the Sloth has a large, specialized slow acting stomach with multiple compartments in which symbiotic bacteria break down the tough leaves, and the digestive process can take a month or longer.  The sloth has a very slow metabolic rate and maintains low body temperatures, around 86-93 degrees F.

They go down to the ground about once a week to urinate and defecate, and go to the same spot all the time, where the sloths seem to find each other for breeding purposes.   And females usually bear one baby sloth per year.

The strangest thing is that although sloths are slow creatures on land, they are very good and fast swimmers under the water.  When do they go into the water?  Well, we don't have the answer to that questions.  Maybe it's when they want to take a bath?

[caption id="attachment_2142" align="alignleft" width="320" caption="Romance among the Sloths"][/caption]

If you are visiting the Southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica be sure to stop in for a sloth tour at Aviarios del Caribe, a sloth sanctuary created to rehabilitate injured sloths.  Here you learn all about sloths and their life cycles.  And you get to visit with Buttercup, the first sloth to be brought into the sanctuary some sixteen years ago.  Also see baby sloths being fed with eyedroppers by young volunteers who come here from different universities around the world to study this strange creature and it's environment.

Would you like to join a Sloth Club?  Apparently there is one based in Japan with about seven hundred members.   Sorry I don't have the link to get you in touch with the club.  Just google sloth club Japan.  The club's philosophy is based on this quiet, peaceful, efficient, and non violent creature.

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Tamarindo Wildlife refuge and Las Baulas National Park, Costa Rica

[caption id="attachment_2128" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="baby leatherback turtles Grande Beach Costa Rica"][/caption]

leatherback turtle Grande Beach Costa Rica

Tamarindo Wildlife Refuge covers about 400 hectaries (a very large area)  was created to protect the vast Mangrove swamps in the area, at the request of the locals who saw the large high rise developments going up near Tamarindo and were afraid that this would continue on up to the Grande Beach and other beautiful and serene beaches to the north of Tamarindo.

There are several species of mangrove that flourish on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.  The black mangrove, the white mangrove,  the tea mangrove, and the buttonwood mangrove.  Many birds made their home in these mangroves.  The most commonly seen are the great egret, white ibis, great blue heron, and the Muscovy duck.

Las Baulas National Park comprises three beaches, Grande Beach, Ventana Beach, and Langosta Beach.  Grande Beach which is part of the Tamarindo wildlife refuge, is one of the most important nesting sites for the leather back turtle, and the park was created in part to protect these turtles.   The turtles come here  to nest from November through April.

The leather back turtle is the largest of all sea turtles growing up to two meters long and weighing up to 700 kg. It’s the only turtle that has a very thick skin cover, very much like leather.  As many as 200 of these turtles may lay their eggs in one night.

Playa Grande (Beach)  is popular with tourists because of it’s long span of unspoiled beach with light brown sand.  The waters are calm enough for swimming and sometimes the waves are large enough for surfing.  You can see animals that live in the beach sand such as hermit crabs, ghost crabs, and mouth less crabs.

Where is Tamarindo Wildlife Refuge and Las Baulas National Park  located?  In the NW Pacific coast of Costa Rica in the Nicoya Peninsula.  It is just north of the  beach town of Tamarindo.

Many people come here for bird watching.  There are so many birds such as sandpipers, brown pelicans, frigate birds,  and the roseate spoonbill, plus several different kinds of seagulls.  Early morning is the best time to see the most birds.

Howler monkeys also make their home in the park.

Best time of year to visit.  Well if you want to see the turtles nesting then November through April.

Year round the weather is nice here, but on the hot side.  Around 80 degrees F.   This area of Costa Rica gets less rainfall than the other parts of the country so you generally see sunny mornings.  May through November you will get late afternoon thunderstorms.

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