Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
GENERAL TIPS IN COSTA RICA
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Costa Rican lifestyle tends to be more laid-back than that of North American or European countries, be patient if things take longer to be done than in your home country.
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The road infrastructure (street conditions and road signals) in Costa Rica is not very developed, so be patient when traveling within the country.
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Cars do not yield to other cars or pedestrians! Be careful when you cross our streets.
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Buy coffee. Even if you’re not a coffee drinker, you’re bound to know someone who is and coffee is the best buy in Costa Rica.
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Wear conservative clothing. Foreigners often receive more attention than the want, and this is one way to help avoid it.
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Don’t forget to ask what comes on the food you order.
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Don’t leave things unattended on the beach while you’re swimming.
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Always carry a photocopy of your passport, showing your photograph and the date you entered the country. Leave the original in the safety deposit box at your hotel.
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Keep your airline ticket, important documents, cash and travelers checks in the hotel safe. Write the numbers of your travelers checks in a separate place.
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Always change your money at a bank or your hotel, never on the street.
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Don’t wear valuable jewelry and carry only the amount of money you’ll need for each day.
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Under no circumstances give money to traffic police or other police officers.
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Cabs are red with the license plate number painted in the middle of a yellow triangle on both doors and airport cabs are orange.
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Inside the National Parks follow the safety tips posted inside the parks, explore the trails in groups of two or more and do not touch the plants or attempt to pet the animals.
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At the beach find out what parts of the coast are safe and which are not and if you feel yourself being pulled out to sea, stay calm, do not try to swim directly to the shore, instead, swim parallel to the shore towards breaking waves and let them help you get back to the beach.
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If you are going out at night, have the hotel receptionist call you a cab.
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Please make every effort to have a minimal negative impact on the natural and human environment that you encounter and to conserve natural resources.
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Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Costa Rica has been named as one of the top destinations for health tourism, a growing industry of people traveling abroad to have cosmetic surgery that is too costly back home. Other countries in the top 5 were Malaysia, Panama, India and Brazil.
These countries are most popular because of their advanced, high quality health services, and low costs. Malaysia and India attract people from all over the world, as do Costa Rica Brazil, and Panama, but the latter three attract the most U.S. citizens, because of the above reasons as well as their Americanised cultures.
Costa Rica’s medical tourism industry is one part of the economy that has been growing lately, and experts predict this is a market sector that will continue to see growth for the foreseeable future, especially given that these places are developing people’s trust having been popular with medical tourists for a few years now, and benefiting from word of mouth. Trust is an integral part of a developing country becoming popular with medical tourists.
The releases have touched on the growing medical tourism industry in Costa Rica before, but only that growth in the sector will continue Costa Rica’s ability to grow economically, and how the incoming visitors are strengthening the rental market in Costa Rica.
The factors not mentioned were, that countries like Costa Rica, in order to maintain their reputation as a medical tourism destination, must make themselves attractive to specialist surgeons from more advanced countries. To do this they rely on the ability to provide high quality rented accommodation. This is excellent news for the Costa Rica property market.
Medical tourism is yet another growing string to Costa Rica’s economic bow, which already has unique tourist attracting features, like the fact that it boasts five percent of the world’s ecology, in only 0.003% of the world’s land mass. But other places in Latin America have equally rich and diverse ecological systems; Costa Rica is set apart by its stability and safety, making it ideal for family holidays.
Costa Ricans readily boast that their country has no need for an army, the country is so peaceful that schoolchildren oversee election parades, and there are more doctors in the country than policemen and women. Perhaps the latter feature played a part in Costa Rica ranking above the U.S. in a recent study into world health services, and also plays a part in Costa Rica’s success in the new medical tourism phenomenon.
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