They say, “When it rains, it pours.” That’s sure what it has felt like ever since we moved into the new house. We feel like we’ve been surrounded by drama. It’s really been one disaster after another. But we have our heads held up high that 2006 is going to bring us to a happier, drama-free place.

First, I should update you on the situation with Karen, the woman who sold us property that had already been sold (by her) to another person over 8 years ago. It turns out he actually owns a 600 sq meter area of the land we bought, where we had plans to build our next building. The lot has one of the best views, utilities and has street access. For us to build now somewhere else, we would have to bring out water and electric – and build a road.

We continue to go back and forth with the seller. After months of refusing to give us a fair credit, she finally offered to give us a $20,000 credit off the mortgage we owe her – IF – we refinance and pay her off. Seems terribly unfair that we have to DO something to qualify for a credit for her doing something illegal.

Well, I wish life were that easy. But what is? Of course we have to wait until we get new plot maps drawn up and approved by the city (about 3 months) before we can go to a bank. Then it takes about another three more months to find out if we are approved and to close the deal.

We’ve already been waiting 4 months for Karen to get the ball rolling, so we find ourselves frustrated at having to pay, for probably close to a year, an additional $130 monthly for something that is not ours and that we can’t use.

To make it better, the guy who she sold the land to the first time is suing us for being on his property! Now we really have to make a decision about whether or not we’re going to take legal action against her. The problem is the legal system here would take between 8 and 10 years to see this through. And we only have a 5-year mortgage on the property with a balloon payment due at the end of the 5th year.

The law here states that no changes (ownership, mortgage, etc) can be made while there is a lawsuit in place. What happens when the 5 years are over? I guess we’d have to come up with the remaining cash – or lose the property to the person we’re fighting! We’re damned if we do – and we’re damned if we don’t!

Then there is the issue with the toxic waste pouring into our property from a neighborhood nearby. Seems that they allowed the neighborhood to be built without forcing the occupants to put in septic systems. Therefore, little to our knowledge all the runoff (called black water) was collecting into a big lake of crap just above us.

Upon complaints of stench from the people who live in the neighborhood – those who created the mess in the first place – the city decided the best thing to do was to dig a trench all the way from the toxic lake to our property, releasing the black water into the streams that flow all the way through our property and through all the neighbors beneath us as well. (Photo shows the trench the city dug. See Toxic Waste photo album for more pictures.)

The mayor said he can’t do anything about it (and was the person who approved the draining of the lake in the first place). So we have a couple of formal complaints in against the city, but it’s already been a few weeks and we’re told it’ll be at least another month before anyone gets to our complaint.

Sadly, it seems that this issue came to light about 3 years ago when they did the same thing. Karen (the previous owner) knew about this as well. So it seems that the deceit runs deeper than we originally thought.

Costa Rica prides herself on being ecologically-minded, but it’s clear that it’s just another line of crap intended to draw tourists here.

The moral of the story is two-fold. First, take ample time to investigate any property you plan on buying in a third-world country. Though we spent 3 months doing this and lots of money on lawyers to do multi-faceted investigations, it was obviously easy for the seller to hide these issues.

Secondly, be prepared for anything! Don’t make assumptions that things will work here the same way that they did in the country you moved from. It takes an incredible well of patience and hard work to move through major issues such as these. But it can be done. One really needs to know that this is where they belong – and that they have the staying power to survive these types of issues.

We are now focusing our energy on makes ourselves at home and being happy with what we have. It’s certainly a blow to our egos. But the alternative is not attractive. We could be pissed off and angry at everyone, however we would have to live daily with upset and negative energy. Instead, we chose to be grateful for our blessings and move forward one step at a time.

Our hope is that you, too, will have a wonderful and blessed 2006.