Keeping Your Bearings Straight - Business & Working

A Travel Business is Born
By Robert Hodel
So there I was, preparing for the culmination of three years of law when I realized that sinking feeling just was not going to go away. That feeling I was referring to was the fact that I did not want to spend the rest of my life, nor even one minute for that matter, as a lawyer. As soon as I accepted that fact I was in a quandry. What was I to do?

It was then I remembered from somewhere that the key to any successful business venture one may choose is to: 1) do what you like and 2) do what you know or do well. With that in mind I pondered my future both day and night. Finally, I realized the thing I liked most to do was travel and the place I knew best, other than my home town, was Costa Rica. I knew where was the best place to go and when. I also knew how to get the best prices on airfare, rental cars and hotels. So after a long phone call with my brother, who was even more knowledgeable than myself, I had a plan. We would start a travel company dedicated primarily to Costa Rica and we would call it Tico Travel. I would move back to Costa Rica and introduce myself to the hotels, car rental companies and tour operators that we wanted to work with plus stay on top of any new developments that would be of interest to our clients.

My brother moved to Florida and opened our office and was able to give our clients expert information on Costa Rica with a "gringo" point of view. Within a short amount of time we became the agency of choice for people that travel frequently to Costa Rica and also for the first time visitor. Along the way we learned many things. For instance, just because it makes sense does not mean it works that way. We also found no matter how much we advertised, that over 80% of our clients were either clients' referals or repeat customers, as a testimony to how important one's reputation is in this part of the world.

I have been told many times that one could make many times more money with the same effort if we were in the United States. That may be so but I have been told something else by a longtime resident here, "We are not here for the money, we are here for the lifestyle." See Tico Travel on the Internet at www.ticotravel.com.



Round Trip Back to Paradise
By Jay Trettien
"I never had more money or had more fun than when I lived in Costa Rica," was my response when a fellow bartender friend from southern California suggested we open a bar in Baja California. "If you're heading South of the Border, you may as well go to Costa Rica, where the weather is nicer and the people more friendly," I said. I was first invited to Costa Rica in 1973 by a college friend who worked for the Bank of America. Through the bank he had met an American who needed help with a bar he had just bought. My friend suggested that maybe I would come to Costa Rica to help out. A late-night phone call, and two weeks later I arrived from New York. After a few weeks of working together, the bar owner and I had developed trust and a friendship and, on the strength of a handshake, I became a partner in what was to become Central America's most popular "Gringo" rock and roll bar, Ye Pub. Gringos and ticos loved the place. After living in Costa Rica for a while , I was granted a cédula, or Costa Rican "green card." But the time came to sell. Costa Rica had been enjoying a spectacular boom but with small countries as fast as it goes up, it can go down. After three years we sold.

With a girlfriend that was driving me nuts it was easy to leave Costa Rica. I visited every country in South America. I had already seen almost all of Europe, most of the United States and Canada. So, I ended up in Australia and New Zealand for about four years, finally washing up on the shores of southern California. I began thinking about Costa Rica again and made a brief visit about 12 years ago to be pleasantly surprised that I still had friends in the country. I returned to California, loaded up the old Pontiac and ended up back in Costa Rica.

A lucky coincidence got me my cédula back when the Costa Rican government declared an amnesty for all foreigners, trying to get a grip on all the illegal Nicaraguans in the country. Now I'm working at a popular San José hotel bar. I think I have about $150 under my mattress, but I have a good time and a lot of fun. When guests ask me how long I've been in Costa Rica, I say, " I don't remember...10-12 years." And that's the truth, I don't really remember. Guest, "Do you like Costa Rica?" "NO! I'm here on the United States Witness Protection Program, but they could only find this low-profile job for me!"