The Golden Gringo Chronicles: Part 1

This is a true story of a gringo in his sixties who visited Costa Rica eight times over five years, felt very comfortable visiting the country and decided to retire there at the age of 65. Our hero’s name is Dudley Bodoh and his resemblance to the author is significant.
The story explains the reasoning process behind Dudley’s decision to move to Costa Rica and why he decided to take up residence on the south central pacific coast in a small town called Quepos that is contiguous with a well-known resort area called Manuel Antonio. His love for the beach and the wildness that is the Costa Rican jungle, as well as the friendliness of the natives leads him to choose this particular part of a beautiful country. He analyzes his living situation in Florida and concludes that leaving behind all he’d known for ten years would be emotionally difficult but easily accomplished physically.
In a rush of enthusiasm, our hero decides to drive to his adopted country but runs into many obstacles that challenge his unbridled and unrealistic expectations. Problems mount further for Dudley when a new friend and expected travel companion who was fluent in Spanish, surprises our hero by announcing a few days before departure that he can’t go for legal reasons! Undaunted by this reversal, Dudley decides to drive to Costa Rica alone but encounters a fresh set of problems, some of which he created himself, that turn him back from the Mexican border.
Dudley then spends a whole weekend in Brownsville, Texas ruminating about his trip and the problems he is facing. He receives some unexpected wisdom from a chance encounter with a young lady on the beach at South Padre Island. And, after meeting some experienced Central America travelers (legal and illegal) in a Brownsville restaurant Dudley decides to reverse his decision to drive to Costa Rica, return to Sarasota and come up with a Plan B. Within two weeks he is able to sell his car and reduce his belongings to a couple of suitcases. The he accompanies three ladies on a trip by air to Costa Rica that he had planned months before, using an airline ticket he had planned to abandon.
Once there our hero took up residence sharing an apartment with an acquaintance he had met on a previous trip. Within a short time, that deal fell through and Dudley had to find a living place of his own. With help from friends and a great deal of good luck, he quickly found a place in downtown Quepos that would turn out to be his living abode for years to come.
Dudley spent the next few weeks trying to establish bank accounts, learning the ropes when it comes to where to go to buy anything and getting used to limited facilities in a small town in a developing country. He learned some things will have to wait until his residency was more formal, at least with the government.
But our hero still looked forward to melding into the community and enjoying his retirement without incident.
Maybe, amigo.