Only slightly related, but I'm sitting on a beach in Costa Rica right now. The Internet is fast, it's beautiful (although it just rained), and is cheaper than SF (where I'm from). You don't need a billion dollar company for A.
We just gave up living on the beach in the nicoya peninsula (samara) after 4 months. Bad internet access was a major part of that. The only options there were 3G and DSL. Max speeds were 3Mbs and the connection was unreliable. They are rolling out fiber in 2014 though so it should get better.
Cost of living was only slightly cheaper than Utah, where we are from. I'm sure it is less than California, but not nearly as cheap as we thought. We did hire a nanny and cook for a very good rate. Cars and US goods were very expensive.
Amazing and beautiful place though. I'll go again, just not to live.
I spent a month in CR last year, for such a small country it puts the UK to shame, I rarely found myself out of 3G coverage, even up in the cloud forest!.
Compare that to my usual South Coast train commute to London where I'm lucky if I get about 25% coverage for a 2 hour journey, and we're supposed to be a G8 nation!
On a side note, I've been working on my startup whilst travelling the states, Hawaiian Islands and backpacking through the Fijian Yasawa Islands and just got back to the UK. I'd highly recommend travelling to anyone looking to get something off the ground, I've always found it a cheaper alternative to paying rent in a fixed locality, there's nothing that beats just speaking to people from different backgrounds about your idea and getting their input.
I spent a while there out of college getting my priorities in order and loved it. I was pretty broke at the time but it was super easy to find beachfront hostels that were 5-6 bucks a night. Couldn't have asked for a better experience
I worked full time through college with minimal breaks so when I graduated, I needed a major break. Quit the job I had been at through college and spent four months in Central America. It was the perfect reset before jumping into a career right out of college.
My girlfriends brother lives in Costa Rica and from visiting him and listening to their conversations I can say the internet infrastructure is not that good. There are normal days and very bad days that may last for a day-week-month.
Costa Rica's internet is better than Nicaragua though!
I've heard the opposite - internet connectivity is quite suspect in Costa Rica. Where exactly are you and what kind of connectivity package/price do you have?
Right now, I'm in a restaurant on the beach. Internet is pretty good here (and everywhere else I've been -- way better than the average coffee shop / hotel / etc internet in the US). I use StrongVPN and haven't had any problems yet. I Skype and watch Netflix all the time with no issues at all.
It's slow as in you're not going to find a 20 megabit connection all to yourself. Normal speed is probably closer to 1 megabit, but you can easily get a bit better than that these days (I'm on 5).
When I lived there I relied mainly on 3G. You can get a prepaid SIM for ~$6, and you pay around $0.50 per day for unlimited data. It is fairly slow at 1 Mbps up/down, but its enough to make Skype calls and the like.
I don't know about Costa Rica, but I found Panama to have somewhat of a scene, for instance Acelerador de Empresas de Panamá via http://ciudaddelsaber.org As I have relatives there as well, I have always had an interest in doing a startup in Panama. Been a few years since I have been there, I have to get back.
I'm loving it so far. It's not "stable" in the traditional sense, but no distractions and I can get a ton done. Internet is easy to find, places are pretty nice and affordable, and it's quiet. I came down here to finish a startup I've been talking about for ages but never finished due to the distractions in SF.
AirBnb has some great finds, especially if you go with a few friends. Nice places, good internet and not too expensive.
(Oh, and hi Simone! You submitted my startup notes site to HN a few weeks ago)
I can resonate with this so much, I travelled CR last year for a month and loved it.
I've just got back from 3 mths travelling the States, Hawaii, Fiji and Aus to do exactly the same, London had too many distractions and whilst the salary was great I knew if I didn't take the plunge to dedicate some time to the startup I too had been talking about for ages then it would never get off the ground. Oh, and seeing beautiful places along the way does wonders for motivation!.
