work or help

Burtie, while you can do your freelance writing and artwork, you can't 'legally' work here. As a tourist, the length of time that your tourist visa will let you stay will depend on your citizenship. and it will vary from 1-3 months.

It is no longer an inexpensive place to live.

thank you , will love to know more and make get farm work there or ant natural work
let me know blessings

Hola Burtie,

To clarify, you CAN NOT work in Costa Rica legally.  You must be a permanent resident, this takes years, or married to a Costa Rican.  I am not aware of any other exceptions to this law.  Sorry.

- Expat Dave

Burtie, you can´t work as a hired help if you aren´t a resident or a citizen. Nothing said about working from home.You have to report your income to the Costa Rican IRS, though. I have been working freelance for the past 10 years, no problem.

The fact is people DO work in Costa Rica illegally, as masseurs and other such jobs - clerks/hosts/etc at hotels and bed and breakfasts owned by gringos. I don't know how widespread this is now but it does happen.
If you want to risk doing that, your best bet would be to just come down for a month, travel around and ask at hotels if they have any under the table kind of work. It would be more likely at  small privately owned hotels and bed and breakfasts, not at the big hotels/chains.
If you're not planning to live here permanently then the risk is easier to take, the worse case scenario is they kick you out and don't ever let you back in.