Buying a bar in Costa Rica: Be ‘patient but persistent’

OROSI, Cartago — You’ve found the perfect place to retire in Costa Rica, with a ramshackle neighborhood bar where you spend much of your time hanging out. What to do? Buy the bar. Karl Kahler/The Tico Times Gregg Lamping and Audrey Ambrosino did just that in 2008, acquiring a fixer-upper bamboo bar called El Ranchito, on the road between Paraíso and Orosi next to the bridge over the Río Agua Caliente. After a major renovation, and some elaborate decoration, the Bar El Puente Negro was open for business — a U.S.-style roadhouse, walls covered with pictures of dead rock stars, gold records, license plates, bumper stickers, artwork, musical instruments and other kitsch. Gregg Lamping, 68, from Illinois, spent most of his life in the recording studio business in the U.S. He also worked for Turner Broadcasting running a high-definition television truck for sporting events. Karl Kahler/The Tico Times His wife, Audrey Ambrosino, 49, of Massachusetts, was a public information officer for the National Park Service and a teacher at a community college in Lowell, Mass. The Tico Times sat with the couple and some friends on Saturday (over chicken wings, onion rings, french fries, jalapeño poppers, beers and scotch) and… Read full this story

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