Three of the many things I truly love about my year and a half living in San Pedro, Costa Rica are:
1. both sun and rain almost every day ... perfect!
2. no pests ... I leave my large sliding door wide open all day and late into the night with no insects invading. I have had no mosquitoes, 2 or 3 flies, 7 or 8 moths and one beautiful, large praying mantis.
3. constant Spring-like weather

How does this compare to Valle de Machuca?
Isn't one of the communities in Trés Rios? How do things compare with there?

Thanks again, Jim! As you probably have discovered, it's as if no two cities in CR have the same climate! In fact, there are 55 micro-climates in this incredible country (the size of West Virginia)! San Mateo is on the Pacific slope of the Aguacate Mountains, roughly at an elevation of 300 meters, or 1,000 feet. The evenings are cool, the mornings are crisp and clear and the afternoons are tropical. In the winter months, it's actually dry tropical with very little rain during those months (we have an irrigation system). In the summer months, of course it rains nearly everyday at about 2pm. You can set your watch by it. The rain usually lasts 1-2 hours and stops. Its never too hot or too cold. Always very comfortable in the shade or indoors.

As for pests - critters are the norm out here. We do not have any deadly snakes or spiders. Of the 100s of times I have been at Valle de Machuca, I have never experienced a mosquito bite! Aside from the normal Costa Rican insects we see every day across the country, there is nothing out of the ordinary here. After being gone for who-knows-how-long, the white face monkeys have been showing up two times everyday in a group of about 100. It's really spectacular....