What emai service company is the most reliable in Costa Rica. Can one subscribe to it anywhere in CR? Laureen

Laureen - You would be better off setting up a Hotmail or Yahoo account and e-mail address prior to your travel. That way you can easily access your e-mail virtually anywhere in Costa Rica (provided that your friends and family have your new address.) Another option would be to check if your current ISP offers you the ability to check your e-mail via the web. If that's the case, you would simply log on to your ISP's website to check your e-mail.
As a sidenote, if you don't know how to use Internet Explorer in Spanish, I would highly recommend that you learn! (Most of the internet cafes we used were set up this way.) Of course, it's easy enough to switch it back to English, but it's so much more fun (and educational) to use I.E. in Spanish.
Have a great trip!

Dear TAGriffin,
I jiust slapped myself on the side of my head. Why didn't I think of that? Thanks for the tip. Now I remember my visitors from Europe all used my computer to check their email. You reminded me of that. THANKS so much! Laureen

And there are a ton of Internet cafes in San Jose. The going rate is about $1 to $1.50 an hour. It's more expensive in outlying areas, but even there, you should be able to find a place to log in to the Internet in most places frequented by tourists.

The Spanish-keyboard is a little bit different than the English one. You can type the @ sign holding down Alt and typing 64 on the numerical keypad.

Thanks Jeff

Some hotels have free internet or if not free have it available.