First of all, congratulations on surviving in Costa Rica for seven years! After living here for so many years I can't imagine a better place to be. Unfortunately, most people come here, fall in love, immediately sell up back home and spend all their money, and a couple of years later sell everything here for half of what they originally paid for it (if they're lucky), and return home heartbroken and broke.
I've sent you a private message with my phone number and would be happy to hear from you. If you don't get it and are interested in meeting sometime, let me know.
I looked for my property for a number of years before finding it. I would probably still be looking if it weren't for an old Tico friend of mine. I told him what I was looking for (i.e. natural resources, water, altitude, isolation, etc.) and told him to call me with a firm PRICE before I would even consider looking at it. For those who don't live in Costa Rica, there are local prices, and there are Gringo prices.
Regarding food for the trout, we fed them NOTHING. In my pilot project, about 50 fingerlings grew to 8-10 inches in a couple of years. Of course, I was not and am not interested in commercial fish farming, but rather another food source for my family. What we may do in the future is buy one of those outdoor blue light electric bug zappers and place it (without the bug bag) over a strategic corner of our pond. I imagine our greedy little fishes would quickly grow accustomed to waiting in that spot for the "burnt" offerings to fall into the lake. Whenever we wanted to eat fresh trout, we could easily (in theory) just scoop one out with a net.
