| Big Mack |
Quick trip to a suburb of San Jose on Saturday, called Cuidad Colon. Not sure if 'quick' is the correct term, as it is roughly an eight hour round trip: most of the Pan-American highway in CR is single lane! Trying to overtake those Big Mack lorries can be pretty scary, although in retrospect, I think it is even scarier when they overtake you!
Reason for the long journey? DH has purchased a trailer: second hand, but never been used, all for a very reasonable price (unlike the cars here!!). Reason he needs a trailer? For work: he plans to kit it out with his paint schemes, tools etc.. That is, when he is finally allowed to work (another long process, which will be the subject of another post!). Yes, it meant yet more evenings have been spent scouring the Classifieds. Unlike the purchase of the car though, this transaction was unbelievably easy - we turned up at the guys' house (Tom Hanks lookalike), looked over the trailer, haggled with the price, knocking it down a bit, attached new purchase to the pick-up and drove off. Nice and easy, taking very little time.
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| The Trailer |
Naturally, that was the only quick and easy part as things then took a turn for the worse. Our plans had been to buy trailer, go to PriceSmart (an inferior copy of the temple known as Costco, but good enough), stock up with foodstuffs and head home. But as it gets dark here around 5.30 / 6pm, DH, being very sensible, wanted to sort out the lights on the trailer first.
We find an Auto Repair shop in Cuidad Colon, and the rather Muslim-looking Hipster owner said that it would be no problem to wire up the trailer to the truck re the lighting systems. Should only take thirty minutes or so. This was about 1pm.
3pm and the kids are hungry, as is DH. We decide to wander the streets of Cuidad Colon and look for a 'Soda' (a small eatery quite often in someone's house, whereby Granny cooks the buffet-style food, mother takes the money for it and daughter serves it up). A nice tasty Casado, washed down with a natural juice and then a stroll around the central park/square. Watched some volleyball, listened to the band warm-up for the evening's entertainment, spied the teenage girls circle round and round the park, promenading; all very European and nothing like the CR we have seen so far.
5.30pm and we feel we really ought to head back to the shop, just in case the truck and trailer have actually been stolen ... thankfully it wasn't and the poor guys, three of them, were still working on it. What was quoted as a thirty minute job actually took four and a half hours! (DH and I certainly don't miss those types of jobs, and boy, we encountered quite a few back at NJC!). Funny thing is, these three Tico's were still smiling and laughing. At 6pm on a Saturday evening. And there was no sign of shutting shop. Oh so different to back home!
So the price of this long and difficult job? (I won't bore you with the ins and outs of what their difficulties actually were, unless of course you really want to know). DH first thought Muslim-looking Hipster quoted 50,000CRC, which is about £65.00 or $100: a bit steep he thought, but could be a difficult job. Then another 500CRC (50p or $1) was added for parts: DH agreed as they had been working on vehicle for two hours at this point. Anyway, when DH finally comes to pay the factura (bill) it is none of these figures (oh here we go!!). It is in fact ... 15,500CRC!!!!! That is £20.15!!!!! Or if you prefer $31!!!!! For four and a half hours work!!!!!
Bargain!
Feeling elated, and decidedly un-British, DH tips the man, increasing the payment to $40. He said that he would have felt guilty all night if he hadn't.
Lots of hand-shakes later and many "Muchos Gracias" we finally head for Coco towing our new trailer, and everytime DH pressed the brake pedal, we lit up like a little Christmas Tree.
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