DH Invests in a New Toy for Work.

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.

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.

Feliz Cumpleaños San Jose.

San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, celebrates its 200th Birthday this month.

It appears that unlike many other bicentennial cities of the world, the government of Costa Rica has not arranged any birthday celebrations for its capital: not even a little pinata party.

Not being a local, I realise that I am not authorised to comment on such things. I will no doubt upset someone somewhere, but I am not sure if San Jose actually has anything to celebrate! It really is a very disappointing capital city. There are few attractions here for the visitor and most tourists just use it as a stop-over rather than an actual destination point. 

I have racked my brain to think of some positive facts to share about this city. I truly am sorry San Jose, but my list of your attributes is short, but hopefully over time I might be able to add to them:

• the people are very friendly and helpful, as they are everywhere in Costa Rica so it seems;
• it is relatively safe - in fact it is one of Latin America's safest cities;
• there is a lovely park to enjoy a leisurely stroll or a game of football; 
• the taxi's are red; well that makes a change, black is SO last year;
• they have road signs - odd to list as a positive, but few places in Costa Rica have road signs!
• and especially for Priya, there is a great Alessi store in the Escazu Multiplaza!

La Sele are through to Brazil 2014

Just a quick post tonight.

La Sele, otherwise known as the Costa Rica national football team, are through to Brazil 2014. 

According to Wikipedia, they are the third most successful team in Central America.

Finally, a bit of Latino spirit is evident in these laid back people! What with defeating the USA on home turf on Friday night, San Jose and the whole of Costa Rica has gone football crazy tonight! Avenida Segundo (2nd Street) is full of partying Ticos, all dancing in the street waving their flags. Cars are maniacally  driving around the city, tooting their horns, flashing their hazard lights (if they have any bulbs in them), waving even more national flags. The city actually looks and sounds alive tonight! Music can be heard drifting through the air from the numerous bars that can be found in the city and people are actually wandering through the usually deserted streets.

Celebrations in La Sele's locker room in Kingston, Jamaica, are being aired continuously on the national television screens. There is also a constant stream of videos of partying Ticos in various towns around the country. What is noticeable from these images however, is that unlike the UK, this nation seems to be celebrating without the aid of beer!! I am sure that the amber nectar will be consumed long into the night tonight, but for the moment, the Ticos are just too excited to stop beeping those car horns!

First five days!

Well, we have been here two weeks already and I have yet to put fingertips to keyboard and start blogging. I am very apprehensive of putting my thoughts down as I am prone to ramble. But hey, what have I go to lose? This blog is for my friends and family as well as for me, so here goes!

Well what can you achieve in 2 weeks in Costa Rica? Quite a lot, so I think I will break down this blog into two or more parts!

Having arrived on a Friday evening, in San Jose we had visited 2 museums by Saturday afternoon; bijou I would call them, and not really very exciting, to me at least. We did however, have the pleasure of listening to an orchestra practising in the Teatro Nacional, which was rather uplifting.

Two beautiful Cocker Spaniel puppies were spotted in a vet/pet shop for sale - extremely tempting with their doleful eyes, but like a responsible adult, temptation was resisted! Sunday morning was spent in the Sabana Metropolitan Park, enjoying a stroll, watching various ages and sizes of Tico's (Costa Rican people) engaging in all kinds of physical activity.

By Monday, we had had our first meeting to present paperwork to start the process of becoming residents. Plus we had our first meeting at the bank to set up accounts. To my surprise, we were only there an hour and all seemed complete; but alas, no, we had to return on the Tuesday to pick up our bank cards, another hour of form filling. To my delight (note hint of sarcasm) on my bank card, I have the word 'Mujer' emblazoned on the top right corner. This to the non-Spanish speakers is 'woman'!! Is it that difficult to tell what gender I am? I was wearing a dress ... perhaps I look like a cross-dresser or transvestite, I'm not sure. Needless to say this 'bristled' me somewhat and the obligatory 'Imperial' beer at lunchtime did not lessen the indignation!

A quick trip to the British Embassy was also scheduled in. Not very exciting, other than it is on the same floor as the Israeli Embassy in a very unassuming high rise building. An ex-copper, with the same name as a certain headmaster is in charge; he was convinced that he and DH had met before!!! Very odd room, no hint of Britishness other than a large poster of Wills and Kate with Baby George!

So enough of the big city for a while and off to the beach in the next post!