A Broad In Costa Rica

Phase 1 Complete!

Wow, we got the ebook version of Hal's book online last night. What a FEAT. The learning curve for the software alone took me days to conquer. I bought a piece of software last year for $60 or $70, can't remember now, that promised to allow instant secure digital delivery of a digital product.

In case my mom is reading this, I'll explain: a digital product is one that is sold online and you take possession (after you've paid) via download. Like an ebook. Or an iTunes song. Or downloaded software. As opposed to a physical something you get in a bag or a box, like chocolate or a DVD in a plastic case or a hardcover book. A digital product is not a physical thing. Except on your hard drive. I'll explain hard drives later.

When it came time to actually USE the software, I realized I didn't know exactly what I'd bought. Great. That's handy. I thought I'd bought software that would format my ebook selling webpage... you know: pictures of the books, a description area, a Buy Here button leading to a secure instant digital delivery of my goods in exchange for wampum... The only similarity to what I got and what I thought I was getting is the button:

I guess that's the really important thing, right? But getting from my digital purchase, which I couldn't see or touch or examine, to that PayPal button was intensely confusing. Like my first day in real estate school. What the hell are they talking about?

Finally, I called Frank the creator in London and asked for help installing it (geek needed here, geekier than me.) He was LOO-vely. I gave him my password and he actually installed it for me. A week later, after actually reading every word of the instructions and watching every instructional video, I figured out what I'd bought and how to use it. Once you do, of course, the whole thing is so simple! I didn't buy a webpage. I bought a tool that works in the background. And it works like a charm.

Hey - you can get your own personal demonstration here: buy Hal's ebook Democracy: The Painted Whore. You know, just to see how the software works. I have to reconfigure the emails that you get... but for $9.97, you get to see this software in action AND you get a great book full of thought-provoking funny enlightening maddening essays to boot. Perfect Sunday morning fare.

If you are thinking of selling any digital product on your site, check out this software. Cheap and will save you literally hundreds of dollars if you sell very much of anything digitally. Well worth the learning curve.

Miles to go: we need to get the hardcover published and distributed, on to Amazon somehow without it costing an arm and a leg. There are ways...  Then I need to put the finishing touches on Advice From A Broad: The First 100 Things You Need to Know About Coming to Costa Rica and get that online. Then there's book two to put together...

Today, I'm working on the PowerPoint presentations for Evangeline's talk on volunteering in Costa Rica and mine on life as an expat for the IL conference. I've decided to go to the whole thing even though I'm not speaking until Wednesday. Should be very enlightening... probably going to be mostly real estate sales, but I don't have to participate in any of that. I can just listen and nod knowingly. Right up my alley.

And two days alone at the beach... I deserve that after hell week learning software! Right now, I'm going back to bed. Pura vida!

My Cup Runneth Over

Mostly with things to do, but I've been gifted with a few lovelies from the universe as well.

1. The first to do today was to search online for the article starring me in the L.A. Times. I seem to have a knack for drawing attention to myself. For free, but hoping it leads to a paying gig. To read the whole article, you have to close the seductive Halle Berry movie ad about a million times. Small price to pay, n'est-ce pas? Actually, I do not star but rather close. And they mention the broad website! Cool. Gee, I wish my book was ready...

2. Putting the finishing touches on Hal's book, Democracy: The Painted Whore. Provocative, si? Our Spanish teacher, Jorge, was shocked by the title. He was thinking puta, when it's actually akin to prostituta: selling oneself for money or gain. If things go as planned (you know, like they usually do), this will be online as an ebook by Tuesday. Getting it ready for the print edition will take probably till the end of the week. Because...

3. Learning Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 ain't simple. Fantastic program for writing ebooks, but this is more than a day's learning curve. Far more. Both of us are learning this, as well as...

4. Learning the ins and outs of Smart Digital Dispatch which is the software we'll use to actually sell the ebooks: it securely collects the price ($9.97) via PayPal and delivers the book.

If you don't have a PayPal account, it is simple and free and, so far, incredibly secure. Better than online banking.  We've had accounts for years. You store credit cards and at least one bank account there, then you can pay for tons of stuff online with a click. You get an email confirmation from PayPal, they back the purchases. If something bad happened, they cover you and investigate. We've never had to use the safety features. Plus, you can get a PayPal debit card. I love debit cards. Unfortunately, Hal keeps finding them.

5. Working on my book Advice From A Broad: The First 100 Things You Need To Know About Coming To Costa Rica. Brevity has never been my long suit. This will be a couple more weeks in coming, but, hang tight, it's almost ready. I know you're anxious... Lots from the blog, of course, but lots new. I'm cracking myself up writing it. Trying to be serious but having a little difficulty. Things are serious enough if you ask me.

6. Rehearsals and memorizing the words for my song in the upcoming LTG Halloween Extravaganza next Saturday night. We all took showtunes (I'm using My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music) and re-wrote the words to go with a zombie theme. Like Thank Heaven For Little Ghouls and If I Were A Zombie, yadadadadadadadadadada. There will be a video... perhaps I'll post it IF I look thin enough.

7. Trying to stay on my diet. I cannot drop this extra 10 pounds. Well, 20. OK, 30. But I'd be happy losing 10. OK, 15. But no matter what I do, it refuses to budge. And no matter where I look, I see it. It's really getting in my way here. I can still see my toes, but if this continues, it won't be long before those disappear and I'll only be able to see bosom. Plus, I need to lose weight for the book tour.

Clearly the recommended 20 minutes of aerobics three times a week which used to work just fine needs to be upped to an hour everyday of vigorous walking. But you see that to do list evolving here? This is only half of it. Who has an hour a day to walk?

So I'm on a modified Atkins diet. And, no, "modified" does not mean it includes ice cream. Unless you think that would work. It's like an Atkins/diabetic/low insulin response foods/Perricone mix. Mostly protein and complex carbs, low-glycemic fruits, no white flour, no white rice, no grains that I can think of except maybe oatmeal. Trying to stay low saturated fat so lots of fish and chicken.

Sadly, I am built for carbs. Especially now. And, after a week of this, I am jonzin' for carbs. Yesterday I was in PriceSmart, looking at sheets, no where near the bakery isle. And I thought, "You know, I could get one of those 6-packs of cinnamon rolls and eat the whole thing and no one would know." At least no one would know right away... I did not, of course, I swear. I don't even eat cinnamon rolls. As a rule. It was worrisome to have that thought cross my mind, as if I'm a sugar junkie or something.

So on a diet and NOT happy. Although I do have more energy and am sleeping better sin carbs. I'll focus on that.

There's a ton of other stuff on the Master to do list. Showering. Making more coffee. Learning about my new affiliate website: www.FiftyToLife.com (nothing there yet) about life for women over 50 and how this is actually the time to celebrate. And how to use my new software affiliate package SiteBuildIt.com with which I am TOTALLY unimpressed so far... All sales and no support. $300 down the drain. We'll see.

At this very second, more coffee is at the top of the list.

I have much to be grateful for this Sunday morning, too. Like the fact that Costa Rican coffee is GOOD and CHEAP. And that my LTG friend Lisa who is going through chemo for breast cancer is doing great. Four treatments down, two to go, excellent prognosis. And, OK, I may be fat, but I'm otherwise in excellent health as are all my boys, all my dogs and my only mother.

Plus - and this is really personally very exciting - I stumbled into a GREAT place for meditation and spiritual hoo-ha. I found it a couple of weeks ago with my friend Candy. Being at this place is like walking into the movie What The Bleep! Absolutely fantastic and, seriously, just what I've been looking for in the Personal Growth Arena. And, no, "personal growth" is not a euphemism for getting fatter. Look for more on Sat Yoga, for sure.

Hope your Sunday is as good as mine. Pura vida! Love, Saratica

Carrots Fucking The Earth

In my ongoing quest to meet girlfriends, I joined two Escazú book clubs. Somehow, when I turned 50, girlfriends took on new meaning. As in: life would have no meaning without good girlfriends. I never felt that way before, but it's taken me by storm. I had great girlfriends back in Key West: long time (let's not say "old", ok?), loyal, funny. Husbands are nice and all, but a good girlfriend is essential.

My first Costa Rica girlfriend, Dara Bortman, moved back to the states. Which was their plan all along, but I still can't forgive her. In choosing between Me and Them (the grandparents back home salivating over the return of the two precious precocious Bortman babies), she chose Them. The nerve. Back to the drawing board.

Through some inconvenient twist of fate, both book clubs meet on the same day: the third Wednesday of every month. Yesterday, I went to both, thinking I would decide which one I liked best and join that one. Of course, I liked them both...

The first started at 10am. When I called to ask about joining in, what book they were discussing this week and for directions, I was told by the 88-year-old grande dame (she told me her age straight off) they weren't reading just one book because there were too many people. Already I'm liking this one. "Just come," she said. "We are looking for new blood." That would be me. I invited my new friend, Candy - not her real name. No one gets named anymore but Hal - and off we go up the mountain to meet the girls.

Candy and I are the babies of the group BY FAR. The next youngest person is 60-something and there's a stretch between her and the next babe... We found ourselves in a room ripe with wisdom, walkers, good cheer and generous souls. Not to mention sin hormones, save for Candy and me. A lovely group.

Today's topic is poetry. The girls read poems from Longfellow; Rubén Darío, a famous, some say iconic, Nicaraguan poet; Robert Browning's My Last Duchess; The Immigrant's Table, a collection of recipes and poems written by Mary Lou Sanelli, a 2nd generation Italian immigrant; Horace and the Oxford Book of English Verse on which one of our British sisters was raised. There are two or three other poets read, but I can't remember names and titles. We talked about Father Divine, Bill White's Colony and Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.

Memorable moments were provided by Jo Stuart's reading of a poem from Dancing With A Cowboy by Sara Rath. This particular poem was written from the point of view of a flasher: someone who can't stop - remember, this is in a room of octogenarians - beating off in front of people. He tries, but he can't stop. It is actually moving and wonderfully written. And generates quite a spirited discussion!

Memorable moment numero dos follows as the grande dame reads from a book of poetry written by Lorna Crozier. Which includes the poem about carrots fucking the earth. Fucking their brains out, to be exact. The poems are terribly clever and we all find this hysterically amusing.

As alternative, edgy and outside-the-box as Key West professes to be, I can't imagine a book club like THIS there. Candy and I decide this book club is a Don't Miss. We will DEFINITELY be back for next month's invigorating discussion with the girls.

Book club numero dos I am certain cannot top this. And, indeed, it does not. It is interesting, though, and the women are my age, reading books and discussing them in a round table fashion. Nothing brilliant, but it would certainly be nice to know the women better. I will read the book for next month, A Good Dog by Jon Katz and ready my point of view.

If I have to choose, though, I'll be up the mountain at 10am every third Wednesday with my potluck contribution. Ready to rumble.

Water For Elephants

Read this book. If you are younger than 50 and don't have any inkling of things falling apart, you may not enjoy it as much as the majority of the population. But even if you are still in charge of your faculties, give it a shot. Beautiful writing. Wild story. Love, history, desire, murder, revenge, animals, a fat lady... everything. I loved it. I stayed up to midnight to finish reading it. That's love.

M-Bags and An Excuse

There is a grass-roots campaign to save M-Bags! Hallelujah!!! Click here for the info in a .pdf

You can sign a petition online, takes a second and these do have an effect. Even if you never plan to send any books to me, please sign the petition because maybe someday somebody will if it's cheap enough.

In the meantime, the Ladies of the Lake in Tilaran, a town on the north west corner of Lake Arenal, have started a kid's lending library. Not only does their library depend on the kindness of strangers sending books from abroad, but donated books have traveled affordably to other not-for-profit organizations around the globe. That is, until May 14th when the post office did away with M-Bags.

So if you can't think of me and my needs, think of books for kids world-wide and sign the petition. THANK YOU!

Excuse
The boys and I are leaving first thing in the am for Camp Jungle2Jersey. Hal is not going. I almost envy him...

A few comments have built up in my inbox and I've not responded to them, but I will, I promise. Sometimes it takes me a long time to write back... I suppose I'm waiting for the stars to align before responding. Or for my emotional response to said comment to come full circle. Or maybe I'm just procrastinating. In any event: I will respond, I always do. Eventually. Please be patient - I appreciate your comments and suggestions and questions!!! I'm taking my laptop but don't know if I'll have internet access for the next week... we'll see.

Hope the boys and I don't step on any turtles in the dark. Say a little prayer for us all. Pura vida.

Serendipity

My favorite word. Practice it here: Bookcrossing.com. Can't wait to start leaving the contents of my ten 40lb M-Bags of books on park benches. One book at a time, of course.

Sad Day For U.S. Expats Around the World

Hal and I did two things on dates, besides eat: we'd try out sofas (I have no idea why we did this... we'd be out, there'd be a furniture store and next thing you know we are sitting on all the sofas.) And browse bookstores. We couldn't walk out of a bookstore without a stack of books. Last week in Naples, we spent $400 on discount books... That's a lot of books. We had some catching up to do...

At our garage sale just before we ran away, people like us walked out with boxes of our books. We had so many books and just couldn't move them all for a year abroad... It was very gratifying though: so many people lost so many books to the flood so our yard sale was perfect for all of us. At the end of the day, there were still seven bookshelves full in the living room, but the delightful Avi, who sublet our house, was fine with looking at our books. We would miss them in Costa Rica but, hey, it was only for a year....

When you live in a country where English is not the primary language, getting your hands on new books is a critical item. And, once they are not readily available, you start to crave books. We visited all the bookstores in the central valley, but they all are used-book stores, except for two. The used are almost exclusively novels. The new books are new novels. OK for me, but ol' stick-in-the-mud-I-like-history-and-finance-and-politics Hal doesn't read fiction except Stephanie Plum novels and Dean Koontz. We started to get very homesick for our books.

Discovering m-bags was a very big day for us. You can ship up to 66 lbs of books in an m-bag for $1/lb. So 30lbs of books for $30. That same 30lbs in a box would be $46. Airmail would be $111. M-bags were a Godsend. Once we knew about m-bags, we started to dream of having our books in Costa Rica. And now we could order from Amazon with wild abandon like in the old days, deliver to my mom or Hal's brother. Once they had an m-bag full, they'd ship it off and 8 weeks later, voila! NEW BOOKS!!!

As of Monday, that is all over. Because the USPS - I would say "in its infinite wisdom" but not - is doing away with m-bags as of Monday. This Monday. 5/14/07. In fact, they are doing away with ALL international ground shipping. Only airmail from now on. No m-bags. No ground. Only airmail. This is very, very, very sad news for expats.

I called UPS on a whim to see what they would charge to deliver a 30lb box to Costa Rica from Key West. Are you sitting down? $400 and something. I'm thinking UPS is out.

So for the past two days, I've been packing and shipping m-bags. Yesterday, I shipped five 40lb m-bags. This morning I shipped five more. Then I packed up two 70lb and one 40lb suitcases with photos to take back to Costa Rica. Photos of my boys as babies - ohmygod. They were so cute. And our wedding photos. My high school yearbook. Hal's baby pictures. I WAS skinny once. And young. But I am NOT young anymore and I am whipped. It's 7pm here and I'm trying to stay awake. My last two nights in Key West and I may not be able to move from in front of the TV. That's old.

But we will have our books in Costa Rica. Hal is giddy, I can't wait to see them around the house. We'll have to just load up when we visit since we can't get them there cheaply. Up to now, when friends said, "We are coming down. Can we bring you anything?" I've always said no... From now on, I'm saying, "Yes!!! How many extra pounds can you carry?"

Beautiful M-Bags!

There's a lovely, powerful saying by which I live. It goes: "The more you complain, the longer God lets you live."* Poetic, isn't it? And productive. My complaints about not being able to get my books cheaply to Costa Rica produced many helpful hints from the old-timers here. Er, long-timers.

By far, the best all-around method is to bring your books. As many as you can. We arrived with the maximum bags and boxes (four apiece, including carry-ons), along with a couple extra bags for which we were charged. I can't remember exactly how much, but relatively little for the luxury of having our essentials with us.

There are still three 6' tall bookshelves and several boxes of books waiting for us in Key West. For the books left behind in storage, you have a couple of options. Flying back to get them is, of course, out. Unless you have a friend with a private plane and plenty of time. This would be an exceptionally good friend.

If you have a boatload of books, you gotta consider shipping. We are. We don't have a boatload of books, or even a container load. But we have other stuff to fill in around the books: furniture, pictures, artwork, guns. Yes, you can ship guns. They need to be registered once they get here in your name if you are a resident or in your corporation's name. I don't know what we'll do with them once we get them here... I don't think they have shooting ranges. But boys and guns. They just WANT one. Or two.

The shipper sends a container to your house, you pack it, they bring it to your door in Costa Rica where you unpack it. They can provide packers, if you want.

Our first quote for a 20' container which will hold everything from a small 3-bedroom house and get it here in 30 days is $5,000. Plus 30% duty on the value of the items. You want a shipper who knows how to value your stuff realistically (as low as possible without having customs laugh in your face). I want my books. The question is: how much do I want my old stuff?

For those everday Amazon purchases, the best method for cheap delivery is the M-Bag. Everybody wants everything fast, cheap and perfect. We were in the printing business for 10 years where a typo can reck your life. Your standard firm reply to a fast, cheap and perfect request is "Pick any two."

Getting your stuff to Costa Rica requires similar compromise. I pick cheap and perfect. When ordering from Amazon, I ship the books to my mom in KY. She accumulates them. Once she has the most she can pack into an M-Bag and lift into the car, she drives to the post office and mails it off. Mom's are great. It was an excellent idea for everyone to have at least one.

So far, the only M-Bag to have arrived here is the one I shipped from Key West August 3rd. They arrived October 2nd. The USPS must have walked them down. But it was cheap: 18 pounds for $18. And they arrived in perfect condition. You can't beat that!!! You learn the true meaning of patience and tolerance living in Costa Rica. Not at all a bad thing.

*I just saw a bumper sticker that says: "The more you complain, the longer God MAKES you live." That is just so wrong.

One more thing: I try to link to the horse's mouth when linking. But for the M-Bag link, the USPS doesn't have a clear FAQs page. Why would this surprise me?

Three Little Things

There are three little things that could keep me from being totally, insanely in love with Costa Rica: the book situation (lack of bookstores and/or a cheap way to get books here), good reasonably priced restaurants, and MOVIES. At this moment, lack of decent movies and/or movie rentals is at the top of my Things-Not-To-Love-About-Costa-Rica list.

Sunday was a good day for a movie, so we whipped out the La Nacion (the Spanish language daily Costa Rica newspaper which we can now peruse) and the Tico Times (the English language weekly) and searched movie listings. The choices are dismal. Rarely does Costa Rica get a first run movie. If it's a good action/adventure or horror or kids, those would get here first. Woody Allen's Match Point will NEVER make it, mark my words. And, although EVERY other choice at a movie theatre is a movie you can rent in a video store, somehow eating popcorn in the dark with 30 strangers is irresistible.

Not to mention the fact that when you rent movies here, approximately 50% of them are flawed... so you get halfway thru and then it stops playing. But this is old ground. I've moved on. And why not? I LOVE going to movie theatres. And since we don't rent movies, they are all new to me!

We decided on Superman. It was the only offering that caused that little thrill of excitement only going to the movies provides. So we checked the times and headed out.

Unfortunately, the times in the paper were all incorrect so we had to drive to 3 different theatres, pretty much circumnavigating San Jose.

Fortunately, most movies here are in English with Spanish subtitles. We are working so hard to learn the language, but we're just not up to dubbed-movie-speed yet.

Besides, movies, for this expat, are as much about enjoying a touch of the familiar, as about being entertained. I want to get ALL the jokes, not have to work really hard just to keep up with what is going on. I like my focus to be on getting the popcorn from my bag to my mouth, between guffaws. Or sobs. Or screams. It's all ok with me at the movies.

Unfortunately, all 3 places offered Superman only dubbed in Spanish. I was not up for that. So Superman was out. The only other choices, besides infant and horror, were The Fast & The Furious Tokyo Drift (which the boys opted to see) and Living with My Ex (the Vince Vaugh/Jennifer Anniston movie known as The Breakup in the states). GOD, WAS THAT AWFUL. Even my favorite Law & Order guy, Vincent D'Onofrio, couldn't save it. It was such a bad movie, it's not even worth critiquing. The boys thought F&F3 was one of the best movies they've ever seen. God, I wish I'D seen it.

You can see how the topic of "Movies in Costa Rica" gets to be at the top of my hit parade.

By the way, The Netflix Solution wasn't. The first one got here fine, we watched it, sent it back. The second one... didn't get here. Nor did the next two. They made it to my mailbox in Miami. And somewhere between the Miami mailbox and the Costa Rica delivery service - um, that would be customs - they were lost. I guess they were lost. No tracing them. Netflix doesn't have them. I don't have them. I do get to pay for them. Whoopee. And it was such a GOOD idea. But that's ok. I'm moving on.

Satellite TV, here we come! I've called them. Within two weeks, we should have U.S. TV and PAY-PER-VIEW and IFC and Sundance and HBO and Max and every other movie channel offered for $30/month. We can make our living room really dark and popcorn is practically free. I guess we could invite 30 strangers over... But, somehow, I don't think that will be necessary.

OK, I'm settling down now. Yesterday, I was considering moving to Argentina just for the movies. Today, I'm good. Besides, looking out over my view really does the trick... along with this fresh cool breeze. The birds. The green. Satellite TV. Life is good.

Bibliophiles in Costa Rica

At our garage sale last January, two days before leaving Key West, we sold seven floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with books. (There are still three or four bookshelves stuffed full in the house so we aren't totally bereft!) Over the years, we have moved several times between neighborhoods and mostly moved books from house to house. We still have sealed boxes with books packed away in storage from the last move two years ago...

The garage sale was very gratifying. So many fellow Key West bibliophiles lost ALL their books (and clothes and shoes and cds and dvds and, well, everything) in Wilma's flood and were ravenous for ours. While making the decision to sell our books and get rid of our stuff was extremely difficult, that sale definitely scratched an itch! Particularly when it came to books and cds.

Besides, we had read in guidebooks that San Jose boasted several good used bookstores. So we were not going to be bookless by any means. It would be fun to start anew. I had visions of a used bookstore a la Waldens or Borders: lots of sections, political offerings (Costa Rica is a hotbed of well-educated, well-traveled libertarians, after all), and good cafe con leche. Something more than old novels, like in used bookstores of my past.

You might say I'm a dreamer.

When we found the mall, we were so excited! Walking the concourse, we came upon a lovely chain bookstore, ala Borders. Ala a little bitty tiny Borders Express (meaning no coffee shop). With a little bitty tiny English-language section. We explored the bookstore first thing. Ok, maybe not first thing. The food court was first. What can you do on an empty stomach? Alas, this librería did not scratch our new itch!

Last week, ready to read, we got serious about the hunt and found three bookstores.

The first one, Expo 10, is Costa Rican, right down the street from Clinica Biblica on the south side of San Jose. It is STUFFED full of books, floor to ceiling, inside, outside, everywhere. This one was particularly reminiscent of our own Key West used books on Truman, before the new owner took over and made it all neat: boxes piled everywhere, the old owner (manager?) always at the desk reading a used paperback. I'm sure he put stuff away but you wondered when...

Expo 10 had one room devoted to English books (the room in the photo right... that's the whole room. I'm standing just outside the doorway.) Not terribly well organized... nor terribly interesting. You'll find an overwhelming selection of used novels - some really really used - followed by guidebooks, classics, comic books, textbooks, kids books. Anything interesting, we'd read... But the fact that there was an English section at all was encouraging!

We left there and made a concerted effort to find 7th Street Books, widely touted as The Bookstore for expats. "Good coffee, good selection of books," they all said. We found it easily. Stayed about 20 minutes.

It's exactly like a Starbucks with souvenirs and (pricey) new novels and guidebooks. Some quasi-political books, some history of Costa Rica and Central America. Some beautiful coffeetable books. All brand new, wrapped in cellophane. But the bookstore of my dreams, it ain't. I was disappointed in being mislead by the guidebooks, in going out of my way to find a great bookstore and getting a Starbucks instead.

Not that there's anything wrong with Starbucks. If I were staying in a hotel downtown, I'd be here every morning! The coffee was more than other places, but half the price of Starbucks. And they have the dailies of all the major newspapers printed out from the pdf and available! That was wonderful. If I had a bookstore in downtown San Jose, I'd have to run it exactly as they do to make it work.

Our third find was recommended by a friend. We were in Alajuela on errands a few days later and drove to Good Light Books. A great little spot, very sweet, unpretentious, well organized and easy to find. Nice outdoor patio for reading and sipping con leche. And tons of used books. Still mostly novels, guidebooks, etc. But a much bigger selection and we actually found books to bring home. We LOVE that.

Getting books to CR is a challenge. I've ordered from Amazon and that works great, although duty adds up pretty fast. Last November, not knowing we were moving to Costa Rica, I paid Amazon $80 for a year's worth of 2-day delivery. This has turned out to be a very good move, even here. Amazon ships the books to my Miami mailbox (in 2 days) and they ship it here, walking it thru customs.

The minimum duty charge for anything other than documents is $10, based on weight. So hardcovers are out. FYI, Amazon has several fulfillment centers and they won't put too many books in a box. Last time, I got two boxes with 5 paperbacks each. They were very light so only $10 duty for each box. But I'd also ordered a dvd... turns out that comes from a completely different fulfillment center and was shipped alone. Ack. $10 duty on that slim package. I wrote to Amazon in frustration and they did give me a $10 credit... so my next box of 5 paperbacks will be duty-free! That was very good of them.

But $30 extra to get 10 paperbacks and a dvd. Still better than no books at all, but sheesh. Till now, we've been reluctant to ask friends to bring an extra suitcase with books (or sheets - ohmygod, bring your own sheets)... but desperation will win out, I can feel it. Who's flying in?