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As you know, I hate to complain. But a coupla things are ticking me off lately. Like…
1. Gringo Pricing. While ticas and I are the same height, all resemblance stops there. Ticos see me coming. Like going into the local pulperia [mom and pop grocery] for eggs last week. A flat of eggs in Auto Mercado is 2,800 colones. (Eggs are sold by weight, but this is average price.) Well, Juan charged me 4,000 colones and these were not heavy eggs. Nor were they fresh.
Like at Spoon yesterday in Alajuela's . . . → Read More About My 2 Least Favorite Things About Costa Rica
"Satisfaction of one’s curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life." — Linus Pauling
I’ve fallen down another rabbit hole. Last Sunday, a friend here in Costa Rica, Dennis, sent me a video (the first one below). It got me going, to put it mildly. Since that moment, 5:30am last Sunday morning, I have been glued to my computer all day everyday, reading, researching, crying in anger and empathy, being more grateful than I thought possible, laughing when Jenny McCarthy is in my video du moment. I was never a fan; I am now. And aha-ing. . . . → Read More About Discouraged.
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 . . . → Read More About M-Bags and An Excuse
Since I’ve been in Key West the past three weeks, I’ve been working on my must-get-list for when I come to the states. So far:
Must Get:
extension cords (the ones with the flat plug – can’t find those in Costa Rica) printer ink (for my hp, they are $25 in the states, $50 in Costa Rica) replacement heads for my electric toothbrush BIG bottles of aspirin and acetaminophen (it’s so funny that drugs are so cheap in Costa Rica except aspirin and acetaminophen… they are really expensive here) gel pens t-shirts on sale clothes on sale sneakers sports . . . → Read More About Expat Wish List
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 . . . → Read More About Sad Day For U.S. Expats Around the World
Last week, we got a box of new clothes sent by the Willow Family. They have a tall son, too. There is a dearth of tall boy clothes here due to the dearth of tall ticos. Our new friends shipped to our private mail service, and receiving the box was $72 on our end: $38 duty and $34 of the private mail service’s charges. My friends were appalled. From our point of view, the cost was still cheaper than having to actually BUY new clothes. And the boys love them. Nice when your boys love clothes!!!
. . . → Read More About Shipping and Mailing – More Still!!!
Since I posted my nightmare experience at customs, several people have let me know about their experiences. Continental Airlines wins hands down over all other airlines for ease of picking up your pet. One woman wrote to me that Continental just handed over the pet to her! So just because it happened like this for me does not mean it will happen like this for you. But you just don’t know… I would definitely use Continental, if possible. If someone in customs says they have an agente aduana for you to use, say thank you . . . → Read More About Shipping A Pet
This post is so long and tedious you will want to choke someone by the end of it. Which is exactly how I felt after experiencing it. I did not choke anyone. I ate two bowls of chocolate ice cream instead. I’ll have another after I write this. Onward.
UPDATE: Please also see Shipping A Pet, a one-paragraph update.
Paper brought me to my knees today. Paper pushing actually. I am now deeply in awe of the ticos‘ mastery of paper pushing. If only they could make money at it. Oh wait. They do. Today, . . . → Read More About The Power Of Paper
Saturday I went to pay my utility bills: water, electric, phone, cel phone, tv, wifi. My cel is $8/month and I recently paid three months of that. I haven’t paid my phone yet, but that will be about $5 for the month.
You don’t write checks in Costa Rica. You can, but most people don’t and most stores won’t take them.
Costa Rica doesn’t have home mail delivery as we know it. We get our water and electric bill via post to our house. But nobody has an address – we have direcciones [dee-WRECK-see-own-ace, directions] to our homes. Whenever . . . → Read More About Fun Paying Utilities
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 . . . → Read More About Beautiful M-Bags!
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