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Man, my patience is tried. I’m fried, wiped out. I surrender. Ok, I almost surrender, but it’s touch and go. When bad things happen here – just everyday bad things – you come up against the culture shock thing big time. Because simple solutions here are not… simple. Mainly because they take way, way, waaaaaay longer. And you can never get the truth about when that solution is going to happen.
Like, the house phone went out two weeks ago. Not that it’s critical, but when you need a phone, nothing else will do.
It seems so silly now, . . . → Read More About Vexations
I am posting this morning via my new hi-speed internet service from Amnet, one of the two cable companies here. YAHOO!!!! We have been using WiMAX, a wireless signal shot from a huge tower on the mountain behind us. The plan is to provide WiMAX to the entire country, which is way better than no internet. Which is what the majority of the country has now. In a country thick with mountains, rainforest and jungle, wireless is the answer. Stringing cable and phone lines is problematic for obvious reasons. What we . . . → Read More About “It’s how we do it.”
From Thursday 6pm to Friday around 7pm, the entire country was mostly in the dark. Fortuitously, the power was on for coffee in the morning and the play at night… otherwise, we sat around staring at each other.
After sitting around in candlelight for 2 hours, we ALL fell asleep Thursday at 8pm. Like we’d been laying asphalt all day. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. It’s amazing to discover how sleepy you are when there’s nothing propping up your consciousness: no TV, no computer, no lights, no nothing. Even the boys fell right to sleep. With electricity, we . . . → Read More About Blackout
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
The difficulties associated with living in a developing nation is rich fodder for sarcasm and humor. It puts the "frustrating and hilarious" in our daily lives. As much as we are frustrated by these little difficulties, we’ve chosen to happily suffer them in exchange for the peace of mind and quality of life we’ve found in Costa Rica.
This morning, however, I am humbled by the common sense and ecologically-sensitive manner in which I was presented with my cel phone bill.
We got our cel phone at the end of August. The entire process took less than two hours . . . → Read More About The Cel Phone Bill
Yesterday we got Directv. Finally! No TV for 8 months… actually, TV we can live without, we are online addicts. The boys (all three of them) play those online make-up-your-life games: Runescape and Ultima Online are the two hotties at the moment. Not me. I’m a surfer, doesn’t matter what’s on… I can surf and blog to my heart’s content once the testosterone has quieted down for the night.
Sadly, we don’t get the networks. For a moment, it looked like we’d be able to get cable tv instead of satellite. Cable provides . . . → Read More About OHMYGOD I’M SO HAPPY
This is Alejandro who made dealing with the biggest and reputedly most frustrating bureaucracy in Costa Rica anything but. Right after I took this photo and put away my camera, he broke into this big grin which showed his devilishly handsome side… but I knew if I got the camera back out, he’d give me the Official Alejandro again. iHola, Alejandro (he’s reading this), SONRISA!
Getting ANYTHING done in Costa Rica involves waiting in line. Particularly anything bureaucratic in nature. On all the forums, in any conversations, books, websites, etc. you . . . → Read More About Quality Time With I.C.E.
Guess what? There is NO DSL at the new house. Notice I’m not calling it "our" new house anymore, am I? In my conversation with I.C.E. (Eee-say, the government monopoly that controls ALL the phone lines and ALL related services), when the Customer Service rep told me installation would be "in 45 days", what she meant to say was "not in your lifetime". It turns out there is no DSL service in that area. Anywhere. No clue as to when it will get there either. We are talking Big Time mañana land . . . → Read More About No One To Bribe
THE PLAYERS The Type A is played by me. Mañana Land is personified exquisitely by I.C.E. (eee-say), the government monopoly that controls the phone lines and – tears are streaming down my face – access to the World Wide Web.
THE PROBLEM We were supposed to move into our new house today, BUT no internet. I can GET internet at my new home, dsl via the phone line. As opposed to cable which is faster and what we were promised by our . . . → Read More About Mañana Land vs The Type A
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