Paying water and electric bills

I love the process of paying bills here in Costa Rica. I guess when you only receive one bill a month it’s not so bad. Well, actually we receive two water and electric bills since we own two houses on separate meters but they arrive on the same day so I sometimes consider it only one bill.

Like almost everything else in Costa Rica, the water and electric company is run by the government. We receive our bills in what I assume is our mailbox (a little black metal “box” with a rusty door at the bottom) but since we have never seen a mailperson in our area we aren’t quite sure mail delivery is an option in our neighborhood. Anyway, the bill generally covers 28 days of service and for both houses our highest total in charges has been this past month for a cost of $54!

So, onto paying the bill. I know it’s possible to pay online but since we don’t have internet service this seems like a ridiculous process for us. We prefer the “in person” payment method. Payment made simple means when we go to one of our larger grocery stores like AutoMercado or Pali we just hand the bill to the cashier and it’s handled immediately. Mas X Menos stores have a separate window for payments which can be easier if timed right but sometimes the lines outweigh the benefit.

For Life in the Slow Lane, I am shocked at the ease of payment. Way to go Costa Rica!

Car accident confusion

Last night there was a car accident on the hill outside our house. This happens to be the third one since we moved in and all have been only fender benders and seem silly. Let me explain.

In Costa Rica when you hit someone’s car, the law states you must leave the cars where they stopped and wait there until the police arrive. This seems logical enough except when you consider the implications.

Each accident near us occurred after dark but quite early in the evening –usually around 7pm. The first accident didn’t cause nearly the commotion as the following two but each consecutive accident literally stopped traffic.

Last months incident probably involved a drunk driver since the car heading west took the blind turn wide and tagged the car heading east going up the hill. Considering the location of the cars after the accident, I was shocked no one else hit the parked cars especially after they turned off their lights! With no street lights nearby, the cars were almost impossible to see until right next to them. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t at least use their flashers. Then about 30 minutes later the police showed up and eventually even they turned off their lights! In the mean time, cars would fly up and down the road notice the accident at the last possible second then slam on their brakes and slowly drive into the ditch past the two cars and continue on their way. I kept thinking how lucky those passing drivers were to be able to use the new concrete ditch to be able to get past the accident. Patrick and I chuckled at the stupidity of the accident victims and the police for not leaving their lights on but all worked out ok in the end.

Last night’s incident took the cake. The cars must not have believed the sign stating the bridge was narrow because neither vehicle appeared to stop to let the other pass (the bridge is only wide enough for a single car and cars headed west are supposed to yield). They hit on the west side of the bridge. After we noticed traffic stopped for 15 minutes, cars began to back up and head back the direction they had come. I’m not sure where they went since our road happens to be the only one I know of that goes east/west for miles. Anyway, an hour later and the police still had not arrived. Patrick noticed a bus parked at the top of the hill and several minutes later huge groups of people were walking down one hill across the bridge and up the other hill presumably to catch another bus on the other side since their bus had no way to continue on its route. Soon I noticed a car passing the accident victims on the north side of the road. I was certain the car would get stuck since the ditch on that side happens to be very deep. Somehow the car completed the pass and more cars followed. Now the lines of cars on both side of the bridge seemed long but at least they figured a way around the vehicles. Another bus came down the hill and I felt compelled to watch even though I had a bad feeling the driver couldn’t make the pass. Moments later the driver put on his flashers and started to back up the hill in the direction he had come. I knew he couldn’t make that pass but backing up the hill didn’t seem like the best idea either. Two hours later, the police finally showed. Immediately the owners of the cars pulled over to the side of the road. Traffic started flowing almost normally again. I’m not sure how long they stayed there since I finally went to bed but I did see and hear a group of men pushing a jeep up the hill as a tow truck flew past with no intention of stopping to help. I don’t know why the police took so long to get here and I never will since there is no communication regarding local news in this country (that I know of anyway).

As far as the law to leave the cars exactly where they are after an accident, it’s not clear how that helps the police. It’s not like I ever see them taking photos or anything. When we were in St. Petersburg, Russia we observed the police measuring skid marks after an accident. Now that makes sense. But here it seems like people do it for no apparent reason. Especially when there is only one government run insurance agency and most drivers don’t even own insurance in the first place!

Photos -ditch upgrade

I intended to add photos to yesterdays blog about the ditch upgrade but I experienced laptop problems. So, here's what you missed.
Here's the ditch and cut line.

As you can see, this new culvert already has become a garbage dump of sorts. How will this help the run-off?

Update to our ditch upgrade

Soon after the completion of the ditch upgrade, a manager of the project stopped by to speak to us. He explained that they would be ripping up our driveway to place a new wider culvert underneath. I immediately worried we would be stuck either in or out of our driveway since I know that government workers here don’t tend to be in a hurry to complete their work. The manager assured us they would be completed in one day.

The following week they started work (on a Monday). They seemed to work quickly and I thought they may actually finish in a day. Every time we wanted to leave or enter the driveway, the crew would move all their equipment to make room for us. They did have the tube placed in a day (Tuesday) but the entire project took four days.

The very first day, they dug some big holes and severed our water line. Water sprayed everywhere. I kept waiting for them to fix the leak but no one seemed to care. I managed to calm down since we still had running water and we determined the leak was not affecting our water meter so the city was taking a beating but we weren’t paying. They actually left the cut line as is, over night. Something else I found odd was that this was not a pipe like I would expect to see in the States but a black plastic tube about 1 ½ inches wide.

Tuesday morning I watched as a couple guys jumped into the hole which had filled ankle deep in water and attempt to stop the leak. I don’t know what they did or if they even fixed the leak, but soon the front end loader brought the cement tube for the new culvert. They had it placed and covered by the end of the day. Wednesday and Thursday they spent connecting the new cement ditch (which I described in an earlier blog) to the new culvert and finishing off the unfinished west side of the culvert using wood forms.

Late Thursday afternoon after picking Azure up at school we noticed we didn’t have any water! The entire crew had already left for the day. We weren’t pleased but the water at the lower level house still worked. We figured they had actually shut off the water at the meter to complete their work and then forgot to turn it back on.

Friday morning none of the crew showed up to the house as usual. We wanted our water turned back on so Patrick walked up the hill to hunt them down figuring they had returned to finish the upper portion of the ditch. Sure enough, he found the crew and explained we had no water. Of course, they didn’t seem surprised! Patrick waited while one of the crew workers called the city water and electric company to report the problem. The crew worker mentioned it was an emergency and then wrote a report number down for Patrick so he would know the city had the problem logged.

We waited all morning and part of the afternoon until we realized no one would be coming to turn the water on. We decided to take the matter into our own hands and go directly to the water company. Unfortunately, it wasn’t located where I thought I had seen the building. We stopped in town to speak to one of the gringos we know thinking we would get directions. He actually had a better solution for us. He described to Patrick how to make a “key” so Patrick would be able to open the cement closure covering our water meter and then turn our water back on by ourselves. He said people here do it all the time. Besides, our water happened to be off by mistake not because we weren’t paying our bill.

Once we arrived back home, Patrick immediately found a piece of rebar he could bend into a “key”. He pulled off the cement piece over the meter and the two of us tested the on/off situation of the meter. Unfortunately again, we determined the meter was on and that our lack of water at the main house must be a severed line. Just our luck. We waited out the rest of Friday and still no one from the water company showed up.

By Saturday, we were all tired of using the lower house to shower and wash dishes. The worst part of the misfortune of having our water turned off occurred in the middle of the night when I had to use the toilet at the lower house. I know we were lucky enough to have any water and I shouldn’t complain but since the city screwed up and should fix the situation I became determined to make them resolve the problem.

At 10am Patrick and I walked next door and asked our neighbors to call the water company for us explaining we had been out of water since Thursday. Vicky called them and after only a few minutes on the phone told us the water company would be right over. Well, we’re in Costa Rica so we knew “right over” meant maybe by Monday. :-)

Fifteen minutes later we were shocked to see a water and electric truck in our driveway! Patrick discussed the work crew and subsequent leak with the lead man and the other two men started to dig. We know they were not happy to be digging at 11am on a Saturday but by noon they had the problem solved and our water restored.

Azure wasn’t completely happy because she arrived at her friend’s party almost an hour late but we had water again and who could complain about that? So, the moral of the story, if you want something done right, ask a woman!

Scorpion Sightings

I have read many people’s blogs stating that they have problems with ants and spiders in their home. Most people even mention a scorpion or two. I had never seen a real scorpion before so I wasn’t sure what to expect- I only know they are dangerous. One evening shortly after the dry season began in December, I witnessed this tiny little thing running across our patio. I followed it trying to get a better look until it scurried into a crack in the cement. I became excited and told Azure and Patrick how tiny the thing was and mentioned I thought looked like a scorpion but I thought it would be larger.

A few nights later, Patrick found a much larger scorpion outside under the car port. He smacked it with his shoe and showed me but it was quite dark. We decided to leave it there and inspect it further in the morning. That turned out to be a bad plan. By morning, the only thing left of the scorpion appeared as a shadow that the ants left behind. The ants completely devoured the scorpion over night.

Several weeks later, my Mom and brother came to visit. My mom happens to be slightly squeamish so we didn’t want to tell her about the scorpions until after we picked her up at the airport. We figured we should at least warn her to keep an eye out just in case because I’m always of the philosophy better safe than sorry. She didn’t seem too shocked about scorpions in the area so we left it at that.

The next morning, we prepared to leave for an outing to Britt Café. I put on my most comfortable walking shoes and while tying the laces noticed something black sticking out of the tongue of the shoe. Nothing felt out of the ordinary, but I am pretty particular about tying my shoes tightly so I decided to take the shoe off and find out what object impeded my shoe laces. Next thing you know I am screaming as I realize a scorpion just fell out of my shoe. I jump around and Patrick whacks the thing. It all happened so quickly that I don’t know how large of a scorpion almost stung me but it sure appeared to be the largest one I’ve ever seen. Of course everyone laughs and says “oh, so that’s what we do if we find a scorpion!” Ha ha.

Since that day, we are all vigilant about checking our shoes before we put them on. I’ve seen a few more scorpions in the house but the good news to point out is that they always seem slow and easy to kill. Also, we verified that Costa Rica does not have any dangerous scorpions –nothing fatal anyway.

I found this remedy for a scorpion sting on a website that I thought would be good to share:

Make a paste from water and baking soda on a soft cloth or kleenex, apply it firmly to the sting and leave it on for 30 minutes to an hour. It will stop the stinging and itching and draw the venom out -- you will see a yellow spot of venom in the soda when you remove the patch. This works for wasp, yellowjacket and non-poisonous scorpion stings."


I haven’t had the need to try this out yet but I will let everyone know if I do and if it works.

Rainbows

Have you ever seen it rain while the sun shines? We are lucky lately to experience days like this a lot during the “dry” season. The most unusual part is there isn’t a cloud in the sky. Granted the rain is more like a light mist which Patrick describes as wispy snow. But the best part would be the beautiful rainbows!

Wish I had a photo :-(

Passing Parrots

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to Costa Rica was the huge flocks of birds flying over our property. They were hard to miss since the birds constantly made so much noise you could hardly hear the person next to you speak. Sometimes these flocks consisted of well over 50 birds.

One day I finally was able to get a good look at one of the birds in the flock and was surprised to see that it was bright green. I immediately knew it was a parrot and began to hope that they would land in our trees so I could get a closer look. Several weeks later I received my wish and boy was it something. Green parrots everywhere. They blended right into the background of our “jungle” but I did get a few pictures. The flock ate their fill of fruit and haven’t been back since.

Update to leaf cutter ants

During our break, we were able to find more information regarding leaf cutter ants. We queried a scientist at INBIO Park and a naturalist at the Rain Forest Aerial Tram. The scientist at INBIO explained that leaf cutter ants as a whole are indestructible. The only way to wipe them out would be to kill the queen but since she is hidden in the nest that would be impossible (I knew this already). Basically he said the only way to keep the ants from a garden area would be to create a moat around the garden. I don’t think I want to go to that extreme but I will keep it in mind. According to the naturalist, ants use a sense of smell to find their way around. I used this information along with something I read previously about them not liking citrus to come up with a new plan. I cut a lime in half and simultaneously squeezed and scraped the lime along the bark of a tree the ants had been destroying. I made an entire circuit around the tree trunk heavily spreading both the juice and pulp everywhere –it took to limes. The ants immediately became lost going back up the tree instead of down. By the next day the ants were gone entirely. It’s been two weeks since I spread the lime juice and I haven’t seen any ants on the tree since. Patrick says it’s a fluke but I plan to try this process on another tree this week. It can’t hurt, right?

Coffee Picking Season

I really enjoy learning about traditions in other countries and one that happens to be close at hand here in Costa Rica is the coffee picking season. The season begins around November and continues through February for most plantation owners although we learned that those plantations at higher altitudes can extend the season until May.

Before we had moved to our new home, the only thing I knew about coffee I learned from reading the labels on all the different brands I bought and watching a special on the Discovery Channel. Being here in Costa Rica and living amongst the coffee fields, I now understand a whole lot more but I still feel I have a ton more to learn.

Towards the end of October, I became anxious to see the coffee pickers in action. Every time we would be near a coffee field I would stare at the beans and wonder when they would be red. I know that only the red beans are considered ripe but the beans in our area never seemed to turn red. Most appeared to still be green while a few would be yellow.

I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that on early morning on November 1st I heard singing and family chatter outside our bedroom window. I looked outside to see an entire family in the coffee field. A father, mother, and two young children were walking between the plants. While the parents picked beans, the children would run around and play. They weren’t there long, for as I said not many beans were ripe.

As November progressed I began to see trucks full of people driving past the house in the morning and then back again in the afternoon. I knew these people must be picking coffee somewhere but still didn’t see them in the fields next to us. I wish I had a picture to post of these trucks full of people but I never happen to have my camera in hand when I see them. They are quite a sight to see, though. Imagine a truck with a large back end and fencing around the sides. Now fill that truck full of people usually packed in like sardines. Now imagine seeing trucks similar to this one several times a day (one day we even saw one in a downpour and the people wore everything from nice raincoats to garbage bags). Also picture these same trucks late in the day filled with coffee beans. Amazing!

Eventually one day, the entire field next to us teamed with pickers of all ages (Patrick said kids are allowed to pick at age twelve but some parents bring younger kids and allow them to play as I mentioned before). I enjoyed watching them pick. Some obviously handled the plants much quicker than others. The faster pickers used one hand to hold the plant sideways while the other hand would fly through the branches pulling all the beans into their basket. Others seemed to use both hands to pick. The baskets they used generally were ordinary laundry baskets tied around their necks and/or waists. Then we would watch some of them hike up the hill to another field possibly to pick more or to get paid for their baskets. All the pickers also carried a bag of one sort another presumably full of their clothes since the majority of pickers in Costa Rica come here from Nicaragua.

We personally have coffee plantations on two sides of our property and the pickers have been to both fields several times now. Each time they come only some of the beans are ripe so the process takes several trips to each field. As a matter of fact, the field to the east of us was being picked this morning. They started around 6AM and seemed to be finished by 9AM. I never know quite how many pickers there are at any given time but each time they’ve picked they have been done by noon.

I find it quite interesting that the pickers always seem to be happy. They sing loudly, whistle while they work, and joke and laugh with one another. It always makes me giggle. Anyway, I’m glad to see them smiling even at the end of the day they will wave to me from the truck as they pass. I’m sure it’s not the best job in the world but they are with their family so things could be worse!

I really didn’t want to pry and take pictures of the families picking but one day a young boy thought he was being wickedly funny by throwing handfuls of green coffee beans onto the roof of the lower house. The sound of beans hitting the tin roof echoed throughout the valley. He and his buddy would laugh and throw another handful. But since no one lives there I guess the joke was on them. Also, since the young boy didn’t mind being destructive, I felt okay about sneaking photos of him while I stood on the balcony watching him throw the beans. Eventually his buddy noticed me taking photos and the boy started making rude gestures but since I have pictures to capture the event, I think I got the last laugh…

San Jose's Traditional Tope

I’m not sure what I expected but ever since I read about San Jose’s Traditional Tope (horse parade) I was determined to attend. The event takes place every year on the 26th of December. Perfect I figured, since we had no plans for Christmas.

Since I wanted to avoid driving downtown and possible huge crowds with no idea where to park, we decided to ride the bus into San Jose. The scheduled start time for the parade happened to be noon. Like typical Americans, we thought we should be early to get a good spot on the parade route. We drove to the Flores mall and left our car. After asking 3 bus drivers if they were driving past La Sabana Parque and having all 3 drivers say yes but passengers tell us no, we finally felt confident we chose the correct bus when a large group of people carrying tiny plastic stools and small coolers jumped on our bus 3 stops later. We arrived downtown even earlier than planned sometime before 11AM.

After grabbing a huge orange juice from the AM/PM, we found a spot on the road right next to the rope and approximately 4 blocks from La Sabana Park which the papers claimed was the beginning spot of the parade. So, picture us camped out on a blanket next to a roped off area of Paseo Colon (a major thoroughfare downtown San Jose) waiting for the start of some strange parade with buses and other traffic flying by us missing our feet sometimes by what seemed like less than 12 inches. The diesel fumes were starting to choke us when the police finally blocked the entire street to all traffic.

Hooray, the parade must be starting, right? People started filling in the gaps around us. Vendors of all sorts were yelling or ringing bells to draw attention to their products- everything from homemade chips to sunglasses (but no drinks!). We felt like the only parents not buying something for our kid. Strange because I really thought we were getting away from consumerism by moving to Costa Rica! Most kids had an icee in one hand and a bag of chips in the other. The mother next to us bought her toddler a cowboy hat and a tiny horse on a stick. I finally caved and gave Azure some coins to buy an ice cream bar.

Anyway, around 1pm I began getting anxious for the darn parade to start! For the past two hours, we had been watching the comings and goings of the BCR (Bank Costa Rica) parade organizers. They were trying to line up groups of cowboys with a banner in front of them declaring their title. One block down, a semi-truck blasting bass oriented dance music sat ready to pull a float with scantily clad girls advertising one of the local beers(see photo). Family men of all sorts ogled the women and snapped pictures. I just couldn’t wait for the thing to pass us.

Finally, the groups of horses began to move. Only the more they moved the more crowded the area became. The organizers weren’t doing a good job of pacing the riders so more and more headed forward until there was no where for them to go. The horses began to spook. Then one of them pooped next to us and started to prance around in the mess. The next thing you know, we were sprayed in horse dung.
We decided to move back to the sidewalk and immediately a family behind us moved forward. Why would they put themselves in jeopardy? At that point I thought for sure someone would be stampeded and then the real disaster would start.

After another 15 minutes we decided to move down the street toward the park thinking we would avoid the peril. Only to have several riders jump the curb and come directly toward us! Wow! We knew we had a enough and headed back toward the bus stop. I do admit if we ever go back to that parade, the safest area seems to be directly across from La Sabana park but I think we encountered enough excitement to last a few years. Maybe if we have company we’ll take them to enjoy the fiasco!

Long Break

I never intended to stop writing this blog. It just became more difficult while Azure enjoyed her “summer break”. She’s back in classes now so I will continue updating this blog. First I will try to catch everyone up on all our excitement over break and then I will fit back into a regular groove again.

My next entry will cover the San Jose Tope. Then I have updates to the ditch story and the leaf cutter ants. Also, we explored more of Costa Rica during a visit my Mom and brother made earlier this month. So, I do have plenty of stories to tell.

For now, I’ll leave you with a photo taken Christmas Eve. Our Christmas here in Costa Rica turned out to be peaceful but slightly boring. We’re so used to spending Christmas with my enormous family that it seemed odd to be on our own this year. I guess the most important thing for us happened to be that Santa found our new home. It could have been disastrous otherwise because Patrick and I didn’t do much Christmas shopping (we didn’t get each other anything since we don’t need anything and only bought 3 small things for Azure). Since imports are taxed heavily, we designed wrapped file cards for Azure which described her future presents to be purchased while in Florida next trip. It all turned out ok…

Ditch upgrade or disaster?

The past few weeks we’ve had a crew of men working on the ditch that goes past our lower house and heads into the river at the bottom of the hill. At first Patrick and I sort of panicked. We weren’t exactly sure what the crew had planned since it appeared that they were just adding a driveway into the coffee field. We were thinking someone had purchased the land and intended to turn it into a huge condo project since there would be amazing views of the valley and San Jose.

Then the crew headed further up the hill - first framing then filling the entire ditch with concrete. Friday night Patrick and I took a walk up and around the hill to check the progress of the crew. They had a few frames filled with concrete but most of the top of the hill appeared to be big massively deep holes. There seemed to be no real way the water would rush from the top of the hill through the newly created triangular concrete ditch. Most likely what will happen will be the water at the top of the hill will pool up in the deep holes and then overflow and rush everywhere but the newly intended culvert.

The really sad thing about this entire project would be the fact that the rain water flowed fine on our side of the river. The real problem was on the other side of the bridge. The ditches on that side were collapsing and the water wasn’t flowing into the river fast enough so the water would pool up and start to flood the bridge. The neighbors on the other side of the bridge were always trying to dig the ditch deeper and remove all the big stones.

Hopefully this project doesn’t screw up the water flow badly enough that it causes a flood at our lower level house. And hopefully for our neighbors’ sake, the city fixes the other side soon!

Fingers crossed!

I loathe leaf cutter ants!

The first time I visited Costa Rica I found the leaf cutter ants amazing. The second time I visited C.R., I found a huge trail of the ants in Manuel Antonio National Park and found them amusing. Sometime after that, Patrick and Azure watched a show about leaf cutter ants on Discovery Channel and explained to me how these miracle ants take the pieces of leaves they cut back to their ant hill and use the pieces to make a fungus which they then live on for years. Patrick also said the scientists researching these ants found that their ant hills are actually massive. They poured cement into one ant civilization and continued to pour until they used tons of cement. It cured to the size of most people’s living rooms. Huge!

According to this show, these ants are important to the eco-system. I’m all for that but since I’ve been living in Costa Rica, I believe these little things are one of the most destructive things I’ve come across. They tore into my lower front garden a few months ago and stripped the whole thing bare. I definitely was not happy about this situation but I focused my attention on the upper garden and hoped that the lower garden would grow back by the time I wanted to start showing it some affection. Eventually, the lower garden did grow back and maybe even looked better than before so I happily ignored the ants. Big mistake!

These ants came back with a vengeance about a month later. The lower garden has not even been able to recoup since then. Each time a leaf grows back an ant is waiting to haul it away.

Yesterday I pointed out to Patrick an old rose bush in the front yard that I have been trying to “save”. Stunning red leaves covered the stems and the beginnings of buds peeked out. I was proud of my effort and gardening skills. Only, later the same afternoon, the entire bush had been stripped bare by leaf-cutter ants. I’m so peeved!

Then Azure noticed more leaf cutter ants carrying flower petals and stems through my newly planted upper flowerbed! Luckily, the flowers in that bed are too young and the ants are just marching thru instead attacking some plants somewhere under the car port and in the ditch. Whew!

I’ve done some research on the internet trying to find some suggestions on how to get rid of these pests. Unfortunately, no one has reliable information except for some organic pesticide I haven’t found here that uses citrus juice. Using the citrus juice theory, I started cutting limes in half and juicing them near the ants but it only causes a slowdown for a short period of time then they are back to full force garden demolition.

Can someone please help me with ideas to destroy these ants?!?

Cheap Date

I’m not surprised to find that Costa Rica has plenty of Christmas events. We took advantage of this (and socialistic government which supports the arts) and thoroughly enjoyed going to the National Theater Sunday to see the Nutcracker Ballet.

I read about the performance in last weeks Tico Times and looked forward to seeing the ballet again since I just finished reading the original Nutcracker story by E.T.A. Hoffmann. After some persuasion, Patrick agreed to drive us to San Jose and attend the ballet. So, I logged onto the Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica’s website Thursday with Azure only to find our favorite seats already taken. No surprise there but I made Azure believe we weren’t going (I can be such a sneaky mom) and then logged back on Friday morning and purchased three tickets.

I am happy to report that the theater’s website works great and makes purchasing tickets easy. The site shows a seating chart and marks seats sold in one color and seats available in another. You can scroll over a seat to see the price of the ticket then click on the seat you want to purchase. Then you enter your info and the site gives you a receipt. Actually two receipts since one if for your purchase and one is from the theater.

When we arrived at the theater on Sunday before the performance, there was a separate table with two people checking id’s and receipts then passing out pre-paid tickets. The whole process was extremely simple and the best part of the deal was that they didn’t charge any service fees. The site doesn’t allow for any discounts which meant we paid full price for Azure’s ticket but since tickets are cheap in the first place and with no service fees it still beat driving down to San Jose to buy tickets in person!

So to wrap up, we enjoyed the Costa Rica children’s ballet company perform with the Cuban Ballet company for a total of 6000 colones (just over $12). Plus $2 parking and $5 for three slices of pizza and strawberry drinks means we had a great day on the town for under $20! I love Costa Rica!

Still no white sheets

Just a quick update to my previous white sheet story. Azure's soccer game was canceled again. What does this have to do with white sheets. Well, nothing except Azure's teacher has French classes Tuesday afternoons and we had planned to speak to her after the game which would coincide with the end of French. Since there was no game, we couldn't speak to her teacher. Anyway, Heredia's central market happened to be the teacher's recommended spot to buy sheets. Patrick and I headed over there Wednesday morning. We walked the entire market twice - no sheets in sight. We finally ended up buying two meters of white fabric which cost us about $4.

Azure said that only one student actually brought a sheet on Thursday. Everyone else had fabric or nothing. Azure's piece of fabric worked out well because she only needed half and she shared the other half with a student in her class.

Who buys white sheets?

Azure’s school will be performing a play next week based on a book they have been reading about African Folklore. She doesn’t have a big part but is excited to be playing a king.

Sunday evening she told me she needed a white sheet that she planned to cut a hole in the middle so she could wear it as a tunic. She also informed me she would be painting designs on the sheet.

First of all, I don’t have any plain white sheets. Next, even if I did, I wouldn’t want her cutting a hole in it for a play that will last about 10 minutes. So, I sent her to school with the next best thing. I had an old fitted sheet that happens to be white with some large light blue flowers on it. Then I reconsidered and told her I didn’t want her to look silly. Azure agreed that she didn’t want to ruin a new white sheet and the one I sent with her would be fine.

Unfortunately, her teacher didn’t see it the same way we did and yelled at Azure. So, Patrick and I spent a few hours this morning shopping for a plain white sheet. I’m sure part of the problem is that we are unsure where locals would buy such a thing but the problem we are running into seems quite reasonable. Who wants white sheets when they can have beautiful ones that match their bedroom décor?

So, we’re off to speak to the teacher about not having a plain white sheet. Wish us luck!

Government Lawn Mowers

The purpose of today’s post happens to be more of a observation Patrick and I have made which compares and contrasts our old life to our new one.

When we lived in Minneapolis as owners of a house in the city, we were required by law to maintain our front sidewalk and gutter area. This meant mowing in the summer and shoveling in the winter and ensuring none of the lawn clippings, snow, or other debris ended up in the gutters. As a matter of fact, after living there a few years, the city started charging us (everyone) a city sewer few based on the size of our driveway (this was separate from our typical sewer usage few) to cover the expenditure of added debris in the sewer system. How rude!

In Big Lake, we lived in a subdivision without sidewalks or extra fees.

This morning we Patrick and I heard a loud whirring noise (like a chainsaw) coming from the area of our lower house. We headed up to the balcony to take a look. From that vantage point we could see four city workers with weed eaters cutting down everything and anything in site. This is the third time they have been in our neighborhood trimming our front drive. At first I thought it seemed crazy that the city does this for us, but I’m starting to warm to the idea. If they charge us for this service, I have yet to see the bill.

We have paid our taxes for the year and I’ll try to remember to cover that in a later post.

Frantic Friday - Part Two – OR- Where’s Azure?

Recap: We decided to go shopping in Escazu before Azure’s soccer game. We arrived at the school 30 minutes early to find the school closed and the gates locked. Holy …. Where is Azure?

Patrick resolves the car alarm problem but by this time he is starting to unravel. We explicitly told Azure we would meet her at Blue Valley school and not to accept a ride with anyone (the school hires a bus to take the kids to their games and they must take the bus even if their parents plan to attend the game).

I walk confidently into the indoor soccer area and ask some kids if they speak English. They point to a woman who appears to be setting up for a party. I ask her if she knows anything about a game between Blue Valley and European Schools. She confirms that she is setting up for her son’s birthday party and she doesn’t know anything about a school game. She shrugs and directs us back to the first indoor soccer place we had stopped at with sincere apologies that she couldn’t help.

By now Patrick is in a tizzy. I’m actually trying to stay calm. I keep thinking to myself that I have been in this situation before – some sort of déjà vu. We head back to the first indoor soccer place thinking we should check it out since we never did go inside. There are a group of guys conversing with the security guard so I explain our situation to them and ask if they have any ideas of other places the girls could be playing soccer. They tell us the indoor soccer place we are standing next to closed but one guy thinks there is another one about half mile down the road. Patrick and I have doubts but at this point we have no choice but to check.

Of course we never found the place down the road. Patrick is panicking. He doesn’t know how we will ever find Azure. Maybe there is a different Blue Valley or maybe they gave the coach a game location and that information didn’t get passed to us. Or maybe they are playing a different school. ETC I suggested we should drive back to the school but Patrick disagreed figuring if we arrived there and couldn’t find Azure on the school grounds then what? We agreed that our best bet would be to call the school and hope someone was still around to answer the phone – after all it was a Friday and about 30 minutes after the last class.

Here is another problem. The payphones in Costa Rica don’t take coins (they use a card you have to buy at certain stores) . We head toward the mall looking for an internet place since they typically allow you to make phone calls. We don’t see any internet places since I suppose most people in Escazu can afford to have internet at home. We do see an AM/PM (mini-market). We pull in and ask to buy a phone card. The cashier has to ask his supervisor and then says they don’t have any. What’s up with that? According to all the info we’ve read, all markets should sell phone cards. Okay, let’s not panic. We leave the car in the parking lot and run around for a few blocks trying to find a phone we can use. We even considered asking the agents and Coldwell Banker to use their phone but the office was closed. Figures! (I guess Costa Rica agents don’t work on Fridays just like in Minnesota)

I calmingly tell Patrick we should head back to Blue Valley School since it was almost 3:30. Maybe the girls really were playing there –yeah right. Otherwise, I figured we should get the security guard to call European School and find out what happened. Good plan so I thought until the guard tells us he doesn’t have a cell phone. Now what? Panic strikes!

I tell Patrick that I knew the other security guard had a cell phone. I bet he would let us use it since he knows we are worried parents. We head back over to the indoor soccer field yet again hoping it’s not to late to reach someone at the school. By now the security guard is not surprised to see us. We’re almost friends J I ask if he would call the European School for us and hand him one of their business cards. He obliges and calls them then hands the phone to Patrick (I always forget that this is still a man’s world here in Costa Rica…).

Patrick asks the receptionist if she knows anything about the girls’ soccer game at Blue Valley. She puts him on hold for only a moment and returns to say the game was cancelled. Whew! Patrick asks her if she happens to see Azure Jones to tell her that her parents just received the message and we’re on our way to pick her up.

Now to get back to San Pablo de Heredia during Friday rush hour. On a good day it takes 45 minutes! Patrick handles the traffic well but obviously we are both relieved to know where our daughter is so the panic attacks have subsided!

We actually make it back to San Pablo quickly (about 45 minutes!) and locate Azure sitting under a tree outside the principal’s office. Her principal, Ms Cristin, yells to us from her window apologizing for the misunderstanding. She said they didn’t know how to reach us but she emailed and hoped we would figure it out. She said the coach also said she would wait as long as it took for us to get Azure. We walked past the front office and waved to the coach. She immediately ran out to apologize. She said the school only had a half day and no one bothered to tell her. She called around noon to talk to the other coach and found out the game was cancelled. The other school knew all along the students wouldn’t be there. Azure’s coach says “This is Costa Rica after all… “

So, I have to wonder, what did parents do before there were cell phones????

Frantic Friday

First, I would like to start out by stating that we don’t have a cell phone. I thought it would be easy to live in Costa Rica without a cell phone. I don’t like conversing over the phone much and my old job consisted of customer service type calls which I could do without for a while. Besides, my Spanish sucks so what’s the point of having a phone if I have no idea why the caller called and vice versa. It’s not like I’m going to call for take-out pizza, right. (Well, I have thought of that…)

Okay, on to our frantic Friday.

Azure’s soccer team had a game scheduled for Friday against Blue Valley. I recalled that my blog buddy, Jen poco loco, had originally planned to send her kids to Blue Valley so I knew that the school would be in Escazu. When we met Jen a few weeks ago, I mentioned the soccer game and asked her for directions. Surprisingly, I knew the area she mentioned so I confidently told Patrick I could get us to the school. (By the way, I’m happy we finally met Jen and her family. They are great people. Patrick and I enjoyed our chat and Azure really had fun playing with her kids. We can’t wait to get together again.)

Since we knew where to meet the team for the game this time, we decided to get some errands done first including a little gringo shopping at Hipermas and a huge hardware store I spotted nearby the last time we were in Escazu. We breezed through Hipermas noticing the store in Escazu stocks a lot more gringo style products than the one we normally shop at in Heredia. We still didn’t buy much but Patrick replaced the jack, lug wrench, and tie down which were stolen out of the car the week before. Next we headed to the hardware store across the highway. The name of the place was EPA and it happened to be very similar to Home Depot (I kept looking for Tony Stewart ) which isn’t typical for Costa Rica most hardware stores require you to know what you want and a gentleman will go in back to get it for you. I’m embarrassed to say that we loved the place. We found much needed kitchen cabinets that are more affordable that all the other stores we have shopped in and I actually like them more. I thought I would have to settle but I guess not! We also found some bamboo blinds I just have to buy for the empty windows. We plan to go back with measurements but I did end up buying a vanilla plant and some chiles for my growing garden.

We left EPA about 2:30 figuring we had plenty of time to drive to the school. We knew we would even beat the school bus since the game didn’t start until 3:30. So, we drive past the school and notice no one is there. I don’t mean that there are no people we know there; I mean there is literally no one there. No kids, no teachers, no bus drivers –wait! -there is a guard dozing on a folding chair against the fence. I leap out of the car and verify with him that this building is actually Blue Valley School (since there is no sign labeling it). Yes, it is Blue Valley. Where is everyone I ask him in my crappy Spanish. He tells me nothing is going on there until Monday. What? Where do the girls play soccer? He mentions something about down the road. I do remember an indoor soccer place we passed about two blocks down. So, we head over there. Another security guard stops us and we explain that we are looking for a girl’s soccer game between Blue Valley and European Schools. Of course he has no clue what we are talking about but like all helpful Ticos, he directs us to another soccer field down the block.

On the way to the other indoor soccer field, our car’s security alarm wouldn’t turn off (remember our previous story about this subject?). so our car locked up. Patrick had to disengage the car battery and fiddle with the alarm wires. Meantime, I walked up the hill to check out the facilities and to see if I could find either of the teams. I didn’t see any girls but the woman working the place claimed they were in the back. I walked back down the hill to wait to check things out further with Patrick.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the conclusion of Frantic Friday or Where’s Azure?

two for one day

I already published a post today but I wanted to add some photos to go with the car/theft blogs. I figured no one would realize I added them unless I put them in a new post so here is the map we tried to use for Tibas, missing stereo, and the car window (newly fixed).