Recently we took a short trip to San José. There were 4 major errands to accomplish: renew my passport, repair the water pressure pump, shop at PriceSmart (aka Costco) and pick up a certificate of credit for our defunct TV. You may think to yourself, “how complicated can this be?” In North America, you’d drop into the post office with the passport application, call a plumber for the water pump, drive a half hour to Costco and go back to the store where you bought the TV. I chuckle. This is Costa Rica and we choose to live in a beautiful but remote corner of the country where grocery shopping requires traveling over pot-holed dirt roads for a half hour until we hit pavement and a further half hour drive to the Border.
Let me explain the last errand first… our 50” LED Sankey SmartTV went blank at the beginning of September. Not that we watch a lot of TV but we purchased it less than a year earlier and were understandably frustrated with its lack of longevity. Pulling the “Certificado de Garantia” from our file, we saw that it was purchased on September 27, 2018. The one year warranty was expiring. The salesman at “El Deposito” (the duty free shopping center in Golfito one hour drive away) said that there was a Sankey repair shop in Cuidad Neilly (approx. 1 hr 15 min drive.) This business’ telephone number was listed on the certificate. I contacted the business and he said to bring in the TV. We packed the unit into its original box, drove over there, haul the box into the store where the repairman asks us to pull it out of the box. M explained the issue in Spanish and handed him the “Certificado de Garantia.”
The repairman took the piece of paper and studied it closely. Taking a few minutes to read the front and back of the document, he walked to his desk and opened up a file there, flips through several sheets of paper studying each one judiciously. He stood and pulled a thick book from a shelf above and methodically reviewed several pages. M and I were making subtle sidelong glances at each other. We were getting the Tico Two Step. Then the gentlemen made a phone call, then another man came into the shop and they had a conversation. The repairman shook his head and said that he couldn’t repair it without charging us. Since we don’t have the verbal skills to cajole this man into honoring the certificate, we were at a loss. The repairman pointed at a small sign on the wall “Centro de Servicio Sankey” with an address in San José. We have to take it there.
The following week, we planned to travel to San José by bus to catch a flight to Canada. I called the Sankey office and spoke half English, half Spanish to a helpful woman. She said to bring it in and said the hours of operation are 8 am to 4:30 pm. We normally take the 9 am bus from Paso Canoas to San José. It arrives at the bus station sometimes at 4 pm but most times later due to heavy traffic. In order to make sure that we would arrive during business hours, we decided to take the 3 am bus that starts its route in a village nearby. Our neighbor and very good friend, Roy, drove us in our car to the bus stop where we unloaded the boxed-up TV, 2 large suitcases and our backpacks. We said good-bye and he went back home to bed.
The Tracopa bus rolled into San José just after 9 am on Thursday, September 15. We made very good time since usually morning rush hour is stop and go. In fact, I noticed that there was very little traffic, no businesses open and few people on the streets. We grabbed a cab, loaded up and headed to the district where the Sankey Center is located. Costa Rican addresses are cryptic even for Ticos. We drove around for awhile asking the cabbie why all the businesses were closed. It was Mother’s Day. M and I looked at each other like, “And so..” Turns out that Mother’s Day in Costa Rica is a national holiday. Everything is closed: businesses, restaurants, shops. The churches are open and hold special services. Costa Ricans take honoring their mothers very seriously.
What to do? We had the cabbie drive us to our B&B located close to the airport. It is convenient to the airport and not convenient to the Sankey Center which is at least 30 mins (without traffic) drive. Our flight on Friday departed at 1 pm. With luck we had some time to get back to the Sankey Center and to the airport if all went smoothly. I was bemoaning our situation to a friend and she suggested that we contact her friend Guido who is a cab driver living near the airport. Guido was instrumental in helping us. He picked up M and the TV early Friday morning. They went to Sankey where the man there said that he would honor the warranty except for one situation. He said that if he opened up the TV and found that insects had chewed the wires then the warranty was void! We hadn’t read that in the fine print.
While M and I were traveling around North America, Guido had to make 2 trips to Sankey. He said that they never answered the phone. First trip, they said that they didn’t know the status of the TV. Second trip, the business was closed for 5 days for inventory. Guido did find out that the TV was beyond repair and they would provide us with a partial refund to purchase another Sankey TV. The business was still closed for inventory the day that we arrived back from California. Guido went back to Sankey to get the Refund certificate on the day after we left SJ to returned home from our California trip. Ay!
Our second important reason for a trip to San José was to have our water pressure pump repaired. The pump was not functioning properly before we left for North America and while we were away Roy investigated. He repaired it so that we could use it on our return but it was a short term fix. The only authorized dealer was in San José. Since a home without running water is a major pain, we wanted this repair to be effective and fast. At first, the repairman wasn’t sure if they had the part. He said that it could be repaired by Monday! It was Thursday. We didn’t want to stay in San José all weekend. M explained that we needed it sooner and left the pump in their hands with high hopes. We drove over to the nearest EPA (aka Home Deport) and M received a call within an hour that the repair was complete! Before returning to pick up the pump, we visited PriceSmart. Walking around inside these two stores, and you can barely tell the difference from the stores in Seaside (except the prices.)
In the evening, we met up with Guido and his wife Hazel to receive the refund certificate and to take them out to dinner as a thank you to Guido for all his effort on our behalf. We had a very enjoyable time and celebrated Guido’s birthday as well. I always have some anxiety when we have social events with Tico friends since my verbal expression is the level of a 6 year old. After a margarita, my Spanish seems to improve and after two, I’m speaking like a native. (Haha!)
We stayed the night at the most delightful B&B located outside of San José, La CasaBlanca. The hostess is a massage therapist, artist, dancer. Her home is serene and decorated with visually enticing art, books and furniture.
The tranquility of the surroundings was reinvigorating after 2 stressful days on the road. Some of the stress originates from navigating San José. The traffic is intense, the drivers are insane and even using Google Maps is challenging. More than a few strong words passed between M and I. It is a weakness in our relationship that can use improvement.
The renewing my passport had its excitement too. Our first day on the road took us to Dominical, a small and popular beach town just 3 hours north of our home. The US Embassy was on a “services tour” of the Southern Zone. During two hours of Wednesday afternoon, they were at a hotel in a meeting room and US citizens could bring in completed passport renewal forms or sign up for Social Security. No appointment necessary.
It was finding this hotel that was the challenge. I looked it up on Google Maps before we left. It appeared on a road that runs along the Baru River. The exit was just before the bridge. Simple enough. As we flew along the highway, I pointed out the exit to M. It was a dirt road and seemed overgrown. As we sped over the bridge, I looked down and saw a dirt road next to the river and no sign of civilization. After the bridge, we took the first right and pulled over to the side of the road to ask directions from a man selling fruit. He wasn’t familiar with this hotel. We pulled the car forward under the shade of some trees and were busily consulting our smartphones when we heard a large thud on the roof. I looked up to see a brown wad of I wasn’t sure what material about the size of an egg sliding down the windshield and lodge on the top of the wiper. Then there was another thud and a wad hit the hood of the car, then another and another thud on the roof. The monkeys were throwing poop at us! I guess they didn’t like the looks of our car and wanted us to leave their territory. Or maybe they were bored and this is how they amuse themselves with the tourists. I didn’t get out to investigate what species of primate was adorning our vehicle. Probably capuchins as they are very aggressive. It turned out that the hotel was down that dirt road by the river. Around here, you never know what you will find down a dirt road.
Our errands took only 3 days and 456 miles of driving.Yes, I say that it “only” took 3 days. Instead of taking 4 weeks like our TV. And the worst thing to happen was that we were monkey poop targets. It’s always an adventure.
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