My Dos Colones

Net Bank to ING Direct to No Thanks

This is a flat out rant of my brief experience with ING Direct, the company that took over the accounts of previous Net Bank customers after Net Bank failed. I was a Net Bank customer and enjoyed taking full advantage of their "no-fee" ATM withdraws, especially in Costa Rica and most other countries where the ATM owners do not charge fees either. In addition to no fees, the exchange rate Net Bank was giving on the ATM withdraws was slightly better than the banks, less than 1% but still noteworthy.

So when I heard ING Direct was taking over the accounts, I signed up for a checking account with an ATM debit card in hopes that the service would be the same or at least similar. My debit card was sent to my mother's address in the US and a few months later I had it in hand. I activated the card successfully in the US from the home phone number on my account application. Upon returning to Costa Rica, I tried all of the ATM's to no avail. My debit card was a Master Card so I didn't understand why there would be a problem. After a week or two, I decided to call customer service and let them know about it.

I got someone on the phone and straight away he was convinced that I was trying to obtain a credit card cash advance instead of withdrawing money from my checking account. After arguing with him for a few minutes, he was ready to let me go - helpless - when I asked if being in Costa Rica would make any difference. Bingo! The lights had been turned on and the guy was beginning to talk some sense. I was told that I needed to let ING Direct know whenever I leave the country (USA) in order for the card to work, this being a security measure.

I said OK, so that's it? No, I need to know the dates you will be outside the US and the countries you will be visiting. To make a long story short, ING Direct want their customers to inform them of every country their customers will be visiting and the dates, if they ever wish to use their DEBIT cards in those foreign countries. Plus, they want 48 hours notice!

OK, I've heard something similar but not as drastic with credit card companies when they see abnormal foreign transactions. They may decide, and I've had it happen to me before, to put a block on your card while THEY attempt to contact YOU in order to confirm your transactions. All along I had assumed this was because the credit card company could be liable in the event the credit card was stolen. And all along I assumed (for all banks) that if a debit card was stolen the owner of the account was SOL. Am I wrong in assuming that the bank is not liable for illegal debit card transactions? If not, then why in the hell is ING Direct so concerned about my foreign debit card withdraws?

I explained to him that I was a world traveler and that it would be a major inconvenience, an intolerable one at that, to phone someone and tell them which countries I will be in and for how long with 48 hours notice. I even asked if I could waive their so called "customer protection" policy. No he said, explaining to me that those were the rules. I was so upset and in such disbelief, I told him I wanted to close my account asking for the quickest way to receive my money. He said I could send it to another bank via electronic transfer, the same way it was deposited. OK fine, but I would prefer to have the money in cash. Could you set me up so that I can withdraw the money from an ATM here in Costa Rica. He said sure and asked for the dates that I would be in Costa Rica. ARRRGGGHHH!!! I'm here now I said. Then he asked how long I wanted the "permission" to be granted for. It doesn't matter because that will be my first and last withdraw! Put down 2 weeks. OK he said, that should be ready in 24 to 48 hours. Guess what? Three days later I was still unable to withdraw any money from the ATM's in Costa Rica.

Eventually I transferred my entire balance, every penny of it, back to my other bank via electronic transfer online and that was the end of my experience with the most illogical, unfriendly and inconvenient rule I have ever heard of.

Golfito Duty-Free Shopping Part 3

What seems to be a regular occurrance now, we made another 7 hour trip to Golfito for duty-free shopping again last week. Being the Monday of Semana Santa, the traffic was not bad at all. In fact, when we returned on Tuesday, there was so very little, I'm sure I averaged 30 mph up the mountains and 40mph down. Never had to wait much at all to pass the few trucks. We left Golfito after 5:00PM and were in Escazu by midnight with a stop at McDonalds in Perez Zeledon.

The little seafood place called La Casona de Mariscos is doing a good business. It appears the prices have gone up, along with the portions, but even so the cost was notable. There was a group of our friendly neighbors to the north who were off duty and accompanied by a Tico tour guide who ran up a bill of 98,000 colones. Now that seems like a lot, but let's consider what they had to eat. Every one of the four gringos had two main dishes and one of them had three. I don't know what the Tico had, but even if he had only one, that would have been 10 main dishes, with who knows how many beers and cokes. They were a little surprised at the bill and since we had taken notice of the price increases the night before, all I could do was laugh to myself. But please don't get the wrong idea. This place serves excellent seafood and is beginning to build a reputation. We bought some seafood from one of the local distributors in Golfito and mentioned that we had eaten at La Casona. They said that it was the best seafood restaurant in Golfito.

This time I'm going to give examples of wine and liquor prices. Every 6 months, one is allowed to purchase 24 bottles of wine and 12 bottles of liquor within the Deposito. I have written before with examples of appliances and electronics being 30-40% less than San Jose prices, but with regards to wine and liquor, I would have to say that the prices are half that of what you see in the San Jose supermarkets. They are even slightly better than the Duty-free prices at the airport. Judge for yourself. Here's what we bought:

	Colones	USD
Marquez de Arienzo Gran Reserva 1996	11078	$22.52
Marquez de Caceres Reserva 2001	8752	$17.79
Campo Viejo Gran Reserva 1997	7095	$14.42
Chianti Cecchi 2006	5547	$11.27
Campo Viejo Reserva 2001	4604	$9.36
Marquez de Caceres 2003 and 2004	4842	$9.84
Marquez de Arianzo Crianza 2002	4409	$8.96
Sichel Bordeaux Rouge 2005	4106	$8.35
Campo Viejo Crianza 2003	3896	$7.92
Woodbridge Zinfadel 2002	3786	$7.70
Yellow Tail Shiraz	3426	$6.96
Frontera Merlot Rosado 1500ml	3159	$6.42
Sunrise Carmenere Concha y Toro	2952	$6.00
Rene Barbier 2005	2534	$5.15
Sunrise Merlot Concha y Toro	2064	$4.20
Frontera Rose 750ml	1605	$3.26
Baileys Original 1000ml	5772	$11.73
Smirnoff 1750ml	5515	$11.21
Ron Rico Coconut 750ml	3111	$6.32

I'm a newbie when it comes to wine and I'm still discovering which ones I like. All I know is that I like the Spanish reds, tempranillo in particular, and I don't really care for the world's most popular red, Cabernet Sauvignon. I haven't really sampled anything else so this was a chance for me to build up my collection with a few varieties. The above list is mainly Spanish reds with a few cheap examples of Australian, Chilean, French, Italian and Californian.

10th Edition of the Golden Games

To visit them makes one humble and thankful for life itself. So full of good spirit and living life the simplest sort of way they are. Within their old typical Tico house in central Ciudad Colón, the presence of love is in the air and no doubt exerts itself from this wonderful couple. That's the feeling I get every time we visit my wife's uncle and his wife, 99 and 86 years of age respectively. I've made the trip to Ciudad Colón about six times now over the past 2 or 3 years and every time I learn we are going again, I prepare myself for a wonderful relaxing time, wondering what stories will be told.

Don Vidal and his wife doña Placida still enjoy dancing. One time we were visiting them, they told us they had been to a dance the weekend before, but there was some strange music they were unfamiliar with. It was either Reggaetón or Cumbia, I can't remember which, but the thought of seeing them in that atmosphere, no matter which of the two types it was, brought a chuckle. The fact that either of them could recall exactly which type of new trendy music it was was even funnier.

Last January, don Vidal's sister turned 90 years old. She lives in Paso Ancho or somewhere nearby, not too far from the roundabout on the south side of San José. That day, we drove to Ciudad Colón, picked up both don Vidal and doña Placida and took them to Paso Ancho to spend the day with relatives they hadn't seen before in years. There were eight of us in the RAV4, in a 2-4-2 formation with only one of us under the age of 26. Don Vidal's nephew was entertaining with the guitar. It had been 14 years if I remember correctly since they last saw each other. Don Vidal had him play a song from his childhood that brought him tears of joy. As we were leaving, Yancy apologized to her aunt for not buying a gift. Her aunt replied, "you've just brought me a gift worth a half million colones".

They made the news last Friday for taking part in the 10th edition of "The Golden Games" in Ciudad Colón. Don Vidal was the oldest in the competition of 350 people. The only requirement was that you needed to be 60 years old to participate. The video below is in Spanish so don Vidal is asked if he dances, to which he replies, "yes I dance... with my woman". He says he still runs errands because they no longer have kids living at home - an interesting way to look at it if you ask me. And that sort of remark is such a common one from him, a perfect example of the way he views life. Doña Placida says she has a good spirit and enjoys living even though she doesn't see very well.

You'll need the Quicktime plugin to watch this.

Costa Rican Aduanas

If you live in Costa Rica you have to take advantage of the allowances that customs allows. Generally speaking, every person, residents and toursits alike, are allowed $500 of duty-free purchases every 6 months. I believe that this allowance is for one package only, not a lot of small items that total $500.

On my way home from New Zealand, I had an 8 hour layover in Los Angeles and gracias a Beto, I went to Fry's to buy a computer. I ended up buying a Gateway computer, with Windows Home Premium, AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ with 3GB ram and a 400GB hard drive for $549 plus tax. I also bought a Maxtor 2.5in 160GB hard drive for $89 and a Philips Skype phone for $20. The taxi ride from LAX was $20 and then $16 return so it was well worth it.

Upon entering Costa Rica, I had already been to the duty-free liquor shop to buy my 8 bottles, which consisted of 1 Glenfiddich 750ml - $25, 1 Johnnie Walker Red 1 litre - $18, 1 Absolut 1 litre - $12, 1 Marques de Caceras 2003 - $11, 2 Absolut 750ml - $10, 1 Jose Cuervo 750ml - $11 and 1 Captain Morgan 750ml - $8 for a grand total of $105. Not bad for 8 bottles.

Passing through Customs, I was asked, "What's in the Box?" I said a computer, and he asked for my passport and gave me the stamp indicating that I have used the 6 month allowance of $500. He asked what it cost and I told him $549. Afterwards, I asked if they charge duty for anything over $500 and he said as long as it isn't a lot over the $500 allowance, they don't mind. Needless to say, I didn't pay anything.

COOL!! I was on my way and left wondering why I hadn't taken advantage of this before!

Costa Rica Living eBoard

Did you know there's a group within Yahoo called Costa Rica Living which contains tons of information on Costa Rica? That it has been around more than eight years, consists of more than 4,000 members and has over 68,000 messages in it's archives? All of the messages are easily searchable form the group's website. The group is open to the public and all you need to do is obtain a yahoo account and join.

But wait, there's more... Over the years, the most frequently asked questions, the best trip reports and the best "how to's" from this very informative group have been compiled onto another website called the Costa Rica Living eBoard. The information on the website is constantly increasing with the recommendations of it's readers. To submit additional content, all you need to do is send an email to the site administrators for approval.

The Frequently Asked Questions section contains info on banking, cell phones, cost of living, crime, driving, mail service, medical info, phones, pest control, shipping, things to bring, working and all the things we miss.

If you plan on traveling throughout Costa Rica, the eBoard has categories for 72-hour trips, bus service, cabs, car rentals, guide services, maps, tours and vans. Know a good place to stay? Submit your recommendation via email so it can be added to the site.

If your intentions are to stay in Costa Rica permanently, the CRL eBoard provides information on residency, buying land, the labor law and other legal issues. Many long time residents have written essays on what they like most about the area in which they live.

Looking for a professional of some sort? The CRL eBoard has recommendations for dentists, doctors, insurance agents, lawyers, nurses and alternative healthcare. General recommendations include entertainment, repairmen, restaurants, recipes, schools, services, shopping and recommended reading.

This is a site worth bookmarking because it very well may help you in your quest for more knowledge about Costa Rica.

Iron Maiden - How big is this?

Al Dia reports today that 27,000 people are expected to be in the Monster's Cave (Saprissa Stadium) on Feb 26 to see Iron Maiden perform. The entire playing field, apart from the stage, is the VIP section, standing room only, no reserves. The stadium has a seating capacity of 23,000, but not all of these will be available for the concert. The remaining thousands of people will be in the VIP section on the field. Lines are expected to form up to three days in advance. In comparison, when Daddy Yankee performed in 2006, they estimated a crowd of 18,000 attended.

Iron Maiden have commissioned an Astraeus Boeing 757, decorated with the band's designs, including Eddie their mascot. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who has been flying commercial jets for Astraeus for a few years now, will be bringing the jet into Juan Santamaria's International airport. Having their own plane is a huge benefit because it means they don't have to wait for all of their equipment to arrive by freight when making long haul trips.

Meanwhile, security is a concern at the Monster's Cave. Migracion expects 1,500 concert goers from other Central American countries to arrive, due to the fact that it will be Iron Maiden's first ever performance in Central America. Evenpro, the organizer of the show, says that 200 private security guards have been hired. The Red Cross will be on hand three days prior to the event taking place.

The director of Migracion, Mario Zamora, says that they will increase the number of border patrol workers from 20 to 30 at Peñas Blancas in order to check that people entering have their papers in order. He doesn't believe orgainzed gangs would be coming for the concert, but agreed that they could take advantage of the large influx of people to enter the country illegally. I've liked this guy ever since he refused a $2.5 million visa bribe from the Chinese.

The opening act of the show will be Lauren Harris, the daughter of Maiden's bass guitarist Steve Harris. She will be playing with guitarist Richie Faulkner. Laureen and her group have been touring with Iron Maiden since late 2006.

Iron Maiden in Costa Rica

The 1982 Iowa Jam took place at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. Bruce and I had been next door neighbors and best friends since before we could walk. We were 14 years old that year he invited me to travel 120 miles to come and see this huge outdoor rock concert. His father drove us to the fairgrounds in his old pickup, dropped us off and said “Have a good time”.

The line-up that year was Loverboy, Triumph, QuarterFlash and 38 Special. We sat high up in the grandstand judging who was to be the best. The favorites would have been Loverboy and Triumph, but we both agreed that 38 Special, with their southern rock style from their Special Forces album, stole the show. Oh yeah, and there was this one other band that no one had ever heard of, someone called Iron Maiden. They were a last minute addition and were the first ones on stage, having just played a last minute gig at a Des Moines nightclub the night before.

Later this month on 26 Feb, Iron Maiden will be playing in Costa Rica at Saprissa stadium for what is expected to be the country’s biggest concert in history. Twenty-six years have gone by since I first and last saw them. Unfortunately, for me Iron Maiden is still that band that nobody knew about way back when. Run to the Hills, is the only song I'm able to recall, but I must admit, it is a classic. Heavy Metal for me was just a phase during my teenage years, but I was a fan of Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne and Motley Crue among others. Those were the days when Ozzy was biting the heads off bats and doves and stirring up all sorts of controversy – way before his family became TV stars and won emmy awards for their reality show performances.

Guyon Massey Mora, head of the Partido Restauración Nacional, is asking Migracion to take necessary precautionary measures for Iron Maiden's concert. Massey believes that the concert could be a gateway for organized gangs to enter the country. The director of Migracion is a bit more open minded. He claims that he can't really prohibit anyone from entering the country because they want to see a rock concert. Get real. Massey goes on to say that Iron Maiden lyrics contain negative messages for adolescents.

Children under 15 years old will not be permitted, period. Identification needed is either your cedula, passport or the identification cards given to minors by the Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. How lucky I was to see Iron Maiden at 14 unaccompanied, :)

I hope the concert is a safe and huge success and that it brings even bigger acts to the country in the future. There are thousands that have waited years to see this event. The question is though, if my son were 15 years old, would I let him go alone? Ummm, I think I'd convince him to drag me along.

Shopping in the US compared to Costa Rica

What a relief yesterday to see the markets attempting to climb out of that abyss they have fallen into. Strength across the board after signs of growth in the retail sector. I guess they finally realized how much money our family spent in the US over Christmas and New Years. I was wondering when someone was going to take notice.

Oh how we love to shop when things are on sale! During the week between Christmas and New Years we spent most of our time at the malls, that being where most of the sales were. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Discovercard was giving away $20 gift cards to be used anywhere, for every $200 spent in the malls. That was fun. They advertised a limit of 5 per customer, so when I turned in my fourth, fifth and sixth set of $200 receipts, I (being an honest type of guy) let them know. The sixth set of receipts was given back to me. Now, I’m the curious type, so I decided to ask “would you have known that was my sixth set if I hadn’t have told you?” She said no. I smiled and said thank you. I think the last count I had was a total of 13 from two different malls.

We hit Aeropostale again three or four times for multi-hundred dollar purchases. It was fun to stretch out the receipts and notice the bottom that indicated the amount we saved was much more than the amount we had spent. And who would have thought that their coupons saying “Save $10 off your next $40 purchase” would apply to every $40 of your next purchase? In other words, a $200 total means $50 off. That was in addition to their 50% off sales, which was pretty much everything in the store, and then the Discovercard giftcards came later. By the way, there is an Aeropostale store here in Costa Rica, but the quality of the clothing is inferior compared to the Aeropostale store in the US where we shop. Who knows where it comes from. The prices are much higher to boot.

Shareholders of Bath and Body Works need to appreciate us. We spend so much in this store we end up paying extra money in baggage on our return to Costa Rica. The first day we went, they only had a few things on sale. It wasn't one of their big ones, but we spent over $200. At home, while we were unpacking the bag of goodies, we noticed they had inserted a flyer advertising one of their huge sales starting the next day, which included many of the things we had just bought. I wasn't too happy. My mother said to call them and tell them. I didn't think I could keep my cool so my step dad did. Surprisingly, we were to return to the store the next day to make amends.

When we got there one of the store workers led me to the right person to talk to. "Oh you're the guy from Norway right?" "Ya Ya", I said. She said she could help me, but that unfortunately I had to wait in line - the normal checkout line - which at that moment stretched all the way outside of the store and resulted in about a 45 minute wait. Meanwhile, my wife had picked out about 20 to 25 more items of bath gel, body wash, body cream, etc. to balance the expected difference in our total. When I finally got to the front, the store worker cancelled everything we had bought before and then rang it all up again at the current sale prices, including the 20 - 25 new items we had picked out. The difference - $2 and change. I said "Thank you so much, this kind of service is unheard of in Costa Rica". She said that they honour all of their sale prices up to two weeks prior to their sales and that all one needs to do is bring in the receipt.

One doesn't see huge sales in Costa Rica. They are unfamiliar with the concept. Occassionaly one will see an item or two on sale, but even then there are often strings attached. Take for example these Danish Cookies at Hipermas in Escazu.

The promotion is "Two for One", you can just make out the "2 x 1" to the right of the sale price of 1949 colones (about $4). Notice there are two different types of tins. The sign reads "The promotion applys only if you take two of the same tins, NO combinations." I spent awhile trying to determine the logic behind that and I'm not sure if I ever did. I half expected to see an assembly of Danish Cookie Tin Traders just outside the store as we left. A week later, I happened to notice that the 1949 colones price had been cut in half and they were selling them individually. Did they succeed or fail in whatever it was they were trying to accomplish? Who knows.

That same day at Hipermas I was buying beer - Imperial. They had a huge display of 12 pack cans set up in the middle of the aisle. The price was well adevrtised. Then after I made it to the actual beer aisle, I noticed some 6 pack cans that had printed on the boxes temselves "buy 5, take 1 free", referring to the cans. The price was not marked on these so I took one up to the register for a price check. It turned out that buying two 6 packs was much cheaper than buying the 12 pack, because you actaully were getting 2 cans for free. They're not making it obvious though, they need to sell the other ones first because they are higher priced.

I hate shopping in the malls in Costa Rica. Any given store usually has 3 or 4 employees standing at the front trying to drag you in - "Pase caballero, en que le puedo servir?", which means "Come inside sir, how can I help you?" I tell him/her/them that I'm just looking. Now, where I come from that is a hint that I want to shop in peace and not have someone staring at me as though I'm a huge security threat to the store. After a few seconds of them eyeing me like a hawk and asking me dumb questions, I need to escape. "Get me outta here!" After 18 years, I haven't grown accustom to it, which is probably why I enjoy shopping in the US every time we visit.

La Periférica Bus Route

San José has a decent system of public transportation in use, although traffic is becoming worse and worse every year. Fortunately there are projects in the works, mainly on the southern side, to improve the flow of traffic considerably. The tunnel being created beneath the San Sebastian roundabout on the circumvalación, the stretch of highway that nearly circles the outskirts of downtown, has been in the works for a few months now and is beginning to shows signs of completion. Before this project, a bridge was constructed over the Y Griega roundabout, which leads to San Francisco de Dos Rios and Desamparados. There are also two more similar projects planned for the other roundabouts on the south side, "La Guacamaya" and "El Rancho de Guanacaste", antiguo rancho that is; I love it when I can refer to something as being "antiguo" when giving directions. That's boasting that I've been around awhile.

Most of the inner city buses in San José run from the outskirts into downtown and back out again. If you find yourself in a strange neighborhood and need to get back to the center part of San José one can usually just jump on any bus and feel assured that it will take you there. There is at least one exception to this however.

One day I left my house in San Francisco de Dos Rios with nothing more than a few hundred colones on me. I was headed into San José for some reason and planned on using an ATM once there. I walked a couple blocks uphill, crossed the street and waited for any one of the numerous buses to come. I jumped on the first one and was a bit shocked when I was told I had to pay more money. The fair was about twice as much as I normally pay. Something was wrong. I sat down and began to wonder. When we went west instead of north towards downtown, I realized that I was on one of those buses called "Periférica". This bus line never goes through downtown San José. OK, that settled, now where do I get off and where do I get my money? I decided my best chance was to get off near Hypermas and go inside to use their ATM. Talk about a detour! When I exited, I jumped on another bus that took me into downtown.

La Periferica has two routes that completely circle the outskirts of San José. As the diagram below shows, Route L1 runs counterclockwise around the city and Route L2 runs the opposite way, clockwise. Their website shows the maps of the L1 Route and the L2 Route with only slight variations between the two. The locations of the bus stops (called 'paradas' in Spanish) and the times (called 'horarios') are also on their website. Click on the links within the pages referenced above to see the stops and times.

La Periferica also has a couple of express routes that go from Hatillo to the University along the southern side of the city. The EX3 Route is the most direct, staying on the circumvalación most of the way, while the EX4 Route ventures further south and passes through Desamparados, San Francisco and Zapote.

A printable guide is available on Periferica's website. Clicking on the image below will take you to their webpage where you can click on the printer icon for the print version.

If you are traveling outside of San José to other parts of the country, there is a new book available on Amazon called 'Costa Rica by Bus' which looks like it provides a lot of helpful information. I haven't read it nor heard anything about it yet. It looks informative though so if anyone has any comments on it, please share.

Costa Rica Elated with World Cup Draw

South Africa will be hosting the 2010 World Cup Finals and today they hosted the preliminary draws for the qualifying stages.  Costa Rica came out smelling like a rose and I really don't believe they could have asked for anything better.

The CONCACAF region of FIFA consists of 35 countries in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.  Of these 35 countries, only three will be guaranteed trips to South Africa in 2010 for the Final round of 32 countries.  The fourth place finisher in CONCACAF will have a play-off with the 5th place team from the South American region.

The format for CONCACAF is straightforward, once you understand it.  That can be difficult, so I'll try to explain the best I can.  I've also designed my own bracket below that you can click on to enlarge.

There are 4 stages to determine the qualifiers for South Africa.  Stage 1 and 2 consist of simple head to head matches, one played at home and the other played away.  The winner is determined by aggregate goals.  In the case of an aggregate tie, away goals are valued more than home goals.  For example, 4 years ago, Costa Rica drew 1-1 with Cuba at home and drew 2-2 away.  Costa Rica advanced on away goals, their 2 being more than Cuba's 1.

13 teams received buys into stage two.  These were the teams with the highest ranking by FIFA in May of 2007.  The remaining 22 teams were split into two pots called E and F - teams which ranked 14-24 and 25-35 respectively.   These were drawn so that a team from Pot E would play a team from Pot F in stage one.

Pot D was only one team, 13th ranked St. Vincent and the Granidines.  Pot C consisted of teams ranked 7-12, Pot B was 4-6 and Pot A was the top 3 FIFA ranked teams, Mexico, USA and Costa Rica.  The different Pots assure a fair chance for the top ranked teams to advance, assuring they do not have to play each other until the later stages when it becomes absolutely necessary.

To express just how well Costa Rica has it, their best potential opponents leading up to the 4th and final stage of 6 teams would be:
Pot B team ranked 5th (out of 4-6),
Pot C teams are ranked 9th and 12th (out of 7-12),
Pot E team is ranked 23rd (out of 14-24),
Pot F team is ranked 33rd (out of 25-35).

No excuses!  Plenty of time to prepare.

Motorola L6

When I received a new Motorla L6 cell phone for Father's Day, I felt as though I had just came out of the stone age. It's nothing fancy but it's far better than that ugly hunk of metal I was hauling around before. One of the drawbacks is that it only comes with 10MB of internal memory and doesn't have any expansion slots. But at least it has a camera, albeit only VGA, but good enough for posting to my blog. The pictures from the mini golf post were taken with the camera phone.

The software needed to transfer files from the phone to the computer and vice versa is called Motorola Phone Tools. This software works with all Motorola phones and I find it very easy to use. The phone didn't come with the sofware CD so I had to hunt for it on the internet. Here is the free download link I found for the Motorola Phone Tools program. After downloading, installing and running the program, it will automatically check for updates and install them as well.

I was also curious on how to convert videos to a format that will work on the phone. After some searching on the internet, I found a great freeware program called 3GP Converter. With a little experimenting I was able to get a few videos to play. I don't know much about all of the different video formats, so if you have questions you're better off asking elsewhere, but this freeware program offers quite a few different options. I can't do much with only 10MB in my phone, but for those of you that have phones with much more memory, it's worth a look if you want to play around with videos.

English as a Second Language

My wife is studying English. Yesterday I got a call from her asking for help.

"What's it about?", I ask.

"The present perfect tense."

"Ummm. OK. Just a minute I'll google that."

"It's fill in the blank."

"Yes, but I don't remember what that tense is. Let me check to be sure."

"Here's an example. 'Bill is a traveller. He _______ to Nepal.'"

"He has travelled", I say never remembering if there is one l or two and hoping she doesn't ask.

"Bill climbs mountains. He _____ Mount Everest."

"Has climbed. Just add an 'ed' to the end of the verb."

"Bill falls down. He _____ down Mount Everest."

"Has fallen. Just add 'en' to the end of the verb."

"Bill forgets everything. He ____ where he was at the time."

"Has forgotten. Just double the 't' and add 'en' to the end of the verb. Oh, and change the first 'e' to an 'o'."

By this time I have myself confused.

"Bill has problems. He ____ a hard time."

"Has had."

"Has had?"

"Yes.... (long pause), that's like 'ha tenido.'" I had given up trying to make sense of it all and started to translate. Easier that way. We should all consider ourselves very fortunate if we learned English as a first language.

If you are considering teaching English as a second language in Costa Rica, Bruce and Lisa are writing about their experiences at Costa Rica Classroom - ESL Blog.

Fantasy Premier League Football (Soccer)

The English Premiership kicks off the 2007-2008 season this Saturday and I'm playing fantasy again. I have a league set up like last year for those who want to join. If you aren't already playing the game then you can register at Fantasy Premier League. Registration is free and it's a whole lotta fun. There will be over a million players from all over the world. See how well you do in a private league, be ranked overall and in your home country. See how well you do against others playing in Costa Rica.

Once you have registered and logged in and selected your team, click on the 'Leagues' link on the left hand side of the page. Then enter the code 304192-138420 to join the Dos Colones league. Join me, Richie and Kray. We need some more players.

If you want to follow my strategy, I've created another blog just for fantasy, called Voodoo in the Vibes. Don't say I never gave away any tips!

UPDATE: The original code was last years, it's now corrected.

Miniature Golf at TerraMall

Hidden on the backside of TerraMall in the parking lot is an 18 hole miniature golf course with the theme being sort of pre-colombian. A big volcano near the 18th hole highlights the attraction. The week before this, I had taken my son Justin (now 4 ½) to a real golf course at Valle del Sol just to see what he thought about the sport. After learning he was too young to be out on the big course, I had to do something because he really wanted to play this game. The mini golf at the mall was the place to go.

They have a pretty cool setup here, located on the east side of San Jose, just off the highway between Curridabat and Cartago. There's a practice green, the holes are numbered with some having arrows pointing to the next one. The young woman working there asked me if I knew how to play and where to start. Little did she know I grew up playing miniature golf back home and was a member of the Professional Putters Association, during my college years. I often competed against Chris Barnes in Putt-Putt tournaments, before his bowling skills persuaded him to change careers and become the quickest bowler to win over $1,000,000 on the tour. I should have changed careers too.

Enough of that trivial stuff. This was a day for a father and son to have a good time together. The hardest holes for Justin were the ones that went up hill because he really needed to give it all in his backswing and just let it fly. Would you believe after his 3rd or 4th try on the 18th, which has a steep hill of about 3 feet, he sank it from down below? What a finish!

A round of 18 holes costs 3,000 colones. The course is open from 10:00AM - 8:00PM, not sure which days though. Save your score cards because when you have four of them, your next round is free.

Chris, if you should happen to be reading this, "How are ya?" I was reading your bio and wasn't aware that you were bowling in Costa Rica in '97 and won four gold medals. If you get the chance, say hello and maybe tell us about your trip here.

Golfito Duty Free Shopping Part 2

We made another trip to Golfito the first weekend of July in order to take advantage of the second semester's $500 duty-free allowance. The first can be used anytime from Jan 1 – Jun 30 and the second can be used from Jul 1 – Dec 31. The only exception to this is that you must wait at least 15 days between using each of your allowances. In order words, you can't use one the last week of June and another the first week of July. Two weeks (or 15 days) must pass by before you can use your next allowance.

We made the trip primarily to purchase a range, dishwasher and microwave, all stainless steel to match the refrigerator and other appliances we had bought the previous month. The range was selling for 461,000 colones in San Jose. I called store number 9 in Golfito and they quoted me a price on the phone of 290,000. After a couple more calls, I determined that those three items we needed summed up to less than $1,000. This means they would all fit on a pair of tickets.

When we arrived, I found the prices for cash were even better. The 290,000 colon range came down to 271,000, a savings of more than 40 percent compared to San Jose. The savings of all three items we needed was around 37% or about $600. Well worth the trip.

We learned a few things this time. When determining how much can fit on a ticket, they use the advertised price, not the cash discounted price. In other words, if you buy an item advertised for 260,000 colones which would consume one ticket, for a cash price of 235,000, then your ticket is full and you cannot buy anything else on that ticket.

Inside the deposito, there are many locals trying to make money anyway they can. Some will be buying and selling tickets and others will be offering their services to move your large items from the store to the customs area and then outside to the shipping company or your car. What you don't want to do is hook up with one of these guys and have them follow you around all day, keeping an eye on the things you buy. They won't be shy about asking for a considerable amount of money.

The thing to do is to buy your large items first and tell the store employees who you will be using for your shipping. When we picked up our tickets the day before, there was a notice posted indicating that there were only three reputable transport companies and to avoid using any others. We used a company called Delgado. The store employee should call a representative of the transport company to come and inspect the merchandise with you right there in the store. Once this is done, the transport company will move the large item(s) free of charge to a place still inside the deposito and have someone watch over it until you are ready to exit, which may be hours later. They do this because they want the item out of the store and in their hands from the moment it has been inspected. The nice part about this is that it is free of charge and you can ask them to watch over any other small items you buy throughout the day. We tipped the person working for the transport company 2,000 colones because we had him watching over about 10 other bags of goods we had bought. The transport company should charge around 2.5% of the purchase price to the bodega in San Jose and then another small percentage to have it delivered to your house. We paid 22,000 colones on the three items we bought for 512,000 colones to have them delivered to our door which comes out to just over 4%.

Upon exiting the deposito after you clear customs, you will be bombarded with people asking for money or trying to sell you anything and everything under the sun. It reminds me of exiting airports in West Africa. This is where you need to have someone keeping a close eye on your stuff while you move it to your car or wherever. Anywhere inside the deposito before you clear customs, your stuff is safe because you need the receipts and your identification to get it outside. But once outside it is fair game to anyone. Since we stayed in a hotel only 5 minutes away, I went and got the car and put it in the parking lot right next to the deposito. Then we were able to make a few trips ourselves to avoid paying anyone with the carts.