June 23rd, 2009 fmorgan
I hate being injured. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen that often, but about ten days or so ago, I did something really strange to my leg. A storm came up as I was walking from the office to the house. I don’t care if I get wet, but I had some papers in my hand so I started running up the steep path to our house. I do it all the time, but this time something popped in the calf of my leg. It felt like someone punched me or something. I still don’t know what happened, but I had to get someone to rescue the papers and bring me a big stick to lean on so I could hobble my way to the house.
I had an important visitor the next day whom I was going to escort all over the farms. In the morning I could still put no weight on the leg nor flex my foot, so I had a driver take me to pick up the visitor. I made a valiant effort, but after about ten steps, I had to let someone else escort him inside the first plantation. I got home as soon as I could, turned over tour duties to others, and retreated to a couch to attempt not to move for a while.
By the next night it was a little better, and we sat in a hot spring for a while. That helped.
Now after about ten days, it is almost okay, but it still twinges, which tells me I better not go running for a while. Thankfully, it has recovered enough so that I no longer am in danger of country remedies. We have a lot of workers, and they are very concerned if I get sick (very rare) or injured (rarer yet). They want to help, but their help is a bit scary. All that most of the workers know how to treat is horses and cows, and since I am nearly the same size in their eyes, the suggestions for remedies sounded frighteningly similar.
Why is it that anytime someone suggests a cure around here, they start by saying that it will really hurt a lot, or taste horrible, or in this case burn like fire, but then it will really help, too! What I gathered was that some nurse or possibly a pharmacist would take a huge needle and inject a muscle relaxant into my butt. This does not sound good. After the agony was over, the muscle would be fine and I could go about my business, after of course visiting the dentist to fix all my teeth because I had clenched them so hard. I bet the pharmacist does veterinary work on the side. Maybe dental work too.
Just to be on the safe side, I have been working at walking as normally as I can. You never know, if they get the idea I will never walk and run normally again, they might suggest I be put down.
Posted in cultural adaptation, culture, doctor, finca, horses, injury | 3 Comments »
May 2nd, 2009 fmorgan
One of the areas I think that baffles foreigners most when living in Costa Rica is what things cost. First of all, you have to deal with a new currency, the colon. On top of that, some things are much cheaper here (for example, we just bought a pineapple for less than 50 cents), and other things, much more expensive (imported goods mainly–an apple is about $1.50).
So, getting prices straight can be challenging, especially when you start talking in millions of colones. We just sold a used ATV for 2 million (about 3600 dollars).
We all want to know ahead of time what it will cost to build something, but the price always ends up being more than quoted. I finally figured out that contractors here give a bid for the best case scenario. Basically, if everything goes perfectly, it will be that price. In a country where even plans for meetings are preceded by “Si Dios quiere…” (If God wills), you can guess how often everything goes perfectly. You would think that the estimates would reflect the normal course of events, but it doesn’t work that way. Since everyone bids for the impossible ideal situation, anyone who gives an accurate estimate will not get the job. Cost overruns are therefore the norm, and you are responsible for adding your own buffer instead of the contractor tacking it on. The odds of you coming out at the original bid and getting to keep that buffer are worse than the lottery, but I guess it’s fun to try. We have seen that if you work the price down to below usual, what you pay in the end will be the same as if you accepted a quote for around the going price, what with one thing and another. It is very possible the lower bid will end up being the most expensive when you redo the rushed job.
Bargaining is practically a national pastime in Costa Rica, if not an art form. Where you live, are you accustomed to hearing an exchange like this in a retail furniture store? “I appeal to your conscience on the price you are asking me to pay.” “My conscience is perfectly clear, thank you, I know our prices are some of the best around.” That last said with a big smile.
It seems everything can be dickered over, and everything is considered for sale. People frequently walk up to our door and ask to buy equipment that we are using in our business. The above-mentioned ATV was in daily use, but somebody asked if we would part with it. It is always good when you are not the one trying to sell, but the other party is trying to buy.
If you come up to a farmer and say, “I like your farm, how much?” expect to be shocked at the price. The custom is to offer it at 3 times a reasonable amount, which is to say, “I don’t really want to sell, but if you really want it…” More than a few farmers have been shocked when the crazy foreigner paid what they asked, and more than a few foreigners have been very upset to discover they paid three times market value.
The best way to buy land is to locate yourself in the area for a while and give yourself a few months to learn what a good price is. Then let it be known that you will buy land for that price. Resist the pressure to go look at properties that are more than your asking price per hectare or square meter. Eventually someone will show up with a property in your price range, because that is what the locals are paying.
After seven years of doing business in Costa Rica, I can see us now on our next visit to the United States trying to appeal to the conscience of some baffled clerk in Home Depot.
Posted in bargaining, business in Costa Rica, buying land, campo, construction, culture, finca, investing | No Comments »
March 9th, 2009 fmorgan
There is much excitement in Cabanga and Guatuso recently over the road that runs from Guatuso to Arenal. This also means a lot to us since that road passes in front of our base of operations. What a difference four years makes! It is almost four years ago we bought the Monte Cristo property, and at the time there was a road, but the bridges were less than marginal. In fact, a little less than three years ago when we moved to Monte Cristo with our stuff, when the driver of the truck saw the bridge, he took off his seatbelt in case he had to jump. I was riding with him, and after I did a double-take, I took off my seatbelt, too!
Since that time, both bridges have been repaired thanks to the local businessmen augmenting the resources of the town, and the road has been graded various times. But now they are getting serious, and we are getting a luxury road — for Costa Rica.
There are various stages of roads here. Phase one is send a bulldozer that carves it out but leaves it dirt. This leaves a road that is servicable about 4 months out of the year for vehicles. The rest of the time, only tractors and horses will pass.
The next phase is to take rock and sand dredged out of the river and dump it on the road. This is called “lastre.” You won’t get stuck, but it is jarring, so you would almost prefer dirt. The rock runs from gravel to 6 inches in diameter and more. Kind of fun on a mountian bike, but I probably can’t think of anything that would do a better job destroying a vehicle’s suspension than a river rock road. A lot of people can’t afford repairs, so evry day we hear wham! wham! wham! as pickup trucks and cars go by with their chassis hitting bottom on every big rock. This has been the road in front of our operation these four years and one of the reasons we have a fulltime mechanic.
Now they are going to the next phase, an actual gravel road! Make the road uniform in width, fix all the drainage systems, and spread actual gravel. It is going to be wonderful.
To give you an idea why I sound so excited, our operation is only about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from Guatuso, but it can take 20 minutes to get there due to the road. We are 14 kilometers (10 miles) from Nuevo Arenal, but that is at least 45 minutes of driving on a much worse road. (Imagine driving over ski moguls.) With the new road, I can imagine being in Arenal in under 20 minutes! Not that there is anything to buy in Arenal, except at a very good German Bakery, but we do at times pass through Arenal heading for Liberia to get parts and construction supplies.
There is not only the increase in convenience to us and far fewer repairs to suspension — we seem to change the oil and the bushings on our car at the same time — but it will change the traffic flow of tourism to go right in front of our operation. This allows us to create a storefront for souvenirs and furniture. We are getting more and more walk-in traffic for our furniture business, and this could increase it considerably. Even people passing by this mixed-species plantation is a good thing, because it can raise awareness of what is being done to bring back more native trees to Costa Rica.
Posted in culture, roads | 2 Comments »
July 3rd, 2008 fmorgan
We use motorized brush cutters (weedwhackers) a lot in the farms. Pretty much all day long you hear them running. Here in Costa Rica, they are called motoguadañas, or motorized scythes. They even cut the grass on the lawns with them rather than using lawnmowers, because the lawns are not rolled smooth.
A motoguadaña here costs about 250,000 colones, or in 2008, 500 dollars. When they are used about 7 hours a day, you can expect them to survive about 2 years before they start to become more trouble than they are worth. Generally speaking, you have to clean the motoguadañas once a week (grease, clean, etc.) or they will deteriorate much more rapidly. The consumption of fuel for a day is about one gallon. That doesn’t sound like much, except down here that costs about 6 dollars now. The mixing oil is a bit more. A good operator can cut about 3,000 square meters a day, or a bit less than an acre.
All of this adds up when you have 750 acres or so. We cut the grass on every bit of the land around our trees once every two months for the first two years. After that, it is about every 6 months. The trees grow really fast in our part of Costa Rica, but so does everything else. You have to keep up with it or it will effect the final shape of the tree and their growth.
Before there were motoguadañas, there were guadañas, or scythes. After a lot of research, we decided that scythes might just make a good replacement for the motoguadañas. It is a bit hard to believe, but in the hand of a person who knows what they are doing, a scythe is actually faster and less work than a motoguadaña.
At least, that is the theory.
Yesterday, the scythes arrived. Since it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to get shipments here, I went ahead and ordered 13 of them. Since we can make our own snaths (the handles), I ordered 5 of them in different styles so we would have something to go by. We also got all the stuff to sharpen the blades.
To prepare people for the coming of the new and improved motoguadaña, I showed them a video of a young girl beating an operator of a motoguadaña in a contest. They were impressed, and of course, since it was a little girl (about 11 years old I believe), I am sure they are convinced they can do at least as well as she!
It appears to be true. Yesterday, I showed Ignacio, our gardener, the scythe. After I explained how it worked, he was off and running. He is convinced that with just a little time, it will be faster than a motoguadaña.
One really big advantage is that the women can use the scythes, whereas a motoguadaña (commercial size) is a bit much for the average sized Tica. Many of the women in the area would love to work clearing the grass but could not before. There isn’t a lot of work for the women in the area, so this opens up possibilities. One other benefit that I really didn’t expect is safety. You wouldn’t think a knife that is nearly a meter long would be safer - but motoguadañas throw a lot of debris and those who operate them often don’t consider this. The other safety issue is your hearing. The steady noise of a motoguadaña can’t be good for your long term hearing and it masks the sound of a snake as well.
So far, the scythe experiment is going very well, although there was a pretty startled look on the faces of the people working nearby when I walked out of my office holding a scythe for the first time, looking like the Grim Reaper…
Posted in campo, conservation, cultural adaptation, culture, importing, scythe, trees, wood | No Comments »
March 20th, 2008 fmorgan
I just spent 6 days with an importer of our wood products in Florida. They were displaying at the Home and Garden show in Orlando so I combined a trip to visit their opperation and a chance to support them in a show.
We don’t go that often to the USA so the shock is a bit strong each time. I probably look like a person who has never seen things before — “Gee, would you look at that!” Even though it is once a year, so much changes. I nearly put my foot through the floor on the passenger side as we went through the toll booths without slowing down much!
Being an engineer, of course I want to stop and take apart the sensor to see how it works — but I assume that would be frowned upon.
Living where we do, we don’t see much of anything new. This is fine, and we love our simple life, but it is nice to look. The volume of new things is overwhelming.
One of the highlights is food. I don’t miss the food when we are here, since we have so many tropical fruits and healthy stuff, but it doesn’t mean that I am not a sampling fool when I am back in the land of food choices. However, I would have terminal indigestion if I stayed too long — all good eating habits go out the window when I am in the states.
There are many things I start to miss about Costa Rica after just a few days. One is a good cup of coffee. Since quality coffee is very important to me, this is a bit of a trial. I don’t want a lot of coffee, but I do want it perfect. Another thing that is very hard to get used to is the temperature changes. On this trip, I looked at the weather report for ten days and it said upper 70s. Great, no problem, I thought. I don’t know if a weather front moved in or what, but I was shivering from the cold. Of course I look silly with a sweatshirt when everyone else is in shorts.
One thing that always gets me is the clerks in the stores. When I walk into a store here in Costa Rica, I can be sure I will be swarmed by clerks eager to help. Even when they have to deal with my searching for the right term for some obscure part, they are patient (chunche, which means “thingy” is a favorite of mine). It seems to me that whatever clerk I get first in the USA is having a bad day and just can’t seem to bother with me. Also, as I am trying to remember how to do common things (like swipe an ATM card), they wonder if I am senile or something…
Worse yet, aside from Amy, I don’t speak English with that many people. If you ask me a question, there might be a bit of a pause while I try to start talking in English. Since after I jumpstart my brain I speak as the native I am, the obvious conclusion I suppose is that I was trying to think.
This points to another obvious conclusion — I am going native. Surely in the future this is only going to get worse. That’s okay, we really love living here in Costa Rica.
Posted in Spanish, business in Costa Rica, communications, cultural adaptation, culture, language learning | No Comments »