June 20th, 2008 fmorgan
Due to our plantations, we are on a first name basis with MINAE, the ministry of environment. This can be an adventure in and of itself. MINAE has the responsibility to safeguard the forest and environment of Costa Rica. Like many government organizations, they are understaffed for the size of the job.
We truly try to follow all the rules of Costa Rica. This can be a real trial at times. Not because of the rules, but because of timetables.
Just to give an example, we recently hauled all of those great logs out of the river from the old bridge. Come to find out, before we could cut them, we had to have MINAE visit to verify - even though we sent them pictures. But we had to wait. We were already waiting for 13+ weeks for other permits! I thought we wouldn’t need permits for the bridge logs until it was time to transport the wood, but nope, before we cut it up too (Strange, the trees have been dead for years and years…).
Finally, MINAE notified us that they were ready to come and would meet us at the gas station in Monterrey. Our forestry engineer, Angie, and one of our wood experts went to meet with them and all went great. Angie asked, “What was the holdup?”
The answer, believe it or not, was that they didn’t have enough money for gas to come out and visit! Angie actually gave them some money for gas so they could return to their office, knowing that we would reimburse her.
I wish I had known so that we could have offered to pay expenses. MINAE has taken us up before on our offer to provide horses for them to inspect our properties, so why should this be any different?
Posted in MINAE, business in Costa Rica, forestry, resources, wood | No Comments »
June 16th, 2008 fmorgan
We live above San Rafael de Guatuso, or perhaps I should say after nearly four years in Costa Rica, we are about to live there. We have lived in Costa Rica since July 20. 2004, and to this time, we have yet to have our own home. This is about to change; our home is nearly finished and we are very excited.
There is no phone service available there. Phone we can handle with wireless easily enough, but Internet service is a must for the business.
Having a background in telecommunications, I noticed a wireless bridge on a tower of El Colono, a building supply company with about 70 locations in Costa Rica. We are VERY good customers there, averaging in the thousands every month.
So we asked nicely if we could use their tower. The owner agreed and in fact connected us to their provider who came out, talked with us, did a site survey and installed a 6-meter post on the roof of our new home and the Internet bridge. We now have 256/256. I know that might not sound like much, but for us, it is twice what we have had. Then they came out again and did the wiring between our home and the office, including a wireless Internet bridge that we owned to connect the two buildings.
I feel so high tech! Here we are in the middle of the frontier of Costa Rica where there is no phone service having a line of sight wireless Internet bridge system! A funny story–ICE, the phone monopoly, had a rep out and our office administrator said, ¨Oh, we´ll just pay that bill right now on the Internet.¨ The rep said, ¨Internet?! What do you MEAN you have Internet here?¨ as he craned his neck searching all around for the wire.
I tried to do the outside wiring myself, but never could find the cable (special type for outside). Come to find out, you can only by it by the 1,000 meter roll and have to import it from the USA, or so I was told.
Anyway, tomorrow we pack up the office and move it to the Monte Cristo house and start staging our move.
Quick note: I originally wrote this back on May 15th, and now it is June 16th. Yes, we got moved - but this post sort of fell by the wayside. One thing as well, in the morning and the evening, our Internet works very well - but during the day, when it is sunny, not so well. The reason is interesting. It seems that there are some trees in the way, and in the morning, usually the limbs are lower due to rain and moisture, but during the day, they reach for the sun, and interfere with our connection… only in the tropics.
The solution is a 21 meter tower complete with aircraft warning light, scheduled within three weeks to be finished.
Posted in business in Costa Rica, cell phone, communications, forest, off the grid | No Comments »