The Arrival

We arrived in Costa Rica late Wednesday night. It’s Friday night now. (Or it was when I wrote this. This is the first time that I've had reliable access to the internet, thus the late post. )So far, everything has gone like clockwork for us, with only a few Costa Rican quirks in the retail sector that surprised us.


In Seattle we passed through our first obstacle at flight check-in. The airline allowed two checked bags per person with a weight limit of 50lbs or less. One-by-one our four suitcases loaded onto the scale. 48 pounds, 47.5 pounds, 49 pounds, 48 pounds. The customer service reps only comment was, "You guys like to live dangerously. Don’t you?" We breathed a sigh of relief and headed to security. No problems there either.
Our arrival in Costa Rica was a breeze. We were worried about what to declare and if our bags were going to be randomly chosen for search. It would be a pain, because we packed so much stuff. We were pretty sure everything we were bringing into the country was a personal good and not subject to taxes, but you never know. It turned out we, mainly me, worried needlessly. I’m pretty sure that I caught the customs guy snoring as our bags went through the x-ray and when we tried to give customs our paperwork, they refused to take it and waved us right through.


A quick cab ride to Guadeloupe and we arrived on my aunt’s doorstep – a friendly smile, hugs to go around and a clean bed awaiting us.


Thursday morning – car shopping.


Cars in Costa Rica are expensive. Very expensive. With taxes and shipping costs, expect to pay at least two times what you would pay in the US for a comparable used car. Unbelievably, you also need a lawyer to do the transaction. It’s not like the US in that the buyer pays the seller, you write a quick bill of sale and the title is transferred with a handshake and a signature.


In Costa Rica, the sale must be registered with the national register or "Registro." A lawyer must write a notarized account of the deal between the buyer and seller and submit the paperwork to the Registro. Here is the funny, or not so funny, part of Costa Rican law, whose nearest equivalent is "buyer beware". Tickets and infractions are attached to the car, not necessarily the person who drives it. Legally, if a car has any liens attached to it that have not been paid, rectified and removed from the Registro by any of the previous owners, the new owner is liable for them. This is weird, but more importantly it has the possibility of being costly for the buyer. In Costa Rica, make sure you have a lawyer when buying a used car.


To spite a minor hiccup with the aforementioned lesson, as of Friday we’re the proud owners of this junglemobile.






Inspecting the merchandise


Another peculiar practice that we discovered in Costa Rica is that some major stores expect you to inspect the merchandise that you buy before you purchase it or before it leaves the store. Case in point. How naïve of this gringa to simply place three boxes of dishes in my cart and head for the checkout line (caja). A young Tica who said something that I couldn’t understand with my limited Spanish kindly stopped me. She led a puzzled me back to the dishes. She proceeded to open the boxes that I had in my cart and together we inspected each and every piece for flaws. Forty-five minutes later with about twenty more opened boxes with reject dishes scattered around us; we repacked my original boxes with three complete sets of the least flawed dishes that we could find. All of this with Bill standing around in a complete state of frustration, disbelieve and exasperation.

You may think that this was an isolated case, but the very next store that we visited sold lighting fixtures. Sure enough, after we had made our purchase, before we they carried the merchandise out to our car, they lead us to the inspection area. Each and every boxed good was opened in front of us so we could inspect the goods.


Ticagringa’s Disclaimer


Please remember that I am merely an inquisitive gringa who is trying to learn the laws, customs and practices in a new county. I am an expert on nothing except my own opinions, thoughts and experiences. My observations may or may not be accurate. Conclusions that I drawn from the observations and experiences that I share on this blog should not be interpreted as facts. When living and doing business in Costa Rica you should always do your own research and consult your own team of professionals to guide you.