Water from God vs. water from the Municipality

Since we have lived here our water has come from a spring about 1/4 mile up the mountain across the street from us. A garden hose crosses the creek on the side of our house then connects via pvc pipes. The water is clear, delicious and free. However, various components of this system sometimes fail during heavy rain storms. Leaving us with rain water capture and muddy repair work. This past week we added another water source to our home - municipal water. It took me 2 trips to BriBri (like a "county" seat about 15 minutes by bus) to find out what paperwork I needed to sign up for the water then another full day in Limon (like a "state capital" about a 1-1/2 hours by bus) to get everything signed off, copied and executed.

Two working days later the crew was in front of our house, a new meter was installed and the water was flowing.
Total cost including installation and deposit (not pipes on our side of the property) - less than $60.00 USD.

We decided to also connect to the water company in Tonto Basin before we left Arizona. It's a private water company but it's the only other option we had to our well which has been less than reliable in the last couple of years. Someone came out within a few days and deemed our property "acceptable" to recieve their water. It then took several weeks for a crew to come out and install a meter and connect to their line. We were then required to install a specific back-flow preventer on our side of the property line and of course install pipes to connect to the house. A few more days and they were back to inspect that everything was kosher. Finally, just a couple of days before we left Arizona, we finally had free-flowing water, dependable water.
Total cost including installation (with backflow preventer) and deposit (not pipes on our side of property line) - about $725.00 USD.

That makes it about $665 less to install water in Costa Rica than in Arizona. A good example of the types of things that cost so much less in here.