Running into the Golden Orb spider

I was happily traipsing through the rainforest in the Gandoca-Manzanillo refuge area the other day when Gordie called out to me: “Watch out for the spider web!” I looked up, and sure enough, I was walking right toward the largest web I had ever seen. It was several feet wide and woven between two trees. Occupying the web were three, colorful spiders - a large female in the center and two slightly smaller males closer to one of the ends. This was my introduction to the Golden Orb Weaver spider, one of the largest spiders in Central America.

The female Golden Orb will build her web between trees in highly-traveled, open areas where flies, bees, moths, butterflies and other insects pass through. When the unaware insect gets caught in the web’s silk-like thread, the female spider will slide over it, bite it and inject it with paralyzing venom. She will then wrap it in her silk thread and move it aside for eating later. The male Golden Orbs, who characteristically sit off to the side of the web like the two we saw, will often steal the paralyzed prey for their own enjoyment.

I have also read that some butterflies contain toxins or other chemicals in their bodies. The Golden Orb will recognize these and free those butterflies from the web.

Lesson to be learned: watch where you are walking.

　

The photos shows the two brightly-colored males that we saw.

Water Apples Everywhere

Apparently the Water Apples (or Manzana de Agua) are in season now on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica where we live. The trees in our neighborhood are upwards of 35 feet high and just loaded with these popular fruits. The deep green leaves and bright red fruit make a striking contrast. I had some difficulty getting information on them (even from my reliable "wiki" source). I did find out there are also called a Mountain Apple or Wax Jambu (and scientifically Syzygium malaccense or Myrtaceae) All I know is they are everywhere - the fruit vendors have bushels full and the ground is covered with them. The taste is similar to an American-style apple but a bit more juicy and not as sweet. I've been chopping them up, adding cinnamon and putting them in oatmeal and have also had them served like a chunky applesauce. I just love being able to find edible fruits in the wilds.

One photo shows the water apples under the tree next door to us and the other gives you an idea of the size and shape.

What does it cost to ship a car to Costa Rica?

In October of 2009, we found a used Geo Tracker for sale in Tonto Basin. We wereleaving in a few days for Costa Rica but knew this was the car we would eventually want down here. So, we bought it anyway and let it sit in the barn in Arizona till we returned.

Finally this Fall I began in ernest to find the best way to get the car to Costa Rica. I contacted 4 different companies who specialize in shipping vehicles worldwide who provided me with a wealth of information. And, a quote, of course. I found out that the safest way to ship your car is in a container. Depending upon your needs you can have a full container or part of one. This also allows you to ship additional items, preferably "used" as the container and its contents will go through customs and be taxed accordingly. This is also the more expensive option. There is also a "ro-ro" option which I think means "ride-on ride-off." Using this method, your car will be driven onto a ship and driven off at the port of entry. This is for the car only - you can not have additional items in you car using this method. If there is anything left in the car there is very little chance it will still be there when you see your car again.

We really had nothing else of value to ship so we opted for the ro-ro method. All of the quotes we received included transportation from Arizona to Florida. They ran ran between $1,000 and $1,200 for that segment. Well, I had never seen East Texas, New Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama or the Gulf Coast of Florida and couldn't see why I should pay to have my car see it before me. We chose to drive the car to the port in Tampa, FL ourselves.

Cost for driving from Arizona to Florida including gas, food and hotels for 8 nights came to about $800. Plus we had a great road trip.

The shipping agent we selected was Ship Your Car Now and our agent was Rich Lawson(www.shipyourcarnow.com, 1-888-532-8805). The cost to ship the car from Tampa to Limon, Costa Rica, was $875. This did not include the $20 for 2 "safety vests" we were required to buy at the port in order to drive our car down to the dock. They are beautiful and I am sure we will wear them often!

The actual shipping company was Sea Central Shipping (www.seacentral.net, 888-538-3545). We were contacted by them and they recommended a bilingual customs agent in Limon that we could work with.

Our customs agent in Limon was extremely helpful. Fabio Madrigal (8813 85 85 (cell) or office 2758 48 40) took our car through customs, brought the car to the required inspection (Retivie), secured the insurance (Marchamo), provided an attorney for submitting the title and registration into the National Registry and handled all of the paper work for us. Fabio also showed us the web sites where you could check in advance to see what your import duty would be on a car. This is something I had been trying to find out on my own for some time. The site at http://www.hacienda.go.cr/autohacienda/Autovalor.aspx

Import duities for our 1995 Geo Tracker, 2x4 manual transmission, with the inspection, insurance (for the year), legal fees, Fabio fees, etc. came to about $2,060.

Would we ship another car. Absolutely. As you can see from the photo, our little red car loves the beaches already!

Why would you want to ship a car to Costa Rica?

Cost, Condition and Convenience were our major considerations in deciding to
ship our car to Costa Rica.

COST. There are no cars manufactured in Costa Rica, they are all imported and the import tax is fairly heafty. This is also reflected in the cost of used cars. For example, a car like ours, 1995 Geo Tracker, 2x4, used, will cost you in the neighborhood of $5,000 USD locally. It is also expensive to ship a vehicle and you must still pay import duties on it when it gets here. So, depending upon the vehicle, the cost may come out very close.

CONDITION. Cars must undergo a strict inspection each year (Retivie). Because of this (and, of course, the initial investment), Ticos do take very good care of their cars. However, if you are buying a used car you are not always certain of the origin and history of that vehicle. For me, it was very eye-opening to see all the smashed cars at the port in Florida waiting to be shipped overseas. Hmmm.

CONVENIENCE. Depending upon where you live in the country, just getting around to see various cars for sale can be a problem. Most people live in the Central Valley - San Jose area. Most car ads, new or used, seem to also originate from that area. If you live in a rural area, like us, and you don't already have a car, going to see an advertised one could be an all day trip. And, there's the language barrier. Although my Spanish continues to improve, I am far from being comfortable making a major purchase in Spanish.

Tomorrow I will post the details and contact information for our actual shipment. I had difficulty finding some of this information and hope that in posting it here it may help someone else who is interested in shipping their vehicle to Costa Rica.

The photo shows our little red Geo at home in Arizona the day before we left in
January. And yes, that is snow on the mountains in the background.

Back to everyday living

The number of "gringos" seem to be growing in these parts and they are all more than willing to share tips, tricks and "insider information" on the art - and ease - of "everyday living" here.

Thanks to information we have garnered from several friends, we now have a local bank account which allows us to pay our bills online from anywhere there is internet access. And, speaking of the internet, we have discovered, finally, how to use dial-up internet from our home telephone with no additional "service provider." We have also gotten a local post office box to make it easier for family and friends to send us things from the US (hint, hint). We've just gotten connected to the municipal water system (we also did this in Arizona right before we left and the comparison between the cost and the process is VERY interesting). And lastly, we have shipped a car from the US to Costa Rica.

Following are details, links and "how tos" for accomplishing these tasks. We are not quite done with "shipping the car" so that story will come soon - I am hoping later this week!

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.

Time to get mail

I could count on 1 hand (possibly 1 finger) the amount of mail we have received over the last 3 years in Costa Rica. You see, no one sends you a bill here. You should already KNOW about the time of month/year that your phone bill, electric bill, property tax, car registration and insurance are due. No one sends this information to you, and you don't send them back any money. You go to the bank or other payment station and pay these things when they are due. Simple. Everybody knows. Everybody does it. We have also not encouraged any family or friends to write to us. There are no street addresses. The Spanish word for address is "direction." And it is indeed the directions how to find your house. In our case we are so many meters past a church and we have a green house. We also told the post office whose house this used to be to insure delivery. All that is history now. We just got a post office box (or apartado in Spanish) in town. It required an easy application, copy of our passports and about $16 for the year. Now to insure that we recieve mail we have subscribed to the Tico Times, an weekly English paper. It's been 2 weeks already and neither of the weeklies has shown up yet. Hmmm.

Opening a Costa Rican Bank Account

I had intended to open a local bank account since we came here in 2008 but it always sounded difficult and required - I thought - a considerable sum of money. I had read online that Banco Costa Rica (BCR) requested 2 letters of recommendation from people with accounts there. Since I am not yet a resident, I thought that I would also need to open an account in our corporation name. This would require "original" documents stamped, signed and dated within the last 30 days from our lawyer in San Jose. Lastly I had read, somewhere, that an initial deposit of $200 was required. Well I finally got around to requesting letters from 2 friends, had some extra money put aside for the deposit and had a packet of corporation documents that were a little more than 30 days old but at least worth a try. I was ready. As it turns out, I was able to open the account, in my own name, with a $20 deposit and am now able to pay my Costa Rican bills online from anywhere in the world. Guess the lesson I learned from this is to ask the source and NOT trust everything you read online.

The ever important INTERNET

We live in a rural (jungle) area about 5 miles outside of the coast town of Puerto Viejo (Talamanca). We are the last house on our road to have telephone service. There is no DSL or cable up here. I have a 3G cell phone which can access the internet but I need to walk out into the road, on a clear day, to access it. In Costa Rica, if you have a telephone with access to "900" lines, you have dial-up internet. If you do not have access to "900" lines you can simply ask ICE (the national utility company) to add that feature to your line. The cost for your internet time will show up as a line item charge on your telephone bill and is about a penny a minute.

The actual process is simple. Connect your computer to your telephone(in Costa Rica only), dial 900-365-4632. Put in your username and password - ours is "racsa" for both. Since Racsa is the company that provides internet service in Costa Rica, I am pretty confident that everyone with dial-up has the same username and password. Racsa has several other internet packages available but this one requires no contracts, no extra equipment and makes access available to anyone, rich or poor, who has a telephone. Not bad. If we are going to spend a good deal of time online or need to upload and download large files, we go to town where there are numerous internet business to choose from. For a quick check of messages nothing beats home internet.