Taking care of business.

Well, we’ve been in Costa Rica for one month now. We’ve spent as much time as possible in the ocean. We have “discovered” a new beach (separate story) – to us anyway. Had time to visit with friends, and, make time to take care of the “business” of living here. One of those important "yearly" requirements is taking your car through the infamous “Reteve,” or Revison Technica.

Each year your vehicle is required to pass this strict inspection process.  You receive a sticker for the front windshield after you pass, and, yes, it is very important to have the sticker. There are transit police (traficos), who periodically set up road blocks to check that your vehicle and papers are current, you really want that current sticker.

Our closest inspection station is about an hour away in Limon. I signed up for the appointment online, we cleaned the car, checked that everything was in order and headed for our first inspection. There were only a few cars in front of us so the process went quickly. There are several “stations” to stop at; first the lights, blinkers, windows and exterior condition of the car. Then, under the hood to check cables and connections. Yes, they care about the WHOLE car. Next they test brakes and shocks. And, of course, they check the car’s emissions. I was very impressed with the whole process and enjoyed watching the results on large monitors at each station. The last station required that we drive and stop over a “pit,” similar to those you see in oil change shops in the US. From this vantage point we were able to watch all the working parts of our car from the bottom up – very cool.

The whole experience was far less stressful than I had anticipated. Unfortunately, we failed the emissions portion of the test. We now had 30 days to have it repaired and retest. Back home, oil change, gas cleaner and a few more tweaks. Next, back to a mechanic in Limon who looked at the results of our previous inspection and sent us on to another mechanic down the road. This mechanic took a look at the results, looked under the car and sent us to another mechanic down the road (everyone specializes here). The sign on this shop was "muflas." Turns out we needed to have a new catalytic converter installed and were able to get that done as we waited. $70 dollars later we had a brand new catalytic converter, passed our test and proudly displayed a bright red 2013 sticker on the windsheild. Business completed. Back to the beach.