Stuff Happens and Always Have a Plan B

So our vehicle is still in the shop for repairs - but that is a different story for another post. Not knowing at the outset how long our vehicle repairs would take, we rented wheels from Enterprise. Our mechanic has an agreement with Enterprise Car Rental - if your car is in his shop for repairs, Enterprise offers very good daily rates. However, once you add on full insurance, the cost adds up. Especially over a longer period of time.

We gave up the rental car after a couple of weeks. Now what? We needed groceries and supplies. This is where Facebook comes in ... I belong to quite a few Costa Rican Facebook pages that can be really helpful. And that’s where I found an ad on a Grecia FB page posted by a fellow named Minor who said he would be driving taxi 42 in Grecia on such and such a date. A number of expats gave him good reviews. So I sent him a message saying we needed a taxi on a certain date and time. He wasn’t available but arranged for Reynaldo to pick us up. Reynaldo is one of the drivers of taxi 42. And if Reynaldo wasn’t available, Reynaldo’s boss Alonso would be.

It’s so easy now - they know the number to phone so we can let them through our gate. Minor can arrange pickups for us. Reynaldo was right on time. We had Alonso today - a really nice young person with fairly good English so we were able to communicate using Spanglish. He showed us photos of his young family. He knows our mechanic Carlos - it turns out they live a couple of houses apart in the district of San Isridro, Grecia.

But wait! There’s more! Minor’s sister Laura has eggs for sale from her own hens and she will deliver right to our door. So tomorrow at 0800 Laura will be here with a flat of 30 eggs for a very reasonable price. I think it’s amazing how one person leads to another here - now we have our taxi drivers and egg lady all lined up. It’s all about who you know.

Last Saturday, I decided I would try ordering groceries on line and with home delivery. I went to Compre Biens’ website - set up an account, and completed my order. The website is very easy to use and quite comprehensive in the products on offer. I did this before the store even opened. Before long, I received an email saying my order was being filled. Not long after that, a delivery guy arrived at our house. The delivery charge was less then the cost of a taxi to and from the store. So now we know we can get groceries even without having our vehicle.

Recently, we have been experiencing rainy afternoons with lots of cloud coverage rolling in. I made this video so you can see what it looks like.

Yesterday, the cloud coverage was really thick. Our Cat was sitting out in our laneway so I decided to take a photo of him because the effect of the misty clouds and Cat was interesting. To my surprise, this is what I ended up with. I think the flash was causing light refraction from the clouds. He is perfectly in focus. A bit existential, but maybe he’s looking at his universe.