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.

When Your Vehicle Breaks Down in Costa Rica

Yesterday morning, we drove to Compre Bien (a grocery chain) in Grecia to buy some groceries and supplies. That done, back home we went. As we pulled into the front entrance to the complex where we live, our vehicle stalled, stopped and would not restart.

Johnny, one of our front gate guards, the groundskeeper and one other fellow came out unasked to push our vehicle into a shady spot. 

Lance phoned Carlos, our mechanic, and was able to reach him. Carlos and his assistant arrived in good time and looked everything over. He did some tests but it was apparent that our vehicle would have to be towed to Carlos’ shop. He phoned a tow company that could pick up our car around 1:30pm.

Carlos has a special arrangement with Enterprise car rental and he booked a rental vehicle for us at the same time. If you have a car in Carlos’ shop, Enterprise offers special low rates and they deliver the rental to the shop. We didn’t know how long Carlos would need our car and we didn’t want to be without wheels.

We piled into Carlos’ car, along with our groceries, and off we went to wait for the rental vehicle to be delivered. On the way, we provided Enterprise with drivers’ licence numbers, credit card information and so on via phone to speed things up. We had to wait a while for the rental car but it was worth it as they substituted a much larger car for the one we booked but at the same price. It’s a 2020, hardly driven, Honda RAV 4. Really nice.

Here it is at our house with the Cat giving it a thorough inspection:

Arriving home, we saw the tow company picking up our Subaru so I was able to get a photo of the action. In Costa Rica it seems that tow companies mostly use flat bed trucks instead of the hook and chain trucks that I am familiar with. Here’s our vehicle heading off to Carlos’ Vehicle Hospital. 

We haven’t heard as yet what the problem is with our wheels, but Carlos is a great diagnostician and mechanic and has been caring for our Subaru for several years now.

So when your vehicle unexpectedly breaks down, you can treat the matter two ways:

Cons: My car won’t run! It’s going to cost money! What am I going to do?!! This is so inconvenient!! What about our groceries? 

Pros: Well, at least the car was polite enough to keep running until it got pretty close to our house. Lance had Carlos’ phone number and he reached Carlos right away. Carlos showed up in good time. Carlos arranged for the tow and a rental vehicle. As indicated, Enterprise delivered our rental right to the shop and we got an upgraded car for the same price as a small one.

Also, because the car is a rental (read: tourist) we are not under any constraints on the days we can drive it. We just have to obey the 5:00 pm curfew imposed because of the Covid-19 restrictions.

I think you can apply this coping mechanism to all sorts of inconvenient things that unexpectedly happen. Just make sure you always have a Plan B.

Information on our mechanic: Carlos Morera, Superior Automotriz, tel: 4033-6045/8834-1692, Grecia, Alajuela, Costa Rica.