Finally, some actual stats to back up what most of us living here already know:

Rising crime in Costa Rica

01 May 2008

Renowned for being one of the safest countries in Central America, Costa Rica is beginning to suffer from increasing rates of violent crime and murder. An April 2008 opinion poll indicated that Costa Ricans view insecurity as the most important issue facing the government, even above the rising cost of living. Read more...

Monster Jam? No.

Those of you with more forethought than I have may have already suspected that we would not be attending Monster Jam today after all. I, knowing next-to-nothing about monster trucks, did not realize it was such a big, big deal and that we would not even be able to get general admission tickets because absolutely everything was sold out. Crap. Crap crap crap. And we found this out only after driving to the stadium, paying $10 for parking ($10! What is this, San Francisco? New York City?), walking to the box office and being told everything was long since sold out. We did, however, pick up a bootleg t-shirt for our son, who, at 3, took the whole thing in stride. I offered to take him to INBio Parque (which was not far down the street) or to see Kung Fu Panda instead; he chose the park, so that's what we did.

We just so happened to visit the park on a day when they were having a Dutch festival. We tried Dutch cheese, liquors, beer, and crepes. The crepes were so delicious, I could have eaten a dozen. And they were a fargin' bargin at 200 colones (about 40 cents) each, filled with Dutch applesauce, cinnamon, and two kinds of sugar. Yum. I also saw that the guy had real licorice, which I love and can never find here, so he was kind enough to offer me several pieces of that. I also picked up some little necklaces made by a couple of girls, the purchase of which benefited the burn unit at the children's hospital. One of the little girls had what looked like third degree burns over most of her body, and I tell you, she was so positive and outgoing and sweet, that I thought to myself, I have nothing to complain about. Not lines at Banco Crapional, not Tico Time, nothing. Our son picked out two necklaces for his girl friends (shhh, don't tell them!), and though I thought he got the black one for I. who loves to wear black, he actually wanted it for himself. ;-)

Aside from the wonderful food and drink tasting, there was the fun of the park itself. If you live here and have never been, it's one of my favorite places to spend the day. You can go through a rain forest, visit a butterfly garden, walk underneath a freshwater lake, and visit a typical Tico finca. Our son just loves it there, and one thing that I think is great about him is that he never lacks for enthusiasm. "Come on! Come on, you guys! Look at this! It's a crocodile! Wow! There's an iguana! Hurry up! Over here!" and so on.

I pet a little pig and a couple of bunnies, which made me miss my bunnies so much more than I already do. The pig was so cute. It ran over to the fence, grunting little pig noises all the way, and put his head right up to my hand. The whole thing reminded me of the quote by Franz Kafka: "Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you anymore." I don't really know how you could get to know a pig or a chicken and continue to eat them; I guess people do, though. I still miss my chickens.

Well, anyway. I took some photos but haven't downloaded them to the computer yet. I'll have a few to show you tomorrow. Good night, all.

Why I am ready to lose it

Warning: Ventfest ahead...

So yesterday is May 1, Labor Day, a national holiday. I actually knew this on April 30, because my car payment and rent are due on the first, so esposo and I were talking about how the banks would probably be closed on Thursday. Still, we both got up Thursday morning and went into San Jose to first make the car payment, then pay the rent. When we pulled into Banco Cuscatlan's parking lot, and saw that there were no cars in a usually full parking lot, we realized what stupid shits we had been, and that we'd driven all that way for nothing.

I had talked to D.'s husband earlier in the day because I wanted to see if he knew anything about Monster Jam and where we could get tickets. It should have dawned on me at that point that, since he answered the phone at home and obviously had the day off, that many businesses would be closed. (This was actually Clue #2.) But no. It did not.

Even before that, C. e-mailed me about playgroup for this week (which didn't happen at all, apparently) because her husband had the day off and wanted to meet the adult half of playgroup. Clue #1.

If esposo and I could have bought a clue that day, I'm not sure we'd have been able to find anyone selling one.

But, in the end, we had lunch at the Plaza Mayor Food Court; Pau Tu Tu's Chinese cuisine, which I have to admit was some of the best Chinese food I've had in this country. They give you gigantic plates full of food for not much. Esposo had the fried tofu thing; I had ma po tofu, and son had noodles with veggies. I think this is probably the best food to be had in the food court at Plaza Mayor.

Afterwards, we went to C.'s house and the kids played all afternoon. So it ended up being a good day, and I didn't even have to use my AK.

Today rolls around, and I still need to go do the car payment and the rent payment. Wouldn't life be easier if I could write a check, stick a stamp on an envelope, and drop it in the mail? Yes, it would. It would take me all of five minutes, maybe. Instead, you people up there in the developed world can laugh at what I had to go through to pay two bills. You people living here in Costa Rica can sympathize with me, because either you've been through something similar, or you will, given enough time in the country.

The car loan is through Promerica. My money is in Banco Cusc. I thought there might be a Promerica closer than San Jose, so I found on their website that indeed, there is one in Alajuela. Also the site of Cusc and Banco NacionalCrapional, which I also needed to hit. First up was going through the drive-through at Cusc to withdraw the money to pay my car at Promerica. That went smoothly, and there was no one besides myself in line. Then I had to find the Promerica branch. I knew it was 125 meters south of Llobet, so the plan was to drive to Llobet and then turn left (south) until I saw the bank. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.... best laid plans and all that...

They are building boulevards in downtown Alajuela. So a whole bunch of streets are closed off while they're under construction. You really have no idea from one week to the next which streets will be closed and which will be open. Esposo assured me the street I needed to go up was open, and in fact it was, but unfortunately, a moron in an SUV and a moron in a taxi ran into each other, blocking all traffic in both directions until the INS could get there. So you had people driving the wrong way on a one-way street to get out of this mess (including me, I'll admit that!), making more of a mess in the process. Finally, I managed to get out of the mess, and drive through exceedingly slow traffic for the next 40 minutes trying to figure out which streets were closed and which were open and which would take me past Llobet (and thus past Promerica). When I finally found Llobet, I had gone as far as the TUASA bus station and backtracked, then at last! Promerica! I think we arrived around 1:00-ish, and there were about 20 people waiting in line ahead of us, with two cashiers open. We finally managed to get out of there around 2:00, and headed for Banco Crapional (if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times -- why anyone in their right mind would get an account there if they didn't need to is beyond me). As we're driving down the road, I realize that Promerica is only one block over from Banco Cuscatlan, and I could have avoided the entire driving-through-boulevards-and-closed-streets-and-slow-traffic thing altogether, had I purchased a clue beforehand.

Banco Crapional also has a drive through, however, since this is the most-used bank in the country, there were at least four cars in each of the five open lanes. When I finally got up there (somewhere in the vicinity of 2:30), I asked for a simple transaction: I wanted to take money from the Crapional account and put it in my landlord's Crapional account. "We can't do transfers at the drive through," was the response. Oh, and this is after I waited an extra five minutes just for the cashier to even answer the call button. Did I tell you we are all on Tico time here? Indeed. Well, you can imagine I was working on a migraine at this point. I was like, Como? WTF? "No can do lady." Crap. Crap crap crap and many other expletives inserted here.

As I'm driving away, I think to myself, why didn't he just do a withdrawal, and let me put that money in the landlord's account? So I figure I'll go to the drive through in Grecia at La Fabrica and try this tactic. It's now closing in on 3:00, and pouring down rain. I am third car in line here, which moves a hell of a lot faster than the line in Alajuela. It's finally my turn, so I ask to do a withdrawal. The cashier at this Banco Crapional is much more pleasant than the one in Alajuela, but he tells me, sorry, no withdrawals at the drive through. I would have to go inside. Now there is no point in asking why you can't withdraw money at the drive through, like I can at the other four banks at which I have accounts, but I can tell you why: Because Banco Crapional is Crap On A Stick. Ok, thank you anyway. I park the car, take out son and head for the inside of the bank. There are like 50 people waiting in line (there were even more in Alajuela). I say, fuck this! and go instead to buy us some crappy burritos and let son play a game of Jurassic Park (he likes shooting the velociraptors, even though I'm actually doing the shooting on the sly with the other gun, otherwise the game would be over in seconds).

By 4:45 I've given up for the day on trying to pay the rent; I've already spent more than three hours and have only managed to make one payment. The rent will just have to wait until Monday. Hey! We're all on Tico time anyway.

I get home and try to buy tickets to Monster Jam online. I know what you all are thinking (monster trucks? what the--?), and all I can say is, if you had a son, you'd probably be going to Monster Jam, too! The specialtickets.com site is not working, or probably I'm too late as they stop selling tickets 48 hours before the event starts. Supposedly, you can also buy tickets online through Banco Crapional, but I have not for the life of me been able to find the link to do so (and it's not like I'm technically inept; the link is just not there). So I have no Monster Jam tickets, and if they are not selling them at the gate I have one little boy who is going to be seriously bummed out. It's not like Monster Jam ever comes to Latin America; this is pretty much it.

Sigh. Crap. And as L. would say, Pants. I'm so mad we drank all the wine last night, because I could really use about five or six glasses right now.

Speaking of starving dogs...

I appreciate all of you who have fowarded the e-mail about the so-called "artist" who chained up a starving dog, refused to feed it, and let it die in the name of art. I really do. However. I wonder how many people would actually take a few minutes to feed a stray animal if it showed itself to them. Very few, if I go by what I see on the streets of Costa Rica every day -- thousands, hundreds of thousands probably, stray and starving dogs looking to us humans for a handout while most of us pretend (like we do with homeless people, I suppose) they don't exist. The worst of us humans go out of their way not to help but to hurt these animals who are in such desperate need (again, like homeless people, I imagine). Maybe, like the folks at the WSPA, the task of helping many thousands of homeless animals is just too daunting to tackle. But I say, bullshit. Take it one at a time. Here's what I suggest, if you really want to help:

1. Carry a ziploc baggie of dog food in your car at all times. If you already have dogs at home, this one is pretty easy to do. Even better is to carry a can of dog food, especially for pregnant and nursing homeless female dogs who can really use the extra fat and protein. Homeless dogs don't worry about a doggie dish, just dump it on the ground and it will soon be devoured. Often, pet food supply stores and veterinary offices will be given sample-size packages of dog food by dog food companies; I take as many as they'll let me carry and keep them in the car for strays. I tell the vet or salesperson what I'm doing with them, so they don't think I'm just trying to feed my own dogs on the cheap, and they're usually more than happy for me to take extra.
2. Carry a pack of disposable paper bowls and a bottle of water (tap is just fine, as long as it's clean) for the strays, too. With the crap (both literally and figuratively) that is dumped in the gutters here, it breaks my heart to see dogs drinking out of the gutters.
3. If you can get close enough that the dog will let you pet it, cut off any tight collars or wire that may be around the animal's neck. You might want to pack a pair of wire cutters and/or scissors in your car as well (these can also come in handy for the occasional car jacking and yes I'm being facetious!).
4. If possible, take the dog to the nearest shelter. Yes, they will probably ask you to pay to take the dog in. I know it's annoying (they should be charging people to adopt instead, IMHO). What else were you going to do with that money? If you can afford it (I realize not all of us can), save a life instead. Think of what your $40 or so will buy -- a loving and deserving dog the chance at a new life. If you're picking up a pregnant or nursing mama dog, please please please be sure to take all of the puppies, too, otherwise they will surely die on the streets without her.

I know a lot of people are going to say they just don't have the time to stop for every stray they see, and aren't there so many of them, what difference are you going to make anyway. To that, all I can say is this: I'd rather be the person who's five minutes later because I stopped to feed a starving dog. Let's face it, we're all on Tico time anyway, what's an extra five minutes? How sad this world would be if no one ever stopped to help anyone because we just didn't have time. And yes, it can seem an insurmountable challenge to help the strays in Costa Rica; perhaps the problem won't even be solved in my lifetime. That's okay. I once read a quote that went something like, you can't save every stray in the world, but you can change the world of every stray you save. So instead of forwarding on that e-mail about the one starving dog who is already dead and gone, sad and sick as that was, how about we all make a small commitment to help the strays that are here, that we pass every single day, as best we can?

Jackass update

Remember this hole who chained up a dog and let it starve to death in the name of art? In Nicaragua, even though he's Costa Rican, because we actually have rudimentary animal protection laws here and they have none? Well, the ASPCA's worked with the WSPA to keep this jerk from doing the same thing again this year in Honduras:

ASPCA RESPONDS TO OUTCRY OVER “STARVING DOG” EXHIBIT

Late last week the ASPCA issued a press release in response to the tremendous outpouring of public concern over a 2007 art exhibition by Costa Rican artist Guillermo Habacuc Vargas that featured an emaciated dog. Because reports on the duration of the exhibit and the condition and fate of the dog vary widely—including those issued from the Nicaraguan gallery involved and Vargas himself—it is impossible at this time to know conclusively what happened, or if the images and stories flooding the Internet are real. However, the ASPCA understands and shares the outrage felt by animal lovers over this alleged act of cruelty that, if true, sadly is not a criminal act in Nicaragua.

“The ASPCA is opposed to cruelty to animals of all types, in all societies,” says ASPCA President Ed Sayres. “However, it is also not the policy of the ASPCA to condemn entire communities or countries for the cruel acts of individuals. What we need to do is step up our efforts to educate the public on the humane treatment of animals so that such events do not occur again.”

Online activity regarding this incident has increased steadily over the last several weeks after many websites have reported that Vargas is planning to participate in the VI Central American Visual Arts Biennale later this year in Honduras.

While the ASPCA’s programs are limited to the United States, we are a member and supporter of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). WSPA and member society the Honduras Association for the Protection of Animals and their Environment (AHPRA) have persuaded organizers of the Honduras Biennale to make AHPRA official exhibition observers. Additionally, although Vargas has stated that his exhibit will not feature a dog, the Biennale has agreed to codify rules prohibiting animal abuse. WSPA has also indicated to the ASPCA that it will increase efforts to enact stronger animal protection laws in Nicaragua.

The ASPCA asks supporters to advocate on behalf of animals through their own actions by supporting international, national and local animal welfare organizations, and by educating their own communities about how to detect and combat animal cruelty. To add your voice to the chorus of those working for the humane treatment of animals, please visit www.fightcruelty.org to take the ASPCA’s Pledge to Fight Animal Cruelty.

By the way, the WSPA is also present here in Costa Rica, though I sort of wonder what they actually do. Since I've been here (almost 8 years now), they've managed to ban live animals in circuses and put up signs (but not actually stop) denouncing the practice of selling backyard-bred puppies around the routunda at Multiplaza (in fact, those signs are gone now). I guess the "real" problems we have with thousands upon thousands of stray animals roaming the streets, poisoning of dogs and cats, poaching of wildlife, and animal abuse and neglect are too much for them to tackle?