174. A Bit Too Adventurous and More Things to Fix

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    Wednesday 1/22- Today Ramie’s Repairs got a phone call. It was Loren calling to let Ramie know that the replacement oven for a rental house that Loren manages finally arrived and he would need Ramie to install it. Thankfully it is just a small, built-in oven and easy to manage with only one person. When he got to the house, he was quickly able to get the old one removed and the new one installed, and it only took about a half hour. That was a quick and easy job, which is crazy for a Costa Rican repair, usually something goes wrong and turns an easy project into something way more difficult than it would have to be. Why can’t they all be like this?

When he got home, Ramie’s Repairs got a call from the guests staying next door that the gate would not close. On the go again… he grabbed his tools and went to investigate. He discovered that it would open just fine, but once it was open, the electric gate would not close. He diagnosed what he could, and everything that he could test and fix was fine, his best guess is that it was a bad sensor, and unfortunately, those are something that he cannot buy. An actual gate repair guy would have to come fix this, so Ramie made the call to a few that he knows and waited for one of them to respond. Unfortunately, no one would be able to make it here until next week. Fortunately, there is a manual option to close the gate, and the current guest will just have to manually close it for now.

Just relaxing!  We've seen this big guy around before, and today he was just chillin on our fence.

    Friday 1/26- It has been quite some time since we have visited Benny the Chiropractor, and we were definitely feeling it. Since we had plans for Saturday morning, Ramie reached out to him to ask if he would be able to meet us for a quick adjustment today instead. He agreed and set a time to meet this afternoon at the same ATV shop where he usually does the Saturday morning adjustments. We thought that it would just be us bothering him on a Friday afternoon, but it turned out that we weren’t the only ones requesting special accommodation. It turned out that there was one other person scheduled right before us, so now we don't feel too bad that we asked. It didn't take long for a Dr. Benny adjustment, and we were back to our regular Friday afternoon plans but now feeling better.

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    Saturday 1/25- The reason we couldn’t get our adjustment this morning was because today we would be going on another Dusti adventure with Geoff & Tracy. There is a different route that Ramie has been wanting to take, but each time we’ve tried before, the river was too high or flowing too strongly, and we couldn’t make it across. 

Since its summer and the rains have mostly stopped, the river is now passable. We left our house to pick them up at about 9am, stopped for gas, and then started our adventure for the day. We easily made it across the river and ventured into new territory.

Even though we had a course mapped out on the mountain biking app that we use to find our trails through the mountains, we also ventured down a few side roads that looked interesting. Unfortunately, it turned out that one of these side roads, one that didn’t even show up on the map, was much more than we bargained for!

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We could tell that it had recently been graded by a dozer so the road was nice and smooth, but the further we got, the steeper and more dangerous it got! These “roads” in the mountain are sometimes little more than trails, are often only wide enough for 1 vehicle, and almost always have a steep drop off on one or both sides.  

Even once we knew that we needed to turn around, there was nowhere to do that and we just kept going until we could find a place that we could turn around and not roll the machine over down the mountain. I wasn’t thrilled about going down this road to begin with, but I was out-voted 3 to one, so I was irritated long before this situation became dangerous, and recommended turning around in multiple places before we couldn’t find one. Needless to say I was not happy about this little side-quest.

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This is not something I want to fall into. Who will find us?

The road kept going, but as you can see it looks like it just ends. It doesn't, it just drops off that fast.

 

When we finally found a place that would work to turn around, Geoff and Tracy got out of the machine, but I refused to, mostly because I figured that Ramie would be more careful if I was in there with him.  Thank you Tracy for grabbing photos while I refused to get out of Dusti.

Geoff and Ramie evaluating the space to turn around and how to do so safely.

Geoff guided Ramie forward and back, letting him know when he had space, and when he had to stop so we wouldn’t go over the edge or get too close that the earth would crumble away beneath us. At the beginning, Tracy’s job was to snap some photos, but once we were perpendicular to the steep road, we needed her to hop back on the side of the ATV and act as an additional counterweight so we wouldn’t tip over and go tumbling down the hill.

It's so hard to catch perspective, but the front drivers side wheel was actually off the ground.

Ramie was in the driver's seat, I was behind him on the same side, and Tracy was standing on the running board next to us, hanging as far off to the side she could. Ramie estimates that the grade of the road was 40-45%. Little by little, forward, and back, Geoff guided Ramie, trying to get us faced back up the hill. 

 

Eventually, after so many creep forward/back up iterations, Ramie finally got Dusti pointed in the right direction. It was time for everyone to get back in and buckle up, then, with the 4x4 on, axles locked, and in crawl mode, we drove back up the steep, muddy incline. 

Check out Geoff's grip on the handle bar... I think he's second guessing his vote to go down this road!

When we finally reached a flat spot, Ramie stopped for a break. Apparently after that stressful incident he needed a shot of the strongest liquor we had with us (I am sure glad these shots happened AFTER the dangerous situation and not before!)

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Yes, we made it out with no disaster, but I still was not happy that we ever ended up in that situation in the first place. It may have been interesting to see where that road went, but as long as I am in the vehicle, we will never find out!  

After the shot and attempt to calm all of our nerves we made our way back to the road that the app told us to take and eventually made it to the little town of Bajo Bonita, and then eventually connected up with our typical route and the road that makes its way back toward Don Emilo’s coffee plantation.

Before we made it to the plantation, though, we stopped at a little restaurant that we’ve often talked about prior, but have never stopped at. Sometimes when we drive by this place, they have a smoker full of meat that always smells so good. Today was the day that we’d finally give it a try. There was no menu, and no one spoke English, so between a very patient restaurant owner, our marginal Spanish skills, and a little bit of just guessing and going along with whatever we got, we all ordered (remember, we're in the mountains, which means sketchy cell service, and we didn't have any today to try to use translator). They were also happy to serve us some inexpensive shots of a creamy liquor kind of like baileys and chiliguaro, kind of like a Tico Bloody Mary, while we were waiting for our food. It turns out that everything that we ordered was delicious. We will for sure go back there again when we are up in the area around lunch time. 

After that, we decided we weren’t quite ready to head toward home yet, so we made a quick stop at Jungle Fish to get a plate of fries and to drink and a few beverages before making our way home at about 4:30. It was an adventurous day (almost too adventurous), but in the end it turned out ok. Most of it was fun, and maybe next time we won’t stray that far off the trail.

    Monday 1/27- While we typically don’t go out to eat very often, and we were just out gallivanting around all day Saturday, I just didn’t feel like trying to figure out what to make for dinner, so we thought we’d have a little date night and head up to the Mirador Don Roger for a nice sunset dinner and drinks. While the view here is always great, something has changed, and the food wasn’t as great and the prices went up considerably. It was still nice to get out, but we probably won’t be back as often or recommend it to visitors anymore. (We later found out that it’s under new management, which explains the change, and the original people will be opening a new location. Eventually we will have to check out the new place and see if it lives up to the old standards). 

     Wednesday 1/29- Today on Ramie’s schedule was a meeting with Michael to go over some of the details of the house build and go over some questions that Karen and Dennis had. It's getting very close to being finished and it's all those little details, now, that are important to get correct. Although, even after it's finished, there are still going to be things that need to get corrected, and everyone is aware of that. That’s just how new house builds work down here, or so it seems.

    Thursday 1/30- Ramie’s fun never stops, and today he got a call asking him to come to the warehouse to help Lowell & Randall unload containers. Today’s job didn't take too long but they did have 2 containers. Thankfully everything was palletized this time and it was mostly using the forklift. No crazy lifting and carrying all of the things like they had to last year. What a relief!

My excitement for the day was that we finally fired the junior attorney who had been with our firm for less than a year.

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She just wasn’t understanding what we do and didn’t even seem to be trying to learn. While I think it’s a good thing that we’re rid of her, this is going to be a very busy tax season for me!

    Friday 1/31- It's that time of year, our Costa Rican property taxes are due. Well actually, the way it works is that anytime in the first quarter of the year you can pay, and you can either pay one quarter at a time, half of the year, or the full year. For us, the easiest thing is to just pay the full year of taxes in the first quarter so we don’t have to mess around with it again later. Ramie always goes directly to the muni office to pay so that there is no confusion with a bank transfer. We have heard stories that people have made the payment online through the bank, and the money was withdrawn from the bank account but never made it to the tax account, and there was no record of anything on the bank account. 

A couple of weeks ago Marshall asked Ramie what we thought was a really weird question, have we paid separate taxes under my name well? The reason for the question was because they found out just this year that Val had past taxes owed, and it made zero sense. Val and Marshall own their house jointly just like Ramie and I do, why would Val have separate taxes?! What does Ramie do when there’s something Costa Rican that we don’t understand? Call Randall, our friendly Tico expert! He wasn’t sure about this either and didn’t think it made any sense, so he had his wife Jessica look us up on the national registry. Sure enough, depending on how your property is owned, when you go in to pay your property tax, they split the taxes between husband and wife, and unless you specifically ask to pay the other spouse’s portion, they don’t even tell you about it or ask you to pay it. 

So, the story goes: Ramie goes to the Muni office, gives them his information and they tell him the “total” to pay, and he pays it; this is how we have done it for the past 3 years. This year he also provided Dana’s info and in addition to Ramie’s total, he found out that Dana also owed past due property taxes for the past 3 years. Now explain this to me. You go in to pay your property taxes, you would think it would be the entire amount. Nope not here! Why?? Who knows, it is just another one of Costa Rica’s rules that make no sense. 

This year, Ramie brought Ray with him to the Muni so he could pay his taxes in person for the first time, as he had always paid them online before. He found the same problem, only half of their property taxes had been paid, and his wife’s half was past due. Thankfully nothing happens if you don't pay, they don’t even charge penalties or interest, and it’s just that when you try to sell your property that you find out that you can't sell it until all the taxes are paid up. What a strange system… and yet just another quirk about rules and life in Costa Rica. We are learning new ones all the time.

The Official Casa Costa Breeze end of January rainfall total was 1.95 inches

    Saturday 2/1- I’m sure that our long-time readers remember Jorge, the landscaper, security and caretaker of Karen’s casita, the property that we rented when we first moved here. Jorge lives in a little casita that is owned by the community, right on the edge of the community property by the entrance gate. This little house is probably no bigger than 15 ft x 20 ft, and is really just barely big enough for one person to live in. Sadly, the house has been neglected for a very long time and was in need of a lot of repairs to make it safe again. It's the community's responsibility to make the repairs to the casita since the community owns it, but to our knowledge, Jorge never really complained too much about the situation and no one knew that it was in the bad state that it was. Recently, Jorge brought a list of needed repairs to the community and have asked them to fix things up.

Since Michael, the general contractor who is building Karen’s house is in the neighborhood about once a week and has a crew who is right here working on her house, Karen asked him to take a look at the list and the casita and give the community an estimate to fix everything. It came back that the quote seemed very expensive for this little house and it would probably be best to get a second opinion. Ramie got the list of the issues from Karen and offered to go take a look and get some pricing on all the parts to fix the issues that Ramie could do himself. Needless to say, Ramie’s Repairs quote came in much much less than Michael’s, and the community agreed to hire Ramie for the repairs that he could do. The only item on the list that Ramie wouldn't be able to complete was to remove the very unsafe deck that was rotting away and falling apart, and add extra support and a new floor, so that project was left for Michael and his crew.

Today Ramie went to do all of that work at Jorge's casita while he was back at his home in Perez for the weekend. This would allow Ramie all weekend to do what he needed without getting in Jorge’s way.

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On the to-do list: 

•  Fix the electrical outlets and install GFIs
•  Replace a ceiling fan
•  Install new lights, (he had zero lights in his house that worked, just 1 plug in lamp that he moved around as needed)
•  Move the propane tank outside the house (it was currently under the kitchen counter)
•  Fix the plumbing for the drain on the bathroom sink
•  Install a new countertop stove

Ramie started in the bathroom first and installed the new lights, after that was done and he could see what he was doing, he installed a GFI outlet by the sink and fixed the sink drain so that it wasn't leaking all over. For all of these years that Jorge had lived in this casita, the outlet by the sink had not been on a GFI, meaning that one splash of water in the wrong place could have been disastrous. The sad part is, it seems like many of the local “electricians” don’t understand how things like this work and there are probably hundreds of houses in town that don’t have them.

When the bathroom was finished, Ramie moved to the kitchen where he installed a GFI by the kitchen sink and replaced some other outlets that looked very questionable as well. It turned out that there were no outlets on the outside of the house and Jorge had been running an extension cord from the bathroom, outlet by the sink up and out the window and down the side of the house to his bodega where the washing machine was located, so Ramie installed an outside outlet too, so he no longer had to run the extension cord. Once all of the electrical outlets were done, he moved onto installing new ceiling lights in the kitchen and living room space, so Jorge didn’t have to keep moving his lamp around the house. 

After those were finished, Ramie moved onto drilling a hole through the concrete wall to run the propane tank hose outside and into a safe space. If you know anything about propane tanks like you use on a BBQ grill, you know that having them in an enclosed space is not a good idea. It is very dangerous to have a propane cylinder in your living area, and if there were ever a little leak it could mean disaster the next time a flame or a spark (like from the gas stove) was lit. After the tank was moved outside so Jorge would no longer risk blowing up his home, Ramie installed the new countertop stove.

Finally, after all of those items were done, the last project was to replace the ceiling fan in the bedroom. The fan worked ok, but was old and since there were no other lights in the bedroom, he bought one with a light on it. It took Ramie all day to do this work, but he was able to do it for a much better price than was quoted by Michael, and I think everyone was happy for that. After all of the projects were finished, Ramie made a video of all the repairs and sent it to Jorge. Jorge responded with so much excitement that all of those issues had been fixed and that he can live safely and normally again. I have no idea how long he had been living like that, but it certainly was not right that it had gotten to such a state of disrepair. Ramie made sure to tell Jorge to reach out right away if there are any issues in the future, and he would come take care of them again.

    Sunday 2/2- You might remember back in November when Ramie surprised me with two big bins of Lego on our anniversary. We’ve been slowly working our way through sorting and building these sets, but I don’t know if we’ve made much of a dent in it yet over these last three months. This could be quite a long project for us, but at least it’s a fun project!! Well, you’ll never guess what we did today.

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We bought two more big bins of Lego! Another expat, this time a couple from Europe with a teenage son, were moving out of Costa Rica and didn’t want to ship all of these sets with them. He had reached out to Ramie to ask him if he would be interested in a bulk buy and they negotiated back and forth until they finally reached a deal. What are we doing!? I guess we’re going to become the Uvita Lego people, but I guess there are worse things to be! Earlier, they were selling completed sets at their garage sale and on the local Facebook pages, but they still had quite a lot left. Ramie bought a couple sets from them a few months ago at their garage sale, and at that time gave them our contact info and asked them to reach out if they were interested in selling whatever he had left at the end. Some of the sets had the original boxes, some of the sets were fully or partially assembled, and there weren’t quite as many sets as in the first round that we bought (but this lot had a few bigger sets).  We are adding to our collection! These bins will stay closed and separate from the first ones, and we won’t start on these until we are done with the first ones. We won’t be running out of Lego sets any time soon! 

    Monday 2/3- Lowell had requested Ramie’s help once again, but today’s job would be to go to Quepos to help box up the personal belongings of someone who was moving back to the US. Thankfully, this time it was only enough to fill the bed of a small truck, not several days worth of packing work. Even with the drive, Ramie’s day was only about 5 hours, only about 2 of which were to actually pack it all up. Little jobs like these aren’t so bad, it keeps Ramie busy and gives him a little bit of spending money.

    Tuesday 2/4- It's that time of year for the inspection of our truck, and once again we hired Randall to take our truck to San Isidro and take care of it. This time Ramie didn’t go with him because we had been invited to a going away party for Karen, our neighbor across the street. Well, it wasn't really a party, but more so just a few of us neighbors getting together to say goodbye. Karen wasn’t leaving Costa Rica, but moving out of this house and into the big house that she had built, only about 20 minutes away, so she will still be in the area, just not right next door any longer. Recently, Karen had also asked Ramie to manage this house for her while she rents it out as a long-term rental. Managing this house will be different from the Airbnb next door, as Ramie will more less just be the contact person if there are any issues to help resolve them, and not have to deal with the coming and going of guests all of the time.

For several months, and since we were back in MN last Oct for Taylor’s wedding, Taylor has been telling us how she needs to get out of MN for a break and wants to come visit us. There have been a few things slowing down the planning of her trip to visit us, like getting her new passport with her new last name, but that finally arrived and she was ready to book. We had been talking to her about her plans, how long she wanted to stay, and those kinds of things for a few days, and we came up with an idea that maybe Taylor could bring my mom down to visit us too. Taylor and mom both agreed, and today Ramie & Taylor sat down together (virtually) and worked together to book the flights. Taylor & mom would be visiting us for two weeks in March-April! While it’s during the height of tax season and may be difficult for us to really get away, Ramie and I will both do what we can to be as caught up as possible before they get here, spend as much time with the family as we can, and work our butts off before and after they leave to stay on track for the end of the tax filing season. Yay for visitors to Casa Costa Breeze!!

One of the afternoons this week Ramie was in the back yard and heard a lot of commotion coming from the side of the house. He got up and started walking across the deck only for an iguana to come running toward him with Skye not far behind. Where did the iguana go? Right into the pool and straight to the bottom to hide! Yes they can swim, and are very good at it. Ramie got Skye in the house and then got the pool net out. He eventually he was able to lift the nervous iguana out of the pool and into the grass. It just laid there motionless for a while, it wasn't dead, but it was playing dead. Ramie left it be and watched from a distance. It would slowly move, little by little, further and further but still laying in a similar position. After it had moved about 5 feet, Ramie went to look at it again, and the iguana jumped up and took off across the yard, down the hill, and to the creek. I have to say that was not something we expected to see but was some good entertainment. 

No its not dead, its just playing dead.

    Saturday 2/8- Ramie, being the perfectionist that he is, has been very annoyed with a shake in the front end of our truck ever since we bought it. He has tried many things to resolve it, but just when he thinks he has taken care of it, it comes back. He has done a bunch of Ramie’s Research, and it appears that this is a very common problem with this generation of the Toyota 4Runners and is caused by a bearing in the front axle that goes bad. The fix is to remove it and install a solid bushing instead. Ramie found the company who sells this repair kit and had it shipped down, and the parts arrived earlier this week. Today he was hoping to take care of this stupid issue once and for all!

  

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This morning he got all his tools out and got to work right away. He always likes to get an early start on projects like this because you just never know how long they are going to take. Surprisingly, it went very quickly and he had everything done in just a couple hours, but one thing he didn’t think of before he started was that he would need one last thing to finish up, axle fluid. Fortunately we have Dusti, so he could quickly run around town to find what he needed (good thing this didn't happen on a Sunday when everything is closed!!). With axle fluid in hand, he came back home, topped it off, and finished putting everything back together. Of course, after a repair like this you have to take it for a test-drive to see how it felt and find out if that cured the shake. The results were unclear, and he said that it did feel like it drove differently, but it was tough to tell if it was cured in such a short drive. I guess time will tell, and I hope that it did take care of this irritation for him!

Pura Vida!