We haven’t done a lot in the week and a half that we’ve been back in Chatsworth. We made an offer on one of the homes that we’d seen in Bakersfield but found that some other offers, in excess of the bank’s price, had already been made. We upped our offer to the asking price and indicated that we would be requesting a minimum escrow time so that one might stil be accepted. This particular home was a “short sale” so it’s a real possibility that we’ll get this house.
We’d planned to head back up to Frazier Park and Bakersfield, anyway, to see what else was available as our good friend, who just happens to also be a real estate brroker, had found several new options for us to pursue. That was to have been this past Tuesday, with plans to stay overnight and return late on Wednesday. Well, our friend was eager to go but it had been snowing in the pass above the grapevine and the roads weren’t open until almost 10:00 am on Tuesday morning. I’ve driven in the snow in the past, and even lived with it when I was younger, but after living in the tropics for so many years wasn’t comfortable with the possibility that I’d have to traverse an area of that pass with it either snowing or with snow and ice on the ground. We also knew that rain in the lower elevations was forecast and considered the probability of this rather high. We decided to put off thetrip and Doris could go alone with out friend next week while I am busy with the publication. That would get her and Gypsy out of the apartment while I’m working and alow me to maintain a much higher level of concentration during this demanding time.
Now, it appears that our offer on the previous home seems to be higher on teh list due to our type of offer for it. As Doris said, perhaps should we have madt the trip north earlier in the week, we’d just now be confused, so our delay in heading up there probably was our best decision.
This weekend we’re heading to Diamond Bar to visit with Doris’ son and his family and on Saturday evening have plans to take the littlest grandaughter on a Christmas Train. Of course, rain is forcast for Saturday and Sunday so these specific plans might also be changed.
That’s it! Life away from Paradise is rather boreing and it’s been too cold to evenenjoy an occassional beer!
I’m wondering if I should re-name the heads to each update as we are no longer in the jungle. I’ll have to consider that!
I’ll digress a bit and mention that on the Saturday during the work week of the publication I made a trip up to Castaic where we met Doris’ daughter, Renée and Doris and Gypsy headed up to Bakersfield early. That left me alone to finish the work and that’s really what I need. Distractions are the worst thing that I can experience as at any given point in time during the work I can be visualizing several pages and any interruption disrupts that concentration. At the time I returned I considered that I was about a day behind in the process and ended up working most of the night on Saturday and again on Sunday to get it finished on time. Only one issue has gone to the printer late in 26 years and that was the one due on Monday following 9-11. I didn’t even get back from Costa Rica to start it until the day prior to it’s being due and it went to the printer two days later, following several nights without sleep! That’s not a bad record and one that I’m very proud of. Delivering a job on time is critical to a service industry.
I headed out on Tuesday a bit after noon in hopes of arriving in Bakersfield prior to 2:30 as Doris had indicated that she had an appointment at 3 and I wished to be able to get into her daughter’s house. I should have had more than sufficient time to do this but with the freeways, you never know. Of course, this was to be a day of delays. At the top of the downgrade on the Grapevine traffic came to a complete stop. After about thirty minutes of creeping along, i found this was due to the right truck lane being closed for repairs. Once through that, it was just a short trip the rest of the way, but I wasn’t able to arrive until just short of three o’clock so waited outside until Doris and her grandson, Austin, returned home ust short of four.
Wednesday was a day of work for those who aren’t semi-retired so Doris and I had the day alone. She had been complaining of a toothache and when Renée returned home Doris decided that she would try and see a dentist. Her daughter called her dentist and he agreed to see Doris as his last appointment for the day and we arrived there almost at five in the afternoon. Doris ended up losing the tooth and then had to suffer Thanksgiving with the after effects of that. She’s still not doing as well as she could be and still experiencing a considerable amount of discomfort.
Thanksgiving day was a full house with Renée’a family of four, Doris and me, Doris’ son, Michael with his wife and daughter, Doris’ ex (father or grandfather to most there) and several friends. I took a lot of pictures but it seems that I left my camera in Bakersfield when we left! It was a great day and I enjoyed it immensely!
As we were planning to look at homes over the weekend Doris and I spent most of Friday checking what was available online. There are a lot of properties being offered at great prices but on closer examination these all seem to be short sales so it would be a crap shoot as to whether an offer would be accepted. It could also take up to six months for an offer to be either accepted or rejected and we’re looking to move along in the process much faster than that. Our friend, Millie, was to be coming up from Westlake Village to assist with the search on Saturday morning and when she arrived most of that day was spent just weeding out the properties on our short list that were unacceptable. We had properties in Bakersfield, Frazier Park and Castaic that we wished to see so the short list wasn’t, really!
On Saturday morning, following another session of eliminating potential properties, we finally were on the road. What can I say about searching for homes? Nothing really jumped out and grabbed us so we deferred to another day. We did have an exceptional lunch at Chuey’s but there’ nothing exceptional in that!
Yesterday morning we were off again, but much earlier than n the day before. We had three additional properties to see in Bakersfield and then on to Frazier Park. As Frazier Park is about half-way back to Chatsworth we had packed up our luggage and Gypsy and would head on home following our excursion.
We found one home in Bakersfield that would be a consideration. It needs a bit of work before we could move in but has great potential and the cost of the work would be negligeable considering the price being asked. We visited several properties in Frazier Park but, again, nothing jumped out and said "Buy Me!"
So, the hunt goes on!
We arrived back to the little apartmentjust after sundown and Gypsy was sure happy to be returning to somewhere she is familiar with. She’s been very confused with al of our travellaing so familiarit is very important to her now.
I’ve finished with the publication and next month, with the January Issue, we’ll be in our 27th year.
There’s not a lot to report. We had more trouble getting our little dog out of Costa Rica then in to the US. It took a considerable amount of time for the paperwork to be processed at the San Jose airport and the agent had to go to several offices to get it all cleared. When we arrived in the US we ddn’t even have to go through the Agriculture line, which I’d expected to do, and no one even commented on the little dog in her carrier.
About that carrier! Gypsy sure wasn’t happy with that!!! She fought constantly not to have to get into it and if a zipper was opened half an inch she attempted to get her nose out. It’s a good thing that we took the direct flight as that shortened the time she had to remain locked up. She travelled much better than I’d expected and was quiet as a Church mouse the whole time. Good girl!
I’ve got to get going so I can get on my way to Bakersfield, where Doris already is. We’ll be spending Thanksgiving there with her daughter and her son should be coming up for the day, also. I would imagine that we’ll be there through the weekend so I’ll attempt to do a more complete update at that time. I’m only attempting to test the Adobe CS4 Suite Contribute program with this entry.
After settling in at the new hotel on the 10th we asked about a place to eat and were told of two fairly good places nearby. As one of them was primarily middle eastern food and that has never been one of my favorites (I’m not fond of grape leaves and everything seems to come wrapped in those) we decided to try a little Bistro in the opposite direction on the main street. We walked the two blocks to the main street and turned north the two blocks to the bistro only to find that it was closed. Apparently Panama celebrates their independence for the entire month of November and this was one of the days of observance. We ended up just having a snack in a Panadaria but that was sufficient for us. We also stopped at an open supermarket and picked up some drinks to put in the refrigerator in our room and a couple of other snacks just to have on hand. As I was unfamiliar with the different beers available in Panama I purchased three different ones, but only one of each, just to see which one was the best. I’ve got to say, none of them compare to the Pilsen, nor even to the Imperial in Costa Rica.
When returning to the hotel we noticed that less than 100 meters from our roundhouse was a little outdoor restaurant that served everything a la leña, which is wood cooked. We decided that if we were hungry around 8:00 we’d return for dinner. Unfortunately, we never got to try the food there as both of us were tired and went to bed early, still not really needing anything to eat. I am sorry that we didn’t go there directly from the hotel as I really would have liked to try their food. Perhaps on the next trip to Boquete, if there is one!
Although the new roundhouse had an excellent wi-fi signal, I still couldn’t connect to the internet so used a portion of the remaining afternoon figuring that out. I noticed that the booster for the signal for the outlying roundhouses was in our room so did what I do in the US when my wi-fi at home gives me problems acquiring an IP address, I turned it off and back on a couple of minutes later. I hope that I didn’t disrupt any other guests but that fixed my problem for the duration of our stay.
The next day, the 11th, we had a full day of activity. After having breakfast at Isla Verde in their outside breakfast facility, a local real estate agent picked us up and took us to their office, which only turned out to be two blocks away. We reviewed several homes on a large screen TV that connected directly to their website. This was so much more technical than what we’ve experienced in Costa Rica that it was a bit amazing. We selected about six different properties to view in varying price ranges an set off with Jason to see them.
Here, I have to make a note about Jason. Jason is a North American and married to a Panamanian woman. They are both in their early forties and recently married. They were off and on with the cell phone about every ten minutes the whole time we were with him. This would have been endearing had it not affected his ability to find the properties we were looking for. I think there were only one or two of the properties that he actually knew exactly where to find.
I’m going to make this short and state that although most of the properties we saw were nice, the prices in Boquete are outrageous. Perhaps this is due to the recent surge in immigration to that area but according to everything that I’ve read, that surge tapered off two years ago. They seem to be building new homes as if the surge is expected to continue and pricing them accordingly! Should you be interested in seeing the properties that we saw they are on my FaceBook page in the album “After the Farm”.
As Jason’s wife was bugging him to take her to a late lunch, and we had seen all that we really wished to, we headed back into the downtown area of Boquete and Jason dropped us off at a Mexican restaurant that I wished to visit. I’ve said it before but I must state again that in Costa Rica the best Mexican food I’ve found was at Taco Bell. I know there must be good Mexican food available somewhere but I’ve yet to find it!
Doris and I had a very nice lunch (I must insert here that I tried yet another variety of beer and also found it wanting) and afterward did some shopping, walking a good portion of the main street through Boquete. Us shopping means that she shops and I follow along behind carrying the purchases. I don’t really mind doing that until my old legs start to bother me, which only takes about half an hour. We didn’t spend much more time than that and Doris found some nice gifts that I’ll not describe as those who will be getting those items might be reading this entry. I did actually purchase something for myself, which is a real rarity as if it isn’t at Wal-Mart, Best Buy or Fryes or the Apple Store I generally have no interest! (I know, Wal-Mart for clothes, the Apple Store for computer equipment and supplies. Such are our priorities in this technical age!) Anyway, I got myself a t-shirt as a souvenir of our visit to Panama. I’s also seen a Guayabera shirt that I really liked but it wasn’t available in my size.
We returned to the hotel with our purchases and then attempted to get them into the few pieces of luggage that we had brought with us. We eventually figured that out with only one extra shopping bag to carry with us.
As we’d had a late lunch, having finished around three in the afternoon, we weren’t interested in having dinner so had another early night to bed in the loft! That was good because we had a full day ahead of us the following day with bus trips from Boquete to David and then David to Changuinola followed by a taxi ride to the border. Doris wasn’t happy with getting up early but had agreed that we should leave by 8:00 in the morning to facilitate getting to the border before it closed at 6:00 p.m.
We didn’t have breakfast the morning we left Boquete so Doris only had to get up at 7:00 to be ready by 8:00. Only being in Panama a couple of days hadn’t given our bodies time to adjust to the one hour time difference, which meant it was actually 6:00 when she arose. For me this wasn’t a problem and even when I go to the US for my one week monthly visit I don’t bother to change my watch. All my computers are on Costa Rica time so they synchronize properly and even in the winter with a two-hour time difference, I’m usually ready for bed at my normal 8:30 Costa Rica time and up between 3:30 and 4:30 in the morning (according to the time on my watch!).
When we checked out of the hotel the owner asked us if we wanted a taxi to the bus stop and as it was about six blocks away, and I would be carrying or hauling most of the luggage, we agreed. Once in the taxi Doris asked how much to just take us to the border and thereupon ensued a period of negotiation. Although it was more than our taxi trip from the border to Boquete, I agreed and am very happy to have done so. We stopped several times on the way so that I could take some pictures and even stopped about half way to eat a very early lunch.
I must mention the condition of the road from David to Almirante. Last November about a five kilometer section of the pass over the Continental Divide had been the victim of a landslide and they are still making repairs to this section. One reason this has taken so long is the need to fill the off sides of the road to provide support for the repaired road and this takes a tremendous amount of material and is very time consuming. At some points they must fill hundreds of feet of lost earth. I’ve posted several pictures of this area on my FaceBook page and a three minute video on YouTube at fincadelpacuareCR should you care to see it.
We arrived at the border before noon and were through both immigration facilities and across the bridge by 12:20. We’d used the taxi’s cell phone to call our friend, Horst, at Cabinas Rio Cocles and he arrived about fifteen minutes after our crossing with our rental car and a very happy Gypsy. We were soon back in our cabin in Puerto Viejo to rest up for the drive back to Chitaria the following morning.
As I’d only taken Doris notebook on the trip to Panama I was happy to be back in possession of my own laptop. The notebook was selected due to its weight and size but I had to make a few adjustments and add some folders to it to facilitate my work, which was coming in at an increased speed due to the deadline next week the next publication. Most of the afternoon was used transferring and updating files and in reconfiguration of Doris notebook to eliminate items that would probably only serve to confuse her. As she is just now, and rather slowly, attempting to learn the computer I’m trying to keep her notebook as simple as possible.
In our absence Gypsy didn’t create a problem for Horst and Marglet but was apparently a bit confused. Their room at the facility is upstairs in the main house and the first night Marglet carried Gypsy up the stairs, not remembering that Gypsy lived most of her life in our second story home on the farm. The next morning Gypsy wasn’t sure of the stairs (they are a bit steeper than ours were) so she just peed at the top of the stairs. No one seemed to be upset about that when we returned and Gypsy rapidly became deft in going up and down the stairs. Horst had rented the air-conditioned cabin that we usually stay in which also caused Gypsy a bit of confusion because we were no longer there. The funniest part of her stay was when Horst left our car doors open and Gypsy jumped in and didn’t wish to leave. She did this again when I was packing the car getting ready to leave to return to Chitaria and often does this when any luggage is put in the car. She just doesn’t wish to be left behind, perhaps because she has been left at the farm often enough over the years. She no longer has the familiarity of that place and the other animals so must be afraid of losing her only remaining family.
We had a relatively pleasant afternoon return to the farm on Friday the 13th. We have a lot to get ready prior to our departure to the US but couldn’t get started just yet with that due to my appointment on Saturday morning for lab tests.
I don’t know if I mentioned it earlier but prior to our departure to Panama I’d taken the old Suzuki, which Vicky had purchased, into Turrialba for some repairs that needed to be made. The car was ready to be picked up so I walked down the hill to catch the 7:00 bus to town. That was yesterday morning and we were having a considerable rainstorm when I did so. I took pictures from the bus stop with the cell phone camera and here they are:
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Clicking on them should show a full sized image, at least the full size that was uploaded.
After a full hour’s trip on the bus I went first to the Lab to get that started and had the first blood drawn and all the other items completed at the same time. I had to drink a glucose mixture and then, without having any other drink or food, return in two hours to have blood drawn again. I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink, except a swallow of juice when taking my daily medications at 5:00 the evening prior, since prior to leaving Cabinas Rio Cocles just after noon of Friday. I was really hungry and not at all happy with another two hour wait.
While waiting I went to the repair facility and picked up Vicky’s car, went to the pharmacy and acquired two additional months worth of medicine for myself, went to the vets and picked up 200 pounds of food for the horses and also made a trip to the bank for enough cash (in colones) to finalize everything in Costa Rica prior to our departure. Finally it was time to return to get the other blood drawn and then back to Chitaria.
Since the gas gauge on the Suzuki doesn’t work I needed to put some fuel in the car to insure enough to make a round trip from and too Chitaria. I’d instructed Vicky to always fill it up, zeroing the odometer at the same time, which would guarantee that there would be enough gas in the car until the trip meter got to 150. At that time you should start thinking about filling it up again. This has always worked well for us as the gauge quit working within a month of purchasing the vehicle way back in ’98. Apparently, this instruction didn’t take as there was over 380 miles on the trip meter, which meant that I had absolutely no idea how many miles were on the car. Someone is going to run out of gas and that will certainly cause the engine to have sucked up the dirty gas at the bottom of the tank and probably foul the carburetor.
So, after putting in about $10 of gas I proceed to stop at Betico Mata and have lunch and a beer. I’m going to miss that place more than any other around here so picked up a bottle of his famous hot sauce (from his father’s secret recipe) to take with me to the States. I do know that he uses Habenero peppers (also referred to as Jabañero – check out) in it so it’s something to be wary of if you aren’t used to really spicy (meaning hot) sauces. I can’t wait to share this with some of my friends and will probably carry it to Phoenix with me for the Holidays. In retrospect, I should have also picked up a couple of bottles of his marinade.
That’s about it, other than to say that I slept through all but the last three minutes of the Costa Rica/Uruguay Fútbol game last night. Uruguay won the game with a score of 1-0 here in Costa Rica but there’s another game in Uruguay in a couple of days and if CR can win with a margin of victory greater than that one point they will earn a trip to the World Cup next summer. They way they’ve been playing doesn’t tend to make me believe that they can accomplish this so now I’ll be rooting for the US in the World Cup!
I’ve a lot to do today in finishing up with packing and getting several items here put securely away for the time we will be absent. The house will only be vacant for a bit over a month so that isn’t too bad but I don’t know who will be here while we’re gone and really don’t wish for our things to be bothered nor used. Several things that were out for use have already disappeared and I don’t wish for that to be repeated.
I probably won’t get around to another update until something worth mentioning happens in the US or on our return to the frozen north. The first week back will be spent sitting in front of four computer screens and doing my month’s work, which isn’t an item of interest to anyone other than me and the publisher of Dusty Times newspaper.
We do plan to go in search of a house there so that might be reported on!
Although it would seem that a trip to the beach would be for sun, surf and relaxation, it seems that most of my time there is spend with my good friend on something computer related. I get up early and do all my reading, work, catching up with emai and seeing what all my friends are doing on Facebook but for some reason my computer seems to remain on all day. Such was Sunday so there isn’t really anything interesting to report.
I had plans to get a relatively early start on Monday, knowing that the trip from Sixaola, Costa Rica, to Boquete, Panama, was going to take some time. Somehow I was unable to impress this time requirement on Doris so we ended up having breakfast only a half hour earlier than normal and didn’t even get to the border at Sixaola until just after 11:00 in the morning. After clearing customs our first task was to cross the railroad bridge. I’ve earlier posted one photo on Facebook but here’s another that shows the size of the bridge that needs to be walked!
We weren’t even to the water in the river, yet, and this was a considerable walk.
Once across this bridge, we had to stop at immigration where I found out that as a US citizen I had to purchase a $5 tourist card but Doris, having a German passport, needed nothing. Once this was accomplished we waited in line once more to find that now we needed to each purchase an $11 bus ticket to insure that we would have a way out of the country.
We finally finished getting through Immigration and that’s when Doris found out (or I should say finally accepted) that we had a very long trip to Boquete. The first driver we asked said that he wanted $200 and that the trip would take 5 hours. After a bit of negotiating with other drivers we agreed to a bit over three hours and almost half of the original offer. It was becoming apparent that we weren’t the average tourist that passed the border.
The van ride wasn’t bad and at times we had an excellent view of the Island of Bocas del Tora and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, our driver was sufficiently knowledgable of the road and those times passed too fast to even snap a picture with my camera already poised in the window. The only two pictures that I took were of a couple of houses along the road so here’s one of those:
As I had anticipated not arriving in Boquete until late, I’d taken the initiative and done something we seldom do, make a reservation in a hotel. I know that many would think that when traveling in another country this would seem irresponsible but we’ve found some very nice accomodations by having to go out of our way to search for them but in this case, not only would we be arriving late, we wouldn’t have our own transportation to aid us in our search. I had made the reservation at Villa Marita, which turned out to be very nice, but their website wasn’t exactly honest in saying that it was convenient to downtown Boquete. Convenient if you had your own transportation, not if you didn’t!
They did offer a nice room (not exceptional but nice, and clean, with tv) and had wi-fi in the public area which wasn’t an inconvenience.
We had a bit of trouble communicating with the person that I thought had been a real estate agent (this from the way he represented himself in his response to my querry concerning a property) but who actually was the owner of the property. We finally connected with him and at 11:00 (I still was under the impression that it was an hour earlier, not knowing that there is an hour’s time difference between Costa Rica and Panama) arrived at their home and subsequently went to view the property.
I have to admit that now I know what the Padre meant that he’d seen many, many places online that didn’t really look like the property in real life. This had appeared very nice in the photos but there was a lot of shoddy workmanship in the updating of the home and it appeared to have been months since it had been cleaned. We know, from experience, that keeping a place clean is the first thing in maintaining a house in the tropics. Even small amounts of dust and dirt soon are growing mold just from the additional moisture in the air.
We had taken our belongins with us when we had left the Villa Marita so now went in search of another hotel for the night. The one we found is just a coupld of blocks from teh downtown area but in a nice and quiet neighborhoo, Of course, since the whole facility is cabins it’s actually it’s own neighborhood. The cabins are roundhouses with a loft and Doris was as excited about the loft as a little kid. Although the main bed is downstairs, guess where we spent the night! Right!!!
Today we have an apointment at 10:00 with an agent to see some homes and it’s about time to get going for breakfast.
The first couple of days back in Costa Rica aren’t worth mentioning. Standard recovering from the trip and catching up on the little things that needed to be done.
I will note, however, that on either Thursday or Friday a friend came by to see our mare, Casey, and we headed over to the farm fairly early in the afternoon to do so. Once there I found that I couldn’t enter the pasture where she’d been because every gate had a chain and lock on it. I yelled down to the peon house for Guido and he answered back. I told him we’d come to see Casey and didn’t hear anything else. We waited about five minutes, more than enough time for him to have come up the hill, and proceeded down to that house to see what was keeping him. Once there Eugenia informed me that he was at the hospital, having been bitten by a spider. She told us that Casey was down the hill with the other horses so we went looking. Couldn’t see them and didn’t wish to search a couple of hectors of property and bush so went back to the peon house. I asked for Guido to give me a call when he returned from the hospital but he didn’t bother to do that. Instead, he called at 5:00 the next morning. I can only assume, from what I’ve seen in the past few months since our departure from the farm, that he was probably too inebriated when he got home to call!
On Sunday, October 31st we headed back to Grecia to look at the little house that we’d liked and stayed again in the Aeromundo Hotel. We even stayed in the same room as it has a balcony where you can overlook the street. The only problem with this is the street noise if the door is open, which we like. At night the street in front of the hotel seems to be a raceway and there is often a lot of noise from loud mufflers. It’s also a main thoroughfare for busses and trucks so that compounds the problem.
We had called the real estate agent prior to leaving Chitaria and made a 9:00 appointment on Monday morning so were there a few minutes early. The good thing with dealing with this particular agent is that when you have an appointment they are ready at the time they gave you. They don’t work in “Tico Time”!
We re-viewed the house and I made measurements of the entire house to do a floor plan and a 3 dimensional drawing as I’d had on our “For Sale” webpage of the house at the farm. I haven’t yet done this and probably won’t.
We made an offer prior to leaving the real estate office and received a call about four hours later stating that it wasn’t enough. The owner of the property is in the US and had to be contacted. “Sorry, we sure liked the house,” I responded, “but considering the prices available we’ll really have to think that over!”
We spent another night in the Aeromundo Hotel before leaving and even though we were going to up the offer decided it would be better to wait. Late Tuesday morning we returned to Chitaria and, I must say, it’s really much better travelling in the rental car than the old Suzuki. We stopped for some fresh Liche to nibble on during our trip and, as usual, didn’t get enough of them. I don’t know if you’ve had that but it’s a wonderful fruit, when fresh, but my personal impression of the canned variety that you usually get in restaurants in the US is that it tastes like perfume and I just don’t like it!
(I’m new to wordpress and don’t know if an email update will insert a picture. The old one didn’t do so. If there is no picture above I guess it won’t!)
Once we arrived in Turrialba we stopped again for a Pizza so there wouldn’t need to be any cooking done once we arrived home. By the time we arrived in Chitaria it was almost dark.
Thursday I had to take the old Suzuki in to Turrialba for a few repairs and to stop at the doctor’s office to schedule a physical. I also had to stop by the Social Security office and bring our insurance payments up to date. Somehow we’d neglected to pay our October bill but since I don’t need to stop by every month to pay the Peon insurance I’d just overlooked it. That was the first stop and the grand total for two months insurance of about 28 dollars was accepted without comment.
After dropping off the car I walked over to the doctor’s office and made the appointment for 10:00 the following day. After that I gave a friend a call, who was going to come out to the farm and look at our mare, Casey, one more time. I then wandered to Betico Mata to have a bite of lunch to wait for him and a ride back to Chitaria.
We changed cars in Chitaria as his car was certainly not capable of making it back up the road from the farm, and proceeded to the farm. I’d informed Guido the prior week during his five o’clock in the morning call, that we would be coming by this day and even though we arrived early, he was already gone. I’d done a cursory check at the bar up the street and am pretty sure he was already there.
We were able to see Casey, anyway, and once she received her first pet, followed us around like a pup. George W. (named for George Washington because he was foaled on February 22nd) also does the same thing and our friend was pretty impressed with this. He sure would like to buy her but says he doesn’t have the money. Interesting that he didn’t try and get her price lower. I know she’s worth more than we’re asking but she’s priced to sell!!!
The following morning I went back to town for my 10:00 appointment and got a bunch of orders for tests to take to the hospital. Although Costa Rica has government medical care they also have private offices, too, and we used the “Mixto” system. That means that we go to our own doctor and pay for the visit but we can get prescriptions and tests at the hospital at no cost. Having dealt with requiring multiple tests from the hospital in the past I knew that each item would require an additional appointment and the results wouldn’t be back prior to our return to the US the 17th of this month. We’d planned to go to Puerto on Saturday afternoon, leave the car and Gypsy with Horst and Marglet for a few days, and head to Panama! Should I continue and schedule all of these tests at the hospital we wouldn’t be able to make the journey.
I spoke about this with the doctor and the only thing he gave me an “urgent” request for was a chest x-ray. Knowing that I could get that immediately and that I would receive it prior to leaving to personally take to the doctor, that’s the only thing that I asked him to put an urgent order on. I could speak with Doris about it once I returned to Chitara to see if we really wanted to cancel our Panama trip.
Of course, nothing is ever as easy as it seems when dealing with the government and it took most of the afternoon just to get the x-ray. When I left the hospital the doctor’s office was already closed so I just slipped it under his door. I had taken a look at it myself and didn’t see anything to worry about, having a considerable amount of experience looking at of them during the scare back in ’05 and even having had a CAT scan to boot. I haven’t heard back from him so my evaluation was accurate. Should there have been anything to worry about I would have received an immediate phone call!
We decided that I should check with the hospital for the rest of the tests and as Doris had a dental appointment on Saturday morning after dropping her off I headed back to the hospital. Do you recall what I said about working with government agencies? Well, I found out that you can only schedule an appointment from 9: a.m. until noon, and only on Monday through Friday! Great! While I was reading the sign a worker opened the door at the lab and I asked her how long it would be before I could get appointments for the list of things the doctor wished to have checked. She told me that they were scheduling about a week in advance, at the earliest, so that meant that returning on Monday would mean that I couldn’t get anything checked prior to leaving.
I knew that Doris really wanted me to get these tests done, and was even willing to give up her greatly desired adventure to Panama for it. I now had a great excuse for making the trip but also knew that now she would worry about my state of health the whole time we were up in the frozen north over the Holidays.
Remember the comment about there being private care also? I remembered that several years ago I’d now wished to wait the time needed for a blood test at the hospital and had gone to a private laboratory for one. I checked with them (the lab is within a block of our dentist’s office) and found out that I could come in any morning, get all the tests on my list done, and be complete in one visit! Great!!! Considering that one of the blood tests requires fasting, an early blood test, going to have something to eat and another blood test following that, their opening time determined the day that I’d make the visit. They open at 8:00 every day but Saturday and on that day they open at 7. If it hadn’t been for the blood sugar test, I’d just have had everything done while I was there!
Oh yes, the cost? 85,000 colones for the complete job. At today’s rate of exchange that equals $149.91! If you long-time readers recall, we elected to go to a private hospital for the lung biopsy that I had way back when and never regretted the cost. That was so long ago that it no longer is on the blog list at the old site but I’ll give a synopsis of the difference here: NOTE: Caja is the local name for the Social Security system.
Caja:
Surgical incision front to back, wait at least two weeks in hospital for biopsy results (and then possible surgery). Facilities, either barracks type ward or semi-private room with up to five roommates. Visiting hours restricted to an hour a day and visitors usually have to wait in a long line for entry, confirmation that they are on the visiting list (limited to two people). Food, cafeteria style with no options. Usually a lot of rice and beans! Cannot bring any personal effects into the hospital due to theft problem. Cost, $00.00.
Clinica Cima:
Enter hospital in morning, biopsy done with pincers and fiber optic equipment, immediate to three days for results. The same doctor that would have performed the surgery with the Caja. Total stay (considering negative biopsy results) three days. Facilities: Private hotel sized room with extra bed for Doris to sleep in should she wish. Cable TV, no limits on visitors or hours. No limits on personal effects including cell phones. Food: hotel style menu with excellent selections and even special requests fulfilled. I’ll also note that a review of the hospital dining room , by the food expert at AMCostaRia, gave it the highest rating as a local restaurant and mealtimes usually find it full of locals who only come to the hospital for the restaurant. I had one of the best, and largest, filet mignon’s that I’ve ever had while there. Cost: a bit over $6,000.
Now, back to the update.
Following a quick lunch in town, which Doris decided she couldn’t eat because her mouth was still numb, we packed up hers to go and headed back to Chitaria. We arrived about 1:00 and by 2:30 were on the road to Puerto Viejo and points south. I’m now sitting at our friend’s Cabinas Rio Cocles waiting for Doris to come out for breakfast at 9:30. Tomorrow we head south, to Panama!
This is the first entry on our new page. I originally subscribed to WordPress in July of 08 butnever got around to setting it up. I’ll make the next Life in Paradise entry soon.
