Tico Time

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The most common expression used by expats (yet the locals talk about it as well) refers to the punctuality, speed and efficiency with which things get done here in Costa Rica, this expression is “Tico Time”. Ticos are native Costa Ricans, and they move at a pace which could infuriate the most saintly among us. A 20 minute errand can turn into an all day affair depending upon your luck. While I have experienced this phenomenon before, the first time I really felt affected by Tico Time was this past Friday.

Rachel and I decided to open a bank account. It seemed like a prudent idea, and the bank that we chose to use has internet banking, ATMs all over the country and the feel of a very comfortable, upper-tier bank. Everyone in the place speaks English, so we figured, let’s get this over with.

We walked into the bank at 11:10am and walked out hungry, thirsty and in a state of awe at the amount of time we had lost at 1:30pm. I hadn’t realized that there was two and a half hours worth of paperwork to accomplish in order to open an account here, but lo-and-behold we lost a good deal of our day to this task.

Today we had our first Shabbos in our new home. It was mostly quiet; we ate well and read a lot. Of course Saturday is also the day that our cleaning lady and her son our landscaper show up. We can mostly act out what needs to be done, since I only understand about 1/10th of what she says, and she cannot understand a word of my attempts and speaking Spanish. Unfortunately, some things are harder to convey than others, and it’s difficult to pantomime “I owe you money and will have a mutual friend call you on Tuesday in order to figure out details on getting you the correct payment”. Rather, I think it came out more like this “Here’s an envelope of money that I taped to the cabinet before Shabbos and since I can’t pay you today I hope you show up next week”.

The other crisis was that I realized that our lawnmower, which came with the house does not drive itself. It’s the human-powered push-version. The blade works with gas power, but the landscaper spent 4 hours pushing this thing up and down the hills on our property. It was horrible! This thing must have been designed as a torture device. I guess that it’s just money and we’ll be buying a new lawnmower this week.

Tomorrow, I hope we will be going to La Paz waterfalls then we will be meeting with our contractor. It’s his birthday though, and considering that last time we met we had a “breakfast beer” with him at 10am, I am fairly certain that by the time we get to his house tomorrow at 4pm he should be well on his way to forgetting that we’re supposed to be showing up.



Matt


Orchid Lodge's Website - http://www.theorchidlodge.com
Click here to read our blog - http://blog.theorchidlodge.com

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