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Published: August 21st 2006
We’ve bought a truck! All the time spent weeding through trucks that weren’t exactly right for us, has finally paid off. Narrowing our search down helped as well as we had done additional research on the 4Runners, Landcruisers and Pathfinders. We found that the Landcruisers, while great to look at, had very bad gas mileage and had extremely poor emissions. Pathfinders faired better however their long term reliability wasn’t as good as the Toyotas. 4Runners however seemed to be exactly what we were looking for as they had decent gas mileage in the 4 cylinder, had excellent long term reliability ratings for certain years (1992, 1994, 1995, 1996+) and had the lowest emissions for an SUV 4X4. We were sold. We immediately started to look at only 4Runners and only those who had good years for reliability and little or no recalls.
Many of you knew we were very excited about one truck in particular about a week ago. This truck passed the compression test and seemed to be in good shape mechanically however Jorge, our mechanic, showed us how badly the truck was rusting out. The chassis looked like it was simply flaking off! Jorge told us that if
we were staying in the city, it may work out for us, but any coastal roads at all and the truck would most likely split in half at some point. As he put it to Mike, “You’ll go one way and your wife will go the other.” After Jorge and Roy referred to the truck as an “eggshell”, we had heard enough and the truck went back to its owner.
Of course we were disappointed with this one because we really thought the truck was in decent condition, however, I just told Mike that I knew our truck was out there waiting for us. She was wondering why in the world we would even bother to take this rust bucket to Jorge when she was waiting patiently to come home with us. We knew she would present herself when the time was right.
A few days later, Mike made contact with another person on our list of potential trucks. After 2 left messages and no return call, Mike wasn’t anxious to call again however this time he caught the owner at home. She and her husband were British. They had a 1995 4Runner in excellent condition with only
83k miles on it. They only drove back and forth to work which was very close to their home. They had been here in Costa Rica on a 2 year contract and were moving to Spain…. In 10 days! They needed to get rid of the truck and couldn’t afford to ship it. It had one owner before them back in the States. This gentleman was a Tico who lived in Connecticut and decided to move back to Costa Rica. He decided to import his car when he came back here in 2003 however he only lived here for a few months before deciding he wanted to go back to live in the States. He then sold the car to his neighbors, the Brits.
Sounded like a good story but we’ve heard a ton of them since we’ve been here. I think the best one I heard was from a guy that tried to tell me his niece spilled water in the back part of the truck. When I pulled back the carpet, the entire carpet was saturated and there was a definitive hole in the plastic around the back window along with a small crack in the fiberglass.
How much water can one little girl spill!? Give me a break…
While waiting at the bus stop to get ourselves into San Jose to meet the Brits. Gerardo passed us and told us he’d give us a ride. What luck! We made it to the stadium and saw the beauty pull up a few minutes later. They had been to the beach that weekend so Roy had warned me before we left that the truck would probably be very dirty. This definitely wasn’t the case. The Brits had cleaned her up very nicely and seemed to be decent folks.
Everything looked good. The mileage was very low for this year and especially in this country. The interior looked excellent, no rust to be seen, and the oil was in good shape. Mike did the clutch test which the truck passed with flying colors. The Brits also had all of their maintenance records intact as well, which was very helpful. We could see that they took it to the Toyota dealership for routine maintenance and had them fix any issues. It looks like when the Brits bought the truck, everything needed to be replaced so they got it
fixed. Personally, Mike and I think that the guys at the Toyota dealership figured the Brits had money and they knew nothing about cars (this was their first truck) so they ripped them off a bit.
We loved the truck but the true test comes when it goes to Jorge. We made an appointment for the following day and came home satisfied that we at least found one we were willing to take back to Jorge.
The next day, Roy came with us to meet the Brits. We got the car over to Jorge and had time to really go through everything. In a way, we were hoping that Jorge would find something small wrong so that we’d have some additional bargaining power however he said a few times that the truck was in perfect condition. No room to bargain there....
The truck passed the compression test with flying colors, had no rust, was in great shape all around and only needed a minor greasing which Jorge said he could do. We made the Brits an offer and got the negotiations started, then pretty quickly settled on a price we were both content with. Deal done…
We made our way over to the lawyer’s to settle the paperwork. Great part about this is we know a lawyer locally (Romulo is in San Jose) who is very close with the Delgados who could do the deal for us. A quick trip to the bank followed and the deal was done. We drove the Brits back to their house and had our new truck!
We’ve spent the past few days cleaning up the truck. Roy told us that all it needed was a little love, and love it we have! We took it to be cleaned inside and outside, including the chassis, by some local folks. I couldn’t believe how hard these 4 guys worked for 10 bucks. The next day, we went and got rain guards put on. These are a must for any vehicle that I own. If you don’t have rain guards on your car, look into them. Personally, I think they are an amazing investment. With rain guards, you can leave your windows quite open while it’s raining out and you won’t get wet. Plus you don’t have to worry about water getting down in the mechanisms that work your power windows which
could cause rust down the road. Rain guards are about $20 in the States if I remember correctly and they come pre-shaped for whatever car you own. I installed my own on the Xterra so didn’t think it would be a big deal to install my own here.
At the rain guard shop, we were told that it would be $20 for the guards and installation. What a deal. After waiting 2 hours, the guys got to work on our new truck. Little did I know at the time that rain guards here are not pre-made. They actually custom made our beauties! Amazing process and very impressive.
We also spent a day waxing our baby and adding some RainX, which personally I think is worth its weight in gold here and she goes back to Jorge for a tune up and greasing on Monday.
We also have a very sophisticated anti-theft system on the car. It consists of an inside alarm (that sometimes has a mind of its own), a chain and lock attached to the Delgado’s house and a Club! Cracks me up every morning….
Another step taken on this new Path. Mike and
I will most likely be on the road by the end of next week. The truck goes to Jorge on Monday and there are still a few museums I’d like to see in San Jose. Then it’s off to check out new towns.
Talk about timing! This weekend is the festival for the patron saint of Barva. Every town in CR has a festival for their patron saint at some point of the year and it’s quite a celebration. For the past two weeks we’ve been hearing the drummers practice every day and our neighbors have been busy making masks. The festivities started Friday afternoon and last through next Sunday. It is quite a celebration! The center of town is filled with vendors, food stands and rides. At night, the Cimarrona band (band consisting of drums, trumpets, cymbals and tubas) plays at the top steps of the church and huge crowds of people dance around. I’ve never seen so many people in one small town before. Forget about driving through. Traffic is pretty much at a standstill. It seems like every face you see has a smile…
During the day, there is yet another tradition. From 2-5pm Saturday
and Sunday, groups of people go into the street dressed up with masks much like Halloween, except every mask is quite scary. Those with masks have most likely spent the previous day washing out pig bladders which will be dried and filled with air. I have to say, when I first saw these hanging up at the Delgados, there was no way I was going to any festival where they had air-filled pig bladders hanging on a string. However Josef Delgado was so happy about getting dressed up that I had to go see what the fuss was all about. Also, Dineth Delgado (Josef’s mom) said she would protect me from the “payasos” (clowns). Apparently, the payasos chase people around town with the pig bladders, hitting them quite hard with them. I was definitely not looking forward to this.
We were told to wear old clothes as well because apparently the pig bladders smell quite bad. When they get wet from the rain, they are even worse. I had to say, the smell is quite horrible. If someone offers you a pig bladder air freshener, take my word on it and just pass it up. You’ll thank me later…
As we walked into town, the streets started to get more and more crowded as we went with more and more payasos looking for their next victim. If you think being hit by a payaso is just like a light tap with a balloon, you are WRONG! Now I was only hit very, very lightly by one payaso so I can’t totally attest to the severity of the sting. However, from the welts on Mike’s neck and the red marks I saw on many of the folks walking in the streets, plus seeing the payasos wind up with each hit and hearing that loud smack each time, I can tell you, it’s not pleasant. I must have asked 10 times, why do they do this? To which, the only answer we really got was that it was tradition. Dineth said that previously the tradition was to fill a sock with other socks and use that to whack various townspeople. But they switched to pigs’ bladders 10 to 15 years ago when she said a problem arose with people stuffing rocks into the socks as well. Ouch!
As a bystander, you will most likely get hit. I found if
you are a gringo female carrying a camera and can show this quickly to anyone approaching, some payasos will merely pose for you and move on. This has been the first time my camera has saved me! Mike definitely took some lumps for me as we walked the street as anyone on the outside of the sidewalk is a definite target. I have to say Dineth took some for the team as well as she was very worried that I would get my share.
Once we got into the center of town, we found that there were huge crowds of payasos! You couldn’t even cross the street without being chased so we opted to go up another street and watch. Crowds of folks gathered in the street as well called “correadores” (Runners) which consisted of men between the ages of 15 to 35. The payasos would line up on one end, taunting the correadores to run through what looked like a gauntlet! And off they would go… in one huge group to see if they could get through the payasos without getting hit. Mike and I think there is a bit of ego involved here, much like the running
of the bulls in Spain. There is a certain adrenaline rush that comes with seeing how much you can endure and believe me, the payasos are more than willing to dish it out!
As violent as this seems, we only saw one potential fight and even that was quickly broken up. We would see a guy really take a whollop and just when you thought he was going to turn around and deck the payoso, he would instead turn around and give the guy a high five, almost saying “wow, that was a good one”… amazing culture here. This would never go over smoothly in the states, especially considering how much drinking goes on at these events.
Suddenly we heard drums beating and music coming our way and we were told that the “Gigantes” were coming! Gigantes are huge mask heads set atop a frame that is carried on a person’s shoulders. The person underneath has the gigante’s clothing draped over him, so all you can see of the person is his feet. He parades down the street with the cimarrona band, dancing and twirling with a ton of people dancing with him. What a huge celebration and
once again, everyone smiling!
After 2 hours in the pouring rain and taking an obscene amount of pictures, we decided to return home and get ready for dinner. Matthew’s friends were returning from Puerto Viejo and we wanted to celebrate with them at a local bar downtown. By that time, the payosos would have finished their reign of terror and the streets would be safe again.
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bladderless pigs!
It has come to my attention that there are many pigs wandering the coasts of Costa Rica without bladders. I'm sure their American cousins are doing all they can to ship in extra bladders during this tragic time in pigdom. With that said, the Spongebob mug is also still missing and I'm afraid, alas, that it is doom to a life of solitude and replaced by the new pup. So is the life of the mug!