Better Here

Monday morning we had to drive down to Nicoya to get our yearly car safety inspection. They call it the Retive here. And boy do they do the inspections differently here.

Back in Virginia just about every mechanic shop would do the yearly state safely inspection, and many were not very thorough in that inspection. You'd wait in the shop, not able to see what they were actually doing or testing, only to be passed or failed. Usually on some silly ridiculous thing that the shop immediately wanted to fix for a high price.

Here in Costa Rica they take those middle men mechanics completely out of the mix. The inspection stations are government owned and run. Professional. We stayed in our car the entire time and I have to say that they ran tests on things that are clearly not part of the Virginia state inspection. Took awhile, but we were soon on our way with our new Retive sticker for another year at a much lower inspection fee.

Today is Mother's Day here in Costa Rica, so it's worked out I've had two  Mother's Days this year, roses on both. Cannot complain.

Everything was shut down even if it is a Wednesday. There are more small holidays here where they roll up the sidewalks and everyone uses the day to cook and be with family. The only place open was the grocery store and boy was it crowded. I was surprised to discover that the store had a guy serving up homemade soup from a kettle right inside to all the mothers. Beef soup with carrots, onions, potatoes, cilantro, plantains and these starchy things that I cannot remember the name of. It was delicious!

Beach tomorrow morning for a walk and we have a contract signing tomorrow for the new patio, hot tub and garage. Life is sweet!

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