My Pura Vida

Where Do You Buy Gasoline?

As conscious consumers, we have the right to choose what companies we buy our gasoline from.  Sierra Club has updated their list highlighting the pros and cons of the ten largest U.S. oil companies.  The companies that they suggest are the best to buy from, based on their corporate and environmental policies are Sunoco and BP.  Check out why.   

Welcome to Costa Rica

Today I received notice from another student at the University that the entire county will have no power service tomorrow from 7:30 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon.  My boyfriend flies in to Costa Rica this evening for his first visit to the country.  What a great welcome on his first full day here.  He comes from a developing country, so I am sure this is something he had to deal with growing up.  It is a bit inconvenient though.  Good thing I didn't stock up food in the refrigerator.  I guess we will have to escape from the neighborhood early tomorrow morning. 

Banking in Costa Rica

I brought a cashiers check with me for the money that I would need for the year.  The school recommended we deposit our money in one of the two state run banks that they do all their business with.  The bank told me that they would be holding my check for 5 weeks until I could access my funds.  It would have been helpful to know about this ahead of my arrival.  One of the people in the the Dean's office was able to help me get a cash advance of funds by speaking to the bank manager.  It's all about having connections!

Monopolies

There is one telecommunications company in Costa Rica called ICE.  If Costa Rica signs CAFTA it would mean competition for the telecommunications monopoly coming into the country.  Apparently, there is a lot of pressure in the country NOT to sign the agreement. 

So far I have made three trips to the ICE office to get my high-speed line up at my house.  This included bringing a formal letter from the property manager of the casita, since the owner is out of the country.  The first person we spoke to said I couldn't do anything until the owner was back.  Then we asked to speak with someone else.  He worked it out with the first person, so I was able to proceed.  The ISDN was finally installed this week, but now I have to go back again to their office to get my internet service.   I will be able to do this on Monday, so hopefully next week I will have internet service at my house finally. 

On Tuesday I went to the Internet cafe in town and thought I would start getting caught up on my weblogs.  Unfortunately that didn't work because the upspeed time was too slow that it timed out before my files were saved.  I spoke to the guy that runs the internet cafe and he said this often happens during business hours because there are too many people trying to access the internet in the country at one time. 

In addition, there are officially no cell phone numbers available from ICE until December.  Apparently this has to do with one of the ex-presidents who is now in jail, but who really knows.  I got international coverage with Cingular while I left but haven't been able to make it work.  One of the guys that works on campus may have a local connection that can get us some numbers in the next month.  We will see.