Paradise Is Not Always Paradise

I thought I would take a break from my building blogs to comment on a couple of not so pleasant things.

First of all, signing up for, paying bills for phone, electricity and internet at ICE is a "career." When you go there you need to allow for at the very least one hour. Sometimes longer. The system is so slow and inefficient. First of all the doors are locked and a guard lets you in and waves a detection wand around you. Next you sit in a long line of chairs. It's like musical chairs. One person gets up and goes to the desk where the one and only person checking through the 15-30 people is seated. The people move down starting with the chair the man was in to be next in line. Next, if you are only paying your bills you may pay there and leave. If you are needing to do any further business he then gives you a number, and you get into another row of chairs and wait for your number to be called. There are never more then three people in that area to help you. When one or two go on break, which of course they have to do, you just wait. Have I mentioned you need patience to live in this country?

FIRST LINE OF CHAIRS

SECOND WAITING AREA AND AS YOU CAN SEE 2 PEOPLE ARE ON BREAK, SO YOU HAVE ONE PERSON FOR ALL THE PEOPLE

The second thing is the government, starting July 1st, placed a 13% tax on services. I was told they were going to tax the food you buy at the grocery store also, but I did not think that would be right since it is a service tax. Well, I was wrong. I did a weeks worth of shopping today. My bill was 46,344.22 colones ($80.82) They added the 13% running my bill up 4,261. more colones ( $7.43) tax on food!!!! It's a lot for me to pay extra just because some past President and his cronies were career thieves. Of course, now the people of the country have to come up with it. I do not know how many of the population will be able to deal with an increase like this in their food bills. They simply do not have it. This is not a wealthy nation.

This tax is also on all services now. So, when my windows on my house are installed, cabinet installed, etc. I will be charged 13% for that service. This is going to cause me to have to cut back on some of the things I wanted to do in my home. Which at the same time takes the money I would have spent out of the pockets of those that would have made the money. I also believe this is going to stop a lot of growth in Costa Rica. 13% is not just a large percentage it is a huge jump from zero to 13% on food.

With all this said, I am still of the Pura Vida belief...

Pura Vida!