Back from Cancun

Kerri and I just returned from 5 days in Cancun for Sportingbet's annual company trip. It was quite an adventure starting with a chartered jet to take all of the employees from Costa Rica to Cancun. We stayed at a beautiful Melia resort right on the water. I had to work quite a bit during the day because the World Series is right around the corner, but I made sure to take a break in the afternoons and join Kerri at the pool. We also were very good on this trip and worked out at the hotel's fantastic gym every day.

At the Beach Party

The Happiest Place on Earth (No, It's Not Disneyland)

On Saturday, Kerri and I were at EPA here in Costa Rica. When leaving the store, there is a store employee that stands at the front door and compares your receipt to the items you've purchased to make sure you haven't stolen anything. Just like at Costco. Checking the person's stuff in front of us was taking a particularly long time as the clerk was checking every piece in a 100-piece tool set. As a result, a line of about 15 people formed trying to get out of the store.

Kerri and I looked at the line and--in true American fashion--started to get impatient. Kerri started looking around to see if we could call another clerk over to help out. As she was looking around for the clerk, I looked at the line and noticed that everyone behind us was standing patiently talking to one another. Not one of them had even noticed that a large line had formed--and they were in it! I turned to Kerri to call off her search for another clerk--"Babe, I don't think these people mind that there is a line."

The next day, I picked up the Tico Times--basically a newspaper in Costa Rica written just for the ex-pats. There was a column written by an American woman who had just returned to San Jose from Liberia. She had taken the bus back and--because it was a holiday weekend--the bus was overcrowded. So crowded that many people didn't get seats and had to stand. For 4 1/2 hours from Liberia to San Jose. And the point of her article was that--while she scrambled on to the bus to land a seat--the local Costa Ricans around her stood for 4 1/2 hours and not one of them ever complained.

When you travel to a foreign country, the culture is always different. But I sometimes fail to remember that a core part of culture is attitude. And Costa Ricans have an entirely different mindset than we in the northern half of the Americas. They don't mind waiting. In fact, they'll do it patiently. They are on Tico Time.

Maybe that's why Costa Rica is the third happiest country on the planet.

Marsha and Ken Come to Visit

Marsha and Ken came to visit us in Costa Rica this past weekend (our first visitors!). We spent the first night at our house and took them to our favoriate Italian restaurant D'Bartolo's. On Friday morning, they were real troopers trudging around town with us as we looked for the US Embassy to notarize the closing documents for our loft in Denver. (It's sold!)

Indiana Jones Bridge

House sold, we left for the beach and encountered more than one bridge that was straight out of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. No sides to the bridge, planks moving back and forth as you go over them. And then we watched a semi cross!

We arrived in Manuel Antonio and checked into the famous Hotel Si Como No. It's an amazing hotel built right into the rain forest on the side of a mountain. We had dinner at the famous El Avion which is a restaurant built out of the plane that started the Iran-Contra Affair when it crash landed in Nicarauga. It was sold, taken apart, hauled to Manuel Antonio on a train, and reassembled as the restaurant.

During the day, we relaxed on the beach and watched USA eeek out a 1-1 tie with Italy in the World Cup at the place we had lunch. Good news is everyone in the bar was cheering for the US--Costa Ricans love Americans.

The second night, we had a fabulous dinner at our hotel's restaurant and hit the casino in town. Kerri and I were joking around with a $1 bill that Marsha had handed us and in 3 minutes turned it into $45. Then we called it a night. I know--high rollers.

On our last day, we laid by the hotel pool and hit the road to head back to Santa Ana (where we live) in the early afternoon.

(If you look close in the photos, you'll see I've got about 4 days of a beard going. A part of my electric razor broke. They don't carry the part in Costa Rica. I had to order it from the US. I waited two weeks. And didn't shave the whole time. Fun.)

View from Our Room	Scott at Breakfast
Dinner at El Avion	Balcony Sunset
Iquana Sunbathing	Dinner at Si Como No

Big Business Comes to Town

A store called EPA recently opened up near where we live in Costa Rica. EPA is basically Home Depot meets IKEA. All of the same stuff as a Home Depot but in the blue/yellow/white color scheme of IKEA. Some people in Costa Rica don't like it. They make the commonly heard argument about big business pushing out the local merchants.

Late last year, Wal-Mart bought a stake in Central America's largest grocery store chain. According to a conversation that I had with a guy who works for Wal-Mart in Central America, they are now building 6 Wal-Marts in Costa Rica.

About 5 years ago, Costco opened up a Pricesmart here in Costa Rica.

I have to be honest. As much as I don't like to see small retailers and local merchants get squeezed out, I like EPA. I like Pricesmart. And I'm sure I'll like Wal-Mart when it opens. Why? Because convenience is important. And you don't realize you don't have it until--well--you don't have it. And Kerri and I noticed it right away when we moved to Costa Rica. It was hard to get anything done because we didn't know where anything was and--when we would finally get there--they wouldn't have the size/color/quantity/etc. we wanted.

Now I guess we'll have that a bit more.

Although Wal-Mart isn't entirely taking over the world. As 100,000 square foot warehouses start popping up all over Costa Rica, Wal-Mart quits Germany and South Korea.