Day 38: Tico street addresses and our missing stuff.

Costa Rica street addresses are almost non-existent. The Tico version of a street address goes something like this: “100 meters north of Juan’s Pharmacy and 200 meters west of the where the big mango tree used to be." What, you don't know where that is? Everyone in town knows that tree was cut down more than 20 years ago. Just ask someone and they point you in the right direction.

The government says they will give all of the streets in Costa Rica a name over the next few years, so everyone will eventually get a “house number on a street,” address instead of the physical description based on landmarks, as they have used for centuries. Until that happens (if ever) we will continue to identify our house as 100 meters from the local elementary school, on the west side of the soccer field. And just to make it a little more obvious, a local guy made us this sign to put on our gate.

Now there are no excuses for not being able to identify our residence and deliver all of our worldly possessions!

We shipped everything in a sea container back on July 6th. Our shipping agent confirmed it arrived in Costa Rica on August 4th and it would be delivered in a week or so. Well "the week or so" has now stretched to more than two weeks. Last week we were told, "Way before Christmas, maybe next Tuesday." On Wednesday we were told, "Tuesday came and went but Christmas isn't here yet. Your container is due at my warehouse tomorrow at 2PM. It will be loaded in a truck and brought to you at 7AM on Friday." Guess what? Late last night, we received another notice, "The container did not show up yet but will early tomorrow."

So here we are, sitting around, waiting for our STUFF. I expect the next message will go something like this, "Well, you see today is Friday and we only work 1/2 day on Friday, and nobody works on the weekend. Maybe we will finish loading your stuff onto our trucks next Monday. Can we reschedule your delivery for Tuesday?"

Do I sound a little frustrated? Ya think? Perhaps the new sign will help and at least they can't say they couldn't find the house.