Yesterday was feria day-the farmers market where Bev took me my second day here, still suffering from jet lag, and expected me to be able to understand the speedy spanish of quantecierotsincoetersetcmil colones for 2 kiwi. I just held out my hand full of coins and let 'em pick out however much quanteciero etc etc was. It sure sounded like a lot to me, especially when ended with mil. It was usually about 40 cents american..just a really long name.
So I have gotten better at it-listening carefully, repeating the word, holding my hand behind my ear like I am deef..."cuanto es? Despacio por favor" How much?-slower please.
So my third shopping trip to the feria, bags in hand, purse full of change y shopping list in hand I started in.
In the middle of the feria, they post the amounts per each or per kilo of each item available. No one charges more than, or undercharges his neighbor. All the produce comes from different farms in the area or from different importers if not available here. So I know how much to expect-if I knew how much a kilo was.
Side track rant here.
Why hasn't the US changed to metric? Why do we insist on our antiquated difficult way of measurements when the rest of the world, with few exceptions, has managed to get by just fine. I have felt very handicapped not intrinsically knowing how far a kM was or how much a kilo is. It is a kM and kilo-I just haven't been trained to think that way. We do our children a real disservice by not incorporating the metric system into their everyday use.
Ok, I feel so much better now.
So I bought a pina (pineapple), 4 kiwi (kiwi), 4 aguacate (avocado), a bag of papa (potatoes) about the size of the kiwi, several puerro, which isn't several dogs but several leeks. I learned that one quickly! Dog is perro. A bag of cebolla (onions) etc etc (etc etc). Then to the poultry part for chicken and to the bakery area for the wonderful baked goods available.
At the stand where I bought kiwi and avocado, I forked over a 2000 note (about 4 bucks). I thought the guy said setenta colones, which should have given me 3, 100 colones coins and a 1000 note in change. I got the 300 colones and he looked at me-in the eye-waiting for me to say something.
"Cuanto es?"
:"Setentamil colones" he replied. 1700 colones. Thats not what he said the first time. I looked for the prices again-most of the stands have them posted in front of each item, but he didn't.
It was a waiting game. I knew I had been overchanged because I was a gringa. I was really unsure of what to do-I didn't have the linguistic knowledge to call him on it, and later thought I should have just set the kiwi and avocado down and asked for my money back-see what he would do.
Instead I took the chicken way out and just left..knowing I had been bilked out of 2 bucks. OK OK no big deal. But it still ticks me off to be taken advantage of. Or was I really..damn I don't know. Maybe I misunderstood what he said the first time. In any case..Caveat Emptor works here also. Or however thats spelled-my Latin isn't that good either.
After the Feria I went by a zappata to see if they had gotten the size diaz shoes I wanted in. I'd looked at them a couple of weeks ago, but decided against for a couple of reasons-the obvious one was that not a lot of Costa Ricanwomen have size diaz feet. They are petite women for the most part with delicate little feet whereas I beat out Clementine with her number nines. They had to be ordered from someplace else if available at all.
The other reason was, though the shoes looked great, they were hecho in Chin-made in China and I couldn't actually read the material they were made from.
A couple of years ago I'd bought Brazilian pumps from a shoe store in Multiplaza Escazu, but hadn't been able to get back to Escazu this trip. Besides I am an advocate of shopping and supporting local stores, or at least trying to. Anyhow the Brazilian shoes were all leather and muy bueno lindo. And I want more. I am a shoe slut-no doubt.
So my friendly zappata salesman encouraged me again to try on the size nueve shoes-and I again was not persueded that my feet had magically become size nine simply because I was in Costa Rica. And also the shoes cost 2000 colones more.
Costa Rica has a great system of salary payment, considering that the average wage here is about $4.00 an hour. Every employer has to contribute to what is called the 13th month wage, given the end of November or the first of December. It's equal to a months wages and other things that are part of a salary. For example if you hire a maid to come in once a week and pay her say 30,000 colones for the time she is at your place, plus you provide her lunch then you have to pay her 120,000 colones PLUS the equivilant of 4 purchased lunches..about 2500 colones a meal at a soda. A pretty good deal for the workers I'd say but a point of confusion for the expat community most of whom scrape by on Social Security anyhow.
The stores, in order to take advantage of this new found money happily participate by hiking their prices shamefully up at the end of November. And everyone knows this but they all agree it's ok. Obviously not many Scotsmen have settled in Costa Rica, because it kinda ticks me off.
I, myself, were I here full time would just do my shopping before the price hike and thats it..but ya gotta love Costa Rica.
More Ya Gotta Love ----to come
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