Got $100k? Would You Like a House or a Landcruiser?

Costa Rica is a strange place.

Mothers legally cross the freeway (the freeway!) with their 3-year-old and their 1-year-old in tow...

yet...

it is illegal to drive while talking on your cell phone.


You can buy a house here with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths for $100,000...

yet...

a brand new Toyota Landcruiser costs $100,000.


Traffic on the freeway can sometimes back-up for 20-30 minutes behind a toll booth on the freeway...

yet...

they are only collecting a toll of 75 colones. Which is roughly 15 cents.


The country is technically advanced enough that you can walk into any grocery store and pay your phone bill, your electricity bill, your cable bill, etc...

yet...

to change the name on our cable bill from our landlord's to yours, you have to visit both the cable company's office and a laywer's office and sign 4 documents. With your landlord in tow.


The cell phone company is advanced enough to send out "Happy Whetever-Day" text messages to everyone's phones on holidays...

yet...

Cell phone calls only go through two times out of three.


You can call virtually any restaurant in the country and they will deliver to your house...

yet...

The power goes out a couple of times a week. For a couple of hours. Minimum.


We get ABC, NBC, and CBS...

yet...

ABC is blocked out every night from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Although I guess I should just be glad that we get ABC in the first place.

Weird.