September 16, 2008

 

Attempted theft of David’s launch and more news about Casa Calypso

 

Dear Dad

 

Yesterday was the 15th of September and Independence Day here in Costa Rica.  It was a three day weekend for most people.

 

David and I had planned to go to Punta Coral.  We had not been there in three weeks and we like to check in every two weeks to make sure all is well.

Our last visit was when Dewey and Cindy were here.  We had an adventure then and it has shaken us a little, no a lot.

At about 9:00pm on the Saturday we were all there, Bryan went for a walk and saw three men in the water with snorkel equipment and life jackets (the same as the Base Naval/Navel Base/ our coast guard wear) swimming towards David’s launch the Amapola.

Bryan went for help and got all of us to go and see what was happening. 

We arrived just as the three men were about to cut the dock lines with a big wire cutter we found on the floating dock, and speed away with Amapola in tow to their waiting boat . 

I know we surprised the would be thieves as much or more than they had surprised us.  Too late David remembered he has a powerful 2000 candle powered light that he could have used for identification of the men and their boat; but everything was happening so fast.

It is obvious that the men had a plan to sell the big 400 horsepower motor to a waiting client.  If Bryan had not been walking around the property and had not spotted the men it probably would have been impossible to stop the crime and we would have watched in horror as the launch was towed away in the night. There was no moon either.

Celiece picked up the heavy cutters.  Maybe they could be fingerprinted and a thief of two identified. She carefully put them into a box until we decided what to do with them

 Our sacred world has been shaken.  Crime is now in our neighborhood.

We have taken precautions by taking the Amapola to Puntarenas and leaving her tied to the new Calypso dock where we have a night guard and because the new house is in town and near the Base Naval, it seems a safer place to keep her.

Also, we have pulled all the lounge chairs, kayaks and tables out of the area near the beach at Punta Coral so as not to attract attention and more possible thieves.  Since we had a radio stolen out of the tool shed, there is now a cyclone fence surrounding the back of the area and a new door with a lock at the front of the shed.

We don’t keep expensive items at Punta Coral so as not to attract attention and the most expensive item is only the radio we use for communication.

The wire cutters we brought to San Jose, carefully not touching any part of them with our hands so as not to destroy evidence.

Mario, who works in reservations, is studying forensic science and we gave the cutters to him.  He called his professor who called the OIJ (our FBI) and it was recommended that we take the cutters back to Puntarenas to the OIJ there and they would test for fingerprints.

The big wire cutters were taken to our kitchen and an official came and picked them up.  We waited, hoping to get some information and catch the group of bad guys that have been stealing small boats and motors all over the Gulf of Nicoya.

Why were we not surprised when, after 10 days of waiting, the report was that there were not any really good fingerprints on the pliers so…….there it was….nothing we could do.  We could however, that is if David signed a legal document, pick up the pliers and keep them.  David declined.

Since this episode we have heard that a group of guys had been caught after stealing 5 small boats, three of which were recovered but two have disappeared.  The crooks were sent to jail in Paquera but who knows if they are still locked up. 

We have a stupid, really stupid law that states a theft is not considered a crime if the stolen item has a value of less than $500. Is that a stupid law or what?

If a thief is caught red handed he is arrested and then let go after promising to report to a govt office every 15 days until trial date has been set. In the meantime, the victim is stuck in the OIJ office making a report, hand written, that takes hours and hours while the bad guy has been set free.

We do not use the Amapola now to go to Punta Coral because if some gang tried to steal it once they will try again.  Their plan is made and they are waiting for opportunity.

David has a plan to put in an alarm system at the dock at Punta Coral but since we have been so busy with the new Casa Calypso it has not been installed. In the meantime, we have been driving back and forth to Puntarenas, sometimes staying one or two nights so we can watch the construction going on.  It is Pandora’s box we have opened.

We expected some surprises but even so we have been surprised with extra expenses.  One was the wall in the kitchen that is between our house and a neighbor with a distance of only a meter between them.

Since we had use for the wood on the side of the house to put over the cement block of the new construction so that everything will match, after the needed wooden planks were removed, the construction boss and architect found that the support beams on that side of the house were bad and had to be replaced.

Another unexpected expense was the septic tank system that is supposed to tie in to the municipal system but cannot because the system is not on our block.  It is installed on all the roads throughout the long peninsula of Puntarenas but not in front of Casa Calypso.

We have had to build a new pathway to carry the grey water to the estuary.  It is where the municipal govt dumps anyway. The good news is that Spain has donated $20M to Puntarenas for a new sewage treatment plant.

The patio floor, which is finally completed, washed and looks wonderful had to be dug up three times because, the distances between tiles was not the same everywhere. The grout was removed from between all the tiles because it was a lousy job that we would not accept. By the time we noticed the grout it had hardened and had to be picked out with a hammer and chisel.  This took three days.

The electricity is another story.  In order to have two meters, one for the house and one for the dock and Manta Raya we have to have a contract between Calypso Tours and Comidas Contemporanias (the kitchen) stating that the kitchen is renting space from Calypso.  It is against the law for one address to have two electric meters.  It is also expensive to make the new installations for both meters too.  We use too much electricity for one meter

The ramp, that we extended 12 feet, doubled when the daily group was boarding Manta Raya.  Under the painted section of the older part of the ramp was rust that had been painted over and not visible until one of the welders took a look.  The rust weakened the ramp.  This is another unexpected expense.

Our plan was to have everything done in two weeks.  We extended it for one more month and now we have gone beyond that time too.  Are we almost finished ? no, not with everything but the most important jobs are done.

We did have a group of guys come and paint all the awful red color – the color of anti corrosive paint, on the trim a nice white that has made the property look bigger and brighter.  We will wait to paint the other color which is a nice yellow.

 I brought a sample from Cindy’s house in Miami during my last visit with her.  I have it in a locked box. The Calypso house is painted a goldish yellow and it will have to do for a while

The doors to the different tool sheds, (liquor, carpentry and boat parts) has three doors that have been made and are upside down.  We will just be stuck with them as they are for a while.  I can hear you asking how this is possible?  Well, the lamina of metal was not long enough to cover the whole door and instead of making the patch on the bottom where it would look like a kick board, the welder placed it at the top.

Missing is the second floor office, the new badly needed roof, and the reinforcement of the parquet floor in the main part of the house.

The fans we ordered and paid for almost two months ago, have not arrived in the country either.  Am I boring you? 

We know that the purchase of Casa Calypso is what we needed to keep us competitive in the field and separate from the other boats, who want to be us.  We also know there are no properties – with docks that always have water – available in Puntarenas.  What we didn’t know was how much time and money it would take to make reasonable repairs to Casa Calypso.  Oh, I guess it would be important to write now, that there are no disclosure laws here.  It is buyer beware.  ·$$&%&(/()&

Other news is my car; it has been in the shop for almost a month ever since Bryan drove it through a puddle.  Yes, I know that driving through a puddle should have not done as much damage as the mechanic is saying.  There had to be something else wrong that the water activated, but what?  No-one is talking and I am waiting until the engine, yes, the whole engine is rebuilt.

Then I need to take it to someone who can look at the transmission and make sure it is working properly L

I have had problems with my car ever since I finished paying for it.  I have had it towed four times and think it might be time to change cars.  I really do like driving the VW Passat, but enough is enough.

The Toyotas and Nissans are stronger and built to be driven on the bad roads we have here.  The roads get worse and worse every day too.

Sounds like a lot on our plate at this time, and it is.  We are working hard to handle it all.  The weekend at Punta Coral helped a lot.

David and Bill invested in a professional croquet game and the fours of us played on Sunday and Monday.  It was fun.  At first all of us were terrible using the heavy mallets and trying to understand the official rules that are different than the rules of the game that Linda and Bob and their family play.

Although the rules are written in English, the Queens English, - all 116 pages of them - it is difficult to read and understand.  Even the set up of the game is different.

After three games, all of us got better making the shots and we ended the game with almost all of us finishing at the same time.

My good friend Jetty went to a trade show in Ecuador last week and brought back some Panama hats.  I asked her to buy some so we can wear them while playing.  There is a lot of shade from the Almond trees and Coconut palm trees but not enough. 

The official clothes to wear at an official game are anything as long as they are white. I have a long skirt and blouse made out of muslin fabric that has been washed until the natural color beige changed to white. A beautiful Panama straw hat will be stylish and also perfect to keeping the sun off our faces.

On Saturday morning a strange thing happened.  The small bay on our property filled up with wood and plastic garbage that came in with the tide.  Also floating in the bay was a wooden varnished sign that Ana found.  It is about the size of the top of a shoe box and has the name Ceci carved on it with a carved picture of a dolphin next to the carved letters of my name.  It has an eye hook so we were able to hang it up right away.  A gift from the ocean with my name written on it. Sounds like something out of the Twilight Zone. Ceci is what most Spanish speaking people call me if they don’t call me Cecilia. 

We had a trip to Punta Coral on Monday and since we don’t have use of the Amapola we decided to wait and return to port on the Manta Raya instead of the ferry.  We had the ferry experience getting to Punta Coral – it was enough.

On the way home, one of the jets sucked up a piece of plastic.  Two crew members dove under the Manta Raya with masks to see if they could pull out the plastic, but it was in too far and they needed a hookah – the compressor and long hoses for diving under the catamaran without the weight of the tanks and something long and sharp with a hook on it to pull out the plastic.  The day was ending and the sky made it too dark to see. After about 15 minutes of trying to dislodge the plastic, the Captain decided to return to port using only one engine.

We arrived after dark, but there were enough spot lights to see that the Calypso house looks great now that all the red is painted white.  Sort of reminds me of the Queens guards who looked like cards from a deck of cards in Alice in Wonderland who painted the white roses red;……… we painted the red trim a pretty white.  The house looks bigger and more friendly.

We arrived to port late, but still did an inspection of the work at Casa Calypso.  Carmen, one of the women who works in the kitchen when someone needs a day off, is also the woman in charge of keeping the house and new bathrooms clean.  She had cleaned the new tile floor so that it was as pretty as the floor at Punta Coral.  Carmen was so proud of her floor that she stayed late just to show it to me personally.

After a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant, we headed for home following a long line of slow moving trucks and cars all the way to San Jose.

We got home late and turned on the news while I washed clothes from the weekend.  Happy, the kitten, kept us entertained running through the house as if his tail was on fire.  He was funny to watch. He was really glad we were home.

The news of the destruction of Hurricane Ike was a jaw dropper.  So much damage, all those families without homes and a lot more without electricity.

It is so sad.

We stayed up later than usual trying to get an idea of the weather for the coming week as we have plans to fly to Miami on Thursday. The weather is not looking too good.  David has plans to play in a golf tournament and I am staying with Cindy.

The water pump at the house is not working correctly and the faucet to the washing machine is dripping even after putting in a new washer in the hose part.

The road to our house is closed off while the municipal government installs new sewer pipes. One broke last week during a really big thunder storm.  It was a mess for a few days and now that it is cleaned up the workers are busy laying new pipe. We have to detour around, but at least we can get in and out of our house with only a short bothersome detour.

I am getting to the end of my patience, constant frustration is present and, what else can I say.  My problems are so little while compared to those families who have suffered the strength and destruction of a hurricane. I am taking it all one day at a time.  There is nothing else I can do.

 

Today is Friday.  I decided not to go to Miami, but instead after dropping David off at the airport, Celiece, Marlon and I drove to Puntarenas.

We stopped at a nice restaurant at the top of the mountain on the Aguacate Road for a cappuccino and typical breakfast.  We like the restaurant because while eating at the bar, you can see a view of chains of mountains that extend all the way to the Pacific Ocean below.  It is beautiful to look at especially when the clouds fall on the mountains like the fog that rolls down the hills near the Golden Gate Bridge. 

I would like to say that when we arrived the new house was better than when we saw it on Monday, but it wasn’t.  The construction crew had finished, but left a mess including patches of cement all over the ceramic tile, left over opened bags of cement and grout and tool benches.  The yard was full of broken pieces of old cement and garbage. 

I tried to keep cool but it got to me.  The noise from the giant jack hammer tearing up the abandoned school across the street didn’t help my mood either. The nice man, who made the doors, came to me letting me know that rain water was pouring into the new construction and we needed to do something quickly or all the new work would be destroyed.

Since we are not building the second floor over the bathrooms now, the unfinished work does not have gutters to carry the rain water away.  Quick thinking Marlon, placed all the metal bars that we took off the windows on top of the roof and put a tarp on them at an angle to help carry the water off and onto the patio on the back side of the bathrooms.   This of course is a temporary solution.

Christian is busy working on the new ramp and this should be finished next week.  Now the passengers are boarding by crossing the ramp two at a time.

This weekend I will work with the new flower pots.  The workers at Punta Coral are supposed to send in nice compost and the workers at Tortuga Island are sending in the new palm trees.

Last night when I got home, Boomer was waiting at the front door as always, but this time Bryan noticed he had one side of his face swollen.  After careful examination, we couldn’t find and teeth marks that would indicate he was in a fight; so the conclusion is that someone must have hit him.  Whoever would hurt an animal deserves the guillotine.

Celiece just called me from the vet.  Her cat, Zack, had to have a tooth extracted because it was broken and could not be pulled out; but needed surgery and had to have two stitches.  The broken fang also had cavities. 

Not a good week for cats.

This weekend I will stay home.  I have a new hose for the washing machine to stop that leak and a bag of washers to fix the leak in the bathroom sink.

I will also take Bryan to get his prescription filled for new glasses.

The rest of the weekend I will just sit and read a book or watch with great interest the commentaries on the presidential candidates.

I hope all is well with you and you are getting the care you need.

I love and miss you

Besitos,  Cecs