30/3/6

Nothing very exciting for a while now. I’ve been working on the sidewalk, it’s done, and Jose helped me fix the shower. I think I can do the rest of the work on my own, and have been working away at it. When I take my breaks, and at night for diversion I go on the net and play poker or backgammon. It’s expensive, as I pay by the minute, but I haven’t been going out at night since Linda went home. Last month, I found out there was a 36 hour limit on my internet use. It was necessary to send RACSA, the sole internet service provider here, a copy of my passport, a copy of my phone bill, and a signed letter stating that I wanted more than 36 hours of internet per month. That took 4 days to straighten out, but I thought everything was fine. Wrong! Saturday, my line was blocked again. I phoned technical support to find out why, and they informed me that I had been given a new limit of 100 hours, which I had surpassed. I had to wait until Monday to phone customer service to find out what to do. 7:30 am I called and talked to Fernando’s supervisor. He said he would check my passport, phone bill, and letter, and call me back in the afternoon. When he hadn’t called by 2 pm, I phoned and talked to Fernando. He was the first person to tell me, and I had talked to 5 or 10 people at RACSA, that I could have unlimited service for $15 per month. I have been paying 10.6 colones a minute, or over $1.00 an hour! He explained that if I went to ICE, the national phone and electric company, deposited 5,000 colones, and signed a contract, I could get this unlimited time contract. In the meantime, he talked to his supervisor and assured me he would phone me back later in the afternoon. He never called. Tuesday morning, I checked, and my line was unblocked. Two hours later, I tried again, and it was blocked. On Tuesday I talked to 2 more people, and on Wednesday morning, another one. Everyone assured me that I only needed to take a copy of my passport, deposit 5,000 colones, and sign a contract to get unlimited time for $15 per month. Wednesday morning I went to the ICE office in Puntarenas. ICE staff were very helpful, but said I needed to show my passport, as well as provide them with a photocopy. Normally, this would be a simple request, but as my passport expired recently, I had only an embassy-stamped, consular-signed copy of my passport. After the nice gentleman at ICE phoned RACSA to see if this was okay, and I talked to Fernando and a woman from another department, they refused to allow me to sign up for unlimited service. The gentleman at ICE was apologetic, it was totally RACSA’s fault. The law requires me to carry a copy of my passport for identification, the Tico Times recommends I carry only a copy because theft of passports is rampant here, indeed the law was changed for this reason, the embassy assured me their official copy was as good as my passport, yet RACSA would not accept this. Needless to say I am very angry with RACSA. They should have told me long ago about the plan, they should have told me I would need my passport to sign the contract, and they should have accepted my copy. I have withdrawn completely from politics, and when I lived in Canada I was against the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S., but I believe that one benefit that will come from CAFTA when Costa Rica eventually ratifies it, will be competition for this poorly run monopoly.