Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes
I had to paint my car red. That’s the color of the taxis in Costa Rica. But there was a reason.
The business was dead. Picturesque Capitola, a seaside village in California, my hometown for twenty years, was abuzz with summer tourists.
My seafoam green XJ8 Jaguar was parked outside begging to be taken for a ride along the coast. Maybe I could make Happy Hour at the Crow’s Nest. A crisp glass of Storr’s Chardonnay and some fried calamari sounded perfect after a slow, boring day at the real estate office.
I envisioned myself sliding onto the lush leather ivory-colored seat, waving to friends strolling through the village. They would know me by car. I bought it for the color which became my signature.
Not Shipping
When Don and I moved to Costa Rica, we came with very little. Having both spent a lot of time here over many years, we chose to not ship a car. We didn’t want to pay the high duty, only to have it get beaten up by the rough roads.
Living in Atenas, close to San Jose, we have gotten spoiled with paved roads, as opposed to the dirt ones, we are used to in Guanacaste. The unpredictable pot-holes add excitement and tend to be hard on cars.
Bottom line: we were looking for a beater!
The New Chariot
Our new chariot appeared on Craigslist at 8:00 AM on a Tuesday. By 9:00 we were handing cash to the owner. We agreed on arranging to sign papers in Pablo, the gringo attorney’s office the next day. Such a deal!
The car had been maintained by the trusted “mechanic to the gringos”. It had been driven lightly by a single lady who used it as an around-town car and then moved to Ecuador. It ran well, was good on gas, but it needed a new paint job.
A Paint Job
We asked around and found a local, inexpensive car painter. And now the question: “What color should we paint the car?” It was turquoise, although the paperwork called it green.
It was no seafoam, plus it was exactly the same shape and color as Victor, the gardener’s car. Side by side, they looked like two turquoise shoeboxes. Ours is a Hyundai; his car is a Honda. Honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference.
Although I am a shoe person, I am not a car person – the only thing I care about is the color. Well, I might know the difference if it was a Mercedes 500SL convertible. In this case, I was worried silly. Imagine pulling the car pulled into the driveway, and running up to it with open arms to welcome hubby home from a hard day. Then it turned out to be Victor. Embarrassing.
Red is the Color
So, I said: “Red! Let’s paint it red.” It never occurred to me that we would look like a taxi. Red is the official taxi color in Costa Rica.
We picked out a cheerful Chili-Pepper Red, a good Costa Rica signature, I thought. We left the car off at Chincho’s garage and took the bus home. Then we waited a week for the job to be completed. It still had not occurred to us that we had a problem.
The Paperwork
I was organizing the paperwork, placing the official car papers in a manila folder. Then I happened to notice my name was misspelled. If the name on the official paperwork does not match what is on your passport, it could mean big trouble. Foreign names are often misspelled as they are, well, foreign.
We rushed back to Pablo’s office, thinking it would be easy correction; just reprint the page with the correct spelling, staple it to the pile and call in good.
NOT in Costa Rica. It would require an entire re-draw and re-certification, which takes more time and money. I whispered to Don: “I just noticed it says the car is green. Should we tell him we painted it red?”
All Wrong!
The room went silent. “Red? Did you paint the car red? You have changed the characteristics of the car! We need new papers, and you have to go to RITEVE to get them certified. After you get it certified, come back here for new papers.”
We had heard of RITEVE, the vehicle inspection requirement, which we thought was similar to the SMOG test requirement in California. We were wrong.
To be continued – “Changing color of my car and Riteve”
Author
Carole Connolly-Shaw is an expat who moved to Atenas from Santa Cruz, California. She was a fervent blogger when she lived in Atenas. Then Carole became famous after publishing “Flying High with Carole Jean“. We invited Carole to write a couple of blogs for us and she happily accepted. Thanks, Carole!
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