| Notes on Costa Rica continued... Addresses (cont) and Suicide Showers |
| Addresses in Costa Rica: Take 2 Went to have a passport photo taken in the town of Heredia. When I went to pick them up the next day, I couldn�t remember the address. In looking at the receipt, I tried to figure out what �el Testy� was so I could pace off 150 metres to the west. I thought it may be a nickname for the big church on the central square. Nope. Finally asked a man on the street where I could find el Testy. He pointed across the street. At an ice cream parlor. I do like a country where one business says that to find it, just go to the ice cream parlor and head west. Pura Vida |
| Suicide showers. Most homes, including Dona Elba�s upper middle class casa in Heredia, do not have central hot water heaters. Instead, at the shower head, where the water comes out, is an electrical element that heats the water as it rushes by. In the guest room shower I am using, attached to the shower head are two electrical wires. They run along the water pipe to a knife switch attached to the wall about eye level. In the shower stall. A knife switch is that switch Dr. Frankenstein threw to get juice to his monster. So 110 volt electricity runs from the outlet next to the stall then through the knife switch in the shower stall and finally to the shower head. In the US your house would be not granted a certificate of occupancy if you had one of these switches in a box in the basement, much less in the bathroom. When I arrived at Dona Elba�s house for the first time, Isabela the house keeper was in the guest bedroom fixing the shower for me. I can hear it now: �So, what are you doing this weekend?� �Not sure, thought I�d mow the lawn and maybe rewire the shower head.� |
 |
 |
 |
 |