A.M. Costa Rica: Your English language daily news source

Record wheat prices put squeeze on Costa Rican consumer

By Helen Thompson
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The price of wheat, the base of many important Costa Rican foodstuffs, has risen to an all-time high.

Wheat is used to make the flour in bread, tortillas, pasta and pastries. The grain hit prices around $10 per bushel according to the Chicago Board of Trade, the principal commodities futures and option market in the United States.

The price rise was attributed to an increase in the U. S. Department of Agriculture's export demand forecast.
Businesses that use a lot of wheat flour have been feeling the difference lately, as the price of their flour has gone up by about 50 percent in the last year.

“The cost rise of producing each of our products varies — on average it has been about 15-30 percent,” said Tomas Acuña, general manager of Pinova, a company that supplies Musmanni with its bakery products. The company uses wheat flour every week from Costa Rican mills that import wheat mostly from the United States.

“The prices of our products in the shops have gone up accordingly with the prices of production. On some more traditional items the prices in the shops have not been put up as much, as many people rely on them, which means we have lost a bit of our profit margin.”

Acuña also said that the rise in the price of wheat would be affecting everyone in Costa Rica, adding that businesses which produce pastas or sweet products such as biscuits could have been more adversely affected than his own company.

Figures provided by the U.S. Embassy show that the price of the wheat exported to Costa Rica has been steadily rising since 2005. The price per metric ton in 2005 was $189.98, and the price in 2007 was $233.80.

Accordingly with this trend, less wheat has been bought each year, with 208,812 metric tons coming to Costa Rica in 2005, and 175,428 metric tons arriving in the first 11 months of 2007.

But embassy information specialist Evelyn Ardón says that the amount imported to Costa Rica in 2007 is still within the range of imports over recent years.

Improving moisture conditions on the U.S. plains caused the price of wheat fuures to drop again slightly shortly after it hit the $10 per bushel mark. It closed at $9.33 Friday.

The Chicago Board of Trade also said that prices could remain volatile in the near future, due to the Department of Agriculture's release of its final production, quarterly stocks, winter wheat seedings and supply/demands reports this month.

Investigative unit gets 27 of its proposed 500 recruits

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Some 27 new investigators have started the five-month basic course, and the Judicial Investigating Organization is looking for nearly 500 more recruits.

The agency is circulating an Internet flier in which it promises a monthly salary of 517,110 colons or about $1,034 a month for successful candidates.

The requirements are not demanding: a high school education and a driver's license.

Jan. 10 Rodrigo Arias, the minister of the Presidencia, promised 7 billion more colons ($14 million) to the Judicial Investigating Organization. That is enough to add 500 agents to the existing staff of 1,000 agents, said Casa Presidencial at the time.

Considering the time to train some 500 new investigators and the capacity of the programs, it is unlikely that most of the new recruits will be in the field this year. The idea was to fight what officials see as a crime wave.

The current recruits began their training a week ago with

Judicial Investigating Organization is circulating this

a formal ceremony at San Joaquín de Flores, Heredia.

The director of the investigative branch of the courts, Jorge Rojas Vargas, said his officers were flooded with cases. He threatened to quit. In light of this special appropriation, Jorge Rojas, director of the agency, withdrew his resignation.

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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008, Vol. 8, No. 19

Our readers give their opinions on life here and crime

Article should have said
coffee and not coconuts

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I wish to commend Helen Thompson on the article that appeared in the Jan. 23 2008 issue on my experience in Costa Rica and my book. She did very well in the composition of the article and getting everything correct. I was concerned that a telephone interview would make it difficult to get all the information accurately, but it turn-out very well.

There was one minor oversight. She referred to my statement that, over the years, much use of land had shifted to the export crops of “pineapples, bananas, and coconuts,” when I actually said “pineapples, bananas, and coffee.

Armond T. Joyce
Llorente de Tibas

Veteran of 15 years here
gives some lessons

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

After reading the letters for several years now from mostly people who have lived in Costa Rica for a short time or just plain visitors about the problems of Costa Rica and security, it is time to hear from someone who transplanted here for 15 years who loves the country and who has adapted to the good and the bad but overall has a 200 percent better life than the States.

This is not a whitewash of Costa Rica because like all things, there is good and bad.

Let’s take the bad like the person who complained about the bank holding his foreign check for 30 days. The problem is that Costa Rica attracts a lot of con men, a lot of which are from the U. S. incidentally, that set up phony lottery scams and Internet sales offices for products that do not exist. The bank has a responsibility to protect the funds of the bank and it does not have the ability to clear checks as fast as the States. Residents who know the ropes here do not accept foreign checks nor deposit them rather have wire transfer done for $25 which entitles you to the funds immediately.

Do any of you know that a bank exists in Costa Rica which last year had a certified statement that its bad loss ratio was less than .0004 percent. The big U. S. banks wish that they had such a statement instead of having to beg foreign governments for money.

The process of standing in line and getting misdirected by government officials while trying to get a telephone installed or register a car or pay property tax is never a much fun, but for $1 an hour you can send a messenger to wait in line for you. Last time I checked this service in the States was about $40 hour.

The traffic is often bad and the drivers ignore safety rules while true enough means you drive slower and know enough to be alert instead of roaring that back home they do not drive like this. Our roads have as many accidents as the States but they occur at much lower speeds so it actually means you have less chance of dying.

Ticos are usually late and do not say what they mean and are reluctant to accept responsibility. You adjust to the culture and realize that not having the stress of watching the clock like some of you do in places like New York maybe makes you live a quieter life. What I notice about the back side of the not taking responsibility is the almost total lack of bullies in the schools in Costa Rica and that the kids are usually kind to each other.

The law favors women who marry or live with Gringos and they often lose their money or their house. What this article failed to mention is the typical 50- to 75- year old Gringo hooking up with a 20-year-old Tica who more often than not was out selling her body when they met. There is an old saying if you lay down with dogs, you get fleas.

Visitors complain about lost luggage, rip offs, bad service, lack of English-speaking people, dirty roads, potholes, car jacking. Take a trip to New Orleans or Miami or East Los Angeles or some small cities in the Midwest where meth labs are on every block.

We almost never go to downtown San José and actually open our eyes when near the airport unlike most of the tourists who experience problems. Maybe they need to check their tires before they drive off the car rental lot. A recent client of ours gave a taxi cab driver $23,000 for excavation of a lot he wanted to build a house on but he forgot to get a qualified engineer to check the property first.

By the time my wife was asked to inspect the lot as she has done in her job as inspector thousands of times for the banks here, the money was spent and the lot was not worth building on. What was his reason to give this money? The taxi driver spoke good English. In New York almost every taxi driver I ever rode with would ask me which way I wanted to go since the bridge or the tunnel was out till they realized I LIVED there. Find someone who has lived here and check their credentials carefully and then decide what to do.

Now the big one, crime and lack of security. In the last 15 years it has become worse mainly due to the influx of professional criminals from South America but what about the 12 million illegals in the States, many of which are gang members from México and Salvador and Jamaica. We tend to avoid crime by living in safer areas and living behind gated communities with guards. As I explained to a visitor last week, which is better:

1. having police come quickly in the States after you are broken into?

2. having walls and guards to stop it occurring in the first place?

What we find is over 50 percent of the Gringos who come here should never have left the States. They have problems back home, and their attitude is such that nothing is changed by coming here.

We are now developing the perfect retirement community in Puriscal. Why? Because it offers all the security, old fashioned lifestyle, lack of nightclubs, drugs, grifters we left behind in the States. We invite you to read our reference section created over the last 15 years where real people with real e-mails and real telephone numbers are listed.

Alan Harold
Escazú

She comes to the defense
against Costa Rica bashers

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I never send e-mails, but this last Costa Rica-bashing letter by David Galloway, Florida, has me incensed!

In 1979, I flew to New York from Europe on a buying trip for my business. I, too, took traveler's checks — American Express. I deposited them in my now Chase Manhattan account, only to find that they instantly placed a 10-day hold on them. I was stranded in New York with no funds.

This was almost 30 years ago! Traveler's Checks are only instant cash if you cash them — and pay the bank — any bank — commission on that transaction. Otherwise they are treated as a regular check. This has always been the case. Do not blame Costa Rica for your ignorance of international banking laws. Now that we have international ATMs, it is cheaper to draw cash (up to $5,000/day at most banks in Costa Rica) at whatever the charge rate is than to buy traveler's checks. Check your facts before you start criticizing.

On another note: I am truly tired of the sensationalizing of the petty crime that occurs here as it does in every other place on the planet. The e-mail from Joseph Sexton — rethinking their retirement plans and A.M. Costa Rica is their main source for information — how sad is that!

Why not report how many positive experiences tourists have on a daily basis? Or at least remind your readers that the "crime" you report wouldn't even merit mention in a U.S. publication? It is time we started renewing our efforts to present Costa Rica in a positive light — don't we live here because we chose to become guests of this lovely country? Get a grip!

Heidi Crumpacker
San Rafael de Heredia

Just give Costa Rica
some more time

Dear AM Costa Rica:

As I read the latest edition of A.M. Costa Rica this Friday, Jan. 25, I am once again struck by the lack of knowledge some people have about Costa Rica.

In your "reader's opinion" section I give you a prime example. Mr. Joseph Sexton states: "when our cruise ship dropped us off on the way to the Panama Canal, we loved it," speaking of Costa Rica.

First, how long were you dropped off? I am sure that it was not long enough to see the true colors of Costa Rica and its' people.

Second. Just because there is an incident where a bank charges high prices for their services, or there is a robbery of some French tourists, does not mean there is crime running rampant in the streets against all tourists or expats. No far from it!

In my reading A.M. Costa Rica everyday, I find that the reporting of these crimes are small incidents compared to the citizens of the U.S. being subjected to murders, rapes, and robbery by their fellow citizens. And this does not even begin to compare the lack of representation we feel when it comes to our government, and the daily news from the local media.

Mr. Sexton, don't give up on Costa Rica! Give her a chance to show you her true colors, and the beauty of the people who walk the streets and byways with a smile on their face, and pura vida in their hearts.

Come meet the "Real Costa Rica."

I am moving as soon as I can hopefully sell my house in this market, and begin living where I feel safe for a change.

Jerome Ives
Kansas City, Missouri

Husband of Tica worries
and wants hard, reliable data

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

This letter is in response to Joseph Sexton's letter in Friday's edition. I couldn't empathize with this man more. I, too, am planning on retiring in Costa Rica, where I have spent a total of about three years of my life. My wife is Cost Rican, and my two sons have dual citizenship.

The articles about crime in Costa Rica published by A.M. Costa Rica over the last few years have been sobering and have actually made me wonder whether it's such a good idea to retire there. They've even made me wonder whether the editor(s) of A.M. Costa Rica wants to discourage foreigners from visiting Costa Rica. But let's stand back and look at the situation objectively.

I think it's important that A.M. Costa Rica alert us to the schemes of criminals and advise us as to how to avoid being victims. But newspapers are known for reporting almost exclusively bad events, such as crime, corruption and natural disasters. We've come to expect this. There is no real balance reporting all the good experiences that people have in Costa Rica.

Just think about your local news, Mr. Sexton. If that was your sole source of news and experience for Buffalo, N.Y., what would you think about that city? I suggest that no major U.S. city would look attractive based on the local news, yet tens of millions of people go about their daily lives in these cities and are never the victims of crime.

What I would like from A.M. Costa Rica, if they have the staff to accomplish it, is some hard, reliable data on crime in Costa Rica. Has robbery, particularly of foreigners, gone up or not in the last ten years? And by how much? Has violent crime and murder involving foreigners increased or not? Is crime largely isolated to particular areas, with other areas relatively unaffected?

If someone could report these numbers, we might be able to make a more intelligent decision about retiring to Costa Rica. I encourage Mr. Sexton to "test-drive" Costa Rica as a retirement destination. Without doing so and experiencing it for himself, he cannot make a reasonable decision about it, especially if his only source of news and information about Costa Rica is A.M. Costa Rica.

Brian Crawford
Tupper Lake, New York

The Guápiles-Limón line
was lots of fun, too

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I am from Costa Rica, but I have been living in the U.S.A. for 27 years. I am originally from Guápiles, and when I was growing up the only transportation we had was the train, and then the bus come along and the people started to travel by bus because it was faster. Then the trains were not making money, and back then the trains ran with diesel, not too long after that they made electrical trains and didn't last long, and then the train station was closed some time in the late 70s.

That trip was more fun then the one to Puntarenas, because it was running slower, and people were jumping on and off the train. We use to get off and get into another train because the train split with one goes to Guápiles and the other going to Limón.

Vera Francoletti

He's sick of Americans
who just 'want it now'

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I tried but I just couldn't do it! I had to respond to Joseph from New York who decided that Costa Rica isn't the place for him and his wife in retirement.

Joseph, are you seriously going to make your decision based on the fact that a couple was the victim of a robbery in San José, a city of 1.5 million people, and because there is a relatively large fee and a waiting period for cashing a large foreign check at BCR?

Joseph, Costa Rica is definitely not the place for you! As a Puntarenas homeowner, and having spent weeks at a time in C.R. over the past few years, I grow weary of the steady flow of letters to A.M. Costa Rica from "I want it now, I want it my way, and I want it perfect" Americans. Isn't it time we get over-ourselves? If you can't hang with the Ticos, by all means, stay in crime-free, tranquil New York, where there's a Starbucks on every corner.

Frank Jacobelli
Nevada

Info on bank limits praised

Dear A.M Costa Rica:

I would like to suggest that you create an award for Letter to the Editor of the Year and that Petra Schoep of Tamarindo be the first nominee. Her letter about Banco Nacional was so useful in giving instructions to get around the Banco Nacional problems with unreasonable, arbitrary daily limits.

I had to renew my card in December because it expired. Banco Nacional somehow decided to set my daily limit for transfers to my favorites at ¢4,340, and I was unable to get help to fix it.

Thank you so much Petra for simple, clear instruction to solve a problem. Thanks to A.M. Costa Rica for providing a forum where someone from Tamarindo with a solution can help some one she has never met who lives in the Southern Zone.

Judy Pegg
Tortuga Abajo de Osa

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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008, Vol. 8, No. 19