Costa Rica Cost of Living Update: Scooter repairs-$60 for new brake pads, new gas filter, oil change, new ignition switch, taking apart and cleaning air filter

The back brakes on our scooter needed to be replaced, but in the mean time Rob resorted in only using the front brakes. This caused us to randomly skid out Evel Knievel style, and although it looked cool when Evel performed those stunts, it’s laughable when two gringos do it on a 125cc  scooter. The problem was we had a hard time finding anyone to do the work.  It looks like scooters aren’t in big demand for repairs.

Our mechanic said he has a friend who does this kind of sissy work and took us to his garage.  Not surprisingly, the shop is down a dirt road, then a dirt alley, and behind the man’s house.  In the backyard are the littered remains of jet skies, motorcycles, and other orphaned  pieces of equipment.  This is exactly the adrenaline packed machinery our scooter should be associated with.  My husband asks when to come back for the scooter. 

“Hmm…1 or 2 o’clock.”

“Ok, I’ll come back at 1,” Rob says.

“No, come back at 2,” the mechanic replies.  We end up hanging around town and returning to the garage at 2 o’clock.  The scooter is in half a million pieces, more pieces than I ever thought constitute a scooter. Rob knocks on the door and sees the man eating lunch.  He won’t get up so his wife walks out, spreads her arms around pointing to the scattered remains of our scooter, and tells Rob the bike is not done.  I suppose she thought we were legally blind and couldn’t gather that information on our own.  

“Ok, how about I come back later.  Will it be done around 8 tonight?” Rob asks.

“Definitely, come back at 8 and pick it up,” she says before returning to eat the rest of her sandwich.  We return at 8 to find our scooter in half a million pieces in his backyard.

“Come back in 20 minutes,” the man says.

“Are you sure? There are hell of a lot of parts you need to put together.” But the man shoos us away and we go to Burger King and stare at each other while eating the Costa Rica version of a Whopper. When we return the scooter is done.  He even threw in a new ignition switch that looks oddly like something you would use to start a jet ski.

Rob drove the scooter back home and enjoyed the use of the back brakes once again.  It took us all day waiting for the repairs but this was a perfect example of Tico Time.  Everything eventually gets done; there is no reason to rush. 

If you want to know how Rob looked before the brakes were fixed, here’s a little footage to give you an idea. I can already see a daredevil, death defying, supersonic, sky plane on wheels in my future. Take notice on how they kept it true to Knievel’s career, they never show the sky plane landing.