www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Lynch Travel, office has been downtown forever, great place to buy or get your travel tickets changed, exit tax paid, tours of any kind at the same price you'd pay direct except they'd do all the work, stupid problems solved, had the first fax machine in Quepos--50 cents a page to the states, need a maildrop? no problem, get a cheap cab to pick you up at the airport, you name it, they'd get it done. No clue what happened, always seemed busy. Lynch Travel is CLOSED.

"Super Mas" grocery store, across from the bus station, also been there forever, like 50 years I'm told. Great grocery, english speaking jefes, everything super fresh, soup to nuts, immaculate place, produce, meat, booze, gringo stuff, farmacy, bill pay, small coffee and pastry cafe, really gringo friendly, e.g. no problem using a C-note at a great exchange (Pali won't take USD higher then a $20 in Quepos, and you either bring your own grocery bags or they charge you for theirs---cheap pricks.)

Couldn't compete anymore with mega super market chain Pali? Super Mas is CLOSED.

Both places will be missed by alot of gringos in Quepos.

well the slowdown in tourism sounds like its taking its toll.
in Tijuana Mexico there is a little beach town about half an hour out of town called Rosarito and it used to be THE go to party spot and its now a ghost town more or less. last time i was there i seriously felt like i was one of maybe 30 people in town. great for no crowds but a lot of those businesses were done or nearly done.
if a business anywhere is catering to gringos it has to be suffering right now.
side note on charging for bags. in Cali we just passed a law that requires everyone to bring your own shopping bags or be charged a dime a bag for a paper one. the plastic ones are illegal now.
that is unless you are on public assistance then they do not charge you. cant have subsidized people required to be responsible can we?
and so much for trees i guess.

_________________
im way deep into nothing special
riding the crest of a wave breaking just west of hollywood

The most heavily-subsidized people on Earth, ever, are corporate C-suite types/hedge fundies/etc. ad nauseum too many of whom have a demonstrated history of irresponsibility. It wasn't the poor folks who crashed the world economy, and yet have to pay and pay...and be required to be responsible. Wanna talk more via PM?

_________________
"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

no thats ok Jazz i know what you are saying and its true.
my comment came from the charging for bags thing and not the mega world view.
if we are doing this to be socially and environmentally responsible lets all do it together.
its not cool to exempt a large portion of society from keeping the earth clean.
bring your own bag is not my idea or what i would think is the most pressing world issue.
still i will ride the horse in the direction its going and man up.
or pay the price.
it just gives insight into the overall perception that those that play by the rules and try get penalized while the "poor" get a free ride and a view.
I say "poor" because its a daily experience to see the way the system is abused.
true story. tuesday night i go to trader joes and a woman in front of me is talking on the cell phone,
"i know i know" blah blah the lady is saying excuse me "how do you want to pay?" Ebt she blurts back. the lady runs her card through the scan and takes her groceries out.
my daughter and i finish our checkout and she her loading up, still on the phone, next to our car. she's driving a 2010 Lexus Rx330 with new rims and tires and probably talking on a phone that taxpayers paid for as well.
I see this kind of stuff everyday. Its epidemic and the fraud is massive.
sure the corporate laws subsidize rich people because the laws are written by them.
just like the laws that give "poor" people massive programs to exploit.
if the people really needing these programs were the only ones getting them it would work.
but we are basically laughed at for how easy it is to dupe this system.
i know i'm a racist and hate old and sick people right?
sorry for thinking personal responsibility should be a universal thing.
and sorry for the thread hijack.

_________________
im way deep into nothing special
riding the crest of a wave breaking just west of hollywood

Too bad about the super they were in a really convenient location.

+1. With everything you want at great quality/fresh/price, great service, gringos appreciated, pay with C-notes, I am going to miss them a whole hell of alot more then I am the Great Escape's move to the pier.

And not just me, reading the local ex-pat blogs, everyone is singing the blues about that grocery closing. Now we are all condemned to the dog with the big nuts in Quepos--Pali--- and at least at the Quepos Pali, it's a little different for us. Yep, I know, it's their country. But just a little wierd getting your bags searched on the way out after 20 years. Some of those bag boys I remember as toddlers, and they recognize me, but they have their orders.

Has a co-op grocery and sundries concept been tried anywhere in CR? If so, could that concept be adapted to Quepos? Am I just whistling down the wind, and now Ticos and local Gringos have been beaten down and accepting of Big Grocery?

_________________
"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

In Quepos, there are now few choices, so accepting out of necessity because the alternatives downtown are two pulperias, Super Josethe is one, forget the other place name, both charge an arm and a leg, like a 7-11 in the states. You know your getting phucked but you say Phuck it. Not so hard on me but I can't rationalize the locals doing business there, but they do--maybe it's the quickie in and out thing? They are open before and after Pali, that's their angle.

Also a couple of very good but pricey small butchers shops with fresh meat/fish in the little mall at the bus station.

The exception is for the very popular week end farmer's market on the sea wall for fruits and veggies--very crowded; and for the people who have the time/brains to hang at the Marina in prime fishing season around 4:30pm when the big boys with the big rent-a-toys are coming home, or at the dock in Damas year round for the canal boats when they are coming home, and buy fresh fish dirt, dirt cheap. Ice, baggage, transportation, cleaning, all a big pain in the ass, freezer space required, so what. Once a week and you should be good for two weeks.

I have a good friend who does all that for me for about $15 more, delivered fillet'd. I'm sure he buys even cheaper then I do, so what. I help him with some of his stuff once a week or so, no biggie--mainly rides and back to where he can't get to on his moto easily with one of his young ones during the rainy season; or bringing him what he wants from the estados; or him using my junkie pick up truck, or my power tools, or taking him to SJ when I am going, or back, stuff like that. We are buds and neither feels either is getting screwed. I'm happy, phucking around getting big or bigger fresh fish off the boat and off the dock and into your truck and to where you can clean them and get them fillet'd and then home or however your are going to get all this done ain't by no means an enjoyable time at the sea shore for me. Pura vida.

I've got one of those Sears looking stand alone chest freezers that I bought in the Duty Free Zone in Golfito for $305, and it stays full. My only fear is an ICE Phuck up for a long period with no power. Happens alot but usually only an hour or two, but once for 3 days about 5 years ago when some poor Howler monkeys were using the power lines to cross and fried themselves and also blew the transformer. (Big problem for monkeys in CR incidentally, most of which are constantly moving around--in fact some towns are having gringo fundraisers to pay for constructing heavy duty weight screen pathways over the power lines in monkey's normal pathways.) Blew us up on a Friday evening. In the dark until Monday. We ate alot of fish that week end, her family and our friends ate good that Sat-Sun, didn't know when we were going to get power for sure so it was a week-end grilling time by the pool. ICE left their fried carcasses on the lines. Costa Rica.