Yes’ir Trincowski, Costa Rica. The divide between expats and locals is shameful. The longer you stay here the easier it is to see. Everyone we encounter either despises us, steals from us, or both, there’s no happy medium.

Just today actually, I got ripped off again—true story! I took the truck down to get it washed, the gentleman and I exchanged some info, he told me “seis mil” (6 million Colones which is equal to ‘about’ $9) and he needed two hours. I even held up 6 fingers and repeated him, “seis mil?” “Si,” he said. I went to the gym, did my thing, when I came back it was siete mil (7 million about $10.25). It’s like that everywhere you go—it sucks!

And when it happens, there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it because it’s lawless here. The worst crooks are the policia, they have guns.