So here I am, sitting on a bar stool in front of the granite counter tops at the "house up the hill" using the internet. "How does he do it?", you may or may not ask. We know there is no internet service way up there on the hill.
Well, the story goes like this:
I was sitting in the Uvita Tucan Hotel (not listening to the airconditioner hum), using the internet before I headed home for the night and I ran into Big Rob, who used to do (poorly) the internet at La Cusinga. I confided in him that I had been looking for an internet device, kind of a "memory stick", which, when stuck into one's computer, accesses internet. These do indeed exist, and they even exist here, but trying to find one for purchase has proved difficult. "Just ran out", or, "new supply next week (month, year, etc.)" are the standard answers.
So he listened to me bemoan my fate and then asked me what kind of phone I had. Costa Rica is in the process of changing over from 2G to 3G phones, which will fuck up their entire phone service system, but they don't seem to care. I told him that I had a 2G as they still worked (for now) and were significantly less expensive that the 3G models which all seem to feature numerous application possibilities; bells and whistles out the wazoo, if you will. So he says, "well that's too bad" and goes on to explain to me that if I have a 3G phone, it can be converted into a modem that will transfer internet to any computer it is tethered to.
"Whoopee", I say, averring as to how I certainly wish I had one, but that they were entirely out of my price range. "But oho" he says, "I happen to have one for sale". And so he proceeds to tell me that he had purchased this here top of the line Nokia 3G but now an iPhone has fallen into his chubby little hands and that he cannot/will not live without it, thus rendering the Nokia obsolete in his squinty eyes.
So to make a long story endless, I bought the Nokia from him for $100, figuring, if nothing else, I now had a groovy phone way cheap as the damn things retail here in Costa Rica for over $400. But lo and behold, I take it down to ICE, the utilities conglomerate that essentially runs the country, and yes, they can give me internet capability AND, better yet, make my new phone and my old laptop compatible. Shit boy Howdy.
So I sit in the chair in the brutally air conditioned ICE office (everyone who works there wears a jacket) for over an hour and a half while the Tico tech with a truly interestingly gelled non-hairdo puzzles and putzes over my two electric boxes. I meditated, I sang to myself, I listened to the air conditioner hum and out of nowhere his somewhat greasy face breaks into a wide grin as if he has opened the diamond vaults atAntwerp. Entonces and Voila! He has broken the code and he is going to share it with me.
And so, I know have the internet here at the "house on the hill" and I'm pretty damn happy about it. It does suck the charge out of the phone pretty damn fast, but if one pays attention it is a non-issue. Wondrous times in which we live.
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