A shopping triumph

OK, I have to admit that I am very excited about our new bathroom faucet.

Russ is holding the old one for comparison. Not only is the new one sleek, modern and shiny, it actually shuts off easily and we don't bump our knuckles on the wall using it. It's also longer, so that it's much easier to wash one's hands in the tiny sink in our guest bath. Through the last 9 years, guests have kindly not mentioned the inadequacies of the old faucet. Not to mention that only cold water comes to this sink.
  It took us 9 years to fix this problem because this is the very first faucet we found that would fit our needs. It's a good example of why I find shopping much more interesting in Monteverde. In Wisconsin, if you want something you go to a store or two and buy it. Ho-hum; it's a chore. Or maybe you go on line and a day or two later it's at your door. Where's the challenge? When we do eventually find what we want here, it really makes us very happy.
   Here there are often strange shortages of things—when we first moved into our house we couldn't find coffee cups anywhere in town for a few weeks. Recently there was the desk lamp crisis and we've just spent 4 months trying to get a replacement part of our hot water tank. (It just came into the hardware store. Hooray!)  Many people that live here shop in bigger towns or San Jose where there is more demand for luxury goods like a faucet that cost more than some ticos make in a day (about $20). We are just too plain lazy and too content here to go elsewhere to shop. Not to mention that it might take all the fun out of finding a faucet.