A few minutes later a man rode up on a bicycle with a few tools in one hand

Sorry no pictures for this one, just the story to explain the title.

When we purchased our car, with our limited Spanish we understood that the car had an alarm but that it was disconnected. We were happy with this since the alarm added value to the car but since we both really dislike car alarms we were happy it was not connected.

We took the car to school one day when Cindy had planned to take some fellow students to Turrialba as part of the class. Unfortunately, once at the school, we could not get the car to start. We tried everything we could think of with no success. The locals from the language school also tried but the car would not start.

Because Tuis is such a small town, we were surprised when one of the locals said his relative in town was an auto mechanic. Relieved, we agreed it was time to call a "professional." A few minutes later a man rode up on a bicycle with a few tools in one hand. You can imagine my surprise when I realized this was the auto mechanic. Something I never imagined I would see.

He shortly determined that the alarm was in fact active and only the horn was disconnected. We deactivated the alarm, drove to Turrialba and had the entire system removed. Total cost for the bike riding mechanic and the alarm removal: $12.

Since this episode, we have had no problems with the car. By the way, our car got 8.8 liters per 100 kilometers on the first tank of fuel; or for us gringos: 27 mpg. Fuel costs 621 colones per liter or $4.70 per gallon, and rising.

Tim