Continuing Saga of La Caja

First Things First. We will get the paper that we need from the Guardia to get us into the medical system.. Got Nidia to call out to the Guardia for us. Alas! “Something…I mean someone,” she says, “died. The secretary will not be there today.” The policeman told Nidia to tell us to go to the police station in Heredia and that they would do the paper for us. So we went to the Heredia police department, with all of our papers in hand. The uniformed reception person inside the door understood what we needed and motioned us to go back out the front door and to the right. Following his directions, we turned right outside the door, walked to the corner of the building and turned right again, all the while looking for a door. We found one about half way down the side of the building, and, seeing 2 police persons at the top of the steps, I started up to tell them what I needed. The male policeperson enthusiastically put his hand up to motion to me to back off!

I backed off quickly as ordered. He indicated to me that I should go back around to the front of the building (from where we had just come). I tried to express in Spanish my confusion, but said that I would return from whence I had come! We started retracing our steps as Gene told me they had just taken a guy in through the door in handcuffs as we had walked up. I guess I had been so busy trying to find a door that I had not seen what was going on just inside the door. So we got all the way back to the main door of the large ugly green building again, where I tried to express my confusion. I can’t remember if I spoke in English or my newfound “Spanglish,” but they quickly got the idea and one of the policemen offered to walk us to the correct place. He walked us back out the front door again, turned to the right, and pointed to the hole in the wall (barred window) 3 feet from us. So much for our powers of observation. The woman behind the window immediately knew what we needed and proceeded to take care of it for us, even before an English-speaking policeman appeared to ask if he could help. Someone must have told him that there were 2 stupid gringos wandering around unable to see a window standing 2 feet in front of them. We offered all of the necessary papers to the secretary, including the very official piece of blank paper, the “papel oficio.” She smiled very nicely and indicated that the special paper was not needed, as it was all in the computer! Within 2 minutes, everything was done, we did several “Muchas Graciouses” and were on our way.

Before heading back to San Rafael for the next step of the process, we decided to reward ourselves with a cup of café con leche at Azzurra’s. Good decision. Ran into Linda, who just happened to be downtown between appointments. She was enduring a good deal of frustration over her car being in the shop and having to get around by taxi. So we enjoyed visiting with her and then shared a taxi out to San Rafael, where her appointment was.

We went directly to the Caja medical facility, where we were to present our papers, passports, temporary “orden patronal,” and the paper from the police station, which told them that we live within the boundaries of their district. Based on the written directions that we had been given at ARCR, we stood in line at the sign that said, “Afiliacion.” The line was not long, and we were feeling like things were going really well when we got up to the window in less than 10 minutes. After looking at our paperwork, the clerk told us that we first needed to go to the line marked “Verification de Derechos.” No problem. There was only 1 person in that line. We were doing well! Got up to that window, and after looking over our papers for a few minutes, apparently attempting to decipher them, she gave them all back to us, pointing to the stamp on the temporary “orden patronal,” and speaking rather rapidly in Spanish. It finally became clear that there was a problem due to the fact that the date stamp was August, and since we had not got around to doing this stuff while we had been in school trying to learn Spanish so that we could try to communicate with people when we got around to doing this, it indeed is now September. Clearly this is a problem. She does not appear to be amused at my suggestion that I can change the date, and crosses out the stamp in ink with her pen, apparently afraid that I will attempt to forge it!

After some discussion, we decide that the best thing for us to do for the rest of the day, is to take a bus into San Jose to the ARCR, where we should be able to easily get an updated temporary “orden patronal,” since we’ve already paid in advance for 3 months of insurance. Off to San Jose! No problema. Got new “orden patronal” with September date within minutes. Let’s go for some more sushi! Nope! Sushi Restaurant is closed from 2 – 5. Oh, well. At least we know where the bus stop is now!

And on the way home,we get off the bus right across the street from “Casita del Chicharron,” and discover another legendary local eatery. Good greasy food!