For the most part I consider television, an intrusive, insidious and deadly intellectual cancer, a device that also robs of you of precious time that should be devoted to improving your mind or your body and I have not regularly watched it since 1996 but we do rent movies once in a while…

A friend of mine suggested a little place in Rohrmoser and my girlfriends’ young son and I rushed in to find shelves and shelves of videos which just didn’t look quite right but we were in a rush and my young friend ‘desperately’ wanted to see an action movie that night.

He quickly picked out the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace and I chose Sean Penn’s new movie ‘Harvey’ which had been recommended to us by a Tico friend who had recently returned from a trip to the USA.

We grabbed the videos and the tall, ‘hip’ young man with the pierced nose standing behind the counter told me they were c3,000 colones for the two videos or c1,500 colones “cada uno” (each one) which is about US$2.75 and the normal rental rate for a movie rental in a good store in Escazu or Santa Ana.

We paid the man with the holy nose and he plonked the change down on the counter.

I then asked him what documentation he needed for our new video rental membership and he said that he didn’t need anything, that we must have misunderstood him and that he was not renting the videos to me for c1,500 each, he was selling the videos to us for c1,500 (US$2.75)

In Spanish I calmly asked him if the DVDs were originals and after hesitating for a moment he assured us with a smile that they were “high quality original copies of the originals.”

Hmmmmm!

Yes I know it was a sin and having spent months producing my own, very simple DVD I should have thrown the videos angrily on the counter and demanded my money back but, that would have been a complete waste of time so along with my impatient, young accomplice we fled guiltily into the night …

But we know we were wrong – although we found out a bit late in the process – and we promise not to do it again.

PS. The video quality of the “high quality original copy of the original movie” was indeed excellent but we all thought Quantum of Solace was absolute bloody rubbish just like the last James Bond movie and after writing this, I feel too guilty to watch the other one…

PPS. And no! I will not divulge where this video rental store is located.

Written by Scott Oliver, author of 1: How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa, 2: Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore and 3. ¿Cómo Comprar Bienes Raíces en Costa Rica, Sin Perder Su Camisa?

Scott Oliver's Four Books

Scott Oliver’s Four Books.

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