Recently my brother moved to Florida, and though he complains about the traffic, lack of consistent surf, job market, property taxes and political climate, he says he quite likes it.

The other day he called me while I was in line to have my car inspected by RTV – Costa Rica’s equivalent to the ‘state inspection’ for your vehicle.

Being number four in the line, we had a moment to chat. He was surprised to hear that our developing country had ‘strict standards’ for the well being of the vehicles that circulate on the roads here, citing that the state of Florida has absolute no state inspections for their vehicles.

I explained that several years back, and with some civil but fairly passive resistance at the time, Costa Rica hired a Spanish company to implement a country wide program that required all vehicles to be inspected according to ‘first world’ standards to ensure mechanical integrity, safety and ecologically sound emissions requirements.

If the local police see you driving around with an expired inspection sticker, you’re sure to get a ticket. He responded, “can’t you just pay the police $20 to let you go if you’re sticker is expired?” continuing with his questioning of our developing country’s progress.

I answered, “maybe so, but $20 is what the inspection costs, so it wouldn’t be cost effective, as the next day you may be faced with the same infraction and you still wouldn’t be in compliance.” He was surprised but quickly started to understand. Curious but somewhat in disbelief he continued with his queries.

I explained that we have regional stations with sophisticated equipment that check the brakes, suspension and even emissions. What? “Yes they even stick a device up your tail pipe to get an accurate reading on you tailpipe output!” I told him I’d fax him my test results; he was totally bewildered.

The moral of the story here is that while we are a developing country, Costa Rica is and has been taking great steps to not only catch up but raise the bar on many ‘modern day’ issues.

A prime example here is the country’s goal to be the first carbon neutral sovereign state by 2021, with projects such as our first world emission standards, new and existing hydro electric dam projects, government subsidies for (private land) forest protection and the like.

In the end, I was in and out of the inspection line in less than an hour with my new sticker good through the next 12 months and with one less potential issue for traffic cops to frown on me for.

It was a case of me feeling good about a getting a sensible and positive reading from my tailpipe output and the general direction Costa Rica is heading.

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