We often chant ‘Its here somewhere’ – most things can be had if you know where to look. But my pet obsession – classy shoes – is the big exception, followed by decent bras!

At one time I could have challenged Imelda Marcos’s shoe collection but not now – unless you’re into platform soles, toe-crunching stilettos or plastic junk, bring a good stock for living in Costa Rica. And ditto for bras.

Here they’re not designed for comfort, containment or conture – just for one big C – cleavage! Nearly all with a layer of ‘esponga’ (padding), bras are sold to propel the bosom upwards, as near the chin as possible and if it all hangs out, well that’s sexy.

B cup is the norm, ask for DD and you’ll be offered a larger size in B… No honey, that’s not the way these thing work. After tramping every shop in town, I gave up in despair and went on-line – joy of joys, a box arrived this morning with lovely undies from the UK, comfort rules again!

I had a small triumph though on Monday. Town is full of ropa Americano – shops flogging huge bales of left over American clothing. These rails freak me out.. 90% tat, but lots of ex-pats hail their successes. In the mood on Monday, I scored with three cotton short sleeved shirts at 1,000 colonies each – that’s less than $6 – I could get to like these places!

We also have a fantastic selection of ferreterias – hardware and DIY stores. This week I wanted fine wire – chose the size from a huge coil, chap peels off quarter kilo and I get what I want.

Then a ball of string, two hooks and rings and masking tape and it all adds up to less than $4 – amazing. Back home in the UK, old fashioned ironmongers are a dying breed – squeezed out by large multiple DIY stores of the ‘take it or leave it’ variety.

We love that we can buy what we need – just one hook or a metre of cord and that’s OK, no obligation to have ten in a pack languishing in the store for evermore.

We’ve a big spend coming up! We inherited a large netted vegetable garden but its not worth the effort; vegetables are so good in the market, we would rather support hard-working Tico farmers who toil away on incredible mountainsides to grow their crops. They must have the genes of mountain goats, these guys deserve every dollar they earn, and more.

Now cleared, we have about 180 square metres for a new garden. Its on a steep slope so we’ll have to construct some retaining walls and ditches for water run-off. We’ll have a bonanza buying new plants – definitely the best shopping to be had in Costa Rica! Much sweat and toil ahead – I’ll post the progress in future columns.

Meantime, John is doing his ‘campesino‘ bit down the woodland. The final bit of clearing up after the February storm – face says it all, nearly done… or ‘done-in’!