Costa Rica

Immigration/ Diversity

2005-11-21T19:29:00.000-05:00

When waking around Costa Rica I noticed so many different people. A lot of them look similar but there's also a great variety of deviation from the stereotypical "Costa Rican" look. I found out from reading and talking to our tour guide that it's because there has been and there still is so much immigration into Costa Rica. This immigration has a very strong impact on the Costa Rican culture and on everyday life. Back in the 1800's a man named Minor Keet made an arrangement between the Northern Railway Company of England and the Costa Rican Government to develop a railway system in the eastern part of Costa Rica. Specifically to start in Limon. The deal was that he would invest in this railway but that he would get a large plot of land so he could grow bananas and export them. This way he could make back the money he invested and help the Costa Rican economy as well. To begin making the railway at first Spanish workers were hired but they found they couldn't handle the malaria. They then imported blacks who apparently had tougher skin and a better rate of survival. This was how blacks first came to Costa Rica. Limon, today, is 90% African American. At the same time Chinese came over on their own and started working on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. They worked on the railway as well but found better success opening small shops like grocery stores and restaurants.

The immigration at this time of these two nationalities has greatly effected the culture of Costa Rica. The Africans have contributed foods such as a better rice, okra, sugar, eggplant, coffee and cucumbers. Their music is present as well, you can find Reggae bars such as Las Raices where typical music is played. Artwork of the Africans can be found in the National Art Museum where a black woman is painted in a vibrantly colored dress without eyes. This is saying that they, at times, aren't seen. Her dress shows that people know the Africans for their vibrantly colored wardrobe and sadly, sometimes aren't recognized on a daily basis for much more. The Chinese influence is also prevalent in today's Costa Rican society. IF you look through the phone book or even just walk to the corner of the street I stayed on you'll find Chinese restaurants. The Chinese have a commanding presence in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a diverse country even though it may not seem that way!

Religion

2005-11-20T15:59:00.000-05:00

Religion seems to dominate the lives of many people in Costa Rica but even more so for women. When I asked my Costa Rican parents to create a list of 10 things that describe themselves my host mom started her list with "mujer de fe en Dios" or woman of faith in God. It was the first thing she used to describe herself. My host father also had "hombre de fe en Dios" on his list. So it is still important to him as well but his was at number 9 on his list, not quite as important to him. I learned a while ago about Mexico's patron Saint "Virgen de Guadalupe" but it wasn't until one of our day trips with our tour guide to Cartago did I learn that Costa Rica had a patron Saint as well, Virgen de Los Angeles. Every year on August 2nd hundreds of thousands of people make the pilgrimage from all over including Nicaragua and Panama to the Basilica, an enormous church in Cartago. Here they pay their respects to the Saint and take from the Holy water that runs under the church. The water is said to be blessed because in ancient times and Indigen woman found a doll on a rock near this river. She took it home, placed it in her closet and was very excited to have it. The next day she returned to the rock and found another doll. She took it home thinking she had two dolls. When she went to put it in her closet with the other she found the other doll was no longer there. The doll had mysteriously wound up back on the rock for her to find again. Due to this act, thought only to be something of divine doing the waters were deemed sacred and holy and the church was erected directly above the water and the rock where the doll had been found. Thus each year(in this past year 650,000) people come to pray and touch the holy water to overcome their hardships and to ask for forgiveness. There is a small relic in the basement of the church where the doll is said to have been found. Many people place flowers here in honor of their patron Saint. There is also a much larger golden version on the top of the altar of the church. Unfortunately it has been stolen 3 times because of its value. It has been replaced each time despite this.

Fluency in Spanish

2005-11-10T11:10:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I've been looking into how to become fluent in Spanish because I'd like to do it! As most people know within a fairly short amount of time 50% of this country will be speaking Spanish and I personally think knowing Spanish will help me get a job over somebody who doesn't know it! In looking through this information I've found that there's not specific point when you're considered fluent in Spanish. I was thinking that there was a test or something to assess whether you were fluent or not, this apparently isn't the case! Obviously where you study seems to make a difference in how long it takes, if you live in a country that speaks the language for about a year toward the end of that year you should be close to fluent. If you don't live in the country it can take anywhere from 5-10 years obviously depending on how often you practice. (I wouldn't mind living in Costa Rica for a year one bit!) I also stumbled upon this site which looks really interesting. Here's a few hilights from it since you guys probably don't always click on the links! One interesting section is the false cognates section. A lot of words in Spanish sound like words in English but mean completely different things! So if you take the approach of adding a -o or an -a to the end of English words to make them Spanish you could wind up saying something you shouldn't!
Here are some examples from that site
Arena means sand.
Arena = anfiteatro, redondel, plaza.

Colegio vs College

Colegio refers to a high school, usually private.
College can be translated by colegio only when it refers to "colleges" as in divisions of a school. Otherwise, college = universidad or escuela superior.

Discutir vs Discuss

Discutir is stronger than discuss; more like debate or argue.
Discuss = hablar de, tratar de, comentar.

Editor vs Editor

Editor is an adjective: publishing, and a noun: publisher or editor.
Editor can be translated by editor, director, or redactor.

Quitar vs Quit

Quitar means to take away, remove, or get rid of.
Quit = dejar, abandonar, salir de. To quit one's job: abandonar su puesto, dimitir.

There's tons more stuff on this site and you should look at it! There's Spanish chat rooms and lots of other things, I really recommend it. Talk to you guys soon!

Futbol aka Soccer

2005-11-02T21:52:00.000-05:00

If you have a chance to go see one of the professional soccer teams play in Costa Rica, DO IT! It was an amazing time! Futbol is the most popular sports in most Spanish countries and Costa Rica is no different. I grew up playing the game and still love it. So, when I found out one of our excursions was to go see the professional soccer team, Saprissa, play I was pretty excited. The walk from the bus to the stadium was more like walking through New York City during rush hour, trying to stay with our group was nearly impossible. The streets surrounding the stadium were closed down and there were venders all over. People were selling food, clothes, hats and souveneirs for each of the teams that were playing. In Costa Rica people go all out for this sport. It's like football is here, they're crazy. They even went further than most Eagles fans go which is saying a lot. Throughout the whole game they were cheering and chanting incredibly loudly. There was very intense security around the mobs of people that accumulated in the stands. Toward the end of the game when they knew their team was going to win they began setting off fire works from the stands! Suprisingly this was perfectly fine with security.

Saprissa Website (in Spanish)
After this trip to the soccer game I sort of got into watching the daily soccer reports on the news in the morning with my Costa Rican family. We were there during the playoffs and then finals and they would get really into it. It was interesting trying to figure out what they were saying because if you think about it our sportscasters speak really fast during their broadcasts and so do Costa Rican sportscasters! It was interesting to see how much more I could pick up on in the span of time that I was there. If you do end up going to Costa Rica, even being there for just a week on Spring Break will improve your Spanish by a lot. Being immersed in a culture is really the only way to begin to be comfortable speaking the languages. Books and instructors can take you to a point but after that you acutally have to live in a country that speaks that language! I can't wait to go back because one of my goals is to become fluent in Spanish. I'm not sure what that requires so I think I'll tackle that in my next entry!

InBio Park

2005-10-25T18:45:00.000-05:00

While I was in Costa Rica one of the field trips we took while we were staying in San Jose was to InBio Park. We all thought it was going to be really boring but it turned out to be pretty interesting. We got a walking tour of what was basically a biological park where there were different plants and animals of the country. According to the lecture we received at InBio Park, Costa Rica is the most densely biodeiversified counry per square mile. This rick land is what allows Costa Rica to remain ahed of it's surroundings countries in the economic race. Costa Ricans live at a middle class level by working the land, cultivating crops and exporting them to foreign countries. For a country that is so dependent on nature for survival it is disheartening to hear that they are the leaders in deforestation. On a brighter note Costa Rica is in the process of developing a plan to reforest the land and the goal is to replace every tree tha they cut down with a new one. When i first got to Costa Rica I guess I didn't realize taht we were actually going to be directly in the city. I expected to see palm trees and luscious green vegetation all around me. Instead I saw billboards, blacktop, factories, cars and a 4 lane highway; not exactly what I had pictured. I expected all Costa Ricans to be like the farmers I eventually ended up seeing on our first weekend excursion, but they're not. The Costa Ricans living in San Pedro and San Jose are just like the citizens of many other large cities. They exploit their surroundings and natural resources as we do in the U.S. There is trash thrown in the streets and in empty lots all over the place. Building and construction is in progress in San Pedro and the city is expanding. The smell from the exhaust of the cars is often nauseating. However, the first time I saw the huge breathtaking mountains I was in awe. And that is what I will pick up on next time!

Street Vendors

2005-10-23T19:47:00.000-05:00

In all of the major cities we visited there were locals that handcrafted a variety of things. There were all types of jewelry: earings, necklaces, rings and bracelets. There were also hair accessories and other little trinkets. It was interesting to see that some people tried to make a living this way. Outside of the University of Costa Rica where we were taking classes there were a lot of these vendors with tables set up. Everything was extremely cheap so it was hard to fathum that they would be able to live off us such low selling prices. We were able to buy gifts for everyone back home for very cheap! We also got to take a little piece of Costa Rica with us. Every time I wear something I bought from one of those ladies it makes me think about the time I spent there. They weren't dumb business people by any means. The areas where they knew were primarily tourist zones had higher prices. When we went away on hte weekends to the beaches some of the same types souveneirs were marked up to higher prices because they know that foreigners have more money and will be willing to pay the higher prices. It was also fun to try and barder with the sellers in these areas. Since we had been in other parts of the country we knew that they had marked their prices up and so we had a good time negotiating with them on some of the very much inflated prices. Keep that in mind when you go, the ticket price is NOT the price you have to pay!

In the big tourist places like Manuel Antonio they also sold a lot of things that travelers may have forgotten on the streets as well. Sunblock was a big thing as well as some common products like advil and disposable cameras. These were also significantly overpriced but what other choice do you have? My suggestion is to try and buy things in San Jose before you get out to the more remote locations where most of the tourist destinations are. Or just make sure you pack everything you're going to need! Make a list, that really helps with this.

Climate

2005-10-13T22:32:00.000-05:00

Lesson of the Day: Etiquette when meeting someone

Costa Ricans require a lot less personal space than Americans and are much more affectionate with strangers and people they have just met. So with that in mind here are some guidelines so you know what to expect:

When a female is greeting a female- a kiss on one cheek is appropriate
When a female is greeting a male- a kiss on each cheek is appropriate
When a male is greeting a male- no kisses

Costa Rica has a rainy season and a dry season. The rainy season is considered the off season because it really does rain like a monsoon all the time. Therefore, you should be happy to hear your trip would be during the dry season which is basically like their summer. This is when all the kids have off from school as we do in the summertime. It is extremely hot near the beaches which is convenient for swimming and surfing and doing anything you could imagine on the water.

In Tamarindo there are a few things to do besides lay on the beach. You can charter boats for about $25 to go on a snorkeling sunset cruise which is beautiful. I did this in Tamarindo. Also there is horseback riding at many of the tourist desttinations where you can ride on the beach. (Make sure you know what you're doing because they go pretty fast and you have to gallop!)

Another place I would recommend going is to Manuel Anotnio. It is a National State Park and it's gorgeous. There is a beach there that you don't have to pay an admission fee to get onto but in order to maintain the beauty of the national park they do charge a minimal fee to get into the area that's really worth seeing! There are trails through the hills to remote small beaches where you probably won't see anyone else. You can look across the inlet and see the crowded beach you hiked away from. It's really a lot of fun here and the nightlife is entertaining too. There are fewer bars that are slightly more difficult to get to (i.e. you have to walk about 5-10 minutes instead of 5-10 steps like in Tamarindo). But that's only some of them, there are some restaurants and things of that nature right by the beach.Take a look at the link over on the sidebar, it shows you what Manuel Anotonio looks like, and it's really a good place to consider for a trip!

Lesson of the Day

2005-10-06T13:53:00.000-05:00

Joann- I think it's awesome you and your friends are thinking about going to Costa Rica for Spring Break. I think it's a great idea. You're plane ticket will probably be the most expensive part. I got mine for January and it was $411. The prices go up quickly so get them A.S.A.P! It's really cheap once you get there because of exchange rates and the slightly lower cost of living for Costa Ricans because they can't afford to pay more. So your money goes a long way down there.

Stefanie- I loved Costa Rica too. Did Jonathan and Reneir and Luis go to Tamarindo with you guys? (the dance instructors sons and friend?) They came to Tamarindo with us and also Manuel Antonio, it was a lot of fun. I actually saw Reneir at Iron Hill a few weeks ago, it was really strange. Apparently he is dating a girl he met on your trip to Costa Rica and is here for 4 months visiting her and working!

Now we're going to start what I will call the Lesson of the Day for Joann (and anyone else who might be going) becasue she needs to know some Costa Rican Spanish and some of the cultural aspects too before she goes.

Lesson 1: Hello- Hola
Goodbye- Hasta Luego (unil later)
Thank you- Gracias
You're welcome- con gusta (this is different than many other spanish speaking places, it means with pleasure and it is used instead of de nada in Costa Rica. It shows the more open, caring nature of the Costa Rican people and that they truly are greatful for anything anyone does for them).

I also found a few pictures from my trip from some of the places in past posts. So I'm going to edit those posts and add them in there if you'd like to take a look you can see parts of our trip.

I'm going to go into today a little bit about how to get from the airport in San Jose (which is the one you want to fly into from the U.S.) to getting to your final denstination because as I have found, it can be a little bit annoying.

First of all you can fly, from San Jose to Tamarindo for a round trip flight it's about $165. The flight is about an hour long which really beats the 6 hour drive.

You can take a private charter also the costa is about $165 each way but you get the van to yourself, you get to stop when you want to eat or sightsee or whatever. The cost one way is $165 but that can be split between up to 6 people.

Finally you can take the public bus. $25 bucks but a long, uncomfortable ride, if you don't make reservations early enough you could be standing for a 6 hour bus ride, not my idea of a good time.

I'd definitely go with either the flight or the private charter. Check out each of the links, they're the best ones I've found. I looked on Frommer's (travel guide and blog for different countries) to see what people used and what their opinions were of each of these types of transportation.

Good luck with your search!

Surfing in Costa Rica

2005-09-28T23:48:00.000-05:00

Costa Rica has some of the best breaks in the world. It is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. On the East Coast of the country it is much more rainy even during the dry season than the West Coast. Once the storms pass over the mountain range as they move farther west they are broken apart and therefor become weaker. There are also a LOT more shark sightings on the Carribean side of the country. The while the waves are really good on that side, they're pretty good on the other side as well. In my opinion, it's not worth the bad weather and sharks to venture over to that side of the island.

On the West Coast where the Pacific Ocean meets Costa Rica there are some amazing breaks. And while you can find them in Nosara which is farther South they seem to get better the farther North you go. Jaco Beach and Hermosa Beach are within 15 minutes of eachother and are about an hour and a half to two hours from the city of San Jose. They have some consistent amazing breaks there according to some locals we talked to. (They were from San Jose and they went on a few trips with us as well.) We spent our free weekend during winter session at a beach called Tamarindo though. It's a small little surf town with awesome waves. While Costa Rica is a safe country you do need to be careful, especially if it's obvious you're not from around there. There is a little bit of a drug problem in this area so if anyone asks you if you want "coca" say no! I'm sure you can figure out what that one is. Besides that Tamarindo is a cute little town with a loop at the end with some fun bars. There is an American couple that actually owns one of the restaurants so you can get a little break and speak some Spanish. I can't remember the name of the place, but it's right on the beach and has tables overlooking the water.

Most of the hotels in Tamarindo are a 2 minute walk from the beach which makes it even better, there's no mountains to walk up or down like in other parts of the country either. Most of the hotels are also really cheap. I'm going back for 35 days in January/ February (the dry season which means higher prices) and we were given a deal at Hotel Zully Mar which has a pool and airconditioning and everything for $38 a night! That means that if we split the cost it's only going to be $14 a night for each of us, you can't beat that! I'll talk more about Costa Rican trips and surfing in the updates to come!

El Pueblo- best bars in town

2005-09-21T13:52:00.000-05:00

San Jose

One of the best places to go out at night in the city of San Jose is to El Pueblo. It means the town in Spanish and that's just what it looks like. It's a mix of shops, restaurants and bars and at night it's the place to be. The drinking age in Costa Rica is 18 years old so you know we all had fun with that while we were there. Every week, especially on Tuesday's, we'd all head out to El Pueblo. They had a Lady's Night which we all thought was pretty amusing.No guys were allowed in between the hours of 9 and midnight, just girls. All of the drinks were free for girls during that time, and they had male dancers up on stage performing. So for about 3 hours straight the girls would be drinking then at midnight they'd open the door and let all the men in to basically prey on the drunk girls. We, however, were smart and left to go to a different bar at that point. Thanks for the free drinks guys, see ya later! Other nights during the week they had what was called Bara Libre, or free bar. Basically there would be an open bar for a cover charge of $1 at one of our favorite bars in El Pueblo called Bongos. We'd meet all of our friends from home as well as people we'd met in Costa Rica like our dance instructor's sons and their friends. It was really fun. The only downside to these bars is the most current American music they played was from about 1992. We all had a good time anyway and some entertaining cab rides too, we'll talk

Ticos (locals)

2005-09-13T18:56:00.000-05:00

Let's get away from that kind of stuff for a little bit. The local people in Costa Rica are really nice. We stayed with families while we were there during the week and went away to a different spot every weekend. During the week the mom made us traditional Costa Rican breakfasts and dinners (we were usually in town at class during the day for lunch time). For breakfast we had fruit pretty much everyday which they picked from the backyard along with cafe or coffee, which as I said before Costa Rica is known for. One of the brands I'll get into in another post is CafeBritt because that's what we drank a lot of and we also went on a trip there and got a tour of the place. For dinner we had rice and beans A LOT. So much so that I can't really eat them anymore. Sometimes they'd have them seperately then the next night mix them together and try to pass it off as something entirely different. There was no tricking me, I can tell what mixed up rice and beans are. The walls of the house we stayed in were made out of cement basically and therefore got pretty cold at night, even during their summer. I say 'their' summer because it is in a different hemisphere and therefore it is the opposite of our summer. The first full day we were there we went to the beach with our Costa Rican family because it was their kids' summer vacation. We got up around 4 a.m. and drove 2 hours to meet their friends at Punta Leona, a gorgeous beach on the Pacific Coast.

We spent the day playing in the water and saw monos (monkeys) all over the place in the trees. It was an awesome way to start the trip. The bad news is we had to go home and go to class the next day which was an adventure all in itself being that we had to take public buses to class where we were thrown into the Costa Rican culture to fend for ourselves with people who only spoke spanish, that was nice. It took some getting used to but it was really interesting and kind of fun too. That's it for now, more about the Ticos and free bars are going to be in the next one, I know you want to hear about that!

Background

2005-09-07T18:06:00.000-05:00

One of the first things I noticed when I got here were the mountains, they were enormous and amazing to look at everyday. The climate and geography of Costa Rica are both in general quite unique and as I have learned they are sort of a double edged sword. On the one hand we have the positive effects of Costa Rica’s geography and its climate as well. Due to the three types of climates Tierra Fria(cold land), Tierra Templada (intermediate) and Tierra Caliente (hot) Costa Rica is able to grow all kinds of products. According to our brilliant tour guide, Ricardo, “in this moment” they are able to grow citrus fruits, like lemons, as well as fruits. Coffee is one of Costa Rica’s major exports as well as bananas. Sugar cane is another example of a crop that can be grown. Due to Costa Rica’s greatly varying terrain tourism has become the country’s primary source of income. From the gorgeous beaches with world class surfing such as playa Hermosa and Tamarindo to the breathtaking mountains and astounding volcanoes, the most active of which, Arenal is surrounded with hotels including a world renowned spa. The unique features of Costa Rica’s geography entices and attracts visitors from all over the world. On the other hand these same mountains create problems as well. In the past the mountains greatly hindered transportation of people, crops, ideals and traditions. This in turn separated the people of Costa Rica in nearly all aspects of life. Today the varying landscape and hills, according to our tour guide Ricardo, don’t allowed the farmers to cultivate the harvest with ease. Farmers in Costa Rica use more traditional methods of cultivation and generally pick everything by hand. This is because the inconsistent landscape doesn’t permit the use of tractors to cultivate things like sugarcane. This greatly inhibits productivity, if they were able to use machinery Costa rica could export much more than they could at this point in time. I’ll continue with more information about this in my next entry!

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2005-09-07T17:30:00.000-05:00

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Intro

2005-09-05T13:53:00.000-05:00

This blog is going to be about Costa Rica. I studied abroad there during winter session of 2004. I will talk about that experience; where I went, what I saw and what the country was like. I also plan on adding information about where to stay if you plan on visiting Costa Rica and also my opinion on why you should visit being that I have plans to go back for 5 weeks in January/ February of 2006 just to hang out and surf. So, please make comments on what you read, it makes it much more interesting to keep writing!