While in Costa Rica do as the Ticos do?

These are all peculiar things that I have noticed and pondered since living in Costa Rica.

- Saying “pura vida,” which means “pure life” can be used in response to several situations. When asked how you are doing, “pura vida” is definitely the choice response. When doing something challenging, yelling out “pura vida” seems to create new motivation. This phrase can definitely pass as Costa Rica’s motto.

- The smell of burning sugarcane is a daily scent in the air. There are tons of sugarcane fields here, where the technique of gathering the sugarcane is to burn the field to get rid of all the unwanted greenery and snakes, and when all that is gone, the sugarcane stalk remains. It’s a mystery to me of how the stalk doesn’t burn. As a result of the burning, there are often brunt flakes floating through the air like snowflakes. Oh it’s Christmas in Costa Rica. ☺

- I know this sounds kinda ridiculous, but dang do I miss carpet!! There is just absolutely no carpet to speak of here in Costa Rica. All the floors in houses are laid with ceramic tile or concrete. I haven’t seen carpet in like 5 months, and I never knew I had an appreciation for carpet until now. So now I long to just have the freedom of laying down on nice comfy carpet…

- The typical Costa Rican dish is called a “casado,” which consists of rice, beans, plantains, some sort of “salad” (usually shredded cabbage with carrots drenched in lime juice, there is no such thing as salad dressing here), and either meat, chicken, or fish. It all sounds good until you have it everyday. I really don’t know how much more rice and beans I can handle, but once again this makes me appreciation how lucky I am in the States to have so much variety of food from so many different cultures.

- Another dish that Costa Ricans can’t live without is called “gallo pinto,” which is a mixture of rice and beans stir-fried together. Gallo pinto is the choice food for breakfast. Also never underestimate the versatility of ham, otherwise know as “jamón.” Jamón comes in pizza, with your hamburger, the choice meat for sandwiches, and sometimes comes with a piece of bread for breakfast. Mmmm…but not for a person like me who doesn’t like meat.

- One method of advertising here is to attach a huge speaker system to the top of a truck and drive around town. Multiple times a day, you can hear loud radio advertisements blasting at full volume from a driving car. Must be an effective way of advertising!

- Costa Ricans are called “Ticos” because they often add the verse “tico” to the end of words. For example the word for “a little” in Spanish is “poco,” but in Costa Rica it is “pocotico.” Its actually pretty cute to hear.

- This one was hard to wrap my head around, but there are no street names or building numbers to speak of. Even in the capital city, San Jose. It truly is a wonder how people find their way. Directions are only given by landmarks and distances. So incredibly confusing. However, the two main highways are labeled luckily.

- Lastly I would like to debut the best cookies in Costa Rica, called “Chicky Blak.” Now Chicky Blak is a chocolate cookie similar to Oreos, but is only one-sided and has chocolate frosting. This cookie is great with milk, but is great general. Here is a picture of the wonder.