Let Me Paint You a Picture

Written by Kate.

So, we have been here for a month officially. This has given us some time to absorb Costa Rica somewhat and take a closer look at their culture. I want to share with you our findings. This is a long one, so get ready.

Traveling can be a hard thing around here. Most Costa Ricans travel by bus, which is ok, but there is no air conditioning of course. When the bus is traveling over a dusty, gravel road at 25 to 30 mph, you don't catch much of a breeze. You sit, sticking to the pleather seats with hardly enough room for your legs. You are so close to the person next to you that you are also sticking to them. You try to sleep, but if you let your head stay too close to the window for too long, you will end up covered in dust and resemble Pig Pen from Charlie Brown (this did happen to Ruben on our way home from Dominical and it was all in his tico fro). But then, you catch a wonderful breeze as the bus picks up it's pace, maybe 35 mph now? The dust clears out and you can breathe again. This is only one way to travel of course, you can take a taxi anywhere but it will cost much more. The bus will take you hours away on $4, the taxi will take you 10 minutes down the road for that much. We got picked up once by an un-registered taxi (the registered ones are red) driven by a man and his wife. He had a normal sized car, and there was 4 of us with Eric's board, so we didn't think we'd all fit. Oh, he made it work. Three in the back with the board sticking out of the window and me sharing the passenger-side front seat with the wife! Talk about awkward... Eric and I spent $150 on a taxi from San Jose to Quepos, which took 4 hours. It was a wonderful ride, because our taxi driver was more like a tour guide. Pointing out all the landmarks and scenery. He seemed to get just as exciting talking about his beautiful country as we were to be in it! There are also smaller buses/vans called Interbus, which are more expensive, maybe $10 or $20, but air conditioned and faster. Ahhhh air conditioning. I miss that feeling. There are small airports everywhere, but the word "airport" is exaggerating. It is more like a landing strip with no buildings around it that we could see and no apparent way to get to it. Just a small landing strip, surrounded by trees. 

Those are ways to get to other cities and towns. If you want to get around the town your in, walking is the most used way. Our walk to town is down a dusty, narrow road. If a car comes we all stray to one side, single-file, and try not to inhale too much dust. It may take 7 to 10 minutes to get to the nearest store, Super 2000. While walking, you always see interesting things, but it is amazing the amount of trash that is laying around. There are no dumpsters you see, only wire basket type things that are held off the ground with a pole. People put their trash in these and it is picked up by the garbage people maybe twice a month. Many times I have seen trash strewed around in the streets because a stray dog bit the bag open for a snack. New methods are needed. Bikes are the second most used way to get around, and many people have baskets on the front. It is not uncommon to see two people sharing a bike, but that form of travel is reserved for teenagers and older. You will never see a small child on a bike unless their are catching a ride with their older sibling or parent. 

Once in town, shopping can be a treat. The supermarkets are small and quaint. There are 2 "big" ones here in town, Pali and Super Mas. Pali is a warehouse style grocery store with cheaper prices but you won't find any foreign labels. Super Mas is a bit smaller and has many American labels including an organic section. I buy my meat from the butcher at Super Mas because he is quite friendly and Steve knows him as well. We have fun chatting because he knows no English, so he helps me with my Spanish. There are carts available at stores, but not many ticos use carts. You will see many silly foreigners (including myself) pushing a cart around and trying to maneuver through isles that are hardly big enough for 2 people to get passed each other. When you buy food, you buy enough to fit in your backpack with maybe 1 extra bag. It can take 20 minutes to walk home when weighed down. The best day to go shopping is Saturday morning. The farmer's market. So many choices and yummy smells. There is cooked food for sale as well as all the raw vegetables and fruit. You can get a pipa fria (cold coconut that you drink the juice out of) while you walk around. You see many people and it is a great place to practice Spanish. You will get the best deals with the most variety available. Once, I got 4 star fruit for 100 colones. That is like 20 cents! They are $2 each in the states!

The food here can be quite different. The cream cheese is muy delicioso! Not like that Philli crap we get at home. It actually tastes exactly like cheese in a creamed form. They have peanut butter here too, but it is very sweet. There are extras in it that we don't have in our peanut butter at home. You can find so many tropical fruits here and they are so cheap! Mango, papaya, star fruit, etc. The most fun thing to do with the fruits is make smoothies. They are so good! I have a papaya and pineapple smoothie waiting for me in the freezer upstairs! The star fruit was also different here. It is extremely sour, almost like a lemon. Speaking of lemon, they don't really have those here, but they have huge limes! Lime juice is used on and in almost everything. We keep a bag of limes around to flavor our food or add to a smoothie. Our diet has mostly consisted of: fruit, tuna melts, simple pastas, soups/stews, and eggs. I may eat chicken once every couple weeks and we may get actual fish filets every once in awhile... but most of our meat is canned tuna.

After eating all that food, we must keep up our exercise regimen. Is there a gym? Claro! (of course) Hay dos en Quepos. (There are 2 in Quepos). One is called Mucho Musculo (Lots of Muscle) and it is quite small. Eric and I passed it many times on our walks to his school in the mornings. There are apparently many gay men who frequent this gym in their little shorts and mid-drif shirts. The other gym has a boxing ring in it where Ruben has gone once to practice. Eric and myself, we have not visited these places, because the world is our gym! We go for runs quite often, which is an adventure in itself. Running on the roads is hazardous, because the shoulder is tiny... so we are constantly dodging cars, motor bikes, scooters, and four-wheelers. Sometimes the sidewalk, if there is one, is so overgrown with plants it is like a jungle to run through them. Most ticos find it amusing to see these silly foreigners run, especially a girl! I would be amazed to see a tica woman exercise, because they don't. Often when I'm running alone or with Eric, the ticos will ignore him, but when I go by they imitate me running for a few feet and say something in Spanish while smiling. Sort of making fun of me. One time a guy smiled and clapped for me. It is all very interesting. If I am alone, it is almost certain that I will get cat-called. Whistles, shouts, smiles, staring... it will all happen.... but the dogs are worse. I would rather hear every single man whistle at me than to deal with the dogs here. Many dogs are strays and don't care about anything. They have no property to protect, no people to love them. However, dogs that belong to someone, you better watch out. There are signs everywhere that say "perro bravo" (brave dog), and they aren't lying... it's just that most of these "brave dogs" are also the smallest dogs! As we are running, trying to keep up a good pace and not breathe in too much dust, these little chihuahuas come running out barking with all their might and snapping at our ankles. They are little devils! We have learned the trick though... you must come at them. Stamp your feet and bark back. The more we keep running the more the dog thinks it is winning by chasing us. In the middle of our runs, we sometimes stop at a small park and do pull-ups, step-ups, whatever we can do on the apparatus they have. At home, I often use the furniture to do exercises on, and run sprints around the dirt oval near our house. 

I have also noticed that relationships around here are different. It is rare to see a couple holding hands or showing affection. However, it is not rare to see an older foreign man with a much younger tico woman. In Jaco, we saw two older white men who must have been in their 60's at least with 2 young ticas, in their 20's. It was slightly disturbing, but it happens. Prostitution is also legal here, and there are a few around Quepos. Sometimes I can tell, a sickly skinny woman teetering around on sticks for legs... sometimes I can't. Unfortunately, Costa Rica is a place where people can become alcoholics or addicted to drugs very easily. Liquor is cheap. They have AA chapters in every town and city. Many people lay sleeping on the ground or under trucks by the water front. I digress... the way a tica will interact with me as opposed to Eric is quite a different experience. If I say hello or good morning to a tica, I will either get no response or a half-assed one (it is not the same if I say hi to a tico). If Eric says the same, he will definitely get an answer back, usually accompanied by a smile. Tica women are very receptive to attention from men... any men. So Eric is always successful. When we were together shopping, I noticed how the tica behind the counter approached him to see what he wanted. She had this steely look, challenging him to come get her while trying to hide that she was interested, as all tica women have to because the tico men are not scared to say what's on their mind. As soon as Eric spoke to her, she could tell he was not going to flirt, not going to chase, and she livened right up and became cheerful. He was safe. No games. He has a muher (woman). The ticas definitely find him attractive though. Many of his teenage girl students have gotten the giggles around him. I have noticed many tica girls our age twisting their hips as they walk by him. Those tricks don't work on Eric like they work on tico men, who would inevitably yell something crude while rubber-necking for the next 5 minutes. Eric is a gentleman, especially when he's with me. He is also very calm about how the tico men act towards me, even when he's there. He understand it is their culture. That they will stare, will whistle, will say things. I understand that too. It does not bother me much anymore. It is funny to see the other American couple that lives here, Justin and Ashli. Justin gets very upset when the tico men stare at Ashli. He can't understand why they would do that when he's there. Tico men just don't give a flip who's there and who's not. If they see something nice, they're going to look at it. It can be amusing.  

Well, I hope this has given you some insight to our life here. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to accompany this blog, but maybe you could imagine it. We are looking forward to sharing this life with whoever wants to visit. My parents will be the first, as they will be here in 10 days. It will be very exciting to show them our life and hopefully interesting to them as well. It is the most simple life I've led since living on my parent's camp-ground as a 6 year-old, and very humbling at that. It has, I think, been one of my greatest challenges to adjust which I have not fully done yet. Eric has been much more successful, but maybe it's his state of mind. Now that he's home more, I'm sure he'll rub off on me. Until next time... pura vida!