Costa Rican Impressions

Well, I am currently sitting on a couch in the hostel Costa Rica Backpackers, and must admit that while lovely and comfortable, it feels like a completely foreign environment. I am surrounded by extranjeros, polish, American, Australian, Spanish. I just met someone from Seattly who knows some of the same people that I know in Ashland! Really small world.

After my nine hour bus trip, I am ready to go searching for some real food. Being tired of raisins, bananas and cookies. We’ll see what I can scrounge up.

From what I have seen so far, the rumors about Costa Rica feeling like a first world country seem to be true. Though I have not seen much, driving through San José showed a plethora of parks, shoe stores, American chain restaurants, well-designed buildings, and clean streets. The people I have talked to in the last few days keep referring to the Costa Rican Tourist Machine, and I can see why. Other interesting facts include that Costa Rica has world-class, free, and universal health care, the longest life expectancy rates in the world, lowest infant mortality, and indeed, absolutely no military. Imagine that. In fact, the US aid package to Costa Rica includes $30 million dollars a year for weapons purchases. This small country has put all of that money into a separate bank account, and made it available for the US to use whenever it wants, rather than begin to purchase artillery.

I look forward this week to exploring Costa Rica, and some of what I have heard about it from Nicaraguans. There are more than half a million Nicaraguans working and living in Costa Rica, both legally and illegally. Apparently, they work largely in ‘undesirable’ positions, doing housework or construction. They suffer a great deal of racism, and are seemingly thought of similarly to Mexicans in the states. However, my impression of Nicaraguans continues to be nothing but amazed at their openness and genuine concern for others. On the bus on the way down here, I sat next to Carrie, a native matagalpina who has lived the last 13 years in Costa Rica. She was returning from her first visit home in all that time. She was teary-eyed when she bordered the bus, so I struck up a conversation and offered her a cookie. In return, she chatted with me, offered my the opportunity to stay at her house, gave me a bracelet her neice had made her during her visit, told me all about where I needed to go and what I should do to take care of myself in San José, and gave me her phone numbers in case I need anything while I am here. She even offered to accompany me to the airport tomorrow if I wanted her to. That kind of openness and friendship offered to strangers is something that I have encountered countless times here, but which continues to surprise, impress, and touch me.

So with that, I head into a week of paying in colones rather than córdobas, to games of scrabble rather than dominoes, speaking in English, and feeling wonderfully wonderfully surrounded by my parents. However, I miss Nicaragua already, and cannot wait to head back…