My brother came to visit and we decided to go the beach house in Nosara, on the Nicoya peninsula. Neither of us have ever driven in Costa Rica before, but we decided to rent a car and drive the 5 hours to the Pacific coast. My brother picked up on the stick shift quite well. We only almost died 1 time and the trip was great after we finally convinced him to stay on the main road. Nosara is a small beach town with only dirt roads. The main road from Nicoya to ...

Not a 3rd world country Ok, so I decided after my trip home to Florida, to ride as a passenger in the car and take pictures of every American commercialized thing I could find. I created an album. Apparently everyone thinks I live in a third world country with no running water or ammenities. Costa Rica is also not all beaches and coconuts. It is also not an island. It is in Central America. I live in the city, which is a higher altitude, so there goes my t...

Today I realized a lot about the Tico culture, which I am not sure if I like or not. Tico's in general are very passive-aggressive people. I am very straight-forward, sometimes mistaken for too aggressive. People who are sensitive and not confrontational can sometimes take my personality the wrong way. People who are the same way as me, or have a little more of a roughness, get a long with me right away. I have almost no real problems with people and everyo...

If the humor of the below posting is lost on you, don't worry - you're just not fully "Tico-ized" quite yet... I am just about Tico-ized! 1. You aren't just surprised that the electrician/plumber/gardener etc has come on time, you're just surprised he came at all. 2. You give everyone you meet, including new acquaintances, a 'cheek to cheek air kiss' to say hello because not doing so is considered 'muy frio'. 3. The sight of really over...

Semana Santa is holy week. Every Latin American country takes these days off for holy week. Especially Thursday and Friday. Basically the whole country shuts down. The buses don't run. No school, no stores, almost nothing. It is very interesting to see. It is holy week, but everyone I know took it as spring break and went to the beach, relax, or even party. It was actually very peaceful in my apartment for the first time in a long time all weekend. This...