{"id":797,"date":"2015-10-19T15:47:56","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T21:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/?p=797"},"modified":"2019-07-11T22:33:23","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T04:33:23","slug":"my-general-impressions-of-costa-rica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/my-general-impressions-of-costa-rica\/","title":{"rendered":"My general impressions of Costa Rica"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a few weeks in Costa Rica, I’ve experienced some facts and got some impressions about this country. Here I tell you a bit more about some of them.<\/p>\n

Food<\/h3>\n

The day I arrived in Jac\u00f3 was a Sunday. I had read in my tourist guide, that only in some bigger cities there were supermarkets which are open on Sundays. And even those, only until noon. But the supermarkets in Jac\u00f3 were open, even if it was already 6:00 pm! So, I didn’t have to starve on my first day (of course, it would have been possible to go to one of the sodas with typical and quite cheap food, too\u2026).<\/p>\n

In the supermarket, something strange caught my eye: a packet of chips with lemon and salt. Chips with lemon and salt? As I got to know later, there are a few strange combinations that Costa Ricans like: lemon and salt for the salad dressing instead of vinegar and oil, unripe mangoes with salt and pejibayes<\/em> (which is a fruit tasting similar to marron) with mayonnaise!<\/p>\n

Showers and internet<\/h3>\n

Back in the apartment, I learned the next fact: showers in Jac\u00f3 worked differently to those in Germany. My roommate told me the water was always cold. It took me a while to understand that this was not true: the water doesn’t stay cold, if you turn it up slowly.<\/p>\n

Besides of the misinformation about the opening hours, my tourist guide said, that WiFi wasn’t widespread in Costa Rica. But at least in public places like bars, restaurants and all the hostels I’ve been, there was free WiFi. Maybe this information had been correct a few years ago, but now, luckily, it had changed. Therefore: even with a Facebook addiction, you will survive in Costa Rica very well \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Ticos<\/h3>\n

The experience I had been looking forward to the most were the ticos<\/em>. It’s well-known that Costa Ricans are particularly happy and friendly people. And I was keen to know, how they really were. After a while in Costa Rica I knew, that the ticos<\/em> were really friendly. When I went to the bank the first time to withdraw money (the cash machine didn\u2019t work so I had to go inside) the woman on the counter advised me to do it in the supermarket in front of the bank, because the fees there were lower. I was pleased about her advice, but I didn’t understand why she told me this. Wasn’t it better for the bank I payed them this fee? In Germany, something like this would never happen to me\u2026<\/p>\n

And when you walk on the streets, you will always be greeted by the people. First, it was a little bit strange to me. But I got used to it and I liked that people greeted each other. In general, they greet you with \u201c\u00a1Pura Vida!\u201d which is more than only a greeting. This phrase corresponds to their attitude to everything. The ticos<\/em> are satisfied with their life and live here and now: \u00a1Pura Vida!<\/p>\n

\"spanish-in-10-sec-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Read it in Spanish!<\/h2>\n

Despu\u00e9s de unas semanas en Costa Rica, he obtenido varias impresiones y experimentado hechos diferentes sobre este pa\u00eds. Aqu\u00ed les cuento algunas de ellas.<\/p>\n

La comida<\/h3>\n

Cuando llegu\u00e9 a Jac\u00f3, era domingo. En un gu\u00eda tur\u00edstica, hab\u00eda le\u00eddo que solo en algunas ciudades m\u00e1s grandes hay supermercados que tienen abierto los domingos y esto solo hasta el mediod\u00eda. \u00a1Pero los supermercados en Jac\u00f3 estaban abiertos aunque ya eran las 6:00 pm! Por eso, no ten\u00eda que morir de hambre en m\u00ed primer d\u00eda (claro, habr\u00eda sido posible comer en una de las sodas – con comida t\u00edpica y barata).<\/p>\n

En el supermercado, me di cuenta de algo raro: una bolsa de papas fritas con lim\u00f3n y sal. \u00bfPapa fritas con lim\u00f3n y sal? M\u00e1s tarde me di cuenta que a los costarricenses les gustan algunas combinaciones raras: el lim\u00f3n y la sal son los ingredientes del aderezo para ensaladas, en lugar de vinagre bals\u00e1mico y aceite. Tambi\u00e9n comen mango verde con sal. \u00a1Y comen pejibaye (que es una fruta que sabe similar a la casta\u00f1a) con mayonesa!<\/p>\n

Duchas e internet<\/h3>\n

De vuelta en el apartamento, aprend\u00ed\u00a0 el pr\u00f3ximo hecho: las duchas en Costa Rica funcionan diferente de las de Alemania. Mi compa\u00f1era de piso me dijo que el agua siempre era fr\u00eda. Dur\u00f3 un rato antes de que entendiera que eso no era correcto: el agua no permanece fr\u00eda si abres la ducha poco a poco.<\/p>\n

Adem\u00e1s de la informaci\u00f3n incorrecta sobre los horarios comerciales, \u00a0m\u00ed gu\u00eda tur\u00edstica dec\u00eda que en Costa Rica,\u00a0 el wifi no era com\u00fan. Al menos en lugares p\u00fablicos como bares, restaurantes y todos los hostales a donde fui, ten\u00edan internet gratis. Quiz\u00e1s esta informaci\u00f3n fue correcta hace unos a\u00f1os, pero ahora, por suerte, ha cambiado. Vas a sobrevivir en Costa Rica, aun si tienes una adicci\u00f3n a Facebook \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Los ticos<\/h3>\n

La experiencia que ten\u00eda m\u00e1s ganas de tener era conocer a los ticos. Es sabido que los costarricenses son\u00a0 particularmente felices y amables. Por eso ten\u00eda curiosidad de saber c\u00f3mo eran los ticos realmente. Y despu\u00e9s de un tiempo me di cuenta que los ticos son de verdad bastante amables.<\/p>\n

Cuando fui al banco por primera vez para sacar dinero el cajero autom\u00e1tico del banco estaba estropeado. La se\u00f1ora en la ventanilla me recomend\u00f3 sacarlo en el supermercado frente al banco, porque ah\u00ed las tasas eran m\u00e1s baratas. Me alegr\u00e9, pero no entend\u00ed por qu\u00e9 ella me hab\u00eda dado esta recomendaci\u00f3n. \u00bfNo era bueno para el banco si les pago a ellos esta tasa? En Alemania, nunca me pasar\u00eda algo as\u00ed\u2026<\/p>\n

Y cuando est\u00e1s caminando por la calle, la gente siempre te saluda. Al principio, era un poco raro para m\u00ed, pero me acostumbr\u00e9 de eso y me encant\u00f3 que uno a otro no se ignoraran. Por lo general, te saludan con \u00a1Pura Vida! que \u00a0es mucho m\u00e1s que solo un saludo. Esta frase corresponde a su actitud hacia todo. Los ticos est\u00e1n contentos con su vida y viven aqu\u00ed y ahora: \u00a1Pura Vida!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some facts and impressions about Costa Rica right from the hand of our dear intern, Karen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,19,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-food","category-student-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/portada.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ppNc8-cR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.academiatica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}