Don Mateo

On a recent trip to San Jose, I drove on part of the new ring road (outerbelt), a modern highway that significantly reduces the time needed to drive between points in the San Jose area. First proposed in the late 1950s and begun in 1979, it is just now nearing completion. Such is the reality of infrastructure and construction in Costa Rica.

My Tico friend Tomas has decided that Costa Rica has enough residents. Tomas lived and worked under the table in New Jersey for over a decade and made enough money to return to his homeland and considerably upgrade his lifestyle. He never intended to make the US his permanent home. His heart is here in Ticolandia.

Moving to Costa Rica means adapting to the metric system for U.S. expats. Discover essential tips on understanding kilometers, Celsius, and liters

Anyone who doubts Costa Rica’s loyalty to government bureaucracy should take into consideration this fact: Costa Rica has two Vice Presidents. Our country of 5 million plus is one of only eight countries that includes the appendage of an additional veep, joining Guyana, Honduras, Laos, Libya, Peru, United Arab Emirates and Zimbabwe in this dubious group.

The latest news and information from Costa Rica including breaking news, weather, travel, events, sports and more.

Did you know that Costa Rica is the only country in the Americas with an official religion? Our national religion–no, it’s not fútbol or bureaucracy–is Catholicism, as defined by Article 75 of the Constitution of Costa Rica. From the smallest rural towns defined by a soccer field, a pulpería, and a Catholic church, to the cities of the GMA with their grand cathedrals, about two-thirds of the country practices the religion first imposed here centuries ago by the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors.

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign, blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind– that was the chorus of a popular song a while back. That refrain runs through my head any time I walk around the barrio. One thing is clear: Street signs in Costa Rica have a hard life. Between the scorching sun, the annual rains, dust, dirt, vandals, neglect and bad drivers, we have our share of signs that have seen better days.

Several years ago, I started a job that required me to spend the first two months in a small town near Volcan Arenal. It was November, and the days were misty and cloud-covered. Outside of the town, there were intriguing signs pointing to a mysterious lake where there had once been a UFO sighting. The sign read: Cote Lake/Alien Zone.

“A hundred suspicions don’t make a proof” – Feodor Dostoevsky. In the early 1990s, I spent most of a year in a rural area of Costa Rica, caretaking a property that had been carved out of the jungle a couple of decades before by an energetic North American. The small farm was remote and isolated. The nearest pay phone was twenty minutes away. We made a weekly trip to the closest city for supplies and to catch up on the local happenings. In those pre-cell phone and pre-internet days, we had a shortwave radio and listened to BBC and VOA to keep abreast of world events.

If you live in a predominantly Tico barrio, you are likely familiar with vendedores ambulantes. These are the door-to-door salespeople who pass through selling eggs, mora, pejibaye, mamón chino, tamales, tomates, pasteles, and mucho mucho más. They may be on foot or in a vehicle that slowly passes by the houses while the vendor calls out their products. Some have speakers mounted on car roofs, while others rely proudly on their strong vocal cords.