| Costa Rica Intro: Cell Service, Pura Vida, Some History & Fruit |
| Costa Rica communication Reaching me on my cell phone while I was in Costa Rica, my previous promises notwithstanding, was difficult. Here in Heredia, 300 colones-about 80 cents US-will rent you an hour on a computer with online access in one of the several 24 oras internet centers. The places are packed. In my favorite, the kid who takes care of the shop brings out his guitar and sings Costa Rican folk songs while we all check our email. Good thing they have email here. One reason is because the CR house numbering system is unique, so letters may take a while to receive. The other is the phone system. Everyone and their brother at Bermuda Telecom and ICE (the CR telecom monopoly) assured me that at least one and probably two of my cell phones would work here. Wrong. The phones seem to work, but neither will pick up a signal. Why not? Not sure, the technician tells me. Maybe it will curar. Maybe it will heal. As if my phone has a fever. Pura Vida The phrase �Pura Vida� defines Costa Rica. People say it all the time, as a greeting and an explanation. Pura means not just pure, but unadulterated and undiluted and uncorrupted. Vida means life and what you do for a living. It�s how you spend your lifetime and why you did it. Pura Vida is both encouragement to take the right path and a reminder that you should have fun doing so. It is a motto and a prayer and a not-so-secret Costa Rican password. Pura Vida is why they have more school teachers than cops in CR, and take great pride in fresh fruit and maybe also why at 6 in the evening whole families turn on the TV to watch a variety and audience participation show that has some Spanish name, but which everyone, even those who speak little English, call �The Wiggly Show� in honor of the trio of attractive dancing hostesses. Sorry your cell phone won�t work. Aren�t those dancers cute? Have some fresh pineapple juice. Pura Vida. |
| Costa Rica background So here I am in Costa Rica. Sunday night, and wishing I could have sent you all a postcard. But they don�t DO postcards in CR. Wonderful, modest, followers of la pura vida that they are, when I ask for tarjetas postales, they reply that they don�t sell them, and what�s more, they ask in all sincerity �Why would anyone want to receive a card with a picture of Costa Rica on it? My Spanish is not good enough to say anything but �because CR is muy bonita! You�ve got beaches, you�ve got jungles, you�ve got volcanoes. You border on as many oceans as the US! They often say here that CR is as big as West Virginia. Well, I�ve been to West Virginia. And THEY sell postcards. Of coal mines, for chrissake. And unlike bordering Nic, Guat and Panama in a previous lifetime, no one is shooting at anyone else. In fact, CR found the whole idea of armed conflict so inefficient that they abolished the entire army in 1948 and replaced it with a police force. Maybe because they did things like this: |
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| Looks like a fort? Look closer. |
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| Most forts have windows that are narrow slits on the outside and wide in the inside so you can shoot out at all angles. Nope. This fort has windows that are wide on the outside. Like a funnel for bullets that someone is shooting at you. So anything that comes close is funneled into the fort and ricochets around inside. I�d fire my army too. |
| But with no soldiers, even the cops are civil. Minding my own business on Avenida Central, the main shopping drag in San Jose when a cop comes up and asks in Spanish if I speak English. I say si and he starts asking me vocabulary words based in items in the department store window. |
| Safety in Numbers Most Costa Rican kids stay at home until they marry, and very few have cars. So they are always looking for a place to make out. Pressing the West Virginia coal mine analogy a bit farther, canaries warn miners if toxic gas levels are too high. In Costa Rica, teenagers serve somewhat the same purpose. It is generally considered safe to walk in parks and plazas, even at night, where there are at least two couples necking. No pair of kissing couples means not safe. (seems that it�s not a good idea to rely on only one couple�who knows, they may be so overcome by passion that even they don�t realize it�s not a safe place to be). Manana, Monday, I begin a week of Spanish immersion training, then speak at a Latin American risk management conference here in San Jose. I am replacing a speaker who was scheduled to present on protecting oil fields against sabotage and terrorism, but who was, no kidding, concerned about traveling given the war. I am not sure, but I believe he may be French. Though I am not speaking on the same topic, I thought that if I were, a cool way to start would be: ok, if two pairs of Costa Rican kids are necking in your oil field, then you�re safe. Maybe not. |
| Yes, it does grow on trees here. Fresh fruit. Incredible amounts of fresh, local tropical fruit. And �fresca natural�, or freshly squeezed fruit juice, is abundant. Restaurants catering to costarricenses, serving comida tipica, offer more choices of fruit juice than they do for entrees. For food, you may have your choice of Pollo con frijoles o Pollo con arroz: Chicken with beans or chicken with rice? But when it comes to fresca natural: �Tonight we offer fresh juice from your choice of cas o melon o banana o guayana o pina o manga o �� |
| Dona Elba, the matriarch of the home I am staying in, is very proud of her boyfriend, who has a quintacita, a little house in the country, and brings her ripe fruit before her neighbors get theirs. And Isabel, who keeps house and cooks for Dona Elba, uses this fruit for the breakfast fresca, saying, as she pours it out, �Pura Vida�. The mercado is filled with stalls selling these fruits and dozens more that I have never seen before. Practicing my Spanish, I say �La fruta esta buena hoy� Your fruit looks great today. The stall vendor smiles as he corrects me with something like, �Si, la fruta es buena�. Yes, the fruit is always great. |
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