By Helen Dunn FrameWhat do you envision when you dream of Costa Rica? Lush greenery, tropical flowers, rain forests, volcanoes, deep-sea fishing, surf champs and wannabes, and friendly people who greet you with "Pura Vida" that literally means "Pure Life?"
Costa Ricans have used the phrase since the mid-fifties, a typical Tico adoption of words, as a greeting, a farewell, to express satisfaction or a philosophy of strong community, perseverance, good spirits, slowly enjoying life, and celebrating good fortune. Ticos love when foreigners adopt it into their vocabulary along with "con mucho gusto" which replaces "de nada" in Costa Rica. Idioms and words like "Upe" also pepper their Spanish language.
Legends, essentially narratives of human actions that are perceived both by the teller and listeners to have taken place within human history occupy a place in Costa Rican traditions. The stories, whether written or not that may be embellished by the narrator, possess certain qualities that give them a sense of truthfulness and the possibility they really have happened. They also serve to guide native behavior.
In this issue look for references to those tales told in Escazú, known as the city of witches, and to others recounted in Guanacaste. Also especially prevalent in the providence are ranches of various sizes where cows have the right of way, the love of horses reigns, and boys grow up to be cowboys. Once covered by jungle the mystery of the spheres intrigues visitors to the Diquis Delta south of Dominical.
Legends are just one aspect of Costa Rican traditions that include family values, following generations old customs, and eating certain foods even if they were borrowed from other countries in the recent past.
A "Soda," not the bottled variety but the Tico word for a small hole-in-the-wall family operated restaurant, offers a traditional low cost meal called Casado. It contains all the foods a new bride must know how to prepare for her spouse: rice, beans, grilled bananas or plantains, a salad usually made with cabbage, and potatoes of some sort.
Sometimes a hard-boiled egg, avocado or fruit in season may be added. It usually comes with either a pork chop, beef in a sauce, chicken or a breaded fried fish. Ceviche made with corvina, although other seafood also serve as the main ingredient, is often on the menu. Chicken is exceptionally good countrywide but the hamburgers made of ground beef containing little fat are usually wafer thin unlike Whoppers. Tender steaks are found only in certain restaurants and meat markets but beef prepared in a sauce like a stew is succulent.
In many homes natives still eat rice three times a day. Locals also frequent chains like KFC where the offerings mimick stateside, McDonald's, Tony Roma's, and TGIF, an indication of the changing Costa Rican palate. It's easy to follow the local custom of drinking beer over ice because it stays chilled longer although you might eschew coffee in a glass because it's just too hot to hold without adding milk. By the way, pure coffee, not the sugared variety also embibed here, tastes so good that Starbucks has not invaded yet.
Most towns feature central squares where locals congregate and festivals such as Topes (horse parades) originate from the end of November through July A church that typically faces west dominates one side.
Some churches are unique like the purple metal one found in Grecia that was delivered from Belgium in pieces, each carefully numbered, and rebuilt with nuts and bolts. The parts arrived during the 1890s in the Carribean port of Limon, and were hauled across the country in colorful oxcarts, the design of each one identifying the owner or Boyero like a "coat of arms."
Once a year the National Day of the Boyeros Festival that attained in 2005 United Nations Heritage status for Maintained Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritages of Humanity (UNESCO) takes place in San Antonio de Escazú where Boyeros proudly display their oxcart and team and enter competitions. Other annual celebrations include a Virgen del Mar event detailed within these pages.
Some towns may be called "hidden gems." Others like San Ramon, known as the "City of Poets" as a result of a literary movement in the 1880s, earned fame when former President Jose "Pepe" Figueres Ferrer announced the abolishment of the Costa Rican army there during his first term in 1948-49.
The lack of military attracts many foreigners to the country Pepe remains one of Costa Rica's much revered human legends a hundred years after.his birth.
Worth noting, the Global Property Guide, an international property research firm, recently reported that investing in Costa Rica remains "relatively cheap." For example, the survey showed that prices for flats in San Jose were 42% lower than those in Panama City. Remember this while you browse the real estate listings herein and check the articles for more interesting tidbits about Costa Rica where you also may achieve Pura Vida.
