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Ticos often give coffee to babies and kids.
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Most fast food restaurants do home delivery.
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A lot of Costa Ricans carry around machetes. Out
here they are the equivalent to duck tape and used for everything so
don't worry!
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Nearly all Catholic churches here face the West.
This is very handy as directions in Costa Rica are usually given in
terms of cardinal directions, like "100 meters east of the university."
Speaking of which, there are usually no street names in Costa Rica so
people get used to give directions in relation to landmarks. In rural
areas this gets cute, as people will describe their official, legal
direction in ways like "pink house just north of the big tree," or even
"200 meters south of where the cow is tied up."
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At 7am every morning, all Costa Rican radio stations
play the National Anthem, and many play it again at night.
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Younger males often pepper their speech with the
word "mae," which is derived from a word for "stupid." A typical
statement might be, "Mae, mira que estos maes estan jodiendo mae."
Literally, "Stupid, look how these stupid guys are bothering people,
stupid."
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Great Costa Rican food includes gallo pinto
("painted rooster"), which is rice mixed with black beans and often
eggs, it is also known as "Burra" in Puntarenas and Guanacaste; Olla de
Carne, which is beef and rice in a delicious broth with many kinds of
exotic root vegetables, and chorreadas, or sweet corn pancakes with
sour cream.
pinto, olla carne, chorreadas.
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While people often complain about the dilapidated
appearance of the public transportation and health systems, buses and
hospitals here definetly get the job done, and are well above the
quality to be found in surrounding countries.
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Most costa rican adults under 30 use the internet,
and over 50,000 Costa Rican people use the social networking site hi5.com alone.
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The National
Learning Institute (INA) provides free classes in all kinds of job
skills to Costa Rican people, and many other organizations exist (with
names like IMAS or INS) to offer social welfare help to poor people
here. Somehow, the country manages to do this while still maintaining
taxes at a much lower rates than the US!
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Every town has it's own plaza, or little park, in
front of a catholic church. Bigger cities have many such parks, and in
most towns a soccer field is close by.
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The government hopes to make English a "national
second language," as in European countries, and already over 100,000
Costa Ricans work in jobs, like hotels or tech support call centers,
where English is the main countries language in use.
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There is in fact a whole region of Costa Rica, the
Atlantic province Limon, where English is common, thanks to the
Jamaican ancestors of many Limonenses who settled there to work on the
railroad and banana plantations. There are also large numbers of
nicaraguan immigrants to the country, and smaller populations of
colombians, dominicans, and others.
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The preferred music of older Costa Ricans is cumbia,
whiled younger Costa Ricans often prefer reggaeton dance tunes,
although there are a great variety of tastes represented.
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Costa Ricans have a fondness for 80s action movies,
and films by chuck norris, jean claude van damme and others make
frequent appearances on local tv stations.
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Traditional ice creams come in interesting flavors
like wild blackberry, peanut, coconut, green mango, and even sour cream.
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On Costa Rica's various patriotic days, young
schoolboys dress up with traditional hats and shirts, red scarves, and
painted on mustaches, while little girls sport traditional braids and
colored skirts. Oxen are also featured prominently.
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Costa Rica ranks at the top of lists of the world's
best surfing, sports-fishing, and dive spots, but also has great
mountain hiking.
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