Cultural notes, part 3

I've had two very interesting intercambios this week. These conversational exchanges allow two students to get together, one to practice Spanish and one to practice English, and learn about each other's cultures and travels. On Tuesday, I met Jennifer, a student studying both tourism and special education. She volunteers at a school with a group of Down's syndrome students. As a tourism student, she has seen a lot of places throughout the country. One place she is particularly fond of is Zarcero, a small town about an hour and a half northwest of San José. Though well-known for its local cheese (queso palmito) it is by far most famous for its topiary gardens in front of the town church. Juan is another English student at Intercultura who's seen a lot of places in Costa Rica. When he was young, he would travel a lot with his father, who used to be a coffee trader and thus would visit coffee plantations througout the country. Juan recommended the stretch of the Caribbean coast from Cahuita down to the Panamanian border. It's a little difficult to get to, which makes it a place untouched by heavy tourism. Just looking at some of the pictures of the Caribbean coast I can tell the vibe is different from the Pacific side. It's definitely an area I'd like to see the next time I visit Costa Rica.

These days, Juan's father works as a real-estate agent catering to foreign investors. Even in this economy, the real estate figures prominently in the local economy. In the countryside, there are billboards everywhere advertising land and developments for sale. Many expats from around the world come here to retire; among these are Connie and Douglas from Vermont, whom I met while I was in Sámara. There's a fair amount of U.S. investment in Costa Rican real estate; still, the bulk of foreign money comes from Europe. With the local economy relying more and more on tourism and foreign trade, the ability to speak English is no longer a luxury here – it's virtually essential if you want to get a good job.

Although foreign relations are a big part of Costa Rican culture, it's difficult for Costa Ricans to obtain the right to travel abroad. Jennifer especially hopes to visit Spain someday soon to further her studies in special education, as well as visit family in the United States. However, as she explained to me, it takes a lot of time and a lot of money to get a full unrestricted Tico passport. The government's main worry seems to be that its citizens may leave the country for good, so they ask for a lot of documentation – especially financial records – to show that you have a well-established life in Costa Rica. This makes it hard for a lot of students like Jennifer, who don't have solid, full-time streams of income. It's a rather onerous set of restrictions in a country that otherwise prides itself on political freedom and democracy. We in the U.S. may complain about how our freedoms have slowly eroded away since 9/11 (which they have), but relatively speaking we still have it pretty good.

As welcoming and friendly as Costa Ricans are to most foreigners (especially North Americans and Europeans), amistad tica does have its dark side, which Jesús and I talked about this morning. Since Costa Rica prides itself on being the most economically and politically stable country in Central America, many Ticos harbor strong feelings of nationalism and entitlement toward other countries in the region, especially toward their most embattled neighbor, Nicaragua. The border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica has always been a hotbed of contention. Refugees and illegal immigrants from north of the border have been pouring into Costa Rica since civil war in the 1980's rocked Nicaragua's economic and political system to the core. Many Ticos can be quick to blame Nicaraguans for anything that ills Costa Rica. Even Norma, my mamá tica in Sámara, once told me outright that almost all crimes and killings we see on the news are committed by Nicaraguans and Colombians. I naturally took what she told me with a huge grain of salt. Like the prejudice many Americans have toward Mexicans, this is a sentiment that likely won't go away anytime soon.