In Costa Rica I observed a few more specialties such as washing the dishes, cars fitting precisely into garages, some interesting compay names and many, many small shops selling practically everthing needed in daily life.

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 Washing the dishes with firm soap

This is the place where dishes are being washed in the Don Qujote school: A sink, running cold water, a box with firm soap and an abrasive sponge. The Ticos rub the cups and plates carefully using the sponge and some of the soap. Our homestay family foamed the dishes in using the same soap.

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Many Ticos have earned enough to own a car, but space is scarce

There are a lot of cars in Costa Rica. San José suffers from traffic jams during rush hours. On one Friday evening it took us two hours to return to Santo Domingo, and this is usually just a journey of ten to fifteen minutes. But then the Ticos have to park their cars and space may be scarce, when they live in small houses. Here are two solutions we found.

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German immigrants leave their traces

When arriving at the airport, I immediatley notice the company sign “Kölbi” with the frog. It is one of the major communication companies and these frogs are omnipresent here. To me this name sounds even Swiss. 

Other names that remind me of Germany are Lehmann (a bookshop), Fischel (a pharmacy chain) and Münkel (an chain of opticians).

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Super Cho and Panadería Tuti

In Santo Domingo we found small grocery shops at every corner. This is one of them, Super Cho (probably a Tico version of “Joe”).

These small shops have everything needed for daily life, even dental tape. Around the corner was the panaderia Tuti, where I discovered the “sweet bread” called “pan dulce” or “budín” (can you recognise the word? It is “pudding”).  Delicious. This was my snack (Z’nüni) every morning at school.

Costa Rica is a very catholic country. Their Radio Reloj plays “Ave Maria” in Latin at midday and at six o’clock in the evening – this can be found in youtube. Good bye for now.