While waiting at the airport, I found a good internet connection. Here are some more impressions that I took with me from Costa Rica, some more Tico specialties.

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Coffee making – the traditional method with filters

The Costarricenses prepare their coffee using filter machines. Ths is the machine we found in our cottage house in Cahuite, and they are omnipresent.

In the filter compartment, there is a filter basked that is to wrapped into filter paper. Here is the filter paper wrapping up the basket.

Our homestay family washed the filter paper to reuse it once or twice. A good idea that we adopted, when preparing our coffee in hotel rooms of Costa Rica.

Only once we noticed a Britt espresso engine that looked like a Nespresso machine. I guess for export the Costarricenses have to produce coffee in capsules as well now.

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Refrescoes naturales – every small place serves them – delicious

We really loved the fruit juices or refrescoes naturales that we could order everywhere in Costa Rica. Every restaurant and every housewife owns a “licuidora” (which is a mixer) to produce them. Our homestay mum would prepare a fresh juice to accompany our meals. We also ordered them in every restaurant – they are even sometimes included in the almuerzos (or lunch plates) of the day. Fresh ananas, mango, strawberries, blackberries, papaya or the sourish cas, alone or mixed – the licuidora rattles for a moment, and then the healthy and refreshing “refresco natural” is ready. As Costa Rica is a clean country, we never had problems to drink the fresh fruit juices mixed with water.

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Regulations may be regulations, but they have to make sense

Driving in Costa Rica is an intersting experience. The Costarricenses live up to regulations only, when they make sense. No one stops at an “alto” sign, when there is no traffic. Overtaking in the right hand lane is not allowed, but often, slow cars drive left, and the others overtake them on the right hand lane. And here, the sign says “no estacionar” and see, how many cars are parked here quietly.

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Small watchdogs barking loudly and angrily

Big dogs like shepherd dogs are rare in Costa Rica. Most dogs are small or tiny. Also our homestay family had a teckle. The small dogs are attentive watchdogs, nevertheless, and bark loudly, jumping behind the fences that protect the Tico houses. Here are three small white dogs that bark at me loudly, as I am taking a picture of them.

When walking in the streets, the loud barking of small dogs would always accompany us. And the smaller the dog, the louder the barking.