Bus Trip Back to Nicoya

After getting sun burned and spending more money than I intended to, I got on the bus to go back home to Nicoya. I sat next to two ladies from Nicaragua, who worked as vendors selling things to tourists up and down the beach.



They missed their home a lot and told me its a great place for tourists to come and is getting better. They told me about their typical foods, and how the chicarrones(pork rinds) in Costa Rica are inferior because they are cut by machine.

We talked about the American Dream, they would like to go to America to make money, and they like America and Americans. They said that President Bush has actually helped out their country alot.

They said something that I have heard repeated quite a lot here, from several different sources, that is that Americans and Canadians are better tourists than Europeans. We are more polite, We don´t haggle to the point of being jerks, and we tip well. Germans, French, Spaniards, and people from Great Britain are seen as rude and cheap. Americans are also more likely to know some Spanish.

Speaking of opinions about America, my host mother has not only hosted American students, but she went to Long Island for a trip and had a great time. She said all of the people were lovely and treated her very well.

There´s a lot of people in Costa Rica that like America and Americans. I think they wish we´d get out of Iraq as soon as possible, but they do understand that Muslim terrorists are not the kind of enemy that you can have any type of dialog with, like other enemies.

Juanito

Next Costa Rican Entry: Packing