The communities that we drove through on the way to Monteverde was more what I expected from Costa Rica, with the sparse villages, and individual houses all over the mountains. I found it ironic that the people in more remote locations seemed less surprised by the tour bus than the ones that live in the city, probably because more tourists come to the rainforest than to the cities of Costa Rica.

Foreign influence is very different in Costa Rica compared to other Latin American countries. Costa Rica as a whole experienced much less foreign influence than other colonized countries, because of a comparative lack of resources. When it comes to local areas however, there is lots of influence from foreigners. For example, in Monteverde specifically, the entire area was settled by Quakers, and that influence by foreign people has only increased from there. The economy of Monteverde is mostly based around foreign tourists, including the American style restaurants in town, the zip line courses, and the souvenir shops all over town. The culture also has shifted as a result of foreign tourists. The Quaker school became extremely popular for a while because it was the only nearby bilingual school, and being able to speak English is greatly important in Monteverde.