Fútbol. Was. Crazy. Rishi and I stood at the yellow fence wall that surrounded the game and watched in awe as fans went wild around us. One fan came up, knocked over a gate, and starting cheering on the inner gate when Alajuela scored. The atmosphere was much less stiff than at a US game. Everyone seemed to be friends and seat numbers did not actually guarantee you that spot, you just had to hope to grab a seat if you wanted one. Seats were structured like seats at the Colosseum, with them just being slabs rather than actual seats. This meant most people were standing most of the time, which only added to the energy.

Equally as cool as Fútbol was our palmito farm tour guide using a machete. She hacked into those palms, slicing them away like butter. The edible part of the heart of palm is underneath the leaves but around the hard yellow inside. She cut the edible part out expertly and gave us all many samples. She explained that heart of palm can be used much faster than coffee can, which means that there really does not have to be much planning involved in growing heart of palm. What does need to be planned though is the mass amount of food they make for tourists. Never before have I eaten so much heart of palm. I’m not even sure if I’ve eaten heart of palm before this, though. Heart of palm is grown at lesser altitudes than coffee, which is great because I loved the heat this day.