Costa Rica has been extraordinary. The views here are stunning. The fruit is so fresh. Our host family is so kind. It has been a great day and a half in Heredia. So far, my experiences have lived right up to my expectations: mountainous, warm, humid, and working a lot on my Spanish. Yesterday, when we arrived, we were greeted by Mama Tica right outside our bus. She brought her very economy-sized car for us four boys to squeeze ourselves and all our luggage into. After a short drive, her husband, maid, gardener, and sweet dog came to see their visitors. We were kindly greeted and ushered to our rooms, where we were allowed to rest before our first meal. Mama Tica served us ham, plantains, vegetables, and fresco de cas (Latin American fruit). The food seemed typical and traditional for Costa Rica, but surpassed every expectation for taste.
After lunch, the gardener, Gustavo, took us to the mall to buy a basketball for the park right by our house. It surprised me that Mama Tica just asked her gardener to guide and take us to the mall, but he accepted without a second thought. It is new to me how friendly and personable people are, even to new or slightly acquainted people. The walk there was very unexpected as I discovered that cars do not abide by the pedestrian right-of-way rules like the US has. Once we got to the mall, it looked a lot like the malls back in Pennsylvania, if they were to make an open-air entrance on one of their wings. We went to a store very similar to Dick’s Sporting Goods and found our basketball. We paid with cash, but quickly realized that just using Colones would be much easier, leading us to try to find an ATM.
Once we left the mall, we returned for dinner, where we had a lighter meal that was still extremely delicious. Mama Tica went over the house rules that followed the usual etiquette from the US. She was very passionate about serving us the freshest and most preferred food possible, just as any grandma shows her love. Overall, the expectations of the trip have been met, but the experience is something that expectations can never predict.
