Our family of five lived in Costa Rica from June to September. After exploring the country for the first month, we chose the coastal town of Jaco for a couple more. This dream destination offers secluded wild beaches, rainforests, waterfalls for the nature lovers; poisonous dart frogs in multiple colors, howler monkeys, sloths, for the animal lovers; and surfing, white water rafting, canopy zip lining for the adventure lovers. Here a few things we noticed during our three month stay.
1. You will get by with English. If you aren’t fluent in Spanish, feel free to practice. But if you only know hola and dos cervezas, fear not. Chances a good chance the other person’s English will be better than your Spanish. Tourism is an important part of the economy, so many people know English.
2. Dollars or Colones. Probably in most of the places you’ll end up in, you can pay in U.S. dollars, however your change may be in Colones. Even if you end up with some Colones at the end of your trip, it’s all good since it’s some of the most beautiful money you’ll ever see. You can return home with a sloth and monkey in your pocket.
3. Where’s the ATM when you need one. These are more common in the larger centers, but scarcer in more remote locations. Also, they don’t always mean what they say. Some machines state they dispense only U.S. dollars, when what they mean they can’t dispense U.S. dollars. Details.
4. Like many countries around the world, toilet paper is put in the bin or basket, not flushed down the bowl. This is difficult habit to break. Put a reminder sign up on the wall opposite the toilet.
5. Certain brands of girl products are not available. If you have preferences you feel strongly about, take them with you. Your favorite shampoo will also likely be pricey. Bring it with you if the brand matters.
6. If you do get sick, go to a pharmacy, tell them your symptoms. They are familiar with the common traveler’s troubles. They will sell you parasite, diarrhea, UTI, or yeast infection meds. Of course you can also book a doctor’s appointment if symptoms are more complicated than the usual traveling related woes.
7. Even if you buy liquids after the initial security check, there is a secondary check point. You will not be able to
board the plane with that $5 juice you just bought because you are flying Spirit and don’t want to use your credit card. My daughter found that out about ten minutes ago and texted me from the airport all annoyed that she only drank $2 worth.
8. Wifi woes. It’s not the speed or strength you’re used to. The wifi may be sufficient to post those sloth pics on fb, but for my daughter who designs websites online, she had to adjust her hourly fee to accommodate the length of time it took for her to complete basic tasks.
9. Power outages are frequent, more so than when we lived in Guatemala. We were told this is because CR uses clean energy and therefore it’s less consistent. Could be a palatable eco-friendly explanation for tourists, but maybe not. Whatever the reason, when working online, increase the frequency of your auto save. Don’t bother setting that clock on the microwave or stove. It will be blinking before the day is over, the outages are that frequent.
10. Rain jackets. It’s not what you think. We read everywhere to bring rain jackets especially during green (rainy)
season. But the reality was, living in our coastal town, we didn’t use them, not once. I know it’s Costa Rican trip-
planning blasphemy, but it’s true. No matter how expensive the shell and how generous the underarm mesh patches, jackets make you hotter. Yes it rained often, downpours too. But mostly in bursts. You’d go into eat sushi and come back to puddles. Living where we lived it was easy to wait it out, grab a coffee while it’s pouring, or just get a little wet, which was either refreshing or a hilarious story in the making. Not once did we choose to lug those jackets with us. So our expensive, mesh-enhanced rain jackets were never used.
Travelers aren’t exaggerating when they rave about the beauty of this country. Any small inconveniences are heavily
outweighed by what this country has to offer in terms of nature, wildlife, beaches, and the friendly people. This is a
must see country. Book your tickets.
Also in this series:
10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming to Costa Rica: Getting Around
10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming to Costa Rica: Food and Drink
10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming to Costa Rica: Having Fun