Many of you responded to my call for expatriate miss lists, and so much more. For instance, several readers informed me that I don’t have to miss NPR because it’s accessible via the Internet. Some even kindly offered to bring me bluegrass CDs. While many residents here have Internet in their homes, I don’t. I live in a mountain village without telephones. Yes, I could get Internet with a satellite dish, but living on a third-world budget makes that unaffordable. So, I’ll continue taking a one-hour bus trip once a week to reach the nearest Internet café. Nevertheless, I appreciate your concern.
I also received many questions about hot water, so let me clarify. You can have hot water in Costa Rica—if you can afford it. Electricity is extremely expensive, particularly in rural areas. Renting a house presents another obstacle, as very few have hot-water plumbing.
Ticos wash their dishes in cold water using a special soap designed for this. Most people here bathe with a device called a termo in Spanish, contemptuously nicknamed “suicide shower” by Gringos. It’s an electrical device built into the showerhead that heats the water as it comes out, though it doesn’t work well unless the water is already lukewarm. Where I live, I’m lucky if it heats to lukewarm.
Another option is a solar water heater, though it’s not much use in the mountains. Many Costa Ricans, including my husband, believe that bathing in hot water is unhealthy because it opens the pores. When I tell my husband about the deliciously hot showers and baths we North Americans enjoy, he responds with, “¡Qué barbaridad!” In my village, everyone gets up at 5 a.m., when the temperature is between 58-62 degrees Fahrenheit, and takes an ice-cold shower. It’s a cultural adjustment I haven’t been able to make.
Here are some responses from expatriates living in Costa Rica or regular visitors. If you don’t understand all of them, neither do I.
MISS:
- Friendly dogs
- Starbucks
- Fashion Island (California)
- Bike lanes
- Huge bookstores
- Efficient highway exits
- Fast transactions
- Many choices
- Excellent infrastructure
- Public cleanliness
- Andes Chocolate
- Affordable alcohol and cigars (in Jacó)
- Used bookstores and related resources
- Thrift shops (with more than just used clothing)
- American-style drugstores (where you can browse for everything)
- Natural food stores (with bulk grains and organic food)
- Garage sales
- Waikiki Shell concerts (Hawaii)
- The Iditarod dogsled race (Alaska)
- Apple cider
- Pure maple syrup (the real thing)
DON’T MISS:
- Fast-paced life
- Pollution
- Hearing “like” too many times
- American snobbish accent
- Super-size culture
- High prices
- Miles and miles of perpendicular roads
- Strict police officers
- Stinky fish at Newport Pier
- Rednecks
- My cat
- Sharp Vermont cheddar cheese
- Bush administration (“but I can’t seem to let it go”)
- Snow and cold
- Telephones (they live in the mountains too)
- Television (really far into the mountains)
- Five-pound Sunday newspapers (lots of ads)
- After-Thanksgiving and after-Christmas sales
- Fireworks
- Dressy clothing and shoes (pantyhose!)
- Income tax time
- Commercial holidays
- Crowded malls and crowded mall parking lots
- Billboards
Here’s a “won’t miss” list from someone retiring in Costa Rica, outlining what he won’t miss about the U.S. (though he might find some of the same things in Costa Rica):
- Impatience
- Traffic backups
- Two-faced co-workers/brownnosers
- Bush
- Cheney
- U.S. politics in general
- Buttons that fall off a blouse the first time it’s worn
- Incompetence
- The fast-paced life of greed
- Watered-down fruit juice
I also received letters from people who used to live in Costa Rica and are now back in the U.S. They mostly wrote about what they miss about Costa Rica:
- Christmastime and getting a tree from the mountain farms
- A Spanish restaurant in San José called Segovia
- Breathing the air of a free country after being in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Noriega’s Panama, etc.
- A good place for kids to grow up (from an ex-war correspondent of the ’80s)
- Smiling faces during my morning walk
- “Por favor,” because we seldom say “please” in the U.S.
- The smile or laugh when I say “pura vida”
- Rain in the afternoon
- The feminine and beautiful Ticas
- Gallo pinto
- Cas (the fruit)
- Bavaria beer
- Rice and beans
- Beans and rice
One reader scolded me for missing anything at all. He said I should be grateful just to have the privilege of living here year-round.
Finally, one of my favorite letters reads: “I have shortened my list. When I lived in Costa Rica, I didn’t miss anything. Now that I’m living in the United States, I miss Costa Rica.” Amen to that, I say.
