“On the basis of our two biggest strengths: the intelligence of our people and the generosity of our environment, we will make Costa Rica the first developed country in Latin America.”
–Laura Chinchilla,
Election Night speech.
“It was beyond a nightmare. It was probably the worst experience I have ever had in my life… I was in the car, crying, going on a 6.5-hour journey to San José with a driver I didn’t know and going in the dark.
It was awful.”
–Joan Rivers,
on being stuck in Costa Rica.
“Before coming to this event I told some ministers that
a nation without armed forces doesn’t exist.
The ministers responded that there is a country
without armed forces in Latin America. It’s
Costa Rica. I said that Costa Rica might not have its own armed forces, but its armed forces are those of the United States.”
–Evo Morales,
Bolivian president.
“It’s well-known that this
country is 30 years behind in road, port and airport
infrastructure. Transpor-t-ation in this country is … [pauses, smiles] … in the hands of God.”
–Luis Liberman,
Second vice-president in an interview
with The Tico Times.
“We still say ‘buenos días’ and ‘buenas tardes’ like we always have.”
–Alexis Núñez,
assistant director of the National Police
in the northern Costa Rican border town of
Los Chiles, on the relationship between Ticos
and Nicaraguans in the area.
“If it had happened earlier in the day a lot more people would have survived.
They would have been at work, and their kids would have been at school, but almost everyone was asleep in their beds.”
–Husaí Hernández,
Calle Lajas resident on the November landslide that killed 23 people in Escazú.
“The public will have to look for parking close to the stadium … [People] can come by train or bus. If they drive, they will have to find parking near the stadium.”
–Juan Carlos Bonilla,
a spokesman for the Costa Rican Sports and Recreation Institute (ICODER), on why the new National Stadium has no plan for parking.
“Mr. Pastora told us that the land belonged to Nicaragua and that they would need it to complete the dredging of the Río San Juan.
We’ve told them that this is Costa Rican territory, but they are ignoring us. They are pulling up trees and
killing our animals. They are following through with their plan to dredge the river on our property.”
–Marco Reyes,
owner of the Finca Áragon on the Isla Calero, reporting the presence of Nicaraguans on his land to The Tico Times.
“If legislators were so worried about their salary and the great injustices against them … before anything else, they should have undertaken a comparative study (of salaries). The results could then be used to elaborate a remedial plan.”
–Lisbeth Quesada,
former ombudswoman, on legislators’ failed
plan to raise their own salaries.
“We don’t want a Yankee invasion. We want peace in our country, and we want them to leave. The United States has not been able to fix the drug problem in Mexico or Columbia or in the United States. How are they going to be able to fix the problem here?”
–Gilbert Rojas,
a demonstrator against Costa Rica’s allowance
of U.S. Naval ships and personnel in the country.
“All we can do is hope that God blesses us with a better climate next year.”
–Pablo Jiménez,
the general manager of Café Altura in
Pérez Zeledón, on the damage caused
to the coffee crop in 2010.
“They have hope in ignorance. They are happy and they are playing, and in a certain way this is a metaphor for the Costa Rican people. We live at a very different pace than the developed world. There, people live saving money, calculating interest rates.
In the Tico world, that is very strange behavior.
We live apart from many of these formal things, and there is real danger in this. The world below, the world by the margins of the river,
is extremely vulnerable. If the river rises, it will take everything with it.”
–Héctor Gamboa,
the painter who painted the Estado de La Nación cover, on why he painted the Costa Ricans
who live in poor shanty towns with smiling faces.
“We got a situation where we got a lovely new little airport, but as Costa Rica always does, it was done half-assed and
half-finished.”
–Dan Wise,
owner of the Río Colorado Lodge, on the new
airstrip in Barra del Colorado.
