It sounded funny at the time: Since Costa Rica doesn’t have a large Greek population, why not watch the Greece-Costa Rica soccer game in Grecia?
This small coffee town takes its name from the Mediterranean nation, just the way Cartago is named after the ancient city of Carthage and Atenas mimics Athens. As it turns out, Grecia doesn’t have an actual Greek population – Hellenic names were just fashionable in Costa Rica in years past.
But the conspicuous nomenclature did give us an excuse to visit this pastoral coffee town just west of San José, and the timing couldn’t have been better. The town was pretty quiet before the World Cup game started last Sunday, but once Costa Rica won the final shootout against Greece, thousands of locals poured into the central square to celebrate. We caught the moment on video.
