Job Discussion Forums

[Munchen]

I'm sure I've written on this forum before, but how would you like to go back to the time of the trains in CR in '68? The Pachuco left San Jose at noon sharp ever day for the six-hour journey to Limon. I was an Episcopal priest stationed in Siquirres in which the train took four hours from San Jose! That is if no mud slides or any other obstructions took place.
From Siquirres to Limon and what was called the "Old Line," i.e., to Germania, Pecora and Guacimo, the "Ferrocarril" was THE only way to get to these communities!
Electricity: From 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next morning. Powered by John Deere tractors. I was fortunate enough to have a kerosine regrigerator in my house.
Oh, telephone: I was fortunate to have one of those also. It was a crank up railroad phone in which you could only call the rail stations in San Jose or Limon. One had to go to the stations to call me in Siquirres.
For communications from the outside world, we all had battery powered short-wave radios! Listening to Fidel Castro blast away was a major entertainment. From the US, Armed-Force Radio and VOA.
Well, if you really want to know what it was like 35 plus years ago, thought I'd throw that in! Occasional tourists would pass through.
San Jose, of course, was more advanced. There they did have electricity round the clock and telephones!
Am very anxious to go back and see what it's like today with roads and transportation that goes everywhere. Someone told me I wouldn't recognize San Jose now which we thought was like Anytown USA back then!

[Tuacaa]

I don't care what they refer to me as long as it isn't "another one of those *#>>* North Americans like the ones who ripped us off by trading their truck for my family's beach front property!" That is my fear.

I earn my money in the U.S. and spend a large chunk of it in Costa Rica. I appreciate the culture, language, enviornment, peace, etc., etc., etc.
I speak Spanish even though it is at an intermediate level.

More importantly, I have met some of the most amazing "Gringos" while in CR. I made connections, met American buddies to hang out with for days at a time and had life-changing conversations with them while drinking an Imperial in a tourist-infested area.

Ok I am not that innocent... the early twenty-something backpackers with the Spring Break attitudes can get on my nerves...but only sometimes and slightly. And only because they flock to the place I like to go and make me feel old in my thirties!

[BLAH]

i lived in costa from 99-03. i just went back. more tourists. more land for sale. i live in hawaii now and im claiming that costa is the next hawaii. lots of tourists, but that is what supports the economy. costa is the coolest place in the hemisphere. defintely rather be in costa than usa.