One of the nicest perks you get from living in Guanacaste is the fact that you can be surrounded by the most characteristic Costa Rica traditions and experience each one of them at their best. Since Guanacaste is still a rural area in spite of the fast development that has been going through for the past years, people still keep their values and traditional activities, which something very admirable.

 

Among my favorite traditions I can mention the typical dances: Costa Rica dance is actually very colorful and joyful, they have a designated outfit to dance with which resembles the outfits used by agricultures of the yester years, I got so impressed with this that even bought myself a “chonete” which is some sort of hat they used to work under the sun. The main they dance is called “Punto Guanacasteco” and is very delightful and funny, the song has many bridges where the music stops and people say some sort of rhymes they call “bombas”, I can’t really understand them much but after they finish the rhyme everyone laughs and continues dancing. Costa Rica is a very artistic country, so all of these performances are very well thought and practiced; also they are a very big part of Costa Rica culture.

 

Costa Rica typical outfit

Necessary items to dance “El Punto Guanacasteco”

 


Now, my second favorite thing is of course food. Costa Rica has one of the richest soils in America, so they grow many different types of legumes and vegetables. One of the most incredible dishes I have tasted is the “picadillo”, the picadillo is a dish made with chopped vegetables, three types tops, ground beef and local spices: just delicious! Specially with a very refreshing “agua dulce”, trust me you cannot top that.

 

Another good thing is watching the cattle pass by, Guanacaste has many cattle farms and to be honest, I never thought that watching cattle pass by could be so relaxing. Costa Rica has many different things worth to experience; so far I am happy that I have taken my time to get to know everything slowly.