Today I am in San Jose doing my Christmas shopping. I decide to come here because I wanted to get an idea of how Christmas in Costa Rica is prepared and enjoy a few of the events taking place this week: the Costa Rica book fair, the Avenidazo and the Festival de la Luz.
I thought it was going to be a lot more hectic than it is and talking to some people I noticed that it is because of the financial crisis, apparently in Guanacaste you can’t really see how this has affected Costa Rica. Some friends were telling me that a lot of people have lost their jobs, so they have had to cut off some expenses and people are not going crazy in the stores as they usually do.
On the other hand the traditional activities in Costa Rica have not let me down at all: the concert I saw last night at la Antigua Aduana were quite impressive and at the book fair I bought most of my Christmas gifts which was great and one learned about the Avenidazo which I didn’t really understood and scared the hell out of me.
The greatest thing about living in Costa Rica and staying for the holidays is for sure the excessive amount of tamales one can consume, so far I have eaten 5 different types and bought a few piñitas to share with the family back in Guanacaste. Costa Rica is a very different than what a gringo like me is used to, but I have to admit I do like and enjoy these differences.
