Pura Vida - Costa Rica

A "Tico" (feminin: tica) is an idiomatic term usually used for people native to Costa Rica. Sometimes the use is extended on to all latin american countries. In a globalized world we see the whole of humanity as one - more or less. We often assume, that the person across from us thinks the same way we do. They have problems with the same issues, we have. They are dependend on the same things, we are. They appreciate the same things, we do. Realizing, that in fact, those things may very well not be true, for me, is a very important step in our maturing process. It helps us understand the reasoning behind the actions of the person sitting across from us. It helps us understand the needs or the borders. The actions or reactions. I grew up in a small village of about 1500 citizens in the southwest of  Germany. In June 2021 I set sails to Costa Rica. Me never having been out of Europe for all of my 21 years of age, did definitly not prepare me for this experience. But extactly thi

   The journey continues... (Read the previous part  here ) It was 15:55, the moment I saw Costa Rican soil the for the first time. Even tough it was from 12000 metres above said soil... Costa Rica The first thing I noticed was the structure of the land . Whenever you lift off with a plane in europe, you see the easy recognizable pattern of agricultural-used plots , whereas Costa Rica seemed to only have a minimal amount of those. It looked wilder, untamed . And a lot of green . About half an hour we started the descent and more details revealed themselves. I must admit, that those details shocked me a little bit. Many, many small huts with rusty metal sheets as roofs.  - Where did I land here? - From a normal european neighborhood to this? - But soon the plane got to close to the ground to see more of it. 16:42, that was what the clock was showing the moment the plane stopped. Germany Before driving off to Costa Rica, all I was hearing were things like: "Costa Ricans are so nice