Aero: Ana Northrop – Costa Rica 2016 – City Life

Creative Commons Image via The LEAF Project

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Most of the cities in Costa Rica we saw if not all of them are centered on a church and a park.  The church faces east which is how directions are given by people who live there.  There are not really any street names so you go by blocks and direction from the church or other landmarks.

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Ana Northrop

The streets are often tight and narrow making traffic bad and riding in a vehicle scary.  I couldn’t imagine riding a bike on roads let alone a car.  People do not have the right away when crossing the street line here so you must be careful crossing. We were able to go to a indoor market outside of the center of town to see local products and how people shop.  It smelt very bad, was cramped and hot even while feeling that way it was very neat to see. In cities in Nicaragua as well as Costa Rica there were many stray dogs wandering around.  They tended to be near areas where the most people were, meaning the most food. Places like parks because that’s where people gather and hangout through the day.  Here people don’t go to the park as a major place to hang out as much as staying home or going to a friends house. 

When out and about I saw many young couples around my age with children where to me this is unusual, there birth control is not widely used due to religion.  Since the family I stayed with lived outside the center of Alajuela we were unable to see the nightlife surrounding the park.  In Nicaragua however we were able to be right next to the park to see lots of venders and people walking around.  There it was crazy on the street where all the restaurants were.  The employees would bombard you to try and get you to eat there.  I liked being close to the center there besides the fact that people are always trying to sell you things and children asking you for money.  It made me very sad to see the amount of children I did begging and selling things, but at the same time there were many happy people living their lives in the busy city.

Ana Northrop
LEAF Contributor
ML@FLCC: Costa Rica 2016

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