The Alexis Angle – Costa Rica

While in La Fortuna, I’ve noticed some pretty weird or at least different things from Colorado. I was actually talking to my friend via Marco Polo and telling her about these things. Here are the weirdest in my opinion: 

#1 No Stoplights

I’ve walked to La Fortuna multiple times from our little town and one thing has always caught my eye, no stoplights. They police traffic on their own, knowing when to stop and go at intersections, but that definitely makes crossing hazardous.

#2 Jay-walking

In Parker, it is illegal to jay-walk, but in La Fortuna that’s the only way to cross a road. I cannot tell you how terrifying it is to be on one side of the road needing to get to the other, the road is super busy and you just have to run for it. I’m always with my family so my parents say when we go and the whole time I’m just thinking, I could have gone then, or then, or then. It’s crazy!!

#3 Electricity

The weirdest thing about our house is all the shocks we keep getting. Our microwave, end of stove, chargers (when plugged in), and drying machine shock us whenever we touch them. Not static electricity, actual shocks that hurt. I’ve been shocked by everything except the microwave at least 2 times each. Its definitely the weirdest thing about the house.

#4 Bugs

This I was really talking to my friend about recently and I said: “I miss Colorado where the worst bug there was a mosquito or a spider.” Here everything seems to be 5 times bigger. We found a locust the other day that was roughly the size of my hand and another grasshopper a little smaller. The spiders here are huge and the flying insects bigger. IT IS AWFUL. My brother loves it, being the bug expert but I’m slowly drowning in bugs. We also get these tiny little ants in our house that feed on even the tiniest crumb of food, so we have to be so careful about cleaning up.

#5 Houses

When I say the houses here are different I mean it in the best way possible. There are so many colors! In Parker all houses have to have similar colors that are between black, white, gray, brown, green, and blue. Everything is orderly and perfect. But on our street here you have houses that are pink, teal, purple, bright orange, yellow, bright green. It is so unbelievably pretty and I wish our house could be whatever color we wanted! The houses here are also small and have at most two stories, but they house large families. It is really eye-opening to what humble lives these people live.

These are five of the weirdest or most interesting things in Costa Rica so far. There are many more like the animals or vegetation, but these are the ones that really stood out to me. Overall, Costa Rica is very cool and unbelievably pretty and I am very happy we chose to come here.