I arrived in Costa Rica at San Jose International Airport and was greeted by many friendly Ticos (native Costa Ricans) asking for me to ride in their taxi. As we drove back from the airport to Selina, our coworking hostel for this trip, I had an opportunity to look out my window at the city and see what it had to offer. I would say Costa Rica was a 50-50 blend of the United States and India, where my parents came from 25 years ago. I saw many similarities between how the locals interacted here and how they would in India.
The next morning for breakfast, I had huevos rancheros after working out at a nearby gym. It was a tangy and spicy blend of eggs, avocados, salsa, refried beans, and tortillas on the side. It was incredibly tasty, and I will definitely have this dish many more times in the future. After this, I decided to join some of the guys to go to the central market to get a tour of the local grocery vendors. In the market, we got a chance to buy many different fruits, such as papayas and bananas, and try some new fruits, such as mamones (Spanish Lime), which is a fruit that tastes and looks and tastes like a lychee.
The next day, we went to a Costa Rican coffee farm that was owned by Starbucks. The name of this farm was Hacienda Alsacia. While visiting this farm, we took a tour of the entire process that it takes to grow, cultivate, and roast coffee beans. It was an incredibly eye-opening tour about how long it takes to create the perfect coffee beans and at the end, we also got to try our own medium-roast coffee.
As this weekend roster close, we have our needs finding Boot Camp tomorrow, and I am incredibly excited for this opportunity to experience the Costa Rican healthcare system. Thank you for reading and I’ll catch you all in the next blog post!