Costa Ricans, who refer to themselves as Ticos, are predominantly of European descent. About 1% or 2% of the population is Afro-Caribbean—the ancestors of these Costa Ricans arrived mainly from Jamaica, in search of work on railroads and in banana plantations. Today, the majority of their descendants continue to live on the Caribbean coast, in the province of Limón, perhaps the most culturally rich area of the country. There is also a small but vibrant Chinese community, one sign of which is a profusion of Chinese restaurants in the Central Valley. From an even smaller community of Jewish citizens have come a number of prominent politicians and business leaders. A standard misperception about the country is that it is devoid of indigenous communities. In fact, there are more than a half dozen distinct indigenous communities in Costa Rica, though in total they make up less than 1% of the population. The Bribri, who live in the Talamanca region, and the Borucas, who live in the southern Pacific region of the country, largely go unnoticed by tourists, as these—and all other indigenous communities in Costa Rica—are geographically isolated from the Central Valley and other areas that tourists visit.

An estimated 500,000 Nicaraguans live in Costa Rica, many of them illegally. They make up roughly 12% of the population of the country. The majority of Nicaraguans in Costa Rica work in manual labor jobs, either in construction, as factory workers, guards, maids, or coffee harvesters. Many send monthly remittances to family members in Nicaragua, thus diminishing their already meager wages. While Nicaraguans play a very important role in the economy of Costa Rica, they are often unfairly blamed for many of the social ills of the country. Within a week of arriving to Costa Rica, you’re likely to hear a derogatory comment or two about Nicaraguans from your taxi driver; he’ll make all the usual accusations that people make about displaced people, claiming they are responsible for all the crime in the country, etc. You will rarely witness a Costa Rican making a racist comment in the presence of the maligned party, however, and racially motivated violence is practically nonexistent in the country.

Costa Ricans take pride in the fact that they have created a country quite removed from the normal run of problems experienced by other Central American countries. Indeed, one of the distinguishing aspects of the country is its relatively large, educated middle class. Whether the size of that middle class is declining or not is a subject for debate among economists; all agree, however, that poverty is at an unacceptably high level in Costa Rica (as it is in most countries). According to a report from the International Monetary Fund, about 10% of the population lives on less than $2 per day, and a good number of other Costa Ricans also live in a state of poverty. Nonetheless, in terms of statistics Costa Rica fares rather well when compared with Latin America as a whole, where 25% of the population lives on less than $2 per day.

Religious values permeate all levels of Costa Rican society. The official state religion is Catholicism—abortion here and throughout almost all of Latin America is illegal—but churches with an evangelical flavor have become increasingly popular in the country. Still, Costa Ricans are not an overly pious people. Laughter comes easy to them, and they know how to throw a good party. If religion plays an important role in shaping local society, the institution of the family plays a perhaps even larger role. In most families, including those where father is present, mother often reigns supreme. Indeed, it’s probably not too much of an exaggeration to say that Costa Rican homes are matriarchal, though one should quickly point out that machismo rules in the streets and in the workplace.

Not all influences on Costa Rican society come from within the nation’s borders. American style consumerism is here aplenty, many would say unfortunately. In the Central Valley and increasingly throughout the rest of the country, you will never find yourself far from a KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, or McDonald’s. New malls seem to pop up in the Central Valley on a monthly basis and many beach communities now have strip malls. The vast majority of movies shown at local cinemas come, not surprisingly, from Hollywood, and many youngsters are much more likely to be fans of pop music from North America or Europe than fans of the latest and greatest from the world of salsa. That said, music, dance, and other cultural productions from within Latin America (from Mexico to Argentina) are a very strong influence on Costa Rican culture. And, when it comes to sports, Costa Ricans are little influenced by the North American sporting world. A passion for soccer—both for teams in the Costa Rican national league and for European and South American teams—excludes interest in nearly every other sport.

People who conduct business in San Jose are generally much more time-conscious than stereotypes of Latin American countries would lead you to believe. Even so, Costa Ricans themselves are aware of their tendency to arrive late to meetings, as evidenced by the joking references they make to Tico time. This is particularly true with respect to parties and other social events, where people often arrive late—or not at all; keep in mind that, when you ask a Costa Rican to attend a party and he or she responds affirmatively, this does not necessarily mean they will show up. In these cases, a yes should be interpreted as an intention to attend rather than a firm promise to attend, and no offense should be taken when someone is a no-show. Foreigners who choose to live in Costa Rica, if they are to live there happily, will find themselves obliged to become less obsessive about expecting people to arrive punctually.

But however much you adjust your concept of the importance of time, you will probably never quite come to terms with the lower standards of service and efficiency that permeate many Costa Rican businesses and government institutions. In banks, post offices, state bureaucracies, and other institutions, long lines abound; in restaurants, waiters (and food) often arrive late to the table; at many businesses, you’ll find that the person attending you will often show scant interest in conducting your business affairs quickly or efficiently. At times, the person offering you a product or a service seems to convey the notion that he or she is doing you, the customer, a favor. On the other hand, on any given day you may find yourself being waited on by the most friendly, attentive person you have ever encountered, someone who is very professional and who, ironically, is so sufficiently unencumbered by standards of efficiency that he or she will spend more time helping you than the normal standards of efficiency would call for—and that’s the sliver lining to the cloud.

In the realm of ideals—if not always in practice—Costa Ricans subscribe very much to the importance of good manners and formal courtesies. While this standard particularly holds true among people of the same social group or class, it holds true generally too. Everyone expects to be treated in a respectful manner—the man who guards your car as well as the lawyer who negotiated its purchase. This attention to social etiquette, especially when encountered in initial meetings, can make Costa Ricans come off as rather reserved, even brittle; perhaps you will suspect that you have in some way offended your new acquaintance. If the friendship develops, however, you will generally find that this initial reserve fades quickly. (Costa Ricans are very group minded—people rarely go to bars alone—and tend to socialize with a fairly fixed set of close friends and colleagues. Once you become friends with Costa Ricans, they will thus often make an effort to include you within their social group.)

A conversation with a Costa Rican can be a confounding experience, particularly for those from countries where direct, blunt talk is the norm. The first words you hear from a new acquaintance, meandering or innocuous though those words might seem, may be more about establishing social goodwill than about conveying information. The human touch is vitally important in Costa Rica. When greeting someone—friend or stranger—it is a sign of good manners to first exchange salutations before getting down to business. One of the reasons that foreigners find it difficult to interpret the gist of Costa Rican conversation is that Ticos often rely on ambiguity to avoid offending. Ticos are exceedingly averse to conflict and the word “no” doesn’t issue easily from their lips: thus, they sometimes use the word yes when what they really mean is maybe or no. If Costa Ricans sometimes experience an almost paralyzing fear of saying the wrong thing, they are also very quick to take offense. Should business negotiations become heated, for example, you should probably never raise your voice, make deprecating remarks, or threaten to sue. Better to maintain your calm and rely on gentle persuasion. Customers in many parts of the world are used to resolving conflict by an appeal to legal rights or the prerogatives of the consumer; in Costa Rica, however, in order to persuade someone to “do their job,” you might find hectoring less effective than an appeal to sympathy. If, for example, you find yourself waiting around to be noticed by a waiter, rather than yelling at him, try the following: “Excuse me, we’re going to a movie later on and we’re in a rush. Could you help us out and take our order now?” Having to talk like this is maddeningly irksome to someone raised on the notion that the customer is king, but, when in Rome ….

It is a matter of pride among Costa Ricans—and rightly so—that their country has no army. That fact seems to reflect the tenor of daily life on the streets, where physical confrontations are few. No surprise, then, that the emblematic phrase in Costa Rica is pura vida (literally, pure life), which, though very difficult to translate into non-literal terms, means something like keep it cool. And, it seems fitting that Oscar Arias, current president of Costa Rica, is a Nobel Peace Laureate (1987). Costa Ricans would rather talk than fight and that is one of the great things about them. Having given such praise, it’s perhaps permissible to mention a paradox that Costa Ricans and foreigners alike are quick to note. Something very interesting happens to the soul of a Tico when he gets behind the wheel of a car—think Jack Nicholson in The Shining. As a broad generalization, it’s fair to say that Costa Rican drivers tend to be aggressive, and they aren’t as likely to allow berth for merging traffic as drivers in many other countries. Whether, as some have suggested, this is due to a breakdown in a sense of social cohesiveness, is anyone’s guess, but be sure to snap on your seat belt.

Even though wealth is more equitably distributed in Costa Rica than it is in other Central American countries, make no mistake about it: Costa Rica is a society with distinct class differences. But while the upper classes here are as capable of displaying class snobbery as the upper classes anywhere, Costa Ricans at all levels of society generally condemn those who demonstratively assert their superiority. That said, class consciousness seethes just beyond the orchestrated exchange of smiles between landowner and gardener. This manifests itself in a number of ways. For one, far more Costa Ricans own cars than can readily afford to pay for them, this in a country with a very good bus system and with lots of roaming empty taxis. And, Costa Ricans, even those of rather meager means, spend a lot of disposable income on clothes, cell phones, and other totems of class status; which, when you come to think about, doesn’t make Costa Rica much different from every other country in the world.

As a concluding word about the people and culture of Costa Rica, the author wants to note that this is a complex, dynamic, paradox-filled country, and any attempt to codify in sweeping terms what makes Costa Ricans tick—including what you read here—would best be taken with a grain of salt.