Costa Rica Travelers Blog

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.

Costa Rica often heats up the streets with ultraviolet rays of peace, but, after all, the peace rays are HOT. Eating ice cream can alleviate even the hottest days in Costa Rica.

Remember, ice cream is just as common in Costa Rica as in the USA. You can buy a gallon in any super market our corner store, not to mention the Maravassi and Pop`s ice cream chain.

I recommend visiting the Maravassi or Pop´s ice cream shops to try the different flavors and dishes. Of course there are ice-cream sundaes, granizados, malts, ice cream cones and more.

Be aware: the brain freeze will occur if you eat the ice cream rapidly!

From the river towns, to the mountain and beach towns, every town or city has a central park in Costa Rica. On some downtime, I recommend to take a stroll through the local park: you will hear and see birds, couples, families, singles, and, in general, people trying to enjoy a beautiful Costa Rican day.

Find a park bench and observe. For example: the parks during this time of year (October) are filled with sounding parrots. The parrot calls soothe the air and truly make the Costa Rican peaceful atmosphere.

This next activity is a must-do in the park: Older men usually push a small ice-cream cart around the parks, however, they do not sell ice cream but granizados, which are like Dairy Queen Misty´s topped off with ice-cream and some caramel or leche condesada..

Go to the park by yourself, with that special someone, or the whole family. Try the granizado test!

With or without children, our sweet tooth comes into play: candy bars, gummy-bears, cookies, doughnuts, and other sweets savor our taste buds from our infancy to adulthood.

Although there are American treats in Costa Rica, such as M & M´s, Snickers, Reese´s Pieces, Milky Way. . . , there are some national candy that every tourist should try.

Candy is attainable at any supermarket, pulpería, convenience store, or liquor store. Also, a candy store can usually be found in each town. Ask for the candy store Confiticos.

A brief list of sweet tooth food found in Costa Rica follows: choy´s, Milke, Chocofresa, Chiki´s, Chococoque, gomitas, canasta, sorbeta. . .

Trick or Treat!

While on vacation in the CR or on a business outing, the radio can be a entertaining way to the pass the time, or a means to hearing about the local CR scene. The Costa Rican airwaves vibrate a variety of music: jazz, salsa, meringue, rap, hip hop, R & B, roots, raggaeton, dancehall, and classical.

My personal favorite station is Beatz 106 (105.9), which constitutes a mix of the best Hip hop, rap, dancehall, and roots.

Monolinguals shall remain calm; according to an article from the TICOTIMES, the proceeding list refers the English spoken radio stations: Radio Dos 99.5 FM, Top -40 music from the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s; Radio 107.5 FM, rock in its greats forms; Super Radio 102.3 loves oldies;. Radio 95.5, tasty jazz and fusion.

Radio 105.7 is the only absolute English Speaking Station.

Dollars or colones?, what is the best currency to handle while in Costa Rica. The desired answer would be dollars. The reality of the currency situation reveals that colones offers more convenience . The majority of local taxis handle colones. However, many supermarkets accept dollars.

In my opinion, the ideal strategy is to utilize a Visa card and have some colones for the places that might not accept plastic.

The truth of the story is to understand the change-rate to protect your vacation money. The exchange rate is printed daily on the local newspapers.

Remember, if you exchange dollars for colones, go to a bank. The airport charges more taxes. Therefore, the tourists do not receive full dollar to colón value.