Humor Archives - Costa Pacifica LIVING

Tico Talk Crossword #1

Nikki Whelan — Sat, 04 Jul 2020 23:54:53 +0000

How good is your Tico Talk?

Refer to our past editions if you need clues.

Download and print empty worksheet to complete: How Good IS Your Tico Talk Crossword Puzzle

*** DOWNLOAD ANSWER SHEET SOLUTIONS: ANSWER-How Good IS Your Tico Talk Crossword Puzzle Answers

ACROSS

2	Raining buckets
4	Thingamajig
5	To say your “other half” is: media …
6	Complete the phrase for light rain: “pelo de …”
8	When you are getting on the party train, what do you get on?
11	To say you are in a jam, not with a yam
12	Funny Tico phrase that means rain is coming. They say the lady is coming with what?
13	It’s the wrong tree to bark up
15	To say in slang something is okay or cool, it meets standards
17	To say something is cool
19	To dress up, take care of or treat good
20	Smooth, polite and cool
22	Thank goodness, how fortunate

DOWN

1	What is the last thing in the desert that you are not?
3	To say something is a total bummer
4	We don’t say “de nada”, we say
7	Person who can’t sit still is said to have
9	All of these are idioms
10	Most popular Costa Rican saying
14	A body part and used to say be careful
16	When it is a torrential downpour
18	What should we not follow?
21	Last call
22	Free like a …
23	Ticos always give thanks to

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Tico Talk – Common Phrases

Nikki Whelan — Sat, 04 Jul 2020 23:50:47 +0000

Hands down, the best way to fit in, is to speak the local language. And we are not just talking words, but common phrases and sayings, the ones where you really get to express what you mean as well as perhaps displaying some personality and humour. This time we are taking common sayings in English and translating them into Spanish. Here are a few tongue twisters for you to learn and try out at your next locals night… even if it’s only you and your spouse (or your furry friend!).

Barking up the wrong tree	Ladrandole al árbol equivocado
To be mistaken, to be looking for solutions in the wrong place	Buscar soluciones en el lugar equivocado
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush	Más vale pájaro en mano que dos volando
What you have is worth more than what you might have later	Lo que tienes vale más de lo que podrías tener más tarde
He has bigger fish to fry	Tiene peces más grandes para freír
He has bigger things to take care of than what we are talking about now	Tiene cosas más importantes que cuidar de lo que estamos hablando ahora.
Let the cat out of the bag	Sace el gato de la bolsa
Give away a secret	Regalar un secreto (Huele Gato encerrado – guardar un secreto)
The early bird gets the worm	El qui madura come lechuga (He who sleeps in eats lettuce)
The first people who arrive will get the best stuff	Camarón qui se duerme se lo lleva la corriente (Shrimp that sleep get taken away by the current)
There are other fish in the sea	Las primeras personas que lleguen obtendrán las mejores cosas
It’s ok to miss this opportunity.	Hay muchas peces en el mar
Others will arise	Está bien perder esta oportunidad. Otros surgirán.
It’s raining cats and dogs	Lueve sapos y culebras
It’s raining hard	Está lloviendo mucho (In spanish they use frogs and snakes)
Go on a wild goose chase	No sigue une mosque cuando no puede verla
To do something pointless	Hacer algo sin sentido (Don’t follow a fly if you can’t see it)
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch	No cuentes tus pollos antes que nazcan
Don’t count on something good happening until it’s happened.	No cuente con que algo bueno suceda hasta que haya sucedido.

See you next time! Nos vemos la próxima!

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Pickled in Paradise

Lindsey Vast — Sat, 04 Jul 2020 23:35:09 +0000

Oh, 2020. What to do with you? Never has the adage, “May you live in interesting times” (whether you believe it to be a passive aggressive Chinese curse or simply an exaggerated excerpt from a Robert Kennedy speech) ever been more applicable than this year. We’ve welcomed a new decade, experienced a worldwide pandemic that was severe enough to kabash Costa Rica’s hallowed Semana Santa and to add a cherry on top, there have been several giant planet crushing asteroids that hurdled towards planet Earth, luckily for us they missed, but in case you haven’t felt like the last few months weren’t bizarre enough to be taken from a bad Bruce Willis movie, well we can always talk aliens! Interesting times indeed.

In spite of all this, we should try to embrace the true Pura Vida spirit of it all, because just like a pancake has two sides no matter how flat you make it, every situation, no matter how unexpected and weird, has its pros and cons. So for those of us lucky enough to be ‘stranded’ in Costa Rica during this time, here’s a few good and bad aspects we can all relate to.

DISADVANTAGES OF THE QUARANTINE

Weekend Whimsy: Remember the days when we could drive Saturday and Sunday, no matter what number our license plate ended with? Those were wild times, right? Remember to savour the right, when restrictions end.
Beach Bans: Yellow police tape has never been in such high demand and oh so prevalent, as well as anticlimactic as we see beach fronts taped off from North to South end. Whoever invested in that stock option, good for you!
Minimal Intimacy: Surely we can all agree that life isn’t nearly as fulfilling without those tropically induced moist handshakes and sweaty faux cheek’n’kiss greetings for all your friends and friends-of-friends and that one guy you don’t really know or like. Just a wave will now suffice.

ADVANTAGES OF THE QUARANTINE

Less Traffic: Don’t you fondly remember that super dangerous ten-way intersection that involved heavily used conflicting dual turn lanes and stop signs to cross the Costanera highway that had weekly lethal accidents? No. No one misses that.
New Hobbies: You can finally learn how to roast those potentially poisonous cashews at home, and if you’re feeling really ambitious, you can attempt to make your own chicha (fermented booze) from the remaining fruit. And while you’re flouting your green thumb, you can finally appreciate, harvest and eat that pineapple growing in your yard, which, lo and behold, don’t come from trees (who knew?!).
Extended Visas: For those not fortunate enough to have residency, 90-day visa trips are a common occurrence. However, due to border closures the Costa Rica government has graciously extended immigrant visa requirements. While we might reminisce about the highly discounted duty free liquor, it never sucks being allowed to be ‘stuck’ in paradise.
Different Norms: Smelling like guaro isn’t just for benders, holidays or Tuesday anymore; that cheap alcohol aroma is the new ‘eau de corona’ disinfectant and it’s not going anywhere soon.

So with all this in mind, let’s drink up, live it up, wash up and don’t judge that guy sleeping a little too soundly in the ditch in the middle of the day – we all social distance in our own way.

“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.”
– Elbert Hubbard

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4 Reasons Costa Rica Isn’t Greener – Have a laugh!

Lindsey Vast — Sun, 12 Jan 2020 11:27:04 +0000

Lots of foreigners dream about leaving it all behind and moving to Costa Rica to sip rum on the beach and adopt a simpler, slower lifestyle. Yet, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and there’s a whole dismal existence to operating in this tiny Central American country that you won’t see featured in the idyllic expat blogs loaded with sleepy sloth images and Instagramable, no filter coastal shots. For those that want the real story, here’s a peek at the hard-knock reality that no one tells you about when living in Costa Rica. Yes, we try to keep it under wraps!

Reason 1: Electricity Prices

Living in paradise comes at a hefty price. Powering an entire country on 90% pure renewable energy is funded straight out of your pocket. They have an ascending usage bracket system where you get charged more to burn their clean, nationwide non-fossil fuel-based energy. It’s not fair that keeping your 3,000 square foot villa air-conditioned to a moderate 70°F (21°C) in a tropical jungle climate and running an infinity pool pump day and night should cost more per kWh than your eco-conscious neighbors down the street, or is it?

Reason 2: Humidity and Heat

Get ready to sweat if you live in Costa Rica. A lot. And not just when you’re power
walking on the treadmill at the gym while catching up on Netflix. It’s hot and humid all
year-round, especially near the beaches. Gone are the days when you can
enthusiastically layer on flannel shirts, long johns, wool socks, waterproof fleece-lined
boots, snow pants, a down jacket, sock cap, heavy gloves and a scarf so that you can
scrape the ice off of your snow shell of a vehicle, all for a 5-minute drive to the grocery
store. The only thing we locals put on when it gets cold are socks, so you can kiss your
trendy winter fashion collection goodbye.

Reason 3: Food Choices

Prepare to pay twice as much for a simple brie cheese wheel or organic vegan bacon-
flavored breakfast meat substitute strips, IF you can even find them at a nearby super
mercado. Instead, you’ll be left to choose from a selection of Costa Rican grown in-
season vegetables and fruits, or farm-fresh dairy and meat products. And you can say
sayonara to your favorite convenient ready-made foods like individually wrapped
microwavable “all-natural” frozen omelets for breakfast; there’s only actual hand-
cracked eggs mixed with local veggies and cooked in a pan on the spot for your
foreseeable Pura Vida future. Be forewarned: making a burrito will never be the same,
either. You will always want “gallo pinto” in it from here on out.

Reason 4: Tons of Scary Insects

You’ll never see a crazier or scarier assortment of bugs until you move to Costa Rica.
There are 6-inch flying grasshoppers (aptly called “langostas” or lobsters locally) that
kamikaze towards your head out of nowhere, spiders bigger than your hand and beetles
with tong-like pinchers that will snarkily give you the middle tarsus when you pull out
bug spray. Who would’ve thought of being in a country with 6% of the world’s biodiversity
would include so many insects and such a diverse food chain? Truly, seeing a few of
these creepy crawlies a year doesn’t make it worth the daily experience of watching
scarlet macaws, amusing monkeys, colorful toucans, nimble jungle cats, pizotes or
shiny blue morpho butterflies pass by your patio on any given afternoon.

Conclusion

If you’ve managed to look at all of these daily hurdles to life in Costa Rica and can still
embrace the positive aspects, then you might be able to endure it in the long-term.
Getting the most out of living here means appreciating the good, along with the not-so-
bad, and keeping things in perspective, especially on the surprise scorpion in your
shorts days.

Gratitude is the wine for the soul. Go on. Get drunk.
Rumi

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