The Friendliest People on Earth - Hannah

In researching Costa Rica before coming here, we came across several resources claiming Ticos (Costa Ricans) are among the friendliest people on earth. Granted, we can't claim to verify this because of our limited world travel. But we have found Costa Ricans generally are very friendly.

Here are just a few examples:

• It's very common for people to wave to you as you're driving by. Sometimes you know them, but most of the time you don't. It might be a thank you wave for letting them pass, but more often than not it's a wave simply because you happened to make eye contact.

• Since my grandpas and Michael's grandpas have all passed away, I will claim Armando as my grandpa. He is the teacher for the English class the kids and I have been attending, and is the sweetest man ever. Once I lost Julia's iPod (I felt especially bad about this because I had confiscated it from her and it had been in my possession). I was worried I had left it at the class so I contacted Armando. He had already left for the day, but went back early the next morning to check around for it, because he knew the cleaning lady would be coming later that morning. To my relief, he found it there and was able to return it to us.

• In 1948, Costa Rica abolished their military. They currently have no permanent standing army. That either fits somewhere under the category of friendly, brave, or foolish. I haven't quite decided which.

• The common way to say hello and good-bye: the kiss.

The cheek-to-cheek kiss-the-air Costa Rican kiss

• While getting an oil change today, the guy helping me called me mi amor (my love). I've been called that multiple times in unexpected contexts.

• Once Michael and I were looking for a government office and were a little lost. We pulled over to ask a woman for help. She went completely out of her way to help us. She called a couple people for us to find out where we needed to go. She even got into her car so we could follow her to the correct building. 

• Recently there was road construction on a main road that completely blocked passage. If you wanted to walk down the road, there was no sidewalk and the only way to bypass the construction was down a steep hill, across a small creek by way of a wooden plank, and up another steep hill. By these hills, there were several men there to take the women and children by the hand to guide them across. What gentlemen!