The Island of Costa Rica

Got a little chuckle this morning- Here’s the start of the story:

Travel agent sends woman to Puerto Rico instead of Costa Rica. Samantha Lazzaris set off for a dream vacation among the beaches and forests of Costa Rica, but she ended up 1,300 miles away in Puerto Rico thanks to a blunder by her travel agent.

At first reading, this is funny shit, but after thinking about it for a moment, it’s actually quite SAD.

Living in Costa Rica has afforded me (and other expats) to actually witness firsthand, the unabashed stupidity of many of our family and friends who have absolutely NO idea where Costa Rica is located on the map, or at least they didn’t before ‘WE’ moved HERE. You may laugh, but I can’t count the times my more ‘educated’ friends have confused Costa Rica with Puerto Rico… and this is MUCH bigger than merely confusing the two countries because of similar semantics. I hear them muttering...

“Rica, Rico, Rico, Rica, I mean really, what do you expect? I only took 1 year of Spanish.”

I’ll bet RIGHT NOW, some of you are SCRAMBLING, you’re worried, you’re confused, you’re FEELING, well, DUMB…. “Damn, isn’t the island of Costa Rica off the coast of Florida somewhere? SHIT! Rico, Rica, Costa, Puerto……Rich Port Coast…..F**K…. Ahhh, who cares anyway, I know where Del Taco is.”

This is the SAD part- many Americans are geographically impaired (there’s HELP out there) because they believe the WORLD revolves around the UNITED STATES. “We’re the U.S. of A, we don’t have to know SHIT, you have to know where to find US.” On a personal note: I believe this to be the root of most of our problems. See: Ethnocentrism

We ARE indeed an arrogant lot. We don’t even apologize for being stupid, sorry, ‘geographically impaired,’ because once we’ve learned the capitals of ALL 50 States, the 7 continents and the 5 oceans, what else is there? Well, except for maybe, Del Taco.

I guess it should be noted, before it’s pointed out, this story didn’t happen in the STATES, actually it was in the UK. But my point still stands; after all, you probably don’t know where the UK is either.

Actually, what does the UK even stand for,,,,, ummm?

Rico, Rica, Costa, Puerto, uno, dos, tres……………..damn, all this Spanish makes me hungry for some Mexican.

OH! and for the record- I call Bullshit! That lady was the DUMBASS who BOARDED the plane to Puerto Rico......

Tons of Videos on Costa Rica at the Costa Rica Travel Channel and if you're planning on Living or Traveling to Costa Rica, then check out Travel Costa Rica NOW for all your INFORMATION. And see ALL our Costa Rica Travel Tip Videos on YouTube. ENjOY!