Tico Country

While Peru may seem like Tico country due to the proliferation of cars there with the name Tico (made by Daewoo), Costa Rica is where the true ticos live. Tico is what they call themselves instead of using the more cumbersome costariccense. I'm not even sure I spelled that right. Those of us from the USA have a similar shorthand of calling ourselves American, even though everyone who lives in the Americas is an American. I last updated the blog on Wednesday, and it is now Saturday, so I'll quickly review the last few days. On Thursday, Mom and I took a boat tour of the Islas de las Ballestas. These islands are covered with birds, including penguins, and with guano (bird droppings) that has become an international export because it makes an excellent fertilizer. From there we traveled to Lima by bus. On Friday, I visited a very poor area of the Lima and met with some people from there and from the city planning office to discuss potential partnerships between them and the planning school at UBC. The major stumbling block, as always, is money to do partnership projects like this. Today Mom and I went our separate ways as I flew here to Costa Rica and she flew to Chicago. I fly to Chicago from here tomorrow. So far Costa Rica is everything they say it is: progressive, safe, friendly. My taxi driver was a woman, something you don't see often in many countries, including the States. I'm definitely adding Costa Rica to my already long list of places to visit, but it'll have to go after Ukraine, Colombia, Taiwan, Canada and other places where friends are. Friendship is most important after all.