The Vibrant Culture Of Costa Rica

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INTRODUCTION

Costa Rica is one of the countries in the world that are famous for their culture and heritage. While most countries are only famous for their indigenous cultures, Costa Rica's culture is a blend of indigenous, Spanish, Jamaican and even Chinese culture. This unique blend of influences and characters create a vibrant, exotic and colorful culture in Costa Rica. This vibrant and colorful culture are reflected through various part of Costa Rican's daily life including clothing, architectures and foods.



 CLOTHING

One of the most prominent and famous elements of Costa Rican's culture is their traditional clothing. The dresses and clothing reflected their Spanish roots with their bright colors, excessive use of fabrics and styles. Female's attire usually consists of a long colorful skirt and shoulderless blouse with a shirred fabric around the chest. Male's attire usually consists of pants with a big red belt, a white shirt with handkerchief around the neck and a white brimmed hat called chonete. Leather sandals are common for both men and women. These traditional attires usually wore during celebrations, events, festivals or touristic destinations.


Costa Rica's traditional attire

LANGUAGE

Due to its Spanish heritage, Costa Rica's official language is Spanish. However, majority of Costa Rican can speak English and some of them even knew additional languages. Costa Rican's Spanish is considered to be one of the most understandable and clearest in all Spanish accents. A number of Costa Rican who live in the Caribbean Coast speaks Patois or Mekatelyu, which is a kind of English Creole. Some indigenous populations still keep their native languages, specifically the Bribri, Ngöbe, Cabecar, Buglere, and Maleku.

FOODS

Costa Rica is said to be the paradise of food in Latin America. Due to its mixed traditions and abundant sea, farmlands and jungle, Costa Rica offers a wide variety of cuisine ranging from exotic traditional foods to Spanish-inspired cuisines. One of the most sought after traditional food in Costa Rica is the Galla Pinto. Galla Pinto is a regional variation of rice and beans, which is usually seasoned with bell peppers, cilantro, and onions. The name directly translates to “spotted rooster,” which refers to the spots of beans that stand out against the white rice. For breakfast, it might be served with a fried egg, while for lunch and dinner it’s a side to meat or fish.

Another popular cuisine in Costa Rica is called Chifrijo. Unlike the Galla Pinto, Chifrijo is a bar snack served in almost every cartina across Costa Rica. Chifrijo get it's name from two main ingredients of the snack which is pork (chicharron) and beans (frijoles). Chifrijo sometimes served with a base of rice or toppings like avocados and tomatoes, but the original preparation is eaten more like a bowl of nachos, with tortilla chips and chilera (spicy pickled vegetables) on the side.

On the Caribbean Coast, the food gets even more unique and exotic. Rondon is a cuisine made from the "run down" of fish and vegetable that got thrown into a pot with coconut milk, herbs and spices. Rondon sometimes include other seafoods like red snapper, mussels, clams and sea snails. Rondon is a perfect dish for adventurous foodies who want to discover unique and exotic foods in Costa Rica.


Rondon (Run-down Soup)

ARCHITECTURE

The architecture of Costa Rica is a reflection of the country's rich heritage and vibrant culture. The architecture includes remains of from the pre-Columbian Era all the way to the modern and contemporary structures. Some of Costa Rica's historical structures is the Guayando de Turrialba and Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles.

Guayando de Turrialba or simply known as Guayando is a remains of an ancient city in the Cartago Province. Guayando is one of the few architectural remains from the pre-Columbian era and Costa Rica's biggest ancient architectural site. The artefacts found in this site dates back to 1000 B.C however there's still no possible answer on why it was abandoned by the civilization. One of the few possible reasons is due to its close proximity to the Turrialba volcano which prone to high earthquake magnitude.

Guayando de Turrialba


Another popular historical site in Costa Rica is the The Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles which translates to Our Lady of the Angel Basilica. This site a huge roman catholic basilica located in Cartago. It was built in colonial era in 1639. It was restored and redesigned by Luis Llach Llagos in 1939, exactly 300 hundred years after it was built. The restoration was conducted after an earthquake damages major parts of the structures. The whole basilica was redesigned by Luis in the style of Turkish's Byzantine architecture.

Basilica of Our Lady of the Angel




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