Today is the day to talk about Costa Rica, the country in Central America and the second member of Group E.
COSTA RICA
- Name written in its native language: Costa Rica
- Language: Spanish
- Capital city: San Jose
- Currency: Costa Rican Colon (BRL 0.0086 – currency exchange on 09/21/2022)
- Main player: Keylor Navas
- Typical food: Casado
Curiosities
The beginning of Costa Rica history is similar to the history of Brazil. The country used to be inhabited by Indigenous people until it was discovered by Cristóvão Colombo in 1502. The territory was a Spanish colony until 1821 and, during this colonization period, its Indigenous population decreased drastically. After declaring independence from Spain, Costa Rica was incorporated to Mexico and integrated the Central-America Federation together with Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras. In 1838, the Central-America Federation was disintegrated, and Costa Rica was no longer part of Mexico.
Costa Rica is an extremely calm country to live; in 2019, it was considered the happiest country in Latin America, and the motto of Costa Ricans is “Pure Life”, which is used in several ways, from a greeting to a philosophy. For the population, Pure Life means a lighter and quieter life, enjoying nature.
And nature is another strong point in Costa Rica. The country is bounded by the Caribbean Sea to the west and by the Pacific Ocean to the east, its beaches are protected and seaside hotels are prohibited by law, and 25% of Costa Rica territory is occupied by wooded landscapes, forests, and areas of environmental preservation. The country has an ongoing plan to become the first carbon neutral country in the world.
In Costa Rica, education and healthcare are free of charge and of high quality; the country even has free undergraduate course for the population and the literacy rate in Costa Rica is 97%. In addition, Costa Rica does not have an army since 1948. The amount of money that was used in the maintenance of Military Forces was fully invested in healthcare and education. The country constitution even provides for the absence of Military Forces.
Costa Rica economy is based on ecotourism and on the exportation of agricultural products, such as banana and pineapple.
The language of Costa Rica is Spanish, with a small difference in relation to other countries that speak this language: Costa Ricans drag a lot the letter “r”, which gives the impression of a North-American trying to speak Spanish, but it’s only the natural accent of the country. It’s common, mainly in large urban centers, that people speak English and that signs are in English due to the tourism of North-Americans in the country.
Another thing that Costa Ricans have that is similar to Brazilians is the love for rice and beans. Costa Rica cuisine uses these ingredients a lot, and instead of highlighting only one dish, today we can say that it’s a full meal. Casado, as it’s called in Costa Rica, is a dish with rice, beans, meat, tortillas, salad, and fried banana and, when you order a casado in a restaurant in Costa Rica, you will usually get your dish together with a fresh fruit juice.
Although it is a well developed country in several aspects, Costa Rica soccer is not that strong yet. Their teams play in CONCACAF tournaments, but they do not have the required level to win teams from Mexico and the United States. Its main player nowadays is, with no doubt, the goalkeeper Keylor Navas, a partner of Neymar, Messi, and Mbappé in PSG. He was chosen the best goalkeeper in the decade by CONCACAF in 2021. Navas was a three-time champion in Champions League in Real Madrid team before he was transferred to PSG in Paris; however, he did not go so well and ended up losing the role to the Italian player Gianluigi Donnarumma. Navas has still not played for PSG this season, and may only play in smaller tournaments when the team uses the reserve players. In the national team, he has already played in 107 matches, and shall have a lot of work trying to stop the Germany and Spain attacks.
This was Eko’s in the World Cup for Costa Rica. If you liked it, follow our social media (Instagram: @ekostraducoes / LinkedIn: ekostraducoes) and come back tomorrow, because we are going to talk about Germany.