Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Today’s big news was that the Costa Rican National Select soccer team was playing tonight in San Jose against El Salvador. This was a World Cup qualifier so everyone was a bit edgy.
I often hear that American’s are sports nuts. I’m definitely proud of my citizenship and my country but we are not at all really that sport’s crazed. Outside of the Super Bowl I’m not sure there is a sporting event that generates such large ratings and energizes our country. Costa Rica is different.
It is generally understood (although I had to be told) that when the National Team plays a game you are supposed to wear red – all day. Thank goodness I had a red polo shirt with me. I actually bought a national team jersey last year but for some reason I brought it back to the States with me. From now on it is just going to stay here.
I don’t know much about soccer but I can tell you the passions and intensity at La Cascada Bar & Restaurant was electric. Young. Old. Foreign. Costa Rican. Foreign. All of us were packed in watching on one of the 10 TVs in the place eating, drinking and for me, speaking in broken Spanish. I really enjoy the Spanish language and I’m a bit embarrassed I don’t know more but I keep studying and learning and hopefully in a couple of years I’ll be fluent.
Back to the game. Costa Rica dominated throughout and outshot the El Salvadorian’s by a large margin but it was still 0-0 at half time. Costa Rica ended up winning 1-0. When the ball when in the net everyone was jumping up and down, high-fiving one another. However, I think the cheering was even louder after Costa Rica was called for a foul in the goal box so El Salvador had a free kick from about 10 meters out. The Costa Rican goalie blocked the shot. Incredible.
During the game I sat with a couple of restaurant owners (including the owner of the bar we were at – La Cascada (the waterfall) so when Costa Rica scored we all got free drinks), several real estate agents from different companies and an attorney. The people here are so incredibly friendly.
From a real estate standpoint I looked at some land in San Isidro del General that had been subdivided into lots from $30,000 and $50,000 ($60-$100 sq m) that Costa Ricans are subdividing and buying. It is a great sign that the locals are also enjoying the great growth in the Costa Rican real estate market.
A group of us went to look at the two projects. In our group of 5 was me, the deputy mayor, the president of the local Scotiabank branch and two other Costa Ricans – both interested in buying. One deal was struck before the game started.
San Isidro is poised to continue it’s tremendous growth. I’ll have more photos of the new projects in the next couple of days.
