Going to the McDonalds? I was really just curious if it was very different from an American McDonald’s. Aside from the straw thing, and everyone speaking Spanish if was the same lol. Costa Rica is a very different place. I traveled from San Jose (near the center of the country) to Manuel Antonio (southern coast).

Although there are a lot of the same chain restaurants (I even saw a Perkins!), obviously the best food were the local places called sodas. Soda is basically a cafe. One of them didn’t have any menus, they just asked what meat I wanted and then they brought out a meal for me. Another one, way outside of the city was run entirely by a family’s children. A young girl of about 10 years old sat my table, took our order, and made our margaritas!

The tourism industry is the country’s biggest source of revenue so a lot of prices in the city match American prices, but going outside of those cities, things tend to be much cheaper and better quality in my opinion.

The last thing that stood out to me was the driving. I hired a driver to get me around before I even realized how crazy driving was. It was the most aggressive driving I’ve ever seen. It was expected for everyone to cut each other off and merge into oncoming traffic and just expect everyone else to slow down. Also, that was really the only option. There’s no way I could’ve handled that. No road rage though, everyone just accepted it.

I would love to go back. Anyone interested should visit the country. I was told by the owners of my bed and breakfast to not go out by myself after dark, and of course I would agree that’s the safest thing for anyone to do in a foreign country. But I felt very safe where I was and has no issues myself. It got fully dark at about 5 or 6 pm over there so I was never quite ready to turn in at that time (it was the same time zone I lived it). The sun was back up at 5am the next day and the city would come back alive just as soon

American here, just visited another country for the first time last year. I went to Costa Rica and something I noticed was the lack of straws. I went to a McDonalds just to experience how it was in another country and they don’t give you a lid or straw unless you ask them. I don’t understand why that can’t be the norm in America. It just makes too much sense. Now when I go out to eat I make it a point not to use a straw, but the server always drops them off anyway. No chance they take back the unused ones. What a waste.

Even with the context of the rest of the movie, that ending was completely out of left field.