Daily life
DIMEX
DEE-mex
Documento de Identidad Migratorio para Extranjeros — the residence card issued by Migración. It carries the number that the CAJA, banks and employers all use to identify you.
La Caja / CCSS
lah KAH-hah
The Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social. Enrolment is compulsory as a condition of holding residence and it is a real monthly cost — not an optional health plan you can decline.
Social
Pura vida
POO-rah VEE-dah
Hello, goodbye, thanks, no problem, I'm fine, it's all good. Used constantly and genuinely, not as a slogan for visitors.
Tico / tica
TEE-ko / TEE-kah
What Costa Ricans call themselves, from the local habit of forming diminutives in -ico. 'Un momentico' rather than 'un momentito'.
Food
Soda
SO-dah
A small family-run restaurant serving a casado — rice, beans, plantain, salad and a protein — for a fraction of a restaurant price. The backbone of eating well cheaply here.
Feria del agricultor
FEH-ree-ah del ah-gree-kool-TOR
The weekly farmers' market held in every district. Produce is dramatically cheaper and better here than in the supermarkets, and it is where the week is organised around.
Getting around
Doscientos metros norte del…
dos-see-EN-tos MEH-tros NOR-teh
'Two hundred metres north of…' — Costa Rica has no functional street addresses. Directions are given in hundred-metre blocks from a landmark, sometimes one that no longer exists.
Marchamo
mar-CHAH-mo
The annual vehicle circulation charge, bundled with compulsory insurance and due in December. It is expensive, everybody complains about it, and driving without it is not an option.
Work
Aguinaldo
ah-gee-NAL-do
The statutory thirteenth-month salary, paid in the first twenty days of December and exempt from income tax. It is a legal entitlement, not a bonus.
Culture
Estación seca / verde
es-tah-see-ON SEH-kah / VER-deh
Dry season roughly December to April; 'green season' May to November, with clear mornings and a hard downpour most afternoons. Nobody here says 'rainy season'.
Emergency
911
—
The unified emergency number for police, fire and ambulance, with bilingual Spanish-English call takers. It works from any phone.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.