I should actually be doing the insane amounts of homework that I have during this minor moment of free time but I have decided that after 4 straight hours of Spanish class... a day... that it would be much more productive to blog!
The Costa Rica style of driving is one that both is thrilling and life-threatening; thrilling if you are in a car and life-threatening if you are anywhere else (apart from the safety of your own home... yet even still). My first moments in Costa Rica included a very fast-paced education on the rules of the road. Firstly, a small community closed down a section of the highway in order for the children to play on it, leaving everyone to reroute and causing great amounts of traffic. It struck me as so strange that that would be allowed and even odder, that it is common. Secondly, by law, the pedestrians do not have the right of way here. Now, for those of you who know my common theory (that I am certain others share), I believe that cars will stop while crossing the road. Perhaps, not even out of courtesy but at the very least a common respect to not kill pedestrians. However, this is not so. Friendly walking icons that illuminate and chirp to signal a safe time to walk, thick white lined cross-walks providing a protected walkway of peace and bright-vested road crossing governers have all yet to make it to the lovely place of Costa Rica. Much like playing “frogger”, one must dart across the road when an opening appears, trying not to hit the cars or... let the cars hit onesself. You may imagine this as a fun sort of activity filled with laughter and good times with fellow foreigners but it actually very much resembles trying to avoid the possibility of death. Just imagine trying to cross four lanes of cars that disregard the thought to stop upon seeing a person in their path.
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