Climb Aboard the Chunche. Three young Ticos drive to the World Cup in Brazil.

When it comes to the soccer’s World Cup, anything goes. Even a Chunche.
Three young Ticos are driving to Brazil in a custom built Toyota Land Cruiser with the Costa Rican flag painted on the hood and the mottos “Pura Vida” and “Subite al Chunche” on the sides. That’s a Chunche.

The word Chunche means Thing and this Thing is sure to call attention to Costa Rica and our national team when Sebastian Castro, 26, Ricardo Cerdas, 26, and Oliver Nowalski, 25, take to the road. They will drive through nine countries from Colombia down to Argentina and then head north to Brazil and a solid month of soccer. The world championship starts June 12.

To give the Chunche practice runs and to work up support for the team the trio ran errands for the Lifting Hands foundation delivering computers and educational materials to schools in some far off towns where they encouraged kids to use their imaginations to think up projects for their futures, and invited them to Subite al Chunche or climb aboard the Chunche. “We also want to make the work of the organization visible,” they say.

“We have a social mission to show it can be done,” said Sebastian. ‘Subite al Chunche’ means ‘come with us’ and ‘see it through our eyes’, enduring dangers and different languages. We want to encourage others. We want to show young people to be creative.” The Chunche has made friends wherever they go. People react. They ask questions. They take pictues. Someone wrote a song. A nutritionist planned meals for them. “It’s the true Pura Vida concept,” said Ricardo. It’s Costa Rica!

While ‘Chunche’ may be a good name for something like the Chunche, it was actually named for Costa Rica’s popular soccer figure Mauricio “Chunche” Montero who played with the Alajuela Sport League team and later became their trainer. Chunche Montero who is readily recognized by his long curly locks, will also be at the World Cup and the Tico Trio hopes to give Chunche a ride in the Chunche.

Plans for driving a Chunche through mountains and deserts, jungles and lowlands began four years ago at the 2010 World Cup games in South Africa. Sebastian and Oliver were volunteers with FIFA, the International Football Federation and for the fun of it, they rented a “Vocho” or Volkswagon and decorated it with the Costa Rican flag and the motto “Costa Rica comes to the World Cup.” And it was lots of fun. They were the only Costa Ricans there but they got lots of attention and could hardly wait for 2014 to do it again.

Oliver, an engineer, Sebastian, a journalist formerly with CNN, and Ricardo, a film producer, were able to take time off of work, about three months time, to make the trip but they plan to make a film history to be shown on You Tube and on commercial TV. Because of the difficulty of driving from Panama to Colombia the Chunche was shipped in a banana container and the lads will meet up with it on Good Friday.

“It was sad saying Good Bye,” they claimed but soon they will spend days and nights together as the Chunche is fitted out with a few of the comforts of home, a kitchen, bath and sleeping spaces. They plan to take time to explore along the way, and then, one solid month of soccer. The guys said we could follow along on facebook, twitter or You Tube at subitealchunche.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.