Costa Rica Living with Confrontation – Just not accustomed to it in Costa Rica…

I remember when I had to ‘consult’ with a French neighbour of mine – Remy.

He lives a few doors down on my street here in Escazu. For some reason ‘Remy’ seems to think it’s acceptable to allow his three large, totally untrained dogs to wander around on a busy, fairly upscale residential street completely unsupervised.

I can normally handle a situation like that myself since I have always had an excellent relationship with animals. However on this occasion, my 67 year old mother had taken my dog ‘Vashik’ for a walk without me and much to her surprise, three huge dogs bounded out from the Frenchman’s house to snarl and bark at her and my dog who was of course on a leash…

Needless to say, this little old lady did not know whether the dogs were about to attack her and since they were barking quite viciously, she was understandably afraid.

A few hours later, after ‘consulting’ with my neighbour in Spanish (my French is too rusty), it became obvious this person seemed to think he was quite within his rights to allow his untrained dogs to scare the living daylights out of a sweet, little old white haired Scottish lady. (Although she would have ripped his head off 25 years ago..)

One of his previous very dogs was run over and killed in the street only a few months ago, so you would have thought that he might have learned from that experience but obviously not.

Why on earth am I telling you this?

I mention this because having lived securely and so peacefully with Costa Ricans for some years now, I am just so completely unaccustomed to any kind of confrontation and this adrenaline filled incident was an unpleasant reminder of how illogical and unreasonable some people can be.

The good news is that this unfortunate event ocurred with a Frenchman named after an alcoholic drink and not a Tico (a Costa Rican). The Ticos are typically very unconfrontational.

In fact, some people think the Ticos take it to the other extreme so where there are occasions when you would like them to be a bit more confrontational and forthright with their opinions.

It’s actually quite similar to some of those ‘exceedingly polite’ Brits you meet… (Not forgetting that I am a Brit) – You know the restaurant scenario… When the waiter comes around and asks them how their food is and they smile and say “Oh! Lovely thank you” when seconds earlier they were both complaining to each other about how disgusting their meal was.

But overall, it makes for an exceedingly pleasant life and it’s just another reason I love living here in Costa Rica.

[custom_script adID=97]

Written by Scott Oliver, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

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.