Barefoot in Costa Rica

In Barefoot to Costa Rica I covered flying to Costa Rica and the stay in the resort. Today I thought I’d talk about going barefoot on the tours I took, and what I saw among the people of Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is a very interesting country. It has an incredibly high literacy rate: around 95%. From what I could see, even in the countryside, everybody had electricity, and a fair number had satellite dishes.

There were a lot of motorcycles and bicycles (particularly in the countryside). There was also an extensive bus system running between all the small towns. All of the small towns we went through had their own schools and their own large city plaza/park.

Most people wore flip-flops or sandals. Occasionally I’d see athletic shoes or regular shoes. In the city of Liberia more folks were fully shod.

Also, all of the school kids wear shoes. Costa Rica requires school uniforms, and the country itself supplies them.

About the only time I saw bare feet was when people were sitting around the plaza, or they were around their houses. But they seemed to be pretty tolerant of bare feet in others.

On our first tour, lunch was up in the hills to sample authentic Costa Rican food.

La Hornilla (The Grill)

As far as I can tell, while this was an official tourist spot, it was mainly local ladies cooking over traditional wood fires just as they would do at home (in fact, I think their home was right there). Nobody cared in the least that I was barefoot.

At the beginning of our tours, we stopped at places to stock up on snacks and drinks. There were definitely no NSNSNS signs anywhere. In fact, I found interesting the sign at the entrance of one of their supermarkets, a “Jumbo”.

A Grocery Store Sign

The no smoking sign is part of the law (Ley 9028). But notice the sign at the bottom. It says

Estimado Cliente

Favor No Ingresar con Mascotas al Supermarcado

---

Respected Customer

Please do not enter the Supermarket with Pets

Pets are worth a sign; bare feet are not. Also notice how polite it is. None of this crap like “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service”. And the fact that they mention pets, but not bare feet, makes me suspect that they really don’t care about bare feet. (And there were just enough barefoot kids around for me to think they might go in there barefoot.)

Unfortunately, I didn’t need anything so I didn’t go in. I’m thinking now that I should have shopped around just to see what happened.

There was one are in which everybody was barefoot. On our tour along the Tempisque River (outside the National Park), we stopped for a moment at a work site. According to our guide, Juan Carlos Sotela Méndez, these folks were taking sand from the river for construction material.

Supposedly machinery is banned because of the possibility of fuels leaking into the river, so all of the collection is done by hand. Here you see two workers scooping up bucketfuls of the sand into a boat.

Loading Sand from the River

The sand was then transported by oxcart to a pick-up point.

Oxcart

Here’s another shot of an oxcart, with Juan Carlos and one of my nieces.

Up Close and Personal

The workers were all barefoot. They also had really strong-looking feet.

Walking Back a Load of Sand

Photo courtesy of Heather (Neinast) Codner.

Of course bare feet are perfect for what they are doing: going in and out of the river and then leading the oxen. (Also notice that, when the cart is empty of sand, you ride in the cart; when it’s full, you walk beside it.)

As Juan Carlos told us, the Costa Ricans wouldn’t bother me over my bare feet. Part of that is that they are all very aware of how dependent they are on tourists. But they are also quite tolerant of all sorts of people and ways of doing things.

It wasn’t all sweetness and light, though. On our second tour we visited a hacienda with a restaurant. I was a little surprised to see this sign.

Restaurant Sign

I actually kind of like the picture, with the reflection of my bare feet superimposed right next to the prohibition. I just went right in (I sure didn’t have any footwear with me). Nobody bothered me. Then after eating I had to go back to take the picture.

I suspect part of that is the difference between regular people and corporate interests. Corporate folks always seem to be over-controllers. But the everyday folks in Costa Rica (including the employees) don’t have the “civilized” US myths hammered into them, so they’re not going to make up excuses to toss a barefooted person.

After we ate I showed the sign to Juan Carlos (he hadn’t noticed it going in, or all the other times he’d taken tours there). He kind of shrugged his shoulders and laughed.

No big deal.