One bottle of water usually costs 1,500 colones or about $2.50. These higher prices are due to what is called the I.V.A. tax, which is currently a 13% value added tax on all goods and services.
My favorite meal in Costa Rica is gallo pinto. Gallo pinto is a typical breakfast of fried rice and beans served with fried eggs, fresh fruit, bread with sour cream, and coffee. It is the best breakfast to wake up to! I love it so much that my host mom started making it for me almost every morning.
For part of my curriculum this semester, I am taking a typical Latin American dance class! This week we are learning the cha-cha-cha, which is a dance of Cuban origin. So this week I have been listening to a lot of Cuban and Afro-Caribbean rhythms in order to practice my dance for next week's class.
One of my favorite activities this week was going to Oxigeno (Oxygen) mall. The mall is only a 15 minute bus ride from my university, and it is the biggest mall in Latin America. It not only has a movie theater, restaurants, and a ton of stores, but my favorite part is the rooftop garden and the view of the city at night. My friends and I got some churros covered in dulce de leche (caramel) and then we saw a movie in Spanish!
