Spanish is the main language spoken in Costa Rica, but since San Jose is the capital city of Costa Rica, it has a lot of tourists and immigrants who speak a variety of languages including English, Creole, Farsi and many more.
Costa Rica uses the Costa Rican colón and it's named after Christopher Columbus who is called Cristóbal Colón in Spanish. About 500 colones equals a $1 U.S. dollar. Bills come in denominations or units of 1000, 2000, 5000, 10,000 and 20,000. The bills are colorful and have pictures of some of Costa Rican's most beautiful animals like sharks, monkeys, sloths and butterflies. They also have coins in 500, 100, 50, 25 and 5 colones.
A bottle of water costs about 1,000 colones or about $2 U.S. dollars. We're lucky to be in a country where almost all water is potable, or drinkable, so I usually don't need to buy bottled water. Instead, I like to buy iced tea and snacks!
Being in the city meant I had more food options. I got to enjoy Lebanese food, one of my favorite cuisines, for the first time since getting here seven months ago. I had hummus, a dip made from chickpeas, rice, salad and chicken. It was delicious!
