The Tico Times

Doña Flor Arguedas has been making tamales since she was 22. That was the year she got married. Her new mother-in-law told her, “Get ready. We are making tamales for Christmas.” While this is a holiday tradition in most Costa Rican families, it so happened that Arguedas had never made […]

Tamales are serious business come Christmas in Costa Rica. Unwrapping the steamed banana-leaf covering of a Costa Rican-style tamal is like opening a present. But considering the estimated 196 million pairs of tamales eaten during December — three tamales per Tico per day, according to a study by the University of […]

The Peace Corps recruiter visited our advanced entomology course at Michigan State University in the Fall of 1983. He was young, nervous, but gave a good talk about his recent service in Mali, complete with plenty of photographs. His presentation caught my attention. The fact that anyone would even focus […]

On December 1, 1948, José Figueres Ferrer, President of the Founding Junta of the Second Republic, officially abolished the Costa Rican army by symbolically tearing down a wall of the Bellavista Barracks. This bold move, following a brief but violent civil war, redirected military funding toward education and healthcare. Costa […]

Wondering where I was going to get the pan drippings for the gravy and mashed potatoes I agreed to make for an expat Thanksgiving this year, I started thinking about last year’s turkey. It was my first Thanksgiving in Costa Rica and away from family. As we sat down to the […]

Those of us from the United States might think we hold the patent on the concept of Thanksgiving. Indeed, the November observance is one of the two biggest quintessential U.S. holidays. (The Fourth of July is the other.) But the idea is by no means unique, nor did the iconic […]

When talking about the dead around Halloween time, some think about ghouls and goblins and things that go bump in the night; others think of sadness, horror and fear. But for Mexicans, it’s fiesta time, in celebration of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), Nov. 2. Mexicans believe […]

Creepy tales are all a part of folklore. Halloween is not considered a traditional holiday in Costa Rica, but the lore here is rich in scary stories. Although few people truly believe in haunts these days, it never hurts to pay attention. It has been said that these tales are […]

Sloths are some of the most interesting animals to have ever graced the earth, and yet they remain quite the unknowable little critters. The group that contains sloths, Xenarthrans, began evolving 65 million years ago, during the age of the dinosaurs. Ever since then, these curious fuzzy creatures have diversified […]

Despite being completely non-threatening to humans, the golden orb weaver spider (Plesiometa argyra) has acid-yellow spots and pincer-like legs, and is as broad as a human fist. In other words, it looks otherworldly enough to strike fear into the hearts of even the most seasoned nature buff. But creeping through the […]