Sights

Visiting Costa Rican Markets

By Patrick Brunelle ⋅ June 9, 2009 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Many of the people who visit me ask me to take them to a Costa Rican market. This is one of the few requests I actually don’t get tired of fulfilling, as I really do enjoy the out of this world experience of going to a local market. I usually hit up the market in downtown Heredia, since it’s open 7 days a week.

Living in Costa Rica has its ups and its downs, but one thing it rarely does for me is actually make me feel like I am living somewhere that is very far and different from home. Other than the odd pot hole here and there, and the change of language, I feel completely at home. All the same stores are here, such as Macdonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Subway, and even Kentucky Fried Chicken (which is great here by the way), which makes me feel more at home. Modern malls are being built everywhere I look in Costa Rica, and the authentic Costa Rican experience is getting harder and harder to find, and this is in the Central Valley, where very few North Americans have infiltrated.

All of this is what makes visiting the local markets in Costa Rica so appealing to me. I get to feel for a brief moment that I really am on a mini adventure living out here in Costa Rica. I am reminded for a brief moment of just how far away from home I am and that makes me feel all warm inside. Not that I hate my home, cause I don’t, but I always wanted to do something different with my life, and it is these small life experiences that I was desperately searching for when I decided to leave Canada for Costa Rica.

If you want to check out some of the better markets in Costa Rica, I suggest checking out the San Jose, Heredia, Cartago and San Pedro markets.