One element of the culture here that I'm not sure I will ever wrap my head around is how men act towards women in Costa Rica. I know I've already talked some about "piropos" and chances are if you've ever had a Spanish class you already know about those — the catcalls women receive in the streets, ranging from sweet (Que linda!) to super-vugar (#*&!@*$&?).
Anyway, there's a boy about our age who works at Casa del Pie that we've been trying to get to know. He's totally mysterious. After weeks of our detective work, we have a name: Javier. We can't get him to say much of anything to us, though, much less look pleased to chat. Finally we asked our friend who works there, Porque el muchacho nunca se sonrie? Why does that guy never smile? She told us it's because he's shy! Precious, right? This is really pretty much the norm around college-aged guys here. They're not necessarily timid, but they seem to not, as a rule, approach women.
Contrast it with this: after this encounter I went over to Mas por Menos to buy some more trail mix. An elderly stopped me while I was in line.
"You look sad," he said.
It totally caught me off guard — the English. I laughed and told him I was just thinking (I was thinking about Bioland organic hair products, but didn't share this part.)
"Be careful," he said. "That can be dangerous."
We chatted while making our purchases and he told me he's a retired marine from New Jersey. He told me he was making ribs and invited me for a beer. I politely declined.
See what I mean? I have no idea what to expect from men here. I was whistled at a couple times on my walk home, too, all by men who presumably are old enough to be my father. So it goes.
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