Party

Before the apocalypse descended upon the world and the USA elected a convicted sex offender and fascist as president, we wisely fled across the border to Latin America – not in the classic way as depicted in Hollywood films to Mexico, but to Costa Rica.

With Costa Rica, we returned to familiar territories, as we had been here once before. After 4 months of constant traveling back and forth, we decided to stay in one place for 4 weeks straight, and it felt almost like coming home when we picked up our luggage at the San José airport. Before we arrived at our tourist comfort zone, however, we first had to go through the capital, San José.

Even the residents of Costa Rica say that San José is not a beautiful city and that one should not be outside after dark. This coincided quite well with our initial impressions, and due to the often dangerously poor condition of the sidewalks, we jokingly suggested that the headline could be “Dangerous Pavement” – but we would have done San José a disservice. Aside from the fact that no one assaulted us and everyone treated us kindly, San José does have its prettier corners. There are nicely landscaped parks, and there is an effort to establish a Chinatown as a tourist area. The vibrant activities in the streets also have a certain charm. If you don't go into one of the tourist establishments where you pay European prices, you can also find affordable food, such as in one of the many Colombian cafés that are quite popular here. However, it helps if you like sugar, wheat flour, oil, and chicken.

What captivated us the most about San José, however, was the dia de los muertos, the celebrations of which we happened to encounter after just having celebrated Halloween in L.A.

While Halloween is about driving away evil spirits, for the dia de los muertos people paint themselves as the dead to make it easier for the deceased to feel welcome and visit, as on dia de los muertos (though it is called “dia,” the celebrations span several days) the graves are cleaned, and the dead are visited and honored with erected altars. It is therefore more of an inclusive approach regarding the deceased.

Although in Costa Rica this whole event is increasingly taking on the features of Halloween, the women often still take great care to present themselves artistically and traditionally as corpses, while the men sometimes dress up like oversized boys as Lucha Libre wrestlers. Here are fewer pictures of San José and more from the dia de los muertos. Enjoy the costumes…