My cousin Douglas is visiting from Colorado; he’s part of the Costa Rican contingent here to visit family and attend a conference in Panama. He offered us space in his luggage which we took full advantage of and now have plastic screw covers on our headliners and USB 12v outlets, among other things.
Douglas invited us to join him for the weekend in a drive over the mountains behind us to a town called San Vito. He didn’t have to twist our arms.
The drive was beautiful as we climbed from sea level to about 3900 feet, a glorious break from the suffocating heat in Golfito.
San Vito was settled in the 1950s by Italian immigrants and Douglas says the inhabitants speak with a decidedly Italian-tinged Spanish, not that we could notice. There are several Italian restaurants and, interesting to us, more grocery shopping opportunities than we have in Golfito.
The much-anticipated World Cup match between Costa Rica and the Netherlands took place while we were there and we gathered in the hotel lobby along with other guests and staff to watch. Even after Costa Rica’s disappointing loss on a penalty kick, the town still celebrated the team’s unlikely run. Tico pride runs deep, even here in the hinterlands.
