Using songs and dance, anti-CAFTA supporters hold massive protest.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Around 100,000 Costa Ricans descended on downtown San Jose this past Sunday in a massive rally protesting the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States.

The scene was colorful, as the peaceful protest featured bands and speakers trying to rally the people for the upcoming national referendum, scheduled for Oct. 7, that will decide whether the nation enters the agreement.

Reuters estimated 100,000 people manifested, while the EFE news agency put the total number at 150,000. La Nacion, one of the papers here, did not have an estimate.



This week is the home-stretch of the political and economic debate that has consumed this nation for the past year and the rally was a show of force for the side opposing CAFTA.


Meanwhile, President Oscar Arias has promised to abandon CAFTA if the trade agreement negatively affects Costa Rica.

Here are a few pictures and videos. More pictures can be found here.




Protesters danced their way to opposition:


Anti-Cafta March In Costa Rica - The best video clips are right here

Near the end of the rally, they sang the national anthem:


Anti-Cafta March In Costa Rica - The funniest videos are a click away

OH MY GOD!!! GIANT ANTS!!! COCKROACHES!!

My roommates and I were fascinated by ants eating a cockroach.

Trabalenguas

I've always been fascinated by tongue twisters. Maybe because I mumble a lot.

I asked my German and French-speaking Swiss roommates to say some in their languages:

In German:



In French:

Sounds of Costa Rica

The two men below were playing folk songs at a restaurant in San Jose.



In the former capital of Cartago, I encountered a band playing Peruvian music, er, but covering an Abba song.

Sounds weird, but the band was just catering to tastes in Costa Rica, a country that loves crappy 80s music.

La Cucaracha Si Puede Caminar

(A post delayed due to the untimely death of my laptop.)

Last night, I had my sporadic spout with insomnia.

I think it was for good reason. When I got up to check the time (3:30ish a.m.) I saw my first cockroach in Costa Rica.

And I feel at home.

Years ago, back in Guatemala, my family – my mom at least – had a declared war against these pesky insects. It was quite the production to exterminate the seemingly invincible spiky-legged creatures.

We tried fumigation. It didn’t work. We tried using our shoes. That can get messy.

Finally, my mother found this chalk that apparently was Chinese made. Yeso Chino.

I haven’t a clue what chemicals where in that thing.

But it worked. We lined the house with chalk. And cockroach corpses appeared magically.

I remember once we had to clear out the entire kitchen. The cockroaches liked to live in the cupboards and drawers where we kept cooking pans and plates.

Chalk in the cupboards.

Chalk in hallway.

Chalk everywhere.

I’m pretty sure someday I’ll get cancer from this Chinese chalk.

But at least, my family won the war.

Pura Vida

Everywhere, Costa Rica -- Some things I have had to be re-accustomed to:

1. Ants.

An ant colony lives somewhere near the pantry-area of the home I live in. If bread, cookies, or any kind of food are not properly sealed, then the ants have a feast.

While I'm all for keeping thousands of ants happy, I must say that on a couple of occasions, I just wanted to eat bread.

But ants and I go way back.

Back in Guate, many ant colonies called our patios home. I was fascinated by these holes in the cement where ants streamed out.

Sometimes I would put lines of sugar somewhere around the hole. That would bring out the ants, and they would have a feast.

Unfortunately that also brought out other ants from other colonies.

Massive ant colony battles ensued.

2. Sidewalks.

Sidewalks in Costa Rica are not made for strolling. Your life could be at risk -- in the shape of a giant hole in the middle of the sidewalk.

The infrastructure of this country, like many still developing, is horrible. And that includes lack of maintenance of sidewalks that are filled with holes, gaps, cracks, and roots, making a walk, not a walk but a concentration game.

People have died, by the way, from these dangerous sidewalks.

3. Shower

Hot shower here comes from an electric heater (with wires and all) placed right above the shower. While I don't know how many people have been electrocuted by this method of warming water, I will say it takes forever to heat it.

And because I am always somewhat behind in the mornings, I take the showers cold.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, cold showers wake you up, and help fight the heat in the morning.

Sometimes, after a humid, hot, sweaty, and overall disgusting day, a cold shower feels nice.

Chiqui Chiqui

In the late 1980s, a new music genre emerged in Costa Rica that just seems to underline that the 80s were a bad time for everyone.

They call it Chiqui Chiqui, and I have no idea what that means. The movement (haha) spawned a slew of cheap music videos such as the one above called "Canchis Canchis."

The songs are silly, often giving nicknames to women or things. There was one about a love pill that featured angels and a giant pill. Others included chorographed dancing, and clothes that made James Brown look like a monk.

I saw Canchis Canchis on a bus on my way to a beach, but it wasn't the first time I had heard this song. When I was a kid in Guatemala, I remember Canchis Canchis was my brother's favorite song (his horrible music taste continues to this day). We had it recorded on a cassette tape that was lost during the move north.

It was weird, hearing a song that I had not heard in years.

So enjoy, a piece of my forgotten childhood.

UPDATE: After a few more listens, I think the song is about copulation. Or blondes. Or both.