more on culture

There are a couple things that I wanted to write about that have been interesting cultural differences.  

meds

As we drive south from our house on the costal highway we pass a variety of small eateries that sell fried fish, ceviche (a delicious raw fish salsa of sorts) and a variety of veggie stands... one stands out as the sign reads a full list of the types of fish for sale followed by viagra....  just in case the red-snapper didn't do it for you...
You don't go to a doctor to get prescriptions south of the border, you can, or you can buy them self prescribed at the pharmacy. Pharmacists are schooled however there seems to be discrepancy in levels of education for medications and the bare minimum is the bar.  We have a Tico friend who is a pharmacist and he said that he didn't seel like he knew enough to work at teh hospital so he worked at a local pharmacy... good to know. When you buy a medication they ask you how many, as in how many pills, where upon you serve yourself to the open package and pay per pill.

hazards

Last night we had a few expat friends over for dinner and we were talking about the road hazards.  This is truly a fend-for-yourself culture as is most of the southern hemisphere, only in north american and europe are there well marked pitfalls it seems.  It is not uncommon here to drive along and find your lane in the road to have been washed away leaving a gaping hole that would swallow a bus into a dropoff of over 50feet.  There are markers in advance though, no worries... sometimes a small reflective roadsign  in the pave 6 feet in away so you have time to stop as night, or my favorite, north of Montezuma, marking a 3ft wide 6ft home in the middle of my lane was a stick, about 4 feet out of the hole and as wide as a broom stick with half of a white plastic bag stuck on the end.  you also see these in the sidewalks where, without warning there will be an abrupt drop-off into an 8ft pit for some street work. 
I drove the canyon with the washed out sections the other day and yes, there were 2 sections where the markers had been run over and were no longer visible, though not to worry, the sheared metal markers are visible during the day.

Left turn

There is an interesting driving habit here; when you want to have the driver behind you pass you, drivers will turn on the left turn signal to tell them to go around them on the LEFT. Coincidentally this is ALSO the sign for a left turn... yea, go figure.  There was a recent article talking about the accidents this causes; who'd of thought.