Fun Facts about Travel to Costa Rica
Slang You Want to Learn to Say
It is a toss -up for the most popular word in the Costa Rican slang. It is either mae (my), or pura vida (poor-ah vee-dah). Mae can be used to mean "dude" between friends, or simply to refer to any man or woman. Some people will use it constantly when they speak. Pura vida means "pure life," but more than anything, it's a way of life. This phrase symbolizes the Costa Rican idea of letting things go, and simply enjoying life. Use it as an answer to "como estas?" ("how are you?"), or to say "thank you" or "you're welcome."
Often in the mornings you might be greeted with como amanecio? (coh-moh ah-mahn-es-ee-oh), which literally means how did you awaken, yet is simply another way of saying how are you this morning? To which you can answer, pura vida!
If you thank someone you will usually get a con mucho gusto (cohn- moo-choh goo-stoh) as a response. Translated directly it means “with much pleasure," however Costa Ricans use this in lieu of "de nada," (deh-nah-dah) or you’re welcome.
A casual greeting to simply ask someone what’s up is diay (dee-ay). diay usually comes at the beginning of a sentence and means something like “so, what’s up? “ You can also use it when you’re not quite sure what happened, sort of like “uhm, I don’t know”.
If you want to urge someone to “move it and hurry it up”, say soque! (soh-kay). Or if “watch out!” is what you need to say, use ojo! (oh-hoe).
People might knock on your room door and say upe? (oo-pay), which is a way of saying, “hello, anyone home?” The next time you knock on a door, try it out.
During any vacation there might be things that you simply do not want to do; at those times you can say either say que pereza! (kay pay-ray-sah) or que tigra! (kay tee-grah). Both are like saying “what a drag!”
And if something seems cool to you, or you are in agreement with something, simply say tuanis (too-ahn-ees). This is said to be a Spanish adaptation of "too nice," and means "cool."
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