Cartago Costa Rica 1977 UofAla independent study
StoneBearTracks journey to Costa Rica
Alphonso's Saloon Cartago, Costa Rica Summer 1977
Near the Cartago bus station/ transportation center there were many small mom & pop businesses, stores, stands, and a couple of bars. While waiting one afternoon 45 minutes for the next bus out to Quebradilla ,... the bus I could get off at Ranch Minimo, I went into what we call a bar... more of a saloon.
Costa Rican bars/ saloons range in a category by themself. Standing at the bar I got the Costa Rican Tico barkeep help my Spanglish enough to order a longneck bottle of beer. His name was Alphonso. About age 40, 5'6", groomed -neatly combed hair, good smile, and he introduced himself.... shook my hand and asked my name; and he instantly became a good friend.
Alphonso reccommended an "Imperial" - pronounced imperi-all... bottle of beer. Unique black eagle, red letters logo. A decent tasting beer, and cold. A longneck bottle of Imperial beer cost about 3 Colon = .35cents. A Costa Rican Colon converted to a US dollar at 8.54 : $ 1 US dollar ... about .12cents.
Alphonso went back to work doing whatever. Looking around and examining the place,... about the 3rd sip of beer, Alphonso placed a saucer sized plate for me on the bar and motioned for me to eat and said "boca". Si, boca,... and motioned for me. Gracias I replied; I'm picking up this Spanish fast for an American "gringo" tourist!
The boca was a fried tortia chip, like you get a basket of with salsa at American/ mexican resturants, and a small piece of meat that looked like some pork fatback with a small lean part of meat.
A week later when I stopped in again, alphonso treated me like one of his regular cutomers and poured my beer into an Imperial beer glass. Glassware like this was rare... and not cheap glassware; it was treating a customer 1st class. When I went to a cafe in Cartago to eat and told them Alphonso said to eat here... they treated me primo; 1st class service for a Casada plate= the blue plate special - for about 10 to 12 Colon = about $1.25.
Back to the boca... If you did this now in the states, ... it would be like getting a cheese and cracker/ or cracker and cocktail weenie with every beer. Nothing as fine as a Buffalo wing. Back in the states bars they were doing the happy hour promotion with some buffet snacks. The boca was the Latin American/ Costa Rican version. Some of the different bocas were:
Tortia chips: these were the crispy tortia chips,... exactly the size of a Doritos chip, fried in greasy lard.... and dripping with grease. Sometimes just 3 to 4 chips by themself with a slice of avocado. If there was some meat that would come with the chips it would be the scrap meat from the butcher like some pork neck/ jowls meat or ham hocks meat. Remember, this was a complimentary snack served with a beer and some/ not all the saloons served a boca. It was good; it put just a little food in your stomach until you got home to eat. Most Ticos were skinny... maybe a boca was all they ate.
Ceviche: Ceviche is raw fish... and you 1st think ewwwwww. But it's actually really good. It IS raw... but it is really chemical cooked overnight/ marinated in fresh lime/ citrus juice with some chopped onion and salt. And the fish tastes good and texture is good like cooked. Usually served in a really small bowl, finger bowl size.... in a tablespoon of some lime juice base/ broth, with some fresh cilantro.
Plantains: If you ordered Plantains you'd be horse laughed out of a cafe/ resturaunt in Latin America. Plantinos: - pronounced plat-tin-ohs - looked exactly like bananas, but were a much more dense pulp, almost like a raw potato and you could not eat raw. Most Ticos would slice them like banana chips and fry them. a pinch of salt and they really were tasty french fries. Some bocas would be 3 platinos chips.
A boca made a lot of sense in Costa Rica as many Ticos would go back to a saloon that served a boca than a bar that wouldn't.
These are Plantaines. They are NOT bananas, but they look the same. Plantaines were like a hard pulp potato... when cut into rounds and fried were like Latin American french fries.
These are bananas... picked green in Costa Rica and shipped to the US supermarkets. These bananas have been in this box for maybe a month and ripen during this time. At home in the US... they taste like a banana, but to taste a ripe banana, picked in Costa Rica that morning.... I can't describe the full flavor of taste. You haven't lived until you've had a banana daquri made with fresh bananas!
Also while I was talking w/ Alphonso one visit it sounded like someone pissing on a flat rock. I looked around on the other side of his bar/ saloon,... it was about a 25'x25' room... 2 open air doors on two walls,... and in the corner... behind me, while standing at the bar.... was a urinal. An open urinal, tiled 6; wall 5' high... urine trough.... and a guy urinating, letting it fly. Nobody thought a thing about it; this is how saloons were in Costa Rica/ Latin America.
?There were no ladies allowed? ?I guess?, 'cause I never saw a lady in these saloons... so there were mens urinals right in the same bar room. And I remember... these places did have a funky smell to them. Bar smoke ect... Some bars had small vendor shops in a corner.
And I bought "Pintor" hand rolled Costa Rican cigars for a C-Colon... a dime.... oh my god they were smooth and actually tasted good.
And I bought "Pintor" hand rolled Costa Rican cigars for a C-Colon... a dime.... oh my god they were smooth and actually tasted good.
This is 3rd world Latin America; there are no/ very little health codes/ building codes ect... but the government will tax everything it can. I've seen cafes that had a barber chair over in the corner right next to a butcher block/ carniceria/ butcher shop. It's quite a place in 1977; quite a culture! I absolutely loved every minute in Costa Rica. I should have gone back and lived/ retired there. I liked the lifestyle and the Costa rican culture.
Through that Summer I had stopped at Aphonsos saloon maybe a dozen times. A couple of days before I left Cartago to head back home to Tuscaloosa to finnish college, I stopped and said bye to Alphonso and thanked him for all his help, translating, directions, advice and friendship. Alphonso gave me one of the Imperial beer glasses to take home; it is one of my prized possesions of the journey through Costa Rica in the summer of 1977.
