Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes
I’m pretty sure that a Tico or Tica came up with the saying, “Patience is the mother of all virtues.” The Spanish word for patience is “paciencia,” which is easy to learn; start practicing now.
In my first years of living in Costa Rica, I was always surprised to learn that Ticos have a fantastic quality that most expats lack: patience.
Do you have any patience at all? I didn’t when I moved to Costa Rica, and it’s still difficult sometimes. If you plan to move to this beautiful country, I hope you have patience—lots of patience.
Ticos can stand in line at the bank in Costa Rica for hours. No matter how long the service takes, they can stand stoically in line forever. They have an incredible amount of patience. I don’t know if it’s my Dutch upbringing or that I am simply impatient. I always carry a book, which helps me a lot, unless the book is boring.
I always see everyone busy on their phones; I assume they spend their waiting time on social media. I’m surprised they don’t have charging stations in banks, hospitals, and governmental institutions. They should!
My wife does most such things that require standing in line. She is Costa Rican, though she seems to start complaining, too. I guess that’s my influence. Looking for synonyms for patience, I found 679 options. Nonetheless, I believe the right one is “sufferance,” but Ticos probably think the right one is “resignation.”
So why do Ticos have so much more patience than we usually have?
Wars
The Costa Rican civil war in 1948 lasted only 44 days, and I am pretty sure it ended in a cantina (bar). I am now joking about it, but this war still took 2,000 lives. That civil war was most of the fighting Costa Ricans did in their history. I am sure it is what made the Ticos so easygoing and why so many expats always move here.
A Quality to Acquire
Patience is probably a quality we’re not born with but can be acquired. It’s so common that everything takes longer than usual here that the locals just accept that everything is slow. They don’t have the comparison that we have. Everything just takes a long time.
Confrontation
Costa Ricans don’t complain publicly because they don’t like confrontation; they just put up with things, which makes them nicer and better people. That is also the reason nothing ever changes in Costa Rica. This lack of confrontation makes it so great to live in Costa Rica; it is a great reason to move to Costa Rica.
Famous
Quite a few famous events have occurred here, mainly in the country’s infrastructure; here are a couple:
Route 27
Route 27’s design dates from 1978, but due to financial, political, and bad management, it was not opened until thirty-two years later. The highway is still under construction. Standing in line to pay the toll might take 30 minutes or more, so arm yourself with patience.
Highway to San Carlos
Congress approved the construction of 44.6 km to San Carlos in 1969, and is still unfinished.
I could make this list a lot longer, but the idea of this blog is not to show you how bad the quality of life is here. It’s quite the opposite. I have learned to live with infrastructure problems and the institutions’ slow attention and arm myself with patience. No matter who is in charge, I won’t be able to change the problem anyway.
Tico Time
Much of the problem of waiting times and standing in line here is Tico Time. People customarily come late, even for a doctor’s appointment, or don’t show up at all. When I show properties, only my foreign clients arrive on the time we agreed. Locals usually arrive late because they leave home late.
Save Anger
Save yourself quite a bit of anger by bringing a book when you need to visit:
- The doctor
- A dentist
- The hospital (public or private), or Ebais
- A bank
- The power or water company
- A bus stop to a far away destiny like Guanacaste, Limon, or Puntarenas during Easter or Xmas
- The tax office
- A grocery store (they’ll have only 2 cash registers out of 12 open)
- Immigration
- Cosevi (to change your foreign driver’s license for a local one or to recover your confiscated vehicle tag)
Are you looking to move to Costa Rica and want to purchase a property? Then contact us now. We are the experts, with quite a bit of patience.
