Adventure Inn Blog

By Eric Robinson

The following is a generalization. With any statements dealing with human nature, there are always examples available to disprove the argument.

This being said, I find quite a difference there is between Ticos (men) and Ticas (women)! Over the last twelve years I have owned and operated two successful hotels in Costa Rica, I have had both business and personal dealings with every type of Costa Rican and foreigner there is. I have had probably a hundred Costa Rican employees over the years, and have met tens of thousands of guests. In general, Ticas make excellent employees. They mean well, learn fast, are open-minded, appreciate and enjoy the work, are more than punctual, and can take and use constructive advice.

Precious few Ticos share the same attributes. As employees, they tend to try so hard in the beginning until they know their way around, smiling in your face, running up to shake your hand with their fingers spread to make their hands look bigger. But too often, it’s not long after, many decide to take advantage of your trust and unguarded valuables go missing. If he is the only one who can be blamed, nothing is stolen, but as soon as blame could by placed on possibly more than one Tico, the article is gone like it never existed.

I don’t understand why so many Ticos tell you what they think you want to hear, no matter how much it messes you around later. If you depart each others company on good terms, that’s all they care. If a Tico is not doing his job right, and you try and correct him, he looks disappointed like a beaten puppy, but says nothing. They don’t look at advice from an older or more experienced person as a way to improve or make it easier on themselves, but more as an insult. The next thing you know, there is a nail scratch running the length of your car. Life is a learning experience, but Ticos often act more like children than men. Perhaps it is because most were coddled by their mother, as many fathers prefer to be out playing around rather than instilling integrity in their children. Nearly all Ticos cheat on their partner, and in Costa Rica there are lots of opportunities in this regard.

Fortunately in the hotel business, I can staff nearly all Ticas. But when doing business in Costa Rica, similar to driving down the road, you can’t always be selective as to who you meet and have to deal with. Though there are always exceptions to the rule, I find Ticas are amazingly nice people, gentle, honest, trustworthy, hard working, family loving, caring, giving, a sense of humor, yet down-trodden, abused, lacking opportunity to advance themselves, willing second class citizens in a macho society, and from this foreign writer’s point of view, absolutely beautiful both inside and out.

Women drivers are the same everywhere in the world, and we all need to have patience and adjust to their indecisions and peculiarities.

But about a third of all Tico men should not be on the road, period. Per capita traffic deaths attestify that Costa Rica has one of the poorest records on the planet, and with good reason. Too many Ticos drive like they are the only car on the road. You can’t drive a couple of kilometers before a Tico driver cuts you off, stopping infront of you in the middle of the road instead of pulling over, signaling left and turning right, turning without signaling, driving at 35 kph in a 60 kph zone unaware of the line of traffic he is holding up because he doesn’t use his mirrors, yacking into a cell phone extressing himself with his hands waving in the air, or looking at his passenger while talking instead of the road infront, casually tossing his garbage out the window. Or they’ll speed down the road like there is no tomorrow, passing on curves, forgetting headlights at night, flying over pot holes, seeming trying to plow over anything or anyone that is in their way.

I can get so frustrated and angered by the constant selfish displays of driving here in Costa Rica, I’ve given the finger more than once, or just intensionally block the idiot from moving and shake my head. Then I notice a beautiful dark eyed, innocent-looking Tica standing in the rain at the side of the road, child in tow, bags slung over her shoulder, waiting for a bus. Knowing what she probably goes through to live here with these men, the bunk her partner lays on her coming home late after blowing his hard earned colones in a local cantina or his mistress, the constant stuggle for her family’s daily rice and beans, school clothes and books, and keeping a roof over her kids’ heads, I forget my frustration and realize how lucky I am. I have learned to have a deep respect for Ticas.

The Peter Principal should have been invented in Costa Rica, where a man advances within an organization to his level of incompetence. Most Ticos know little about efficiency, or thinking outside the box. Perhaps it’s a lack of educational opportunities but mostly it is because of thinking only in the short-term and thus shooting themselves in the foot everywhere they go, burning bridges like a pyromaniac. Too many just seem to live for the moment, and plan nothing for the future.

But what I have trouble getting accustomed to more than anything is the almost invariable lack of integrity that upper level, supposedly educated Ticos have. I can almost understand the ignorant poor Ticos living like there is no tomorrow, hand to mouth, dog eat dog existence, but not the educated and wealthy Ticos. Let me site a few examples to demonstrate my point.

I formed a 22 member Costa Rica hotel association. The Tico owner of Volcan Turrialba Lodge, Tony, told me he inherited four square kilometers of land between Irazu Volcano and Turrialba Volcano. He said that he would pay the $200 to help us produce a map with his advertisement on it. After the map was made, he then decided to stiff the association for the money. I brought it to the membership’s attention, so when he tried to defend himself, he said that I just don’t understand the Tico culture. He’s right about that, I don’t.

Another large tour company, CostaRica4U, solicited me that they would list my hotel on their website, if I listed their tour company on mine. I agreed and after a year of listing them, I noticed they ‘forgot’ to list my hotel. Then it was like trying to play cat and mouse with the owner to put our link on his website. After a few weeks I finally was able to corner him in his office, he paid lip service to me that he would list us, but he never did. If I was him, I would feel embarrassed and do whatever I could to rectify the situation, but he couldn’t care less. He got on my website for free for a year, so he won, that’s all that matters. We have never used his company since, and he’s lost thousands of dollars.

When I bought a lot from a architect/builder who was going to build my house, he took my 25% deposit money, bought a $50,000 LandRover Defender, then never had the money to build my house. After nearly three years of him picking away at the house, one board and nail at a time, I eventually was legally able to have him removed from my property (he didn’t want to leave?!) and have paid for and completed the house myself. He needed to kiss my mortgage goodbye because of non-performance.

My hotel is in a hotel zone, Ciudad Cariari. Hotels are not individually allowed to put our hotel signs on the highway, but as a group, the MOPT will allow one sign saying ‘Zona Hotelera Ciudad Cariari’. I priced a nice big sign for our group, but have spent two weeks trying to talk to the Tico owner or Tico manager of the Melia Cariari Hotel to pay $100 for their share of the sign. I constantly am told that they are in a meeting, or on the phone, or back in another meeting, or on a long distance call, and they will call me back, but never do. I’m volunteering to do something for our group of hotels, and they are playing cat and mouse with me for $100? They charge $150 per night for a room, and they have 140 rooms, but they also know that we are going to erect the sign regardless of their participation, so why bother paying their share, they’ll come along for the free ride. We have sent them hundreds of guests in the past when we were full, but never again.

It seems Ticos, rich and poor, have a compulsion to win now, regardless of how much they will lose tomorrow, and in their minds, the only way for them to win, is for someone else to lose. The win-win business philosophy has no meaning to Ticos. Burn your bridges as long as you win now. Perhaps this shortsightedness stems from generations of Ticos living in such a lush, tropical paradise. Traditionally, if they got hungry, they picked a banana or killed a chicken, if it rained, they looked for a roof. Personally, I now try and limit all my business negotiations and agreements with Ticos to no more than necessary. Too many just don’t seem to understand what integrity is and how important it is in business. I far prefer to deal with either Ticas, or foreigners.

If the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is voted in, and I hope it is, Ticos, especially those in the upper business positions, had better follow the Tica example and change the way they do business by starting to demonstrate honesty and integrity. If not, the international business community will circumvent them, investors will avoid them like the plague, and the whole country will suffer. Free trade won’t help the Costa Rican economy until Ticos, particularly those in power, demonstrate integrity.

I always thought that someday I would eventually be able to understand and adjust to this type of Tico mentality. I kept thinking it was me, a d.p. (displaced person) Canadian and that someday I would be able to adapt to this culture, just give me a bit more time, I’ll come around. Sorry, I was wrong. Though there are certainly honest, good Ticos out there, struggling, working hard, men trying to optimize and make a better life for their families, and with a certain degree of integrity, because of my past experiences, too many that I have met have ruined it for the others. I’ll always have my guard up, and never be confident or comfortable dealing with any Ticos for fear of the same treatment.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 10:45 am and is filed under Costa Rica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.