YouTube video by Recrutes HabsCast

If someone had told me a few years ago that our first Christmas outside Canada would involve palm trees lit up like they were auditioning for Vegas, I would have laughed, poured another Crown Royal, and reminded them that I am a bushman, not a world traveler. A sturdy, frost-bitten, maple-flavoured bushman. Christmas to me has always meant spruce trees, snowbanks, and shovelling the driveway in that special kind of cold that makes your eyelids stick together like two shy teenagers.

The other night, over a few cold Imperials with some Tico friends, the conversation turned to spotting gringos. Particularly the types that stick out like a palm tree in the prairies. With laughter and a bit of head-shaking, they rattled off the usual suspects; the habits, words, and antics that make everyone roll their eyes and say, “Ah sí, típico gringo.

If you ever spot a brightly painted wooden cart trundling along behind two oxen in Costa Rica, don’t worry, you haven’t time-travelled to Little House on the Prairie. What you are looking at is the carreta, the original Costa Rican pickup truck. Sure, it doesn’t have Bluetooth, heated seats, or a spot for your double-double, but for over a century it was the backbone of the country’s economy.