Observ­ing peo­ple in Cen­tral Amer­ica is really inter­est­ing. First of all, there is a true melt­ing pot of cul­tures: Asians, Blacks, His­pan­ics, indige­nous peo­ple such as the Kuna in Panamá…

Peo­ple have dif­fer­ent activ­i­ties than in North Amer­ica and in Europe too. The mar­ket is often at the cen­ter of the com­mu­nity and it´s packed at lunch time, while there is always some­thing hap­pen­ing in the street. In San José, Costa Rica, we would always walk the same pedes­trian street. Many ven­dors dis­played their goods in the street: socks, hats, CD and DVD etc. Every hour or so, the police would come and every­body packed in a hurry… to start sell­ing again five min­utes later!

Down­town, you can also find peo­ple play­ing music, hang­ing around, sell­ing stuffs, play­ing, eat­ing… basi­cally liv­ing. It struck me how much of an indoor cul­ture we have become in North Amer­ica. Sure, the weather is colder and does not allow us to hang out in the street in the mid­dle of Jan­u­ary, but I think we have become house­bound too much. We always seem to go out with a pur­pose: eat­ing, work­ing, or going from point A to point B. Loi­ter­ing is frowned upon, or even for­bid­den. It´s a bit sad, really.

Paint­ing Polit­i­cal Murals, David, Panama

Get­ting In The Bus With A Chicken, Panama

Kuna KIds Watch­ing T.V In The Street, Panama

Paint­ing In The Street, San Jose — Costa Rica

Street Music, San Jose — Costa Rica

Pack­ing Up Street Goods, The Police Is Arriv­ing, San Jose — Costa Rica

Play­ing With Feral Pigeons, San Jose — Costa Rica

Eat­ing At The Local Soda

Sell­ing Spices At The Market

Who Want To Ride The Wooden Horse?

Related arti­cles:

1. It´s A Wild Life…
2. Bus­ing Around Cen­tral America
3. Bor­der Cross­ing — Panamá To Costa Rica
4. The Food Saga: The Chicken Era
5. Peñas Blan­cas — Chaos And Chaos…