Costa Rica Trip Report
January 2 – 12, 2003

Gentlemen,

This being my 11th trip to Costa Rica in three years, I don’t have too many new experiences to report. This is not to say that I didn’t have a great time…an average day in Costa Rica is often better than a good day in the states, you know? I will give the highlights of my trip here and will hopefully impart something that might be helpful to someone reading.

I arrived at 9:15am on a Thursday morning. Went straight to my apartment, Apartamentos Escocia (a.k.a. Scotland Apartments) in barrio California. The apartment is located about halfway between downtown and mall San Pedro, about a 10-minute walk/2-minute cab ride from the gulch. For a stay longer than a few days I prefer an apartment for many reasons. As much as I like restaurants in San Jose, I personally enjoy cooking, as well as having a fridge so that I can store late-night snacks, get a sip of orange juice first thing in the morning, etc. I also like to be able to invite a “friend” over for a meal…yes, I might be paying the girl, but the whole art of seduction and foreplay is still fun and can be enhanced with a meal. The apartment cost $250 per week, taxes included. You can bring whomever you want whenever you want without question…to me it’s a great deal.

After having unpacked my things, I went for a walk to see what was open. I ended up in that little no-name place with the street address “70-E,” which is two doors away from Club 40 and about a block away from Krysis. I believe that to be Avenida 7, although a quick look at Lump’s map could confirm or negate this. Don Gordo refers to that place as “The Dungeon,” which I have to say is a fair assessment. “Basic” is the most flattering way to describe it actually, as the waiting area is nothing but a radio and some chairs. The rooms are nothing more than a vinyl mattress with a sheet, and the whole place is extremely dark. That might be a good thing based on the average available chica. Regardless, I’d peeked in at 747 a few minutes beforehand and saw about 12 guys sitting around waiting without a chica in sight. At that moment I just wanted to get laid and go take a nap, so I went with “Gretel” in the Dungeon. It was an average experience, but for 4,000 colones I got what I wanted and was out the door. I did not make it back to 70-E for the rest of my trip, but keep it in mind as a place to drop in and check out when walking around. They open up early enough and don’t have so many guys like 747 usually does.

After a much needed nap (I’d been up packing the night before and had to arrive at Miami Int’l Airport at 5:30 that morning), I got something to eat and finally checked out the “New Fantasy.” Guys, the bar has clearly been raised in terms mid-priced options in San Jose. This place is extremely clean and extremely service-oriented in every way. They make you feel welcomed when you walk in, ask you if you’re looking for someone specific or if you’d like to select someone who is available, the girls are extremely friendly and accommodating, etc. The showers, vapor room and sauna are high quality, the rooms have nice clean beds…really, everything there is fantastic. I went with Wanda the first time, who was also fantastic. Very good massage, followed by very enthusiastic foreplay and sex. For those of you who like ratings, I suppose she’s about a 7 in looks alone but would be a 10 when considering all things. I recommend her to whoever gets a chance to go on over there.

This place has to be bad news for other places like Arte y Sauna, which for the same price you usually get average service with an average chica in a below-average room.

That night I went to Club Idem, where I caught up with Roberto for a while. The prices there are now 16,000 colones, but still a great deal. Idem always has the best talent, and this time was no different. You can find thin bodies, hard bodies, average bodies, curvaceous bodies, and healthy bodies, all with pretty faces and great attitudes attached. I love that place for hanging out as well as going upstairs for a great time. Needless to say I found myself back there several times throughout my trip.

I didn’t even step foot inside the del Rey until the next day. I don’t make it a habit of leaving with girls from there, but it’s still a fun place to drink and talk with gringos and chicas. I actually noticed a significant increase in two things, both of which are probably good news for gringos. The first is an increase in Costa Rican girls. While I don’t have any scientifically procured data to verify this, it seemed to me that more than half the girls in the bar at any given point in time were native. I don’t know if this is a result of the immigration raids, but I really like the Ticas so I was happy to see this. Secondly, I was not even once quoted the standard $100 price. Maybe this is because the girls talk and they all knew that I wouldn’t go for it, but there was certainly an atmosphere more conducive to negotiation and fair market value than in the recent past.

I’ll spare you the day-by-day details, in favor of saying that Costa Rica is alive and well. I actually had a variety of non-mongering related appointments to keep during this trip, so my daytime ventures were somewhat limited anyway. Between that, my affinity for Idem, my new-founded affinity for New Fantasy, and some pretty good luck at the del Rey I didn’t get to a lot of other places. I never even bothered to look inside of Eros, and never made it to Casa Lily’s (which I had initially planned on doing). Oh, and I also finally met Don Gordo. Any of you fortunate enough to meet him for conversation should do so. He’s a great guy and is a legend. I did also get to catch up with Tampa Gringo…a very smart guy who we are lucky to still have posting to the board. When either of these two guys give you advice on anything in San Jose, you can pretty much bank on it.

Other Points:
There’s not a lot that I can say which hasn’t already been said 100 times, but I will re-state a few things that struck me in particular on this most recent trip. The first is that the safety issue in San Jose is becoming a greater concern. I did not have any problems personally, but I noticed quite a bit that the local people were discussing it more than in the past. In conversations with Ticos, I was advised to take a cab at night wherever I may be going. Usually it is just the gringos who say things like that, but the crime I guess is getting bad enough that the locals heed the same advice. That really indicates to me that crime is on the rise in San Jose.

I love the del Rey especially for my ability to have extensive conversation with the chicas for the price of a drink or two. Through it I try to glean some general facts about how these girls perceive themselves, why they do the job in the first place, etc. The truth is that generalizations cannot 100% effectively be made, and that one thing that is completely true of one might be partially true of another and completely false about the next. Regardless, I will state that I find that a girl deciding to work heavily correlates with three different things.

The first is lack of quality education. Most of these girls have less than the equivalent of a high-school diploma. Pretty much any chica that I’ve ever asked will tell me that she is either intelligent or very intelligent, but either hated school or became pregnant. This is not to say that whether they are intelligent or not, but the all more or less do perceive themselves to be. I would summarize by saying that their lack of education probably translates to a lack of sophisticated thinking, regardless of raw intelligence.

The second is drug use and/or alcohol use. Most of the girls I talk to use substances, regardless of their kids, and did so before they ever started working. I find that the substance use seems to push them into the job more than the job pushes them into the substance use. This is relevant because I talk to guys who get tripped out, thinking that the job is so bad that these girls have to get drunk or high to help them forget…it’s not exactly like that.

The third is sexual abuse at an early age. Most of the girls have been mistreated by fathers, brothers, uncles, neighbors…this helps to shape their sexual identity and lack of respect for themselves and their bodies. Along those lines, a lot of them have mothers who worked in the same profession, and they are also shaped by that in an adverse way. In Spanish the saying “hijueputa” is a common insult, and means literally “son/daughter of a whore.” A lot of these girls perceive themselves as literally that and feel low as a result.

Whether these following things are symptoms of root-level dysfunction, they seem to also correlate heavily and should not be forgotten. The first is that this profession is a big game to them, and the way to win is to get money out of suckers. They are pretty good at generating false tears and provoking naïve guys to feel bad for them. The second is that a lot of these girls really like sex. One could argue that in reality they don’t like sex and that it is a result of confusion over past trauma, but on the surface they enjoy having sex with different guys and trying out different things. Believe me, when they are not working a lot of them are with different boyfriends (and I don’t mean gringo boyfriends that they met in the hooker bars) at different times or are out at local bars and clubs hooking up and having sex.

What does all this mean? To me it means that if you want to help these girls, you can do so by being a good customer and nothing more. Their root-level psychological dysfunction is probably more than most professionals can help, and the girls probably are not intelligent enough to be engaged in that process anyway. So it is certain that some gringo John is not going to change their nature by falling in love with them and becoming their cash cow. It also means that you shouldn’t get tripped out and feel bad about yourself, as if you’re contributing to their misery somehow. A lot of these girls want to be there, and want to continue to play this game for as long as they can.

I imagine that there are exceptions, but this is what I find to be true almost entirely across the board. Here’s one thing that happened on this most recent trip which I think is typical yet revealing. A Colombian girl asked me to come and translate an email message from a gringo. I went and read the message, which wasn’t actually to her but was to a friend of hers, I think with the name Marcela (So Marcela basically gave the password to have her messages checked for her). The gringo who wrote the message was apologizing profusely for not being able to send more money, because business had not been very good lately and things were very tight. He talked about his continued desire to help his “sexy Colombiana” and the two kids, and how much he missed her, etc. So I translate the message for this girl, and then I ask her “So where’s Marcela?” “Oh, out with her boyfriend” was the response I got. Guys, just be careful and don’t fall in love down there, ok?

So anyway, it was a great trip as usual and I cannot wait to go back. I often contemplate trips to Rio, Peru, Argentina, etc., but the closeness and familiarity of Costa Rica always bring me back there. Someday I’ll go to another place, but for now Costa Rica is still the best.

LM

"sexual abuse at an early age" has been shown time and again to be the main determining factor.
I'd also underline this one:
"Their root-level psychological dysfunction is probably more than most professionals can help"
Most mongers don't really want to think about this stuff when the chica is on all fours, arching her back and offering up her ass to strange gringos for money, or licking his cock and giving him that almost possessed eye contact. Even in Brazil, where the gusto is legendary, I'd be willing to bet my ass that the nymphomania was ignited long ago by molestation or rape.
What makes this post so unusual is, here's a monger who has a sort of fascination with what makes the chicas tick in such an unhealthy way.
I won't call you a gentleman, sir, but you are most certainly a scholar.

It was good to meet you and talk briefly at the Blue Marlin. I agree with your observations on the places you visited. The New Fantasy is nice but Wanda and others noted on the board did not start work until sometime in the afternoon and I tried to get a first thing in the morning kick start there.
The only other chica generalization I can make it not to generalize too much because all chicas are different.

“Gentlemen,” thank you for the feedback. Yes Superfly, I think human psychology is fascinating, and that goes beyond that of the chicas. I think that the psychological framework of most mongers (including my own), and most other people is equally fascinating, but I have those discussions within other, more appropriate forums. Listen, I don’t get off on the fact that so many of these girls are deeply troubled. To the contrary, I like to know a girl that I am going to be with, even if it is for a short and compensated period of time. I like to let her know that I am interested in her background, what she thinks, how she feels, etc. I like to give her the opportunity, whether she gives a damn or not, to know that I don’t see her as a piece of ass “on all fours with her back arched.” As a result, when I am in the moments of sexual intensity, I am thinking neither of her dysfunction nor the fact that I am with a prostitute. Instead I am with someone with whom I’ve tried to make a personal connection, again whether it meant something to her or not.

I’m not trying to sound like an egotistical jerk (because I know how fleeting these things are), but I will tell you that a lot of the chicas end up asking me for my phone number, end up calling me to invite me to see their apartments or to go out and see their world away from the chica bars. I’ve had more than one chica initiate sexual intimacy with me completely outside of the bar scene, and without discussion of payment. Again, I don’t usually write stuff like this because I’m not out to try to make myself sound like the #1 stud walking the face of the earth, but I take some exception to the insinuation that I am not a gentleman in my endeavors. Many of the chicas seem to think and appreciate the way I demonstrate an interest in them. In order to be humane, I think it is important to understand humanity, and that is what I try to do. I think that contemplating, accepting and then making one’s best effort in the framework of reality is better than denying what is real, even if it challenges one’s comfort zone.

Ace, if you’re still down there and get the chance, wait until the afternoon and go with Wanda. She’s really worth it! Also, I hope that I was clear in my post that I was making correlations and not generalizations…if I was ineffective in that I apologize and clarify now.

LM

I apologize if I offended you with my remarks.
But I think we're on the same page here.
I am a monger too, and did not mean to imply that your behavior is in any way less admirable than my own. When I delve into the "hobby," I take a similar approach, and that's led me to see chicas outside of their work environment, too. I said I wouldn't call you a gentleman, but that's only becasue I don't consider my own mongering activities gentlemanly either. Just a matter of semantics; no disrespect.
ok?
ok

OK with me bro, no more offense taken. I would consider you a gentleman for treating the girls with respect and taking an interest, but like you said it's probably just semantics. It is the oldest profession in the world and I don't think it is a sin, especially when the element of humanity is not forgotten.

Suerte,

LM

Great observations, especially on the psychology
behind the obvious money for sex situation.
Think you are dead right on your conclusions and
I like your style.
You may or may not be suprised to find that
a very large percentage of the girls are lesbians, which adds to the dynamics of the
whole scene.

Thanks Costaricardo, and it is nice to have you posting here again. Have you been down there lately? I have always really enjoyed your trip reports and hope that more are coming. My experience with the girls and their lesbianism has been mostly limited to discussion. During these discussions I've noticed that the girl's interest in other women seems to be purely sexual, and that they are never interested in having a "girlfriend" per se. I'd be interested to hear stories to the contrary.

LM

Does anybody think they might be doing it for the money?

I wonder if any "mongers" might have been abused or are "deeply troubled"??

The answers to your questions are "yes," "probably" and "yes"

LM

Great report Dr. Death. I knew that you were a psychologist from your previous posts!

MachoPanzon

Lamuerte.

I am going to San Jose in July and I made a reservation at the Scotland Apartments. Can you give any info on that establishment. You can email at wbiggar774@prodigy.net if you like.

I think it's great to get to know the girl first but I would be worried about being perceived as naive or just "un tonto gringo"