Don't get me wrong, I've always loved Heredia. In fact, it is probably my favorite Central Valley city. IMHO, it retains more of of its original colonial character and small town feel than any other city in the area. I can also see where it would be ONE good place to go to try one's hand at non-P4P pickups. However, I'm with Orange on this and don't think it should be depicted as some "magic bullet" where one can pick-up chicas like "shooting fish in a barrel" (if I may mix metaphors). If an old fart, even a well to do gringo one, is going to pick up young attractive chicas then he is going to need some game or something else going for him.
Wise old-timer TimBones, whose experience I greatly respect, mentioned a lot of the relevant factors.
1) Speak spanish - this has been mentioned many many times as being important for getting high quality P4P sessions. If anything it is even more important for getting high quality sessions with non-pros who typically interact less with gringos and thus are less likely to speak much english. Speaking a little spanish is certainly better than speaking no spanish at all and it MIGHT be enough to get the job done, but just consider how much harder it will be too exercise whatever "game" you might have if you're hamstrung with limited spanish. The only spanish you need with P4P pros is "Cien" but you'll need to be able to express much more subtle nuances if you want to pick up a non-pro
2) Looks - as TB said, people may not be as superficial in places like CR as they are in the US, but that doesn't mean it doesn't matter at all. One can dress well, be clean and neat as possible, etc. and that will help, but we're all basically stuck with what we've got. And most of us gringos who are over 40 (ie most CRTers) tend to be overweight and out of shape and not exactly the babe-magnets that we used to be. Young gringas would not even give us a 2nd look. Young chicas are more open-minded and some might give us that 2nd look, but whether MANY of them would go beyond that and seriously consider sleeping with our wrinkled old asses WITHOUT getting something material out of it is another question.
3) Be young? - again, that's good advice but not exactly anything we can do any thing about. The common perception that chicas are more accustomed to wider age differences than gringas IS true BUT, IMHO, is overly exaggerated by wishful thinking old gringos. What it really means is that a 22 y.o. chica will be more open to a novio who is 15-20 years older than she is or PERHAPS a little more. If you're a gringo who happens to be in that 35 to MAYBE 45 bracket, you might still be marketable with chicas of that age. If you're older you might still be marketable with chicas who are CORRESPONDINGLY older themselves (e.g. thirty-somethings). But I seriously doubt that you'll find many chicas in their early twenties whose first choice would be to sleep with guys who are nearly old enough to be their grandfathers (UNLESS, of course, they're getting something else out of it).
4) I think TB's other advice is spot on, but I'd like to add what Orange was suggesting about - TIME. This is not like walking into the HDR, striking up a conversation with some chica for 15 minutes to a couple of hours and then retiring with her to your hotel room. It will take some game convincing them to go out with you later, time on the date itself and no guarantee that will turn into any action that same night. This may even be particularly true if you reveal to her that you'll be leaving town in just a few days and only to return at some unspecified time in the future (if at all). IF you visit regularly (by which I mean every month or 2 and not just 2-3 times per year, then you might be able to make this pay off, if not you're first time out, then over the course of a few visits and multiple tries, otherwise ...
So what do we have? If you're RELATIVELY young, decent looking and in decent shape, have decent spanish AND decent conversational skills (aka "game") AND have the time to pursue this, then IMHO it could be highly worthwhile to explore this avenue of pursuit. If you've got most of those things it could STILL be worthwhile. HOWEVER, if you're lacking most (or even all) of them, as I suspect many CRTers are, then I wouldn't set one's expectations too high.
I agree with Orange:
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Meet... yes, hookup (for a typical gringo)...not that easy.
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What about Heredia as place to pursue non-pros? I think Orange also raised a good question here:
Quote:
They have all those things in San Jose, why the need to go to Heredia?
Its not that Heredia isn't a good place to meet young attractive non-P4P chicas. Sure it has the UNA campus and thus plenty of nice young co-eds, it has lots of interesting shops and it is removed from the Gulch. But you don't have to go all the way out to Heredia to find a similarly equipped place. San Pedro has the UCR campus with even a larger enrollment than UNA. It has the San Pedro Mall and the American Outlet Mall (aka Mall Pequeno) with plenty of interesting stores and a food court with multiple eateries where you can also stroll around in AIR-CONDITIONED comfort. And, while it is not as far removed from the Gulch as Heredia, is far enough away that you can nearly as easily pretend to be visiting for reasons other than mongering. And, unlike Heredia, it is easily reached in under 5 minutes by bus or taxi. Is it quite as good for attempting pickups? That is arguable. Is it much more convenient to get to than going all the way out to Heredia? That is beyond question.
IMHO, Heredia is well worth visiting for reasons other than trying to pickup chicas. If one has already managed pickups in more easily visited San Pedro, then Heredia could be interesting new hunting grounds to try out. If one has been unsuccessful in San Pedro, one MIGHT have better results in Heredia, but I wouldn't count on it being THAT much more successful. If one hasn't tried doing non-pro pickups, I wouldn't go out there JUST for that and would recommend trying someplace more convenient like San Pedro FIRST. But that is just my humble opinion.
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Question
, has anyone here actually taken the new train service out to Heredia and is it really that much faster and convenient than going the more traditional way by bus? Buses for Heredia leave every 5 minutes from the corner of Ave. 2 y Calle 8 (1 blk S of the Central Mercado), costs just 320c (~55 cents) and is SUPPOSED to take 30 minutes. The new train service that officially started service 2 weeks ago runs every 30 minutes (expanding soon to every 15), leaves from the Terminal Atlantico near Ave. 3 y Calle 21 (about 1-2 blks past the Parque Nacional), costs just a few cents more (@ 350c) and is supposed to take 21-30 minutes. I can see how that will relieve some of the road traffic pressure as more people commute by train instead of by bus, but I don't see how it will really make all that much difference to guys like us unless we too choose to attempt the ride at the height of rush hour (something we don't have to do).
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Last comment, I've mentioned this before in another thread on picking up non-pro chicas
http://www.costaricaticas.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11205 (which also has links to half a dozen or so other valuable threads on this topic). My remarks there concerned the park that Versatile mentioned in Heredia. I've since learned that I misspoke and the park in question was actually Alajuela, but the point of my post still seems relevant and the story still amusing. The central park in ALAJUELA is known locally as "El Parque de los Palomas Muertas" (The Park of the Dead Doves). Palomas is (Panamanian?) slang for the male C*ck and some people say that the park's nickname derives from the park's usual daily occupants - local male retirees who sit through out the day on the park benches scoping out the passing young chicas. I'm guessing the "dead dove" part refers to those old coots' "palomas" no longer being able to do anything about it besides just watch. I'm guessing that park in Heredia serves a similar function and that a rush of aging mongers suddenly appearing there and hitting on young chicas would be regarded in with similar amusement/derision.
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