www.CostaRicaTicas.com

This past visit I hit my wall of tolerance for the beggers and vendors. Sitting at the News Cafe rail sucks (IMHO), every minute a begger or vendor is bothering you.

Rolex watches, Ray Ban sunglasses and Cuban cigars, all at great savings . I told one Rolex vendor that the best brand of Rolex was "Home Made Rolex". Next day he asked me if I wanted a Home Made Rolex.

I feel sorry for the young beggers but Oscar is a true case of a misguided and wasted life. He's in his late 20s, lives on chump change and fees for helping tourists find drugs & women.

I hate to say no to the young beggers but if you do give you're a marked man. I feel the government should do something to help them and the longer tourists help, it's that much less the politicians will do.

Got to go

Shamas

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Shamas O'Dognasty
Gourmet Catering & Septic Tank Cleaning

I've got to agree that I too have hit the wall with the beggars. My last trip I almost got violent with one of them. Unless you get very aggressive with them, they will follow you all the way from the Del Rey to the Prez. It is just a real turn off. You almost hate to leave the building for the knowledge that you will be accosted by a minimum of one beggar to as many as 4 or 5.

My question...isn't there anything anyone can do regarding the beggars in front of the Del Rey/Key Largo??

dapanz1

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Paradise= Sitting outside the Bodega in Panama City about 1 am. Drinking cool Balboas with cool friends and blazin' hot Colombianas. I want to be there..RIGHT NOW!

I agree also. Short of being robbed it is the ugliest thing I have to deal with in CR. They don't take no for an answer & it takes them a week or more for them to remember you don't give them anything. You give them anything & it just gets worse!

Zippy

I agree that the beggers are about the most unpleasant part of the CR experience and I have absolutely no problem getting tough with them. When one them starts following me, I typically turn and point right at his face and shout something like "véte ya, déjame en paz" or "no me molestes más". 9 times out of 10 they will walk away usually cussing me out under their breath. The next time they start to approach me I simply step toward them and point at their face again and almost always they remember me and stop in their tracks. It pisses me off to no end when I see gringos giving them money. The only thing that does is perpetuate the cycle and make it more difficult for the rest of us to shake them. You are not helping them in the slightest, you are simply making them more dependent on begging.

Thats exactly the issue...if so many of the misguided gringos didnt hand out anything...they would go somewhere else. They are there because they make more money begging than they could peddling honest goods. It might make US feel good to hand out spare change out of some sort of guilt for having more than them...but it does them NO good in the long run. As the old saying goes, "better to teach a man to fish than give him a fish"...

Looking at this from a Tico perspective.........we are rich gringos coming to their country with the sole purpose of phucking their women.

Can't really blame them.........guess it's hell to be poor.

Lastly, I don't like them either, but I try to understand their reasons why and it hits me that I am a visitor in their country and it is just a bad part of the Pura Vida experience.

On a slightly related topic, one of the most fun places to people watch is the tables, by the bar, along the outside wall at the Prez. However about the time it gets dark seemingly everyone who owns a musical instrument in S.J. comes along, plays a song and asks for money. A good time to retreat from the wall.

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MidnightRider

I was in San Jose for the first time in two and a half months.I noticed that the begars were larger in number and more persistent than they have ever been since I started coming to Costa Rica.rbc100

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In Search of Fine Kittens,
Please... Bring back the Muff

damn guys.. you are going to have guys like this in every touristy city including america.. just ignore them and go on your way.. I do this everyday in the city I live.

Well guys if you want those girls bellow 80 dollars then i would just put up with the beggars. Any country that doesnt have beggars pestering you has a very expensive sex industry. Poverty keeps the prices down guys. Its a sad part of life.

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Living well is the best revenge
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ttboy,

Have you ever even been to CR (or any other developing country)? If you had, I don't think you'd say that so easily. Beggars in those places are DEFINITELY NOT like anything you'll experience in the city where you live. Its easy to say just ignore them, but these aren't just guys with a sign who look imploringly through your car window while you're at a stoplight or the guys sitting on the sidewalk with a tin cup in front of them as you walk by.

Third world beggars are much more in your face and since they target rich tourists seem to concentrate particularly anywhere we will be (that authorities and local businesses will let them get away with). Very often, particularly at night, as you step out the front door of the BM, you'll be immediately accosted by a small swarm of beggars (and cabbies). Most WILL quickly move on to the next gringo if just ignore them, but very often at least one will follow you, sometimes for hundreds of yards, beseeching you to pay them off, sometimes even grabbing at you along the way. As many gringos give them money just to make them go away as those who do it out of any perceived moral obligation or generosity.

The beggars are also much more than a minor annoyance. Beggars have been known to be used (in complicity or not) by pickpockets, theives and assailants as a distraction where they move in for the kill. The longer they are near you they can detract from your alertness to other potentially more serious problems.

Personally, I find simply ignoring them sometimes just doesn't do enough to discourage them quickly enough. I tell them "No" followed by an angry "NO!" followed by even angrier "FUCK-OFF in quick progression as they fail to heed each response. The problem is, no matter what we do or how we choose to handle it, that there will always be some dumb gringo that gives them money and it doesn't take many such gringos to give these bums enough incentive to continue and even grow in numbers and assertiveness (as what seems to lately be the case).

Yes I have been to developing countries including tourist destinations.. I ignore them and dont even look at them. If they get in my way I give them mean stare and they leave. (maybe its the italian look that scares them) My point is.. These type of people are at all tourist hubs.. Like flies on shit.. Its part of life. But i have never had any problems ignoring them.. Thats just me.

The simple solution: don't stay in the Gulch, and don't frequent the Marlin. Worked like a charm for me last trip.

Shamas said:



Yep, I learned that lesson fast on my first trip. Had one lunch at the News Cafe last trip, but sat at an interior table a little in from the rail - much better.

Actually, for the most part I agree with ttboy (except for the putting beggars in the US on the same level with beggars in places like CR). While the differences are a matter of degree, the BASIC and unfortunately ONLY real way to deal with it is essentially the same - ignore them and walk on if you can, but if they get "in your face" get back in theirs by forcefully, assertively and in no uncertain terms telling them you're simply not interested, to go away and leave you alone (which can be communicated with a simple but forceful NO! and a glare) while walking on (never ever stop and discuss it with them). In nearly all cases unless you give IN they'll eventually give UP. Unless they or a cohort resort to stealing your money, ultimately you always have control of what you choose to do with your money.

I also agree with ttboy and the others (and basically said as much at the end of my 1st post) that beggars will be at places like the Rail or the entrances to the HDR no matter what we choose to do about it so we might as well accept it. However, whether we choose to fight it or pay it, ignore it or avoid it altogether, doesn't change the fact that it is a MAJOR annoyance (MUCH worse than any beggars I encounter in the city where I live)