Now, I haven't lived in Costa Rica for 14 years, but I have been visiting since 1995.
And I daresay I speak Spanish as (or more) fluently than most people here. I think it's been explained several times what "chica" really means, as well as it being used as CRT shorthand to refer to women who sell sex as it is a much nicer word than "puta". It has the added benefit of being impossible to misinterpret as alluding to a particular nationality or ethnicity.
And not that it means anything, but I've been mongering for decades.
Coolguy99 wrote:
If you walk up to a Tico and say "Donde estan las Ticas?" (Where are the Ticas?) he will look a little confused, smile and say "everywhere".
He has no clue you mean whores.
Not always (see below)
Quote:
If he speaks any English he will now attempt to explain you mean to say "putas" or something like that, if you refuse to learn, he will write you off as yet another obtuse Gringo and give you the directions to Del Rey.
Or, as I witnessed waaay back when at the Hotel Camino Real (now the Intercontinental Escazu and definitely outside the Gulch

), he may react like several tico gentlemen did when a gringo approached their group one night and started asking repeatedly where could he find
ticas.
At first the ticos reacted with confusion: "Huh? They're all over Costa Rica."
The gringo insisted he was looking for
ticas because "ticas sell their pu*sy".
Once the ticos realized the gringo was asking for
putas, they got annoyed and got into a shouting / pushing match with the poor gringo.
Thankfully it didn't escalate into something uglier because hotel security jumped in and clarified the situation.
mh