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Costa Rican Glossary

¡Upe!

OO-peh!
A common call to see if anyone is home or to get someone's attention at a house or small business. It's more polite than shouting 'hello?'

In a sentence: "He walked up to the pulpería and called out, '¡Upe!'"

¿Al chile?

al CHEE-lay?
A slang phrase meaning 'Really?', 'For real?', or 'Seriously?'. Used to express disbelief or to ask for confirmation.

In a sentence: "Q: 'I saw a jaguar on the trail.'
A: '¿Al chile?'"

Birra

BEE-rrah
Slang for 'beer.' Borrowed from the Italian word.

In a sentence: "It's hot today, I need a cold birra."

Bomba

BOHM-bah
Literally 'bomb.' In Costa Rica, this refers to a gas station.

In a sentence: "We need to stop at the next bomba to fill up the tank."

Brete

BREH-teh
Slang for 'work' or 'a job.'

In a sentence: "I have to go to brete early tomorrow morning."

Buena Nota

BWEH-nah NO-tah
Literally 'good note.' A phrase used to describe a person who is cool, kind, or has good vibes. It can also mean 'cool' or 'right on.'

In a sentence: "The surf instructor was really buena nota."

Cacique

kah-SEE-kay
Costa Rica's most popular brand of guaro, a clear liquor made from sugarcane. It's the go-to spirit for many local mixed drinks and shots.

In a sentence: "Can you make me a chili-guaro with Cacique?"

Casado

kah-SAH-doh
Literally 'married man.' It's the quintessential Costa Rican lunch plate, consisting of rice, black beans, a salad, fried plantains, and a choice of protein (fish, chicken, beef, or pork).

In a sentence: "I'm hungry, I'm going to order a casado with chicken."

Chepe

CHEH-peh
colloquial and affectionate nickname for the capital city, San José.

In a sentence: "We're heading to Chepe for the weekend to visit the museums."

Chunche

CHOON-cheh
A catch-all word for 'thing,' 'stuff,' or 'what-cha-ma-call-it.' Used when you can't 1remember the name of an object.

In a sentence: "Can you pass me that chunche from the table?"

Colones

co-LOH-nays
The Costa Rican Colón (₡), named after Christopher Columbus, is the official currency of Costa Rica, recognized for its vibrant banknotes that celebrate the nation's rich wildlife.

In a sentence: "Excuse me, how many colones is the casado con pollo?"

Empanada

em-pah-NAH-dah
A savory pastry, typically fried, filled with ingredients like cheese, beans, potatoes, or shredded meat. A popular and quick snack or breakfast item found in sodas and bakeries.

In a sentence: "I'll grab a cheese empanada and a coffee for breakfast."

Gallo

GAH-yo
Literally 'rooster.' In Costa Rican food culture, a 'gallo' is a small snack, similar to a soft taco. It's typically a corn tortilla topped with a small portion of a filling like shredded meat, potatoes, or picadillo.

In a sentence: "I'm not very hungry, I'll just have a gallo de papa (potato gallo)."

Gallo Pinto

GAH-yo PEEN-toh
The national breakfast dish of Costa Rica. It's a mix of rice and black beans, often cooked with onions, sweet peppers, and cilantro. Usually served with eggs and sour cream.

In a sentence: "I could eat gallo pinto for breakfast every day."

Guaro

GWAH-roh
The generic term for alcohol, but most often refers to Cacique, the national sugar-cane liquor of Costa Rica.

In a sentence: "Let's do some shots of guaro!"

Macho / Macha

MAH-cho / MAH-chah
Slang for a light-skinned or blonde person (macho for male, macha for female). It is not derogatory.

In a sentence: "My friend with the blonde hair is often called 'macha' by the locals."

Mae

my
The Costa Rican equivalent of 'dude' or 'bro.' Used informally and very frequently between friends, mostly by men.

In a sentence: "Mae, let's go grab a beer."

Pulpería

pool-peh-REE-ah
small neighborhood convenience store or corner shop that sells basic groceries, snacks, and drinks.

In a sentence: "I need to go to the pulpería to buy some eggs."

Pura Vida

POO-rah VEE-dah
Literally 'Pure Life.' The national motto of Costa Rica. It's a greeting, a farewell, and a way of life meaning everything's great, life is good, and you're thankful for what you have.

In a sentence: "Q: How are you? A: Pura Vida!"

Salado

sah-LAH-doh
Literally 'salty.' Used to describe someone who has bad luck or is in a tough situation. It means 'too bad' or 'you're out of luck.'

In a sentence: "You missed the last bus? ¡Qué salado!"

Soda

SOH-dah
A small, family-run, traditional Costa Rican restaurant. Sodas serve local dishes like 'casado' at very affordable prices. This is the best place for an authentic meal.

In a sentence: "We had lunch at a soda on the way to the beach."

Tico / Tica

TEE-ko / TEE-kah
A colloquial term for a native Costa Rican man (Tico) or woman (Tica). It comes from the local tendency to add '-ico' to the end of words to form a diminutive.

In a sentence: "The local Ticos are very friendly to tourists."

Tuanis

TWAH-nees
slang word meaning 'cool,' 'awesome,' or 'great.' Believed to be derived from spelling the English words 'too nice' in Spanish.

In a sentence: "That surf spot is tuanis!"

With this cookie policy, we would like to explain what cookies and cookie-like technologies are, how we and other service provider use them on this website, what information they collect, for how long and for what purposes we use them.

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Addition to the privacy policy

This cookie policy is a supplement to this website's privacy policy. The cookie policy specifies how a website uses cookies and what data it collects through them, while the privacy policy is a more comprehensive overview of all data processing activities on the website and beyond.

Cookies are small pieces of information similar to text files that can be stored and read on the end device. They serve various purposes, including maintaining basic functionalities of the website, security and privacy, providing optional functions of the website, collecting statistic data on visitor flows and providing marketing systems. Practical examples of what can be stored in cookies are the storage of login status in user accounts, the content of shopping baskets in e-commerce platforms, or a user ID for tracking behavior on the website.

The information can technically be stored in various ways. The best-known examples of this are HTTP cookies and cookie-like technologies like local storage, session storage or IndexedDB. Each type of storage has different properties, which determine the technical handling, accessibility and controllers authorized to access the information. All these types of storage are usually summarized under the term "cookies" and are therefore called as such in this cookie policy.

The setting and reading of cookies in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA) is in accordance with Art. 5 (3) ePrivacy Directive and Recital 66 ePrivacy Directive only permitted if a user has given his consent on the basis of comprehensive information about the purposes of the processing. The website operator may also set cookies if they are strictly necessary to provide you as a user with the expressly requested service, e.g. the basic content of this website or other strictly necessary cookies for basic functionality of the website to be displayed to you without your consent.

What rights does the website visitor have?

Services and their cookies can be set and read on the legal basis of your consent or a legitimate interest. When you first visited this website, you were asked for your consent and you had the opportunity to object to the use of certain services. We explained which legal basis is used for which service in our consent dialog.

You have the right to view the history of your decisions, change your privacy settings, object to the use of services and revoke your consent at any time. Below you find possibilities to exercise your rights:

How to manage cookies in a browser?

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You can find more information on the handling of cookies devowl.io/rcb/cookie-handling/.

What types of cookies exist?

  • Essential cookies are indispensable for the basic functionality of a website and enable functions such as saving login information or access to secure areas of the site. These include, for example, security cookies, which can identify a bot that is not wanted on the website by storing an authentication key in a cookie.
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Who can set cookies on this website?

On this website, both the operator of the website and third-party services which are used on this website may set cookies and access its content. Who can access which cookies and their content differs between first-party and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are created by the visited website and can only be read by the website operator and integrated third-party services on this website. Third-party cookies are set by usually third-party services on other domains, can be read on all websites on which the service that controls the domain is embedded and, for example, used by advertising networks to track user behavior across different websites and offer personalized advertising.

Which cookies are used on this website?

CategoryTechnical cookie nameTechnical cookie hostServiceDurationTypePurpose
Essentialreal_cookie_banner*.costaricatips.comReal Cookie Banner365 daysHTTP CookieUnique identifier for the consent, but not for the website visitor. Revision hash for settings of cookie banner (texts, colors, features, service groups, services, content blockers etc.). IDs for consented services and service groups.
Essentialreal_cookie_banner*-tcf.costaricatips.comReal Cookie Banner365 daysHTTP CookieConsents collected under TCF stored in TC String format, including TCF vendors, purposes, special purposes, features, and special features.
Essentialreal_cookie_banner*-gcm.costaricatips.comReal Cookie Banner365 daysHTTP CookieConsents into consent types (purposes) collected under Google Consent Mode stored for all Google Consent Mode compatible services.
Essentialreal_cookie_banner-test.costaricatips.comReal Cookie Banner365 daysHTTP CookieCookie set to test HTTP cookie functionality. Deleted immediately after test.
Essentialreal_cookie_banner*https://costaricatips.comReal Cookie Banner-Local StorageUnique identifier for the consent, but not for the website visitor. Revision hash for settings of cookie banner (texts, colors, features, service groups, services, content blockers etc.). IDs for consented services and service groups. Is only stored until consent is documented on the website server.
Essentialreal_cookie_banner*-tcfhttps://costaricatips.comReal Cookie Banner-Local StorageConsents collected under TCF stored in TC String format, including TCF vendors, purposes, special purposes, features, and special features. Is only stored until consent is documented on the website server.
Essentialreal_cookie_banner*-gcmhttps://costaricatips.comReal Cookie Banner-Local StorageConsents collected under Google Consent Mode stored in consent types (purposes) for all Google Consent Mode compatible services. Is only stored until consent is documented on the website server.
Essentialreal_cookie_banner-consent-queue*https://costaricatips.comReal Cookie Banner-Local StorageLocal caching of selection in cookie banner until server documents consent; documentation periodic or at page switches attempted if server is unavailable or overloaded.
FunctionalNID.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA6 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-3PSIDCC.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA1 yearHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-3PAPISID.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
FunctionalAPISID.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-3PSID.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functional1P_JAR.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA1 monthHTTP Cookie-
FunctionalCONSENT.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA18 yearsHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-1PSIDCC.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA1 yearHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-1PAPISID.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-1PSID.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-ENID.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
FunctionalAEC.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA6 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functionalsb_wiz.zpc.gws-wiz.www.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA-Local Storage-
Functionalsb_wiz.uehwww.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA-Local Storage-
Functional_c;;iwww.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA-Local Storage-
Functionalrc::fwww.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA-Local Storage-
Functional_grecaptchahttps://costaricatips.comGoogle reCAPTCHA-Local Storage-
Functionalrc::cwww.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHASESSIONSession Storage-
Functionalrc::bwww.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHASESSIONSession Storage-
Functionalrc::awww.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA-Local Storage-
FunctionalSSID.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functional_GRECAPTCHAwww.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA6 monthsHTTP CookieTechnical information for risk analysis to detect bots
FunctionalHSID.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA13 monthsHTTP CookieEncrypted information from the user's Google account and the last login time to protect against attacks via form entries
FunctionalSID.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA13 monthsHTTP CookieEncrypted information from the user's Google account and the last login time to protect against attacks via form entries
FunctionalSIDCC.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA1 yearHTTP CookieSecurity tokens for authenticating users, preventing fraudulent use of login credentials, and protecting user data from unauthorized access
FunctionalSAPISID.google.comGoogle reCAPTCHA13 monthsHTTP CookieEncrypted information from the user's Google account and the last login time to protect against attacks via form entries
Functional__Secure-3PSIDCC.google.comGoogle Maps1 yearHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-1PSIDCC.google.comGoogle Maps1 yearHTTP Cookie-
FunctionalSIDCC.google.comGoogle Maps1 yearHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-3PAPISID.google.comGoogle Maps13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
FunctionalSSID.google.comGoogle Maps13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-1PAPISID.google.comGoogle Maps13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
FunctionalHSID.google.comGoogle Maps13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-3PSID.google.comGoogle Maps13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-1PSID.google.comGoogle Maps13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
FunctionalSID.google.comGoogle Maps13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
FunctionalSAPISID.google.comGoogle Maps13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
FunctionalAPISID.google.comGoogle Maps13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
FunctionalCONSENT.google.comGoogle Maps13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functional__Secure-ENID.google.comGoogle Maps13 monthsHTTP Cookie-
Functional_c;;ihttps://www.google.comGoogle Maps-Local Storage-
FunctionalLH;;s-*https://www.google.comGoogle Maps-Local Storage-
Functionalsb_wiz.zpc.gws-wiz.https://www.google.comGoogle Maps-Local Storage-
Functionalsb_wiz.uehhttps://www.google.comGoogle Maps-Local Storage-
FunctionalNID.google.comGoogle Maps6 monthsHTTP CookieUnique ID to store preferred settings such as language, number of results on the search results page or activation of the Google SafeSearch filter
FunctionalAEC.google.comGoogle Maps6 monthsHTTP CookieUnique identifier used to detect spam, fraud, and abuse
Functionalcomment_author_*costaricatips.comWordPress Comments1 yearHTTP CookieName of the comment author
Functionalcomment_author_email_*costaricatips.comWordPress Comments1 yearHTTP CookieEmail address of the comment author
Functionalcomment_author_url_*costaricatips.comWordPress Comments1 yearHTTP CookieWebsite of the comment author

The cookie policy was last updated on 07/25/2025.

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