Parks in Costa Rica

[adina_atl]

The first time I saw a park in Costa Rica on a Sunday I assumed there was a festival on. The park was Parque de la Paz, the Peace Park, south of downtown San Jose. There were vendors selling kites and drinks and food, banners leading up the spiral path to the top of this big conical hill in the center of the park (probably manmade, the hill I

Comments

[droolfangrrl]

Yes. This.

[adina_atl]

Thanks.

[lokifan]

Gah. That level of harassment from the coppers sounds awful. :( You get bothered occasionally here (especially if it's a group of mostly black kids) but nothing like that level where you'd expect it as standard.

[adina_atl]

I've read as much anti-teen rhetoric in the British papers as I have in the US papers, so I'm not sure that there's that much difference. It was in Britain that I heard of shopkeepers broadcasting loud, high-pitched "mosquito" sounds outside their stores to run off teen "hooligans" without bothering older adults who could no longer hear noises that high.

[lokifan]

Well, I'm still a Youf :) Yeah, the mozzie things are awful and they talked about installing them in my city centre when I was a teenager, but it never happened, thank goodness. The difference I'd say is in what the police do - if people bother teenage groups here it's more likely to be random older people telling you off, or being glared at or followed round shops. Not police trying to make you move on, not until night-time anyway.

[adina_atl]

It's been a long time since I was a Youf *grin*, so I'm not sure how often the police actually hassle teens in the US. But it was a park and it was getting towards dark (the sun sets at 6PM here, so "after dark" doesn't exactly mean "late"). Even if the police in the US hadn't run the teens off, I think the teens would have been wary of them running them off, if that makes any sense. The expectation of trouble is as effective as the reality.

The mozzie thing seemed like a horrible idea the first time I heard of them and still do. Aside from the whole "gee, I was a teenager once, I've heard they're people too" aspect, I can still hear mosquitos very easily even at my age so I'm not sure they wouldn't run me off as well! I'm still not sure why so many people my age appear to be afraid of teens.