Life Here for the locals

A couple people have asked about how Costa Ricans earn a living, how the school system works, and what day to day existence looks like. I am in the Quepos/Manuel Antonio area and tourism probably employs the majority of the people here. From hotels, to souvenirs, restaurants, tours, scuba diving, white water rafting trips, repeling and zip line tours.....are all popular ways to earn a living. There is also palm, coffee, and banana plantations in Costa Rica. Palm oil is huge here...while driving in the country you will see tons and tons of palm plantations. Of course there are common jobs too where people work in stores and there is also a good number who sell fruit, jewelery, and souvenirs on the streets. Public school is free and I believe that it is not unheard of for someone to stop going after 6th grade. I was told that a 6th grade education is equivelent to a 3rd grade education that one would get in the states. Private school is more challenging and also costs more. There are a couple colleges here also. A typical school day is was shorter than the states and they go year round. My friend Jared's wife teaches at a private school -2nd grade...she just had 4 weeks off. One week was because of swine flu;0 She then worked on Monday and Tuesday then off for the rest of the week. I am not exactly sure if this is how it looks on all other levels of school, but I do know that I see kids out of school earlier than at home and also sometimes I see kids and think to myself,"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Lifestyle here is definetely laid back and I grown folks sitting on there porches at all hours fellowshipping or just sitting there doing whatever. People are generally really nice and will usually say hello or smile. Oh yeah, the guys that work at the beach are cool. There are quite a few different groups that make a living there. They are there from morning to when the sun goes down renting out beach chairs, surf boards-surf lessons, playing soccer with us on Sundays, wave runners, para sailing, canoes, and snorkling gear. They are all really nice guys and also do the life gaurding. I saw one man stuck in a rip tide last Sunday and they all grabbed their boards and went after him....they got him in time.