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Costa Rica May Criminalize VoIP
chia_monkey writes "Here's an interesting little tidbit about the 'free' Internet. Seems Costa Rica may make it a crime to make Internet-based phone calls. It would be a shame if this sets a precedent of setting legistlation that would seriously stunt the growth of these emerging technologies that should be making communication cheaper and easier, not harder and illegal."
The americans that live there are mostly retirees that go for the low cost of living and the tropical weather. Most of the americans that visit are male tourists or businessmen who stay in the tourist traps to see prostitutes. The young american women like to volunteer for environmental projects like saving sea turtles, in out of the way places. The American couples stay in the tourist traps, and since they're couples, they don't typically deal with prostitutes.
Most of the american visitors in Costa Rica are males travelling alone, who stay in San Jose, where the prostitutes are. In fact, Americans are pretty hard to find sometimes, until you walk near the bars and brothels. There's a place called Morazan Park that has a lot of "Gringo Bars" where the prostitutes hang out. I saw my first American there - dozens of them, actually - after dark, wooing prostitutes.
Costa Rica is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful places in the world, but after spending a few hours hunting for americans, and only finding them at Morazan Park, it's clear what most of them are there for. During the day, I'm sure they're out seeing the other tourist attractions, but at night, they collect like bees on honey at the seedy parts of town. Some of my friends lament that Costa Rica is perceived as a "sexual paradise" by foreigners (not just americans), and all the other nice things about CR are completely forgotten.
When I left the cities, I didn't see very many americans. Most were european, with a few canadians, brazilians, israelis, and japanese mixed in. I'm sure Americans take offense to the idea that the best place to find other americans in Costa Rica is at the brothels, but from my own experience, I'm telling you, it's largely true. Tourism is Costa Rica's bread and butter, and prostitution is a large part of that, and it caters to americans, who are the ones who made Costa Rica's tourist economy possible.
I heard somewhere that Costa Rica is the #1 tourist destination for Americans, outside of the USA. Since it's so cheap to fly from the USA to CR, I believe it. I don't think travel agents pimp Costa Rica as a place to find prostitutes, but once you arrive in Costa Rica, the prostitutes will find you if you look "Gringoey" enough. Costa Rican girls are unusually beautiful as well, and that's probably the first thing every single male traveller notices.
Not sure what you're getting at here. First, you say that North and South America should be considered a single continent because they are physically linked. Then you insist that Asia, Europe, and Africa are separate continents? What the hell? Have you ever actually seen a world map?
If Africa gets to be a separate continent, then so does South America; the Suez Canal is longer than the Panama Canal. Europe and Asia have no excuse whatsoever and are the same continent by any reasonable definition other than snobbery.
A few years back, the US made a calculation and determined that it was cheaper to dig the Panama Canal than to re-print all those geography textbooks.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS