ABSTRACT
In 2008, Costa Rica, a country encompassing an area of roughly 51,000 square kilometers, received more than 2 million international tourists, approximately half the country’s population at the time of 4.1 million.1 Among these visitors, 55 percent were from the United States, 6 percent from Canada, and 16 percent from European countries. While the majority of international visitors arrive in Costa Rica in couples or family units, almost one-third of international arrivals were traveling unaccompanied by a partner, family, or friend.2 These statistics mean little in the way of the subjective experiences of touristic travel or of transnational encounters except to provide the broadest scope in which to situate Euro-American female tourists in Costa Rica. My interlocutors, who were from Canada, the United States, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France, England, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and Switzerland, and who were mostly independent travelers, although some traveled with family members or friends, were part of statistics that categorize and track the movement of people across national borders but reveal little else and provoke many more questions: Who were the tourist women in Puerto Viejo between 2005 and 2009, and why did they travel to Costa Rica in the first place?
