Day 173.

Today were the Costa Rican presidential elections. Let me give you a quick summary of the candidates:

Otto:
Known for: Being handsome.


Otton:
Known for: Almost winning last time.

Laura:
Known for: being part of the party that is currently in office, wearing solid color blouses, and handing out free bags of concrete in Carpio. And building houses in other poor areas. The only questionable part is that no one knows where the money is coming from to fund these projects (plus most of the people she helps are illegals and can't vote anyways).

Fishman:

Known for: slightly resembling a fish and the fact that his logo looks like a fish eye. He's also the one who kept referring to himself as "the least bad". Poor guy.

So my host mom, brother, and two sisters left to work the polls at 5 in the morning and got back at 11. When all was said and done, Laura dominated with 47% of the popular vote (you had to get at least 40% to win), Otton got 25%, Otto got 20%, and Fishman got 3%.

In other words, Costa Rica just got its first female president! Quite the move in an incredibly machismo culture.

--Hannah

PS My host sister said that the best part of the elections being over was that she "wouldn't receive spam texts from each candidate".

PPS Two weeks ago all four of the main candidates agreed to take a lie detector test on national television. Only two of them showed up.