Category Archives: Costa Rica

Costa Rica Update

Spring 2015 InGear

Carlos making his daily drop off
Carlos making his daily drop off

Carlos Camacho lives at the bottom of the hamlet in Dulce Nombre de Coronado, Costa Rica. He works in the workshop of a flag factory located near Coronado. He put a basket on his bicycle so he could begin to deliver vegetables and fruit to some of the families that are along his route on his way to work. Some of the fruit and vegetables are from his own garden and others he buys the day before. He manages to generate a little income while he is commuting, which he puts towards the cost of his five-year-old daughter’s education. The bicycle allows him to manage to drop off the vegetables and fruit to several households on his way to work.


Martha working in her house
Martha working in her house

Martha Bejarano raised her daughter alone doing needlework. She lives in Aguas Zarcas of Ciudad Quesada, Costa Rica, in a very humble village. At great cost she is sending her daughter to school to become a professional, so now she is caring for her granddaughter. The daughter gave her a better P4P sewing machine with more stitches, so she can be more productive while her granddaughter is at school. She now lives much happier because one needs to save. She learned to operate the new machine almost immediately and it is allowing her to be more productive and do more work. Now her dream is to improve the kitchen and the refrigerator of her humble cottage with the added income she is earning.


Javier and daughter on their daily ride
Javier and daughter on their daily ride

Javier Baldivia and his family live in the district of Los Guidos in the heavily populated canton (much like a county) of Desamparados, Costa Rica. In this urban environment, Javier and his wife work hard to maintain a steady income in order to afford both the basics for the family and school for their older two children. Construction is his main occupation but, as in many places, the work varies as much as the demand. He waits for his boss to let him know where and when to be at a job and needs to be able to get to the assigned location as quickly as possible.

Not only does he compete with Costa Ricans for work, but he must also contend with the enormous influx of other Nicaraguans looking for a better life and steady wages. The ownership of a single bicycle has enabled Javier to remain reliable and, thus, competitive in a congested world of surplus able bodies. As a bonus, on weekend mornings, he can also make use of his bicycle to run errands for the family, such as shopping with his daughter at a “Pulpería” to buy cheese and bread for their breakfast.

As our American cities embrace bicycle commuting and sharing as a new (much needed) trend, people like Javier have known for some time that two wheels mean much more than less traffic and good exercise. Bicycles are the most economical and efficient tool for many people of many incomes to keep their families secure and their environment healthy.

Miranda Family

DSCN8096Due to its warm, sunny climate, Tacares de Grecia in the Alajuela Province is one of Costa Rica’s main areas for growing tomatoes, the dry season being the most suitable for planting crops. The Miranda Family owns a small plot for producing tomatoes. They distribute and sell their goods through roadside vendors as well as deliver tomatoes directly to customers using bicycles outfitted with baskets, charging 1000 colones (approximately $2.00) for every 2 kilos of tomatoes.

Costa Rica Success Stories

Spring 2014 InGear

DSCN8114Santiago

23-year old Santiago Romero lives in La Guacima in the Alajuela Province of Costa Rica with his wife and two daughters, who are 1 and 3 years old. Santiago’s wife spends her day at home with the children and additionally takes care of Santiago’s sister’s two kids in the mornings. There are many factories and corporations in La Guacima and its surrounding areas; Santiago works for a hardware company ordering construction materials and recording customer orders. It takes him about 25 minutes on his bike to travel the 5km distance to and from work.

2014springCostaRicaGuillermoGuillermo

Guillermo Mendoza is a resident of the multicultural Costa Rican city of Limón. As he spends most of his time on his bicycle, making his living selling fresh fish and other food items, he makes certain to keep safe by wearing a helmet and reflective vest. Guillermo always has the freshest catch. The fishermen of Limón approach him daily to buy his fish to resell at the nearby fish market.

2014springCostaRicaMirandaMiranda Family

Due to its warm, sunny climate, Tacares de Grecia in the Alajuela Province is one of Costa Rica’s main areas for growing tomatoes, the dry season being the most suitable for planting crops. The Miranda Family owns a small plot for producing tomatoes. They distribute and sell their goods through roadside vendors as well as deliver tomatoes directly to customers using bicycles outfitted with baskets, charging 1000 colones (approximately $2.00) for every 2 kilos of tomatoes.

DSCN8185Juan

Juan Rodríguez is 72 years old. He and his wife own a small plot of land (about 200 square meters) in the outskirts of San Ramón, a city in the Alajuela Province of Costa Rica. Juan and his wife use their spare time to plant cilantro and celery. Juan’s bicycle allows him the time he needs to grow his crops. With it, he can get around his neighborhood and sell his produce easily and with no transportation costs.

Angels in Flight

Pedals for Progress has recently developed a unique partnership with Angels in Flight to send donated sewing machines to La Cuenca, Costa Rica. Founded by Cindy Paulus, Angels in Flight is a group of JetBlue flight attendants seeking to do what they can to make positive changes in the areas to which they travel. In the case of La Cuenca, P4P has been able to help by supplying donated sewing machines to a local sewing center established by Angels in Flight.

Sewing machines are a distinct challenge for P4P to ship overseas. It’s enormously expensive to send them by air freight, which is really the only feasible way to ship them conventionally—we can’t load a shipping container with sewing machines like we do bikes because it would take thousands of them to fill it and not only would it take years to collect such a vast amount, but what overseas partner could possibly absorb that many? So, typically, we send a few at a time along with our bikes to partners who also have sewing projects, like EIAAT in Uganda. Or, we are able to place them among the goods shipped by others, as in the case of International Relief and Development and their project in Georgia. We get them out however we can.

With Angels in Flight, one of our sewing machines gets a first class ticket with Cindy whenever she heads down to La Cuenca, located in the mountainous central region of Costa Rica in impoverished Heredia province. The neighborhood sewing center is dedicated to teaching local women a new craft and allowing them a fighting chance to put lives of drug use and prostitution behind them. So far, Cindy has been able to bring seven of our sewing machines, one at a time, with her to Costa Rica to stock the center.

We hope to be able to assist Cindy and all of the Angels in Flight in their endeavors to aid the needful communities they visit so often and wish so dearly to help.