Costa Rica’s Sex-Tourism Is Growing
Prostitutes from different countries gather in the Del Rey, Costa Rica's most popular prostitution venue - photo by Keely Kernan/Freelancer
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — The slumping global economy is having a stimulus effect on Costa Rica’s famous sex-tourism industry, as a growing number of unemployed women — from Colombia to the Dominican Republic — flock to San José to seek a living in the world’s oldest profession.
In popular prostitution hot spots such as the Hotel & Casino Del Rey and Key Largo, local prostitutes compete with an influx of foreign women from Nicaragua, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and even Russia. The increase in numbers and variety of working women here has reaffirmed Costa Rica’s position as an international hub for prostitution, which is legal and regulated by the government since 1894.
But not everyone is happy about the increased competition, which, along with a contracting economy, has required some prostitutes to lower their prices by as much as 40 to 50 percent.
“Business is bad. The problem is competition. Sometimes I don’t even make enough to take a taxi home after work,” said Costa Rican prostitute Mayela, as she lingers by the bar at Key Largo in search of a client.
Like many prostitutes, Mayela, a 36-year-old single mother with an unfinished education, first started selling her body for sex in her early 30s to support her children. After several years of prostitution, she made enough money to buy a small house and get her three daughters into decent schools. She eventually found an unskilled assembly line job at a factory, which paid less than prostitution but got her out of the skin trade, which she despises.
But when she got laid off earlier this year, Mayela said she had no choice but to return to wearing short skirts and working long nights.
“Now there are like 90 percent more girls working here than before,” Mayela said of the scene at Key Largo. “And most of them are foreigners.”
Even veteran foreign prostitutes notice the changes.
“There are a lot more Colombians now. Before it was mostly Ticas [Costa Ricans] and Nicas [Nicaraguans],” said Elena, a Russian prostitute who was brought to Costa Rica by a Belgian man five years ago to work in a strip club.
Some of San José’s women of the night came to Costa Rica with more ambitious professional plans in mind. Ana, 34, said she worked in the fashion industry in Colombia and came to Costa Rica to find similar work when the economy started to slow in her native country. When she couldn’t find a job in Costa Rica, she turned to prostitution.
Though tourism in Costa Rica has fallen 15 percent this year, the scene at the Del Rey and Key Largo — the heart of San José’s so-called “Gringo Gulch” — seems resilient to the downward trend. On a recent Saturday night, both spots were packed with hundreds of North American men, who flirted at the bar with curvy women or shuffled drunkenly and uninhibitedly on the dance floor to live music.
But while business in the Gringo Gulch appears lively at first glance, some women say more men seem interested in window shopping than making a purchase. A Costa Rican prostitute named “Cindy” says many men are looking for a fantasy bar experience where voluptuous women coo and paw at them for several hours, but fewer are actually paying to go upstairs afterward.
Jacobo Schifter, a professor emeritus at Costa Rica’s National University of Heredia and author of Mongers in Heaven, an investigation of Costa Rica’s sex tourism industry, reports that the self-identified sex-tourism mongers have created their own subculture, identity and even philosophical positions on issues such as sex and relationships.
For many, Schifter notes in his book, the behavior becomes addictive. Costa Rica, he says, becomes a monger’s “crack” and sex with prostitutes becomes their fix to help them “escape reality.”
While there are no official statistics, based on Schifter’s research, he estimates there are between 10,000 and 20,000 sex workers in the country, and 25,000 to 50,000 sex tourists who visit each year, 80 percent of whom are U.S. citizens.
Fundación Rahab, a Costa Rican nongovernmental organization that started in 1997 and has helped some 500 women leave the profession and find alternative work, acknowledges it’s harder to convince the current population of prostitutes to stay in their program with the economy in recession.
“It’s harder to convoke groups now, and it’s harder for the women to get out of prostitution because they say, “what I am going to live on if there’s no work?” said Laura Sisa, Fundación Rahab’s program coordinator.
As for Mayela, the Costa Rican woman who returned to prostitution after losing her factory job earlier this year, she said she is willing to make the personal sacrifice to protect her daughters from following in her footsteps.
“I sat my daughters down and told them what I do,” she said. “I told them they have to study, and that’s expensive. But I work hard so none of them will end up here. That would be the worst.”
By TIM ROGERS
Special to The Miami Herald
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Reader Comments
I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work
I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.
YES Yes yes, It’s so bad… However I have never seen a woman go hungry. These are independent women doing what they want to do. No one is making them; hell I wish I could get paid to have sex!
Tim looked like he was having a GREAT time while he in Blue Marlin and Key Largo. Tim certainly caught on to negotiating and interviewing the girls quickly.
I “think” I noticed him leave with a couple of honeys on his way back to his hotel room.
I wish I could get paid to write a story in San Jose.
The main issue is more horny gringos come to CR , we need more prostitutes.
I have been see the last weekend a 60 something old guy with a under 20 girl, just an old guy with a girl, thats so discusting ….
All I can say is…..
“God bless third world poverty”.
Costa Rica, in my opinion has the most enlightened and intelligent politicians in Central America. We in the U.S. have a great deal to learn learn about quality living. Pura vida. J.E.
How much does a girl charge ?
I remember being down in Colombia at the Hotel Irotama in Santa Marta.
Man…. those were hot latinas there.
I wish i can go back to the Irotama Club again.
Well, just another over heated ‘article’ on the working girl life in Costa Rica.. not all factual, though.. the thing is to provide sex for money here is not illegal, so it is accepted by default. Plus, it is a recreational option for many Ticos (guys) lining up in the morning, briefcase in hand, reading the paper and waiting for their ‘haircut’.. before heading off to work. These guys don’t frequent the usual gringo haunts, however. Prices are too high.
But to suggest that this practice is ‘regulated’ in any way by the government is just plain wrong. Many other countries require working girls to have medical examinations regularly, issue them with ID and actually do ‘regulate’ the business. There are NO regulations or provisions specifically formulated for selling sex. There is a law pertaining to age of consent.. that’s it.
Poorly researched articles like this one abound and often provide more mis-information and provoke the tsk-tsking reaction among many readers. Like many other things in Latin America, the gov here is ‘enlightened due to oversight’ in this and many other areas. Regulation certainly wouldn’t hurt, but making the practice illegal would have the same negative effect it has stateside.. drawing in pimps, lawyers, and other ‘protectors’ and placing the girls in positions ultimately far more dangerous and injurious to their health and safety than the current rather laissez-faire situation.. which most of the girls prefer. Many are ‘pro-ams’ who hook occasionally to supplement their low wage income and resemble more a secretary on a night out than a pro selling sex for pay. And aren’t into drugs or other forms of self-abuse.
Try to learn more about your subject matter before presenting information about which you are not well informed. JW
So sad my conutry is famous for this shit!
I think this article it does is promote prostitution in the country, why not look for prostitutes in the U.S.?.
Poor Carlos wrote being sad that “his” country be known for prostitution paradise, any country that promote to the world as tourist destination,(creates jobs, creates income) women will benefits, that is how they see it, easy job, making money otherwise would not make with a regular job, let him ask the the ladies why they do it. and once and for all He will UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF MONEY-DINERO
So nice to read, can anyone let us know what the average rate a prostitute goes for per night in costa rica, could be an intreasting alternative to thailand for us sex crazy perverts
This article was poorly researched and written and is full of inaccuracies and omissions. In most of the world prostitution is legal and it’s the legalization that especially protects the women as each woman is a freelancer – and it’s pimping that’s illegal. Hence the women do not have to answer to anyone, are not forced to do drugs, share their earnings or work in any environment where they don’t deem safe. Also the women are required to carry a cedula that all of the bars and hotels check closely as the cedula or ID certifies the women is a registered worker, is of the proper age and is getting frequent medical exams for STDs. Also you will not see any underage girls in these gringo establishments as it’s highly illegal and simply not condoned, encouuraged or allowed, period.
Many of these women only work part time on weekends or seasonally, say 3 – 6 months, as they’re able to earn and keep many, many times the salary of the average working person. And while its true tourism and the world economy is down – it’s utterly ridiculous to report the typical rate for an hour with one of these women has dropped 50% in the past few years. It most definitely hasn’t, instead it has remained steady at 80 to 120 US dollars. The variance depends on the man’s spanish speaking ability, friendliness, age and looks but mostly his negotiating skill. Of course I could go on trying to explain but let me ask the reader’s here with the overly judgemental, puritanical minds one simple question. If this simple act of trading an hour of affection for a few dollars between two willing and consensual adults is such a horrifying tragedy – than why are so many American men flying down to these Central American countries to meet up with so many beautiful Latin American women that are leaving their own home and their own country to travel to another country just to meet up with these same men?? The answer of course is no one is breaking any law and everyone is making an uncoerced choice – which sounds a lot like freedom.
Well I say if it prevents one rape, unwanted pregnancy, a murder ect. As we so often read about in daily news papers and puts the food on some bodies table maybe its a blessing in disguise.There are health issues here. Its up to the couples to understand and address those issues.
Prostitution is the world’s oldest OPPRESSION. It has never been, and will never be, just another transaction between “two consenting adults.”
I hope Mayela’s daughters never become prostitutes.
This is truly sad. All these sappy gingos coming around to Costa Rica to get laid by infected whores. These are probably pencil dicked white guys who cannot get play unless they pay for it. The only bitch that would tell him she loves him and mean it is probably his mother.
Judge lest ye be judged.
husband went to CR, got stds, i got stds, we are very sick now, we are living a nightmare;emotionally,physically,financially
i’m sorry to hear this Sue. We went through the same experience. it was hell. I got it from her. it hurt me too. We didn’t make it.
you guys just don’t get it the sex is great down here and there is less crime ,because men have an outlet for their agression.Americans just don’t get it.plus It keeps american women on top in the states.here men rule
Why, when talking about prostitutes, does the press and the public in general, pretend that there are no males soliciting sex with males?
There’s a certain inequity in that.
It’s really no different than when a women goes male hunting in a bar, expect we don’t pay! haha
You can get STD’s from any bar in America, the real reason people get mad is because they are not making as much as the girls. I know girls that make 200,000-300,000 a year!
Why are people mad that NFL players use their bodies to make money? If it’s because sex is not involved why are you not worried about women getting some at the bar in the US? Point: It is the same “sex” ones for lust the other for money.
Too Bad.
Costa Rica it’s a beautiful place.
I’m sorry to hear about the Sex-Tourism in Costa Rica.