Limón, Costa Rica, is on the Caribbean side of the country, and that is where Ana Vorlicek hails from.

She tells me her family was as poor as church mice, but they were very happy. Here’s an idea of how poor: the walls of the home she lived in were made of cardboard. She awoke at 5 a.m. to walk to a bigger town where her uncles sold fish and would give her some to bring home so the family could get a break from the beans and rice they ate every day.