U.S. Tico and The Man at Rockport Fulton Market Days...

 I've written about my old friend, Donald Setterbo, or as we called him in college Donnie "Mo-Honny" or as friends and family know him, "Papa Turtle" or as he is now known through the branding of his retirement business venture, U.S. Tico. I helped him this weekend in his booth at his hometown Rockport Fulton Market Days. 

I case you don't know "Tico" is a term for a native Costa Rician. Setterbo has been living in Quepos, Costa Rica for six years. He is U.S. Tico, a Tico at heart from the USA. Quepos is a tropical harbor town, surrounded by rain forest and famous for big game fishing. It's an easy place to fall in love with and identify yourself with the relaxed pace of living and the ecotourism that replaced the banana plantation economy. Do I need to mention that resident Americans and Europeans enjoy the cheap rents and cool breezes off the ocean?    

U.S. Tico got the idea for his brand one day while walking the harbor along Marina Pez Vela. He encountered a young Nicaraguan woman out to enjoy a stroll down the picturesque waterfront. The woman pushed a baby carriage and the chubby cheerful baby wore a hat that said, "No Soy Tico" or translated to English "I'm not Costa Rician." This set the wheels of creativity turning. Costa Rica is a beautiful, easy place to be. It also spends 6.9% of it's budget on education compared to a global average of 4.4%, is rated at a higher level of human development that other countries of similar income and scores as the worlds 23rd happiest place according to the World Happiness Report. Let's get together and talk sometime about why you don't want to be Tico.    

U.S. Tico goods are high quality. The prints and logos are created and drawn by humans, not AI machines. Hats and other items are embroidered.  At the Market Days U.S. Tico introduced his new line for Ticas, or for non Spanish speakers, the girls. 

Looking around the Market Days Fair grounds there were several hat booths. These are different. They  fit my big head. That's quality. 

Creativity runs in the Setterbo family. Click the link to check out his daughter Naedas's children's book, "Sloth Bunny Goes to School." U.S. Tico reviewed the book for me, "there's a lot of different levels..."

You can pick up Sloth Bunny on a hoodie. 

Of course in the short time span of one weekend's work U.S. Tico did not covert the whole USA to the Tico life. That's their loss, but he told his story, sold a few hats and talked to other local business owners interested in carrying the line in their shop. No one else is doing this. Why not make the sales pitch? Pura Vida is a Spanish term used in Costa Rica to describe the culture there. It means the pure life. Why not be Tico? Why not be Tica?    

Shop now, someone with that many nicknames is bound to have something going on.

U.S. Tico