Two weeks in Costa Rica, lifetime of memories
- by crv.staff
- 06.07.09
- 12:30 PM UTC
- Filed in Costa Rica
Our friends at Hotels Costa Rica posted a wonderful first-hand account of a young man’s first trip to Costa Rica. Experiences like these are the things that make so many people wish to eventually call Costa Rica their adopted home.
Source: GoTriad, Hotels Costa Rica
This spring I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Costa Rica. It just so happened that my girlfriend had to attend the Costa Rican Language Academy in San Jose to complete some requirements for her graduate program, so I decided to tag along.
I figured I’d hang out while she was in class, do some exploring, mingle with the locals and just relax and have a good time seeing what I could see and learning what I could learn. Somehow I ended up at the Costa Rican Language Academy taking beginning Spanish. But before I get into that, I should start from the beginning.
After a four-hour flight from Charlotte to San Jose, we reached the customs line, which stretched almost from the gate where we got off the plane, past the gift shop and around a corner. I did not realize that tourism was so big in Costa Rica.
After finally making it through customs and baggage claim, we exited to the street. Tour buses and taxis were lined up awaiting passengers. We moved toward a woman holding a sign with my girlfriend’s name, Denise, on it. The lady holding the sign spoke English, so that was a relief.
We waited patiently for one more student to join our group, Greg, from Texas, and then we jumped in the Toyota Corolla and we were off. Our driver, Leo, began by asking us our names in Spanish, so I just followed suit. The sky was overcast, and the traffic was heavy leaving the airport that Sunday afternoon.
The 30-minute drive from the airport to San Jose consisted of dancing, laughing and a question-and-answer period. By the end of the ride, I wanted to go to school, too, and so I did.
We had opted to make our own arrangements and stayed at a local hotel versus a home stay in which we would have lived for two weeks with a Costa Rican family. Our apartment had a small kitchen, private bath, small living room area, cable television, phone and a wall air-conditioning unit. There was a small pool and patio out back. The hotel had about 25 rooms and the staff was more than accommodating.
The school was about one block from the hotel, and we just so happened to be right across the street from a four-story mall that included a food court, movie theater and ATMs.
On the first day of class we found our way to the school by 9 a.m., went through a brief orientation where our level of Spanish was tested, and then were placed in our classes. I was in a class of one, which showed me that out of about 40 students from all over the world, I was the slow one in a class by myself.
My teacher, Paola, was very patient with me, though, and we started with the basics: where I was from, where I was staying, how long I was going to be there and so forth. The funny thing is that all this was in Spanish and somehow we worked through it. It never really dawned on me that she could actually speak English until much later. She did a great job of pretending she had no idea what I was trying to say.
On the first day we pointed a lot, and I had a workbook that came in handy. I studied every
day from 9 a.m. until about 10:30 a.m., at which time we had a 15-minute break and then back to class from 10:45 until lunch at noon. The school provided lunch for us daily for a minimal fee and no matter what we had for lunch black beans and rice went with it. You either hate it or love it, so I learned to love it.
It rained every day after lunch, which was crazy to me, but I got used to it. I only studied at the school from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Thursday and then had the rest of the day and the long weekend free. Daily dance classes were offered, along with cooking and conversational groups at 3 p.m.
Every Monday the students got together for drinks at a bar in the mall called Fusion and then proceeded to a club call El Cuartel, which featured a DJ as well as live music. On the weekends we traveled out of the city and saw both the Poas and Arenal volcanoes as well as the rainforest, waterfalls, coffee plantations, butterfly gardens and whatever else we could squeeze in. The tours were not that expensive and generally kept us out from sunup to sundown.
The experience was one I will never forget. I suggest before the year is out, grab your passport and cross the border.
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