Before you go...

Some last-minute tips I thought of before you Costa Rica-bound students leave, plus some reminders:

 (less than 2 weeks now!)

1. Don't forget to pack a backpack to take your weekend stuff in for the beach trips. I forgot to take a separate little backpack, and you definitely won't be able to fit your suitcases on those weekend excursions!

2. Carry your umbrella with you ALL THE TIME. It will rain pretty much every day, no matter what the weather is like in the morning.

3. Make sure you plan on going to FOFO on Mondays for ladies' night.  We always had so much fun at FOFO every Monday night!

4. Be sure to go to the restaurant "Pan e Vino" in Heredia YUM!

5. If you can fit it in your suitcase, take a beach towel.  It comes in very handy on the weekend

 trips, plus, it can serve as extra padding on those long, sleepy bus rides.

6. Keep a photocopy of your passport with you at all times, just in case.  Keep your original passport in a very, very safe place.

7. If you take your laptop, skype is AWESOME for keeping in touch with friends and family at home.  I definitely recommend downloading it.  If you are not taking a laptop, I suggest investing in some phone cards.  Home-stay families will allow you to use their phone to call home with your phone card.  If you don't buy one ahead of time, you can buy phone cards in many places in Heredia.

8. BE CAREFUL crossing the street!  Drivers in Costa Rica will NOT yield to pedestrians.

9. Don't waste your money on the malaria pills unless you want to be really, really, really safe.   I think only a handful of people took them last year, and they made them sensitive to the sun.

10. Take some playing cards or small games to busy yourself during free time.

And, most of all, have fun in Costa Rica!

The gems of Heredia

There are quite a few places in Heredia that deserve a visit if one should ever travel to the town.  I decided it was necessary to list these places where my friends and I had a lot of fun!

Hipermas

Hipermas is the Wal-Mart owned superstore in Heredia.  Dana and I walked to Hipermas on our way home from school (quite a hike, as Hipermas is a while away from the Intercultura school) for our random necessities we didn't bring, like extra shampoo, snacks, etc.  Hipermas has a small restaurant side to it, so if you're hungry (which we were!), you can stop for a snack, too.  The place is HUGE and extremely crowded, but it was really neat to see what a third-world Wal-Mart is like.  Plus, we were able to buy things here that we really needed

the view of the sunset.. taken right outside Hipermas!

The Pet Shop

Dana and I also found the cutest pet shop a couple blocks away from the Intercultura.  Here, they are extremely relaxed when it comes to their customers, so Dana and I could just walk in and play with the little puppies in the window.  We had a fun afternoon on our way to school with a 6-week-old pair of Terriers, Dachshunds, and a little Chihuahua puppy.

they were so cute!

Clothing & Shoe Stores

There are quite a few great buys to be found in some of the many clothing stores on the sidewalks of Heredia.  I have about 5 dresses and shirts that constantly get compliments in the states, which I only paid bottom dollar for.  I also found a great pair of shoes for very cheap that I still love!

The Marketplace

On our way home from school, we decided the marketplace we saw on our tour deserved a closer look.  When we visited on our own, we realized how much fresh fruit we could buy for very little money.  Here, we bought raspberries, starfruit (carambola), and blackberries (mora).  Yum!

POPS

POPS is an awesome ice cream shop right near Hipermas.  Here, I was able to get a cup of Brownie Dynamite flavored ice cream for only the equivalent of $1.50!  This would have cost around $3.50 at a Coldstone in the states, and my ice cream was just as good.

Dana and her yummy POPS ice cream!

The Movie Theaters

When we had  little to do at night, Wednesday night movie deals were perfect.  Wednesday nights in Heredia are all about the movies, and we went and saw two movies while in Heredia.  One of those included Indiana Jones, which was shown in English with Spanish subtitles!

The best weekend trip in Manuel Antonio

On our way to our Manuel Antonio weekend excursion (the Pacific Beach), we stopped at a place to eat called “Isla Crocadilla.” We all gathered around on the highway and looked off the side edge to find around 50 crocodiles sunning themselves! They were all humongous - and there were cows just a few feet away grazing in the grass. It was wild, and we all expected to see a crocodile or two decide it was time for lunch.

the HUGE crocodiles!

When we arrived in Manuel Antonio, we found two restaurants right down the road from our hotel. After checking them out, we saw that they served happy hour drinks! From 4-6 every day, margaritas, pina coladas, and daiquiris were 2 for 1. We loved it, and definitely took advantage of the deal the two nights we stayed in Manuel Antonio. My favorite of the two restaurants was called Sammy’s, pictured below. I had some of the BEST pesto pasta of my life there!

happy hour!

On Saturday, we woke up early to take the wildlife tour. The tour was awesome even though it was a rainy, overcast day. We got to see lots of different animals, which I had really been hoping to do. I plan to dedicate my next post to that tour entirely.

our group for the wildlife tour

After our wildlife tour, we had the entire day to do whatever we pleased. We decided to check out the hundreds of street vendors. There was some really neat handcrafted jewelry, clothing, and nick knacks. The vendors were very friendly and used to tourists, and I had a fun time haggling with them for my souvenirs.

My friends Dana, Jen, Bekah, and Jenni and I then took a banana-float ride! For only $10 each, we got to ride on a banana-shaped float behind a speed boat. We all fit on it, and it was so fun (and FUNNY) trying to stay on through the rough waters! The ride was only ten minutes long, but it was definitely worth only $10.

that banana float ride was so fun!

Later that night, we ate at a restaurant called “El Avion” (the airplane). The entrance to the restaurant is an old cockpit fashioned into a bar on the inside - it was really neat, and the seafood there was delicious!

the cockpit entrance to the restaurant

We also hit the bars in Manuel Antonio. Once again, Roberto was kind enough to drive the big bus so we wouldn’t have to pay for taxis. Ladies were free (a common theme in Costa Rica), and we danced the night away until the early hours of the morning. The funniest part of our bar experience was when we found street vendors outside with carts of chicken on a stick. My friend Thomas was so excited over this chicken, and bought about five of them. I tried a piece - it was really good! The concept should be brought to the states for sure.

chicken on a stick, on sale outside the club

Our final day in Manuel Antonio was a free day. Four of us chose to spend our final hours renting a surf board and a boogie board for the great waves! It only cost $15 for two hours, so we got a pretty great deal for a lot of fun in the water. The little son of the boards owner (who was wearing a little shirt... and nothing else) loved Dana and me, and latched onto our legs and wouldn’t let us leave. Unfortunately, it was time to get back on the bus and head home for Heredia.

our new friend, the son of the surfboard rental man

I loved the beaches and fun of Manuel Antonio. If i could return to any of our weekend excursions, I would surely choose Manuel Antonio!

Weekend trip to Volcan Arenal

Our first weekend excursion was to Volcan Arenal, Costa Rica. In order to travel in sufficient time, we needed to wake up at 4:45 AM... not fun!

We traveled in two huge busses on our trips. On the way to Volcan Arenal, we stopped at a big indoor marketplace which had many hand-crafted gifts. I bought a walking stick for my dad (he collects them) and a Costa Rican wooden handmade serving platter for my mom. I also found some cute handmade earrings for friends.

Our stop for breakfast was fun. I had a really yummy omelette. Many people had their pancakes, which were also delicioso.

After finally settling in at the hotel, we hiked up the mountain to see the volcano. The hike was in the pouring rain, of course, because that's all it does in Costa Rica (so it seems), but we got to see some neat plant life and a couple of spider monkeys up high in the trees. Once we got to the top of the volcano, we all took pictures.

Dana and me at the top of the Volcano!

THEN we went to the Baldi hot springs. This was one of my favorite places we visited in all of Costa Rica - it was like one big waterpark with a bunch of swimup pools! The pools have hot water flowing through them from the volcano - it was so neat. The drinks were all crazy expensive ($10 each), but they were very good. My favorite was a banana drink with a coffee liquor called "The Crazy Monkey."

our group loving Baldi Springs!

There were even waterslides!! My friend had an waterproof camera, so we got a lot of pictures of the fun that night. After we had our fill of swimming, our group had a great buffet of chicken, pasta, and salad.

all us girls with our drinks at the swim-up bar!

That night, we went to the discoteca. It was really fun to show off our dance class skills in salsa and merengue, and we had fun watching some of the locals and other tourists dancing the night away around us.

discotecas have great dancing!

The next morning, we got to go ZIP-LINING!!! Zip-lining in Volcan Arenal was one of my favorite special activities by far. We each paid $60 to zip across 10 lines. After an information session, we rode up to the top of the mountain, put on harnesses, and were off.

I LOVED zip-lining!

It surprised me how much technique is involved in zip-lining. It is really important to keep your brake pad (in your one hand) on the cable, your other hand pulling down on the metal clamp attaching you to the cable, and your feet high up in the air. Otherwise, you will get stuck in the middle of the line, and one of the workers will have to come and fetch you. I thought this was so fun - I was only one of three people who got all the way across every line without getting stuck!

It began to rain on our LAST line. After standing in the pouring rain for half an hour, we were told we could no longer ride horses to the waterfall. This was disappointing, but I had a LOT of fun zip-lining and would most definitely do it again!

Costa Rican Nightlife in Heredia

all the girls at Tragaldabas

While the nightlife in America is typically big from Thursday to Saturday, Costa Rican nightlife is raging on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to Saturday.

Our group's favorite night of the week in Heredia was Monday's ladies' nights at "FoFo," a club in town.  I can still remember us all texting each other back in the US after we came home from our trip saying, "Tomorrow is FOFO! Let's go!"

At FoFo, every girl was given three drink tickets at the door (raffle-ticket style), good for any draft beer.  The Costa Rican beer available everywhere was Cerveza Imperial, an all-natural ingredient brew.  I was not a fan of Imperial, but a lot of those in our group sure were! 

On those Mondays, would usually find ourselves dancing at FoFo for the duration of the night. The little Ticas would crowd all around the boys in our group, and loooved dancing with the tall, American boys.

those Ticas LOVED our American boys!

Much like clubs in the United States, a DJ with a microphone would make rounds and let people speak in the microphone.  At one point, Chris, a student in our group, got to beatbox into the mic.  I loved trying my Spanish in the microphone, too!

Sometimes we would see Roberto, our school's driver who I have mentioned before, out on the town, who once even gave Dana and me a ride back to our home-stay house so we wouldn't have to pay for a taxi.  That was really nice and a lot less stressful than having to go through giving the taxi drivers directions to our house.

Other nightclubs we tried out in Costa Rica included La Choza, Boulevar, and Tragaldabas, the latter of which took us a looong time to be able to pronounce!

Since La Choza had an upstairs and was more of a "hangout" bar, it our least favorite.  We all just had too much fun dancing!

Boulevar, however, served huge "cylinders" of beer with any number of glasses you wish.  The cylinders were like a little tabletop keg, and we spent a lot of our time sharing them among our group on our nights out.

Tragaldabas was a techno dance club.  It was always extremely crowded, and my girlfriends and I spent a lot of time trying to fend of the Ticos with excuses that one of our guy friends in the group was our "novio," or "boyfriend."  After complaining about the creep factor to my teacher in class, she suggested I switch my ring to my left-hand ring finger and tell the pushy Ticos that I was engaged.  This rarely deterred them, however.

as you can see from Dana's face in the middle, some Tico men can be pretty creepy...

Techno is pretty huge in bars and clubs in Costa Rica.  When we weren't listening to techno, there would be top-40 music playing from the states.  

A lot of clubs were strictly latin salsa dance clubs, as well, and our group loved showing off our Intercultura dance class skills all night long.  It was quite a workout on the dance floor!  When we would be showing off our moves, many Ticos would join in and dance along with us.  I had an interesting night at one of the latin dance clubs when a little old man danced with me for about an hour.  I'm pretty sure he was under 5 feet tall.

All in all, we had a lot of fun exploring the Costa Rican nightlife!  Some Monday nights, I find myself longing for another ladies night at FoFo.

Our first taste of Heredia

After our placement interviews for Spanish classes at Intercultura, the language school we attended while living in Heredia, we were taken on a tour of the town.

Heredia is a dynamic little town. Each day, Dana and I walked ten minutes uphill (no, really... it was an entire uphill walk to the school from our house) to get to school, and once we emerged from the housing area, we would pass numerous schools (there are several schools on one street), each with their own park or fenced-in playground, a few pharmacies, movie rental stores, bakeries, and stores of all types. General stores, beauty parlors, pet shops, restaurants, and clothing boutiques are set up side-to-side, lining the sidewalks.

enjoying the marketplace and tasting the fruit!

On our first tour, we were taken to the market in the town square. There were varieties of stalls inside the marketplace. Ticos sell baked goods, fruit and vegetables, clothing, and more. It was very interesting to see the way Ticos buy their fruit from the market daily. Dana and I once bought some starfruit, "moras" (blackberries), and "mamone", a fruit with a shell one peels off to reveal a grapelike seed to suck on, from the market. "Guanabana," or guava, is also a common fruit in Costa Rica. One can find it in cookies and artificial flavors all around the country.


After the market, our group stopped for lunch at "Las Fresas" for lunch. There, we were introduced to the typical Costa Rican lunch, "casado," which directly translated means "married." This national dish contains rice and beans with cabbage-and-tomato salad, fried plantains (YUM!), and meat. At Las Fresas, we each had our choice of the steak, chicken, fish, or vegetarian version of casado. I elected to try the chicken, and it was pretty good. My favorite was definitely the friend plantains, which are a staple in almost every lunch and dinner in Costa Rica.

To drink, Ticos frequently enjoy "cas" or "guanabana," a fruit drink made from the fruits that supply their namesake. Cas is a type of guava and is a little less sweet than guanabana (I preferred guanabana), and they are both in a smoothie form. It is normal to ask for these drinks "con agua" (with water) or "con leche" (with milk). With milk, the drink is less of a smoothie has more of a milkshake consistency.

That first tour gave us a small taste of Costa Rican life. After Las Fresas, we passed many of the shops and bars that would become landmarks and hangouts to us in the weeks to come. We couldn't wait to get out there on our own!

Dana, Lauren, and me enjoying our lunch at Fresas

Our Arrival in Heredia, Costa Rica

Our group flew into San Jose, Costa Rica on June 1st, 2008. The flight was only around 4 and a half hours, and after a quick detour into the duty-free store ("WHOA - A DRINKING AGE OF 18?"), we were greeted by our bus drivers from the school, Roberto and Felix.

As we would learn later on, Roberto and Felix would be driving us on all of our weekend excursions. Throughout the trip, these two Ticos (again, "Tico" is the term for a local Costa Rican) showed off some pretty impressive navigational skills on the narrow (and I mean NARROW) roads around the mountains and volcanoes of Costa Rica. I can still hear one of my fellow students, Chris Haney, yelling in his southern drawl from the back of the bus, "Hey Ro-ber-to, why dont'cha slap a number on

the side'a this thang and git it on the race track?" I think Roberto got his taste of some real North Carolina living during our time with him! We had a lot of fun getting to know Roberto, whether it was on our bus rides, during our tours, or out in the clubs with him! He would even drive us home from the club in his car so we wouldn't have to pay for a taxi.

On our first drive through San Jose and Heredia, we got a small taste of Costa Rican life. We saw many shops lining the streets in the town center as we approached the residential areas. In the housing areas, the houses are all surrounded by high walls and wrought-iron gates. When I questioned the presence of such high security, Dr. Girelli, our trip advisor, reminded me that we were in a third-world country. Apparently, there is a lot of petty crime in Heredia. It was then that I was happy I remembered to bring my pepper spray.

From the airport, we were taken to our host families' houses. Dana and I were dropped off in front of a big wall with a garden-like entrance. A stout woman of 67, Lilianna, our "mother", greeted us in Costa Rican Spanish. I was sleepy, but still coherent enough to introduce Dana and myself. It was a good thing I had been exposed to so much Spanish in high school, because Lilianna spoke no English at all. Lilianna showed us into a small room which we would share. It connected to the tiled porch and included a twin and a double bed, a dresser, and a huge closet for all of our belongings. We even had a little TV in our room!

Dana and I were later introduced to the pets of the house. First, there was Angie ("named after Angelina Jolie, of course" Lilianna explained), a black and white house cat. Also accompanying us throughout our stay (and waking us up with her shrill barking all hours of the morning) was Molly, the white poodle. I found it very interesting that Lilianna chose such English names for her pets. She agreed with this sentiment, saying that she likes American names.

Our first meal with Lilianna was dinner. She was a great traditional Costa Rican cook; many of her ingredients came from her small garden in front of the house. She cooked us spaghetti and corn in tomato sauce for dinner with a side salad. She cooked us many different types of pastas, but always included a simple side salad with a tomato, an avocado, and sometimes, corn. Basically, the "fresh vegetable of the day" was on our salad every night for dinner - yum! The only dressing for our salad was olive oil. I generally doused my salad with plenty of salt, as well.

The house in which we lived for our month in Costa Rica was pretty small, as are most Costa Rican hou

ses. Lilianna was a very religious Catholic, so the house was very traditionally decorated with Christian antiques and old photos. Dana and I enjoyed discovering different little trinkets and strange decorations throughout the living room on our way into the small kitchen.

We all shared a small bathroom, which was right across the hall from our room, and right next door to Lilianna's room. This meant sharing a toilet, shower, and small sink. The tiny shower was heated electrically from the showerhead, so I had to train myself time and time again to be careful not to touch it while washing my hair. I did, however, get shocked quite a few times.

We also had to wash our underwear in the shower. We learned from a sign on our door that Lilianna would clean our laundry for us, but our underwear was to be washed in the shower. Evidently, this is the norm for Ticos.

It was very different from what we were used to, but we quickly adapted and had the time of our lives doing so!

Adventures in Costa Rica

Last summer, I took a trip to Costa Rica with my roommate and a group of students from my college, and I can confidently say it was one of the best experiences of my life.

I chose to take this trip to better my Spanish-speaking skills, as I am working towards a minor in Spanish. In order to get the most I could out of the local dialect, I chose to live with a non-English speaking Tico (Costa Rican) family for the duration of the 28-day trip.

This made for very interesting dinner-table conversations!

Once in Heredia, Costa Rica (we flew into San Jose), our trip entailed 5 hour classes Monday through Friday and trips to the coast each weekend. We loved living the life around the city, but those trips were definitely the highlight of our entire Costa Rican adventure.

In this blog, I will highlight each memorable experience I had along the way.

From my class (taught by a non-English speaking professor) experiences, conversations with my traditional Tico family, adventures with my ignorant classmates, and braving the nightlife of Heredia, I have many notable memories from my month in Costa Rica.