Costa Rica: 1992

Nancy's Trip Report

This was our big adventure - 4 weeks studying Spanish followed by a week of paddling.

October 12- November 6

We decided to take a 4-week intensive Spanish language course in Costa Rica! The course was at Centro Linguistico Conversa (http://www.conversa.com/index.html). The campus is on a hillside above Santa Ana. We decided to stay with a family in Santa Ana instead of in the dormitory at the school. I have been studying Spanish at one of the community colleges in Raleigh, NC since our last trip to Costa Rica (in 1990). Chuck has not had any Spanish classes since high school (1 year in the late 1950s).

The family that we stayed with had a lovely home with a family that has 5 children, three of them grown. Our room was easily as large as our bedroom at home with a wood floor and ceiling. The walls are also 2" wood strips with 2 walls painted teal green and the other 2 cream. We also have our own bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower. The room is outfitted with a double bed and a twin bed. We are on the second floor above their sala (living room). We have breakfast and dinner with the family. After breakfast, we walk to the center of Santa Ana to meet our drive for the 10-minute ride to the school.

The campus is beautiful - lots of stone work and covered class areas. There were 12 new students and 15 or so continuing for one more week. On the first day, we took a written and oral test and were placed in classes according to our skill level. Each class had a maximum of 4 students and were taught in Spanish. Class started around 9 am and went until about 3 pm with a break for brunch and another for lunch. Breakfast at school was usually papaya, pineapple and tortillas with scrambled eggs. And strong coffee - with milk. We walked home from school (it was downhill) and kept busy with our homework in the evening.

Some of the drivers that brought us to school each day were available for hire on weekends. On our first weekend, we organized a trip to Volcan Arenal - an active volcano. We stopped for breakfast on our way to Arenal and heard 2 explosions shortly after we arrived at our lodging. After lunch we hiked to a waterfall that was running high because of the rain. After dinner we went to a small stream that is heated by the volcano. The owners created a small dam to form a pool where you could sit and have the water pour over you like a Jacuzzi. We then went for a short walk on the lava bed formed by the 1968 eruption. We heard rumblings and saw lava flowing from a lower point. The top of the volcano was obscured by the clouds.

There was a valley between our hotel and the volcano. Our room had a large picture window at the foot of the bed so we had a great view of the volcano. At about 2 AM we heard rumblings and saw lava flowing from the side of the volcano and heading toward Lake Arenal. At 4 AM we were awakened by more rumblings and saw more lava flowing. While we were watching, the top lit up orange and we saw an eruption. The sound reached us about 7 seconds later. Then the rain and clouds covered the top of the mountain. We heard another loud boom on Sunday before lunch. Then we headed for home.

Monday was the beginning of our second week of school. The students were rearranged to give each of us exposure to another teacher and new classmates. Most of us suffered from mild to not-so-mild cases of something that caused diarrhea and vomiting. Chuck missed school on Tuesday. The couple in my class missed a day so I worked alone with my teacher.

On our second weekend, we went to Monteverde Cloud Forest. The drive there was slow going for the last 30K on a hard rock road with a couple streams to ford. The cloud forest gave us a clue as to what they are trying to do at the Conservatory in Chicago. We saw plants growing on plants growing on plants. The trail was well done with an eye to not disturbing the forest. The "stepping stones" were slices of tree trunk with a metal mesh attached to each piece to provide sure footing. We saw lots of birds and flowers. Back at the entry to the park, there were two groups of hummingbird feeders with a large variety of hummers feeding. On Sunday morning we hiked a bit and shopped at Hummingbird Gallery. We also spent a lot of time watching and taking pictures of the traffic at the feeders. Another wonderful weekend in a fabulous country!

Our third week of classes with tons of verb conjugations. Ick!! We are already planning for next weekend. We have tickets for a boat trip on the Calypso. On Friday, Marioly (the granddaughter of our host family) came up to our room in her clown costume. She was decked out for Halloween at her school. The gate to the house has a basket attached to it and there were 2 loaves of fresh bread in it!

Saturday morning was here before we knew it. We were up early and got to the hotel where the Calypso tour bus picked us up for our weekend adventure. We were served orange juice, champagne and croissants on the bus on the way to Puntarenas (on the Gulf of Nicoya). We changed into swim wear and boarded the super catamaran Manta Raya for the trip to Tortuga Island. We had fresh pineapple, papaya and chayote (a Costa Rican plum). Then we had ceviche. When we arrived at the island, we soaked in the warm gulf for an hour or so, then moved to the shade of the palm trees on the island. Lunch included grilled fish with a shrimp cream sauce, salads, black beans and tortillas. We also had fresh coconut. Abuleo (grandfather) played a hand-made marimba while we ate.

After dinner, we soaked in the gulf again before boarding the Manta Raya for the ride back to Puntarenas. We got a fresh water shower on the back deck. On the ride back, we had more food - orange sections, pineapple and watermelon. (See http://www.calypsocruises.com/About_us/Tortuga_Island/ for more information about this tour.) We slept most of the way back to San Jose. After dinner at Hotel Cariari near the airport, we headed for home.

We decided to take the bus to San Jose on Sunday to do some walking and shopping. We visited the Mueso de Oro (gold museum), the zoo and the National Museum. We returned home and were asleep by about 8 PM. Neither of us did much studying this weekend.

Our fourth (and final) week of school started on November 2nd - All Souls Day. Everyone was buying flowers for the cemeteries. I am the only student in my class this week. Chuck has one other student in his class. Tuesday started off a bit shaky. We experienced an earthquake strong enough to shake the house. I was in the bathroom, completely undressed and preparing to begin my shower. I could see the cement block walls shake what appeared to be 3-4" back and forth. It is fairly common to have 100 or more tremblores per month in Costa Rica - most unfelt.

We stayed up late Tuesday night to hear Clinton's speech translated into Spanish. Our last day of school on Friday seemed to stretch on forever. Our wonderful hostess, Ligia, had washed all of our clothes so we would have plenty of clean clothes for the last week of our adventure. We took all of our belongings and headed to Hotel Eorupa in San Jose.

November 6:

We met the rest of the at Hotel Europa. After dinner at Rios Tropicales, we outfitted our boats and returned to the hotel for the night.

November 7:

We left for the Rio Sarapiqui after breakfast. On the way, we stopped at Kenny's place to admire his stained glass art. He makes leaded glass windows that are absolutely beautiful. We saw one in progress with over 800 pieces of glass, each perfectly formed to the pattern. He said that the 3 ft. by 5-6 ft window took 5 weeks and sold for about $2500. The river was delightful with lots of class III waves and interesting play spots. We were very tired when we got to Selva Verde Lodge for the night. We are in the new section and it is all wood with beautiful covered walkways. The windows are screened but with shutters that can be closed for privacy.

November 8:

We went bird watching early and were rewarded with toucanettes, a large green parrot and 4-5 full-size toucans. We also saw a scarlet-rumped tanager, an orange bird, small parrots, fly-catchers, vireos and oropendulas. On the river we also saw a monkey and a big, fat otter. The mother of one of the men in our group died yesterday so he and his wife left the trip. Before they left, they had a little ceremony here and planted a mahogany tree in her memory. There was a baby sloth in a tree crevice just above and near the spot where the tree was planted. We had another delightful day on the Rio Sarapiqui and there was no rain.

November 10:

We were up early and on the road by 7 AM, heading to the Rio General. We got to the put-in and had a light lunch before launching. Most of the rapids were class I-II with an occasional class III because of big waves. We reached camp about 4 PM and spent the night at the edge of a coffee plantation. After setting up our tent, we helped with dinner - a delicious fish stew.

November 11:

We were on the river early after a hearty breakfast. This was to be our long day - about 13 miles. The water was fun with occasional big waves. We reached camp at about 4 PM. Early to bed again with a heavy rain around 2-4 AM.

November 12:

This was the first of 2 play days. We surfed a lot, relaxed and had fun. There was a great and famous play wave that was side-surfed. It shot you out the other end unless you tried to stop. I didn't! I also body surfed the rapid just for fun. Our campsite was near the only tree in a cow pasture with cow pies everywhere. That made things a bit unpleasant!

November 13:

We were glad to leave the cow pasture for another play day. The whirlpool rapid was the highlight of the day. I just went in for a side-surf. Then, depending on the surge, it was up to the river. I got dumped twice and was upside down swirling around. My best was when I went down the center of the whirlpool with my bow completed vertical. There were other enders there too. Chuck only tried twice but one time he flipped and was completely gone for 2-3 seconds. An upside down mystery move! We ended the day with the biggest rapid (Chacahalaca), It has a huge wave followed by a huge hole. Most of us skirted it. Others played there while we did some ferries below the hole. Before lunch, I saw a green lizard in the water. He looked exhausted! I was able to get it on my paddle blade and got him to shore. We had lunch there and paddled down to our next campsite. This camp was nice and we set up about 4 feet above the river.

November 14:

We were up early again because we had to get on down the river to the takeout. We were on the river at 7:45 AM for the 9 mile paddle out. Just before the takeout we came to a side stream with beautiful, clear water so we stopped to swim and freshen up. We were loaded up and ready to head back to San Jose by 4:15 PM. After dinner in San Jose, we told river stories to earn our tee-shirts.