Chris

Hot springs, horses, and more hot springs in La Fortuna

After three nights in San Jose we struck out for La Fortuna, determined to avoid paying $110 for a shuttle by taking the public bus for $16. We’d taken public buses during most of our trip around South America and, 20 years ago all of my Costa Rica travel had been conducted by public bus. Things have changed a little however, more people own cars and public buses are now regarded as being a little more difficult in Costa Rica than neighbouring countries. Whilst in San Jose we’d walked to up the small bus terminal where our bus would depart, and found the right queue and a vague reassurance that the one direct bus left at 08:40 every day.

On our day of departure we grabbed breakfast in the hostel followed by a short taxi to the terminal where we joined the correct queue. We were worried by the length of the queue, but a few minutes later we’d paid the driver and were on the correct bus. The windows were already open which meant no aircon, but other than that it was pretty comfortable. The journey itself was uneventful, although Alex felt quite sick when we started ascending and then descending through tight switchbacks over a mountain.

La Fortuna is known for it’s proximity to Arenal volcano

We arrived in La Fortuna, grabbed our bags and walked to our hostel. La Choza Inn was to be our most luxurious hostel of our trip so far, at just over $50 a night it featured a private bathroom and air conditioning, something we haven’t had since Panama city. In reality for once it actually exceeded our expectations. The room was clean, the beds were good, we had a fridge and TV (which I can only presume worked). We were pleasantly surprised to find that our room was cleaned every day, and the included breakfast had table service with jam, hot sauce, and water on the table.

How’s the Spanish going? – thoughts on the Travelling Spanish School

So after five weeks and 92 hours of Spanish lessons, what were our final thoughts, and how did it compare to the travelling classroom in Ecuador?

As a small anecdote, editing this post from El Salvador a few weeks later (no spoilers, we’re still alive) we recently took a tour of the San Salvador national theatre. At first, being the only people on the tour, the guide asked if we’d prefer Spanish or English and we explained, as we often do, that we’re trying to learn Spanish and we need the practice so we’d prefer Spanish. A few minutes into the tour, an American family arrived (who appeared to be of Spanish descent) and requested English, leaving us in the slightly awkward position of having the remainder of the tour given to us in Spanish only for the guide to then switch to English to repeat it to the Americans. Whether he realised that English was our native language or not we’ll never know but, thanks to his clear intonation I was pleased to see, when he repeated each section in English, that I had understood 80-90% only missing the words that just aren’t in my vocabulary.

So, it’s clear that we have definitely improved, for me, my better understanding of the language means that when I’m reading I’m better able to recognise conjugation of words and correctly identify the tense. I’m finding it easier to compose sentences especially when I’m writing and have more time to think it through. I also found the Spanish lessons much easier to understand than last time and learnt more as a result. My speech was definitely the weakest area of my Spanish when we started and it has also improved with the result that I’m finding it easier to make more complex requests. This isn’t to say that we’re fluent or ever find it easy, when people speak very quickly, drop consonents, or do both at the same time (which I am very guilty of in English!) it’s quite normal for me to start only catching as little as 1 word in 10! I now feel however like the key to improving my Spanish is practice, whereas last time I was surprised after 4 weeks how much there was still to learn!

Wildlife in the wetlands of Tortuguero

Our final included trip for our final week of Spanish school was a night in Tortaguero on the edge of the national park. Tortuguero is on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and consists of a small remote town surrounded by a protected wetland area. We had an early start from Puerto Viejo, leaving at 6am, stopping at Siquirres to have breakfast at the tour company’s base before boarding another minibus for an hour’s drive over a bumpy potholed road. We arrived at the dock and transferred to a boat for a 1.5 hour ride through the canals to reach the town of Tortaguero. This boat ride was part of the experience, stopping to view a crocodile en route and we also saw some fascinating birds and enjoyed the journey through the wetlands.

Caribbean vibes, surfing and stuffing our faces in Puerto Viejo!

I was probably more excited to go to Puerto Viejo than anywhere we’ve been so far. This however has nothing to do with Puerto Viejo itself, but the fact that I was here 21 years ago with Tom and Nadia during the summer holidays after our first year at University. I have many fond, if slightly hazy memories of Costa Rica, and remember Puerto Viejo as a lazy little Caribbean town with hippy vibes, good food and a hammock hostel off the beach where we spent a few days relaxing.

Obviously a lot has changed in twenty years. We arrived in Puerto Viejo at the end of a short drive from Siquirres in Ingrid’s car. Ingrid is the owner of the Spanish school and travelling classroom, although for various reasons we haven’t seen much of her during the trip. Ingrid suggested a stop for an ice cream in the town which was a great start to the week. Afterwards we drove to the hostel and checked in.

Bocas del Toro

On Saturday we set off from Boquete straight after breakfast. The trip to Bocas del Toro was a little simpler than the one to Boquete, due to a lack of anyone available to travel with us the Spanish school had upgraded us to a minibus that would go directly from Boquete to Bocas del Toro without going via David. The minibus arrived at the hostel and we could immediately see an issue. It appeared to be totally full of people and luggage. The drivers set about unloading all of the luggage from the bus and loading it onto the roof, something I can’t remember seeing since our time in Africa!

After a few minutes all of our luggage was on the roof and Alex, Laura, Luisa and I had commandeered the back row where we soon realised we were slightly less squashed than the rows in front of us.

Luisa is another of our classmates. She’s 19 and from Switzerland, very sweet and like the rest of the younger members of our group, very intelligent! She’s also on her gap year and aspires to become a vet. She has never studied Spanish before and so was originally placed in a lower Spanish group than us but, probably because she already speaks Italian, she has been quickly promoted through to our group! Luisa had a somewhat traumatic start to our trip with her bag being lost and then delayed for a few days. When it finally arrived everything was complete and intact, except for all of her underwear which had disappeared!

Climbing Volcan Baru – the highest mountain in Panama!

When first reading about Boquete, where we’d be spending a week with our Spanish school, Alex noted the opportunity to go up Volcan Baru, at 3,443 m (11,296 ft) the highest peak in Panamá, and the highest in Southern Central America. Alex was keen but when we looked up the hike we realised that a climb of 1,636 m (5,367 ft), starting at an altitude where you can experience altitude sickness, might be beyond us considering that neither of us do well at altitude without acclimatising!

The last thing that really made me think this was a bad idea was that in order to avoid the heat most people attempt the climb at night starting at midnight for a 6 hour hike to the summit in complete darkness.

There is another way though. You can visit the summit in a modified 4×4 that climbs up the rough track in 2 hours leaving at the only slightly more reasonable time of 3:30am.

Volcan Baru – as seen from our hostel on the outskirts of Boquete

As we approached our week in Boquete, there emerged two camps in our group. One group wanted to take the 4×4 up for $95 each, and the other wanted to hike, which without a guide is nearly free. There was, in fact, a 3rd group of two who thought the whole idea was insane and preferred to get some sleep.

Learning Spanish in Panamá

One of the main reasons for choosing Latin America for our travels was to improve our Spanish. We found a Spanish school whereby we can travel and learn at the same time.

On Sunday evening we had our introductory talk for the Spanish school. Our teacher, Sergio, had been detained by another engagement so it came to Camila, who was assisting us for the week, to give the introduction. After a brief intro she took each of us in turn for a one to one Spanish oral test. I was a little nervous and it didn’t help that the first question she asked me was “Que has hecho en Panamá?”. This uses the preterito perfecto tense which is not one that I’ve used before. I managed to answer some more questions but I didn’t come away feeling confident. Alex seemed to fare better, but her Spanish is better than mine so I wasn’t surprised.

Getting started in Panamá City

Our last few days at home were a bit of a blur, Alex finished work on Friday as planned. I had some extra work to finish off on Monday and Tuesday. Preparing to leave home for three months isn’t a typical experience. Last time we were leaving London permanently and it was barely managed chaos, this time has at least been a little less brutal. Even though we thought we were pretty much ready by Thursday morning, I still spent the day running around and predictably a few things didn’t get done. Our friend Terry gave us a lift to the station and we headed to London for a night in an airport hotel, before a 6:30am flight to Madrid and a connection to Panama City.

On the road again..

We returned from South America in April 2016, and in the last nine years, a lot has changed. After living in Bristol for a year, we moved to the Cotswolds and bought a 10-year renovation project house. After two major building projects and a whole raft of smaller renovations, the house is nearly finished. In this time, we’ve also both moved companies, experienced good and bad times, but along the way we’ve made a whole new set of friends in our adopted Cotswolds home near Stroud.

It’s time for another adventure. We’ve managed to arrange a three month sabbatical after some careful planning with both of our employers. While three months is the maximum that I can take, Alex has a little longer, so is taking the lead on getting us ready so that we can travel for nearly the entire time that I’m off work.

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