Category: Costa Rica

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.

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Do we know the way to San Jose?

We had a slow two days in Costa Rica’s capital between finishing our Spanish school and starting our ‘proper’ travelling together. We used the time to catch up on sleep and some admin.

The hostel (Costa Rica Backpackers) was nice, with a big communal area, and a fairly cheap restaurant and bar in house. It was the first place we booked for ourselves since starting this sabbatical, as the Spanish course took all the hard work out of travelling. The bedroom was an OK size, but the biggest plus was there was an actual bedside light, only one, but the first time we’ve had such a luxury since the first week in Panama!

Relaxing at the hostel
Hostel cat
All bags on, outside the hostel
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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!

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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.

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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.

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Whitewater Rafting on the Pacuare River

The Travelling Spanish class included a two day rafting trip. We were both really excited for this, having been whitewater rafting a few times before but only for a few hours each time. We left on the Saturday morning from Turrialba, stayed overnight in a camp in the jungle, and continued down the river to Siquirres the next day.

On the first day we packed a small bag which was taken away to arrive by car at the camp that evening. For the day we could only take with us things that could get wet. We were dropped off outside of town and walked down to the river with our guide José-Luis. He was great, so enthusiastic and knowledgeable. He overheard me say I didn’t get to see red frogs in Bocas, two minutes later he found a couple for me by the side of the path!

We had two rafts for the ten of us, and two guides, plus a kayaker who went ahead at each rapid and took photos and videos for us. Our raft was me, Chris, Luisa, Berglin, and Mimi. Luisa and Berglin had never been before, but José-Luis was great and soon got everyone going.

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We’ve arrived in Costa Rica! A week in Turrialba

We spent our fourth week of the Spanish school in Turrialba, Costa Rica. This is my first visit to Costa Rica. Chris visited before when he was 20, and has been keen to bring me here ever since. My first impressions in comparison to Panama are that we immediately saw more wealth here, with more solidly built houses with satellite dishes even in the countryside. However, everything here costs a lot more, we stopped at a supermarket and found toothpaste for $8 and even avocados more expensive than in the UK!

The school is nice, well set up with lots of space for classrooms and a good size kitchen. We had a nice room with a view onto the garden and shared bathrooms next door. Only our group of 10 are staying at the hostel plus another couple who are remote working from here for a month!

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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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