Speaking Spanish
Sep 12, 10:01 PM by Eric Allen
It’s been two years since I studied any Spanish in school, and over 10 since I’ve used it practically outside the country. With such poor qualifications, I was hoping my excellent English skills would get me through our Costa Rica experience. Boy, how wrong was I!
Almost as soon as we hit the ground I had to use Spanish: our taxi driver didn’t speak a word of English. He also had to stop and ask for directions six times despite us giving him a map with our destination clearly marked. At the hostel, I had a similar experience. Luckily enough, my rusty Spanish skills came back to save the day! Throughout the rest of the trip, I generally communicated with natives about money and whatnot strictly in Spanish, often forgetting my cohort spoke and understood none. I guess someone could get by in Costa Rica without it, but speaking very basic Spanish really helped me through.
One of my best experiences in Costa Rica was striking up a conversation with an older lady at a “soda” (snack bar) while waiting for a bus. My buddy and I had about twenty minutes to kill, and we wanted to sit in the shade. This little soda looked appealing, so we went over. I ended up striking up a conversation with the grandmother of the family about her wonderful little kitten (Luna), among other things. Luna was three months old, and apparently wanted to take a trip to the U.S. I told my new friend (the grandmother, not the kitten) it was our last day in Costa Rica, and she implored us to stick around a little longer in the country of “pura vida” (pure life). She even complimented me on my limited Spanish skills.
Given my newfound appreciation for being able to speak the native language, and my discovery that I can at least get around with it, I really want to do a serious Spanish immersion program. I have the grammar and much of the basic stuff down cold, and I’m convinced I could become damn near fluent given enough time immersed in the language. I’ve never been that interested in an immersion program because I was afraid I would be totally incapable of communicating, but I’m confident now I could do it. I just need to find a time in my life plan to fit it in.
Costa Rica
Sep 7, 08:30 AM by Eric Allen
Whew, what a crazy month of August. I finished up my internship on August 7th, brought my stuff back to Troy, headed out to California for a week, and then it was off to Costa Rica for ten days! My travel buddy, Rishi, and I had been planning this trip since April, but we still left most of it up in the air. Ten days is not nearly enough, but it was awesome nonetheless.
We hit the ground running in San José, Costa Rica around noon on Monday, August 17th. We settled in at Kabata Hostel and hit the town. We were planning to spend a couple of days in the city, but tired of it quickly. That night, we sat down with our hostess, Katia, and re-did our entire plan.
We woke up Tuesday morning at 4:45am to get on the early bus to Buenos Aires (the one in Costa Rica, not Argentina) on our way to the Dúrika reserve. We arrived in Dúrika in time for lunch, and spent Wednesday there, as well. It was an amazing place to be, and I will definitely go back.
Thursday was the insane travel day. Five hours on a bus from Buenos Aires to San José, a two hour layover, and then another 5+ hours to Monteverde. All I could do when we got there was eat dinner and crash at the Pensión Santa Elena. We spent Friday in Santa Elena touring the Santa Elena Preserve, going on the Selvatura canopy tour (zipline), and taking a night hike through the Children’s reserve. Time was short, so the next morning we got on the taxi-boat-taxi ride to La Fortuna.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we spent in La Fortuna, through which 80% of all tourists in Costa Rica pass. We saw the volcano (complete with lava erupting), went tubing on the river, and hiked up to Cerro Chato, a 2-hour hike up to a lake at the top of a dormant volcano through 3km of dense forest. Sunday afternoon we boarded the Interbus (“Gringo Bus”) for Quepos.
Our last real day in Costa Rica was Tuesday, August 25th, and we made the most of it. After arriving in Quepos the previous night, we headed for the Manuel Antonio national park. While Rishi sunbathed, I went on the guided tour and saw all three species of monkeys and both species of sloths, among other wildlife. We got ourselves back to Quepos in time to catch the 2:30 bus back to San José, and did some last-minute tourist shopping before crashing at Kábata again. Wednesday morning we got up early yet again to fly out at 8:00am back to the U.S.
There’s lots more I could write, but that will come in time. For now, I just wanted to give you a taste of what we did and where we went. We took hundreds of photos, so at some point I’ll post a link to the album where you can go see them. I even learned how to use manual mode on Rishi’s digital SLR to take better photos. I am so glad I got to go to Costa Rica this month.
