We just got back from a 2 city trip that included going to Monteverde and La Fortuna and this may have been the best trip yet. We spent a little bit of time trying to decide if we were going to go to Puerto Viejo or Monteverde-La Fortuna. Puerto Viejo would have been a very relaxing trip as it is a beach town on the Carribbean. In the end we took a chance and decided on the adventure type trip of Monteverde-La Fortuna. When we were heading back yesterday all four of us agreed that we made the right decision [View Full Entry]

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Our time in San Jose has been amazing so far for many reasons. Here are 3 things that we have enjoyed the food, our family and school. The food has been great here. Before coming here we had heard that Costa Rican food is a little bland but we have not found that to be the case at all. Here is a rundown of what a typical day of eating may look like. In the morning our mom always has breakfast ready for us at 7:00 am. We always have an egg, fruit, cafe, toast, and many times we will [View Full Entry]

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Thanks for your patience with our previous Spanish message .... now the English version! After our long 4 day week of classes, we headed to the coast! We left Friday morning, bright and early at 6am with Val and Eric. It really wasn´t a problem getting up since the rooster is helping us with that! We took a public bus leaving from San Jose and it took about 3.5 hours to get there. Again, glad we took dramamine, the route was incredibly curvy and bumpy, but pretty - the vistas are so amazing!!! Vale la pena! Once we got there, [View Full Entry]

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We just got back from an amazing trip to Volcan Poas and La Paz waterfall garden on Saturday. It was INCREIBLE!!! Volcan Poas is at about 8000 feet elevation and the bus ride there had great views of the central valley as we went up the windy windy roads. As we got to higher elevation it began to rain acid rain from the volcano. Once we got to the top we hiked to a point where we were supposed to be able to see a Volcano but it was too cloudy and we could not see it. I guess we [View Full Entry]

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5 days here and still loving it! One of the greatest things is our fantastic tico family here. Our tico mom is about 35 and has been so wonderful to us. She is very concerned about us... if we like the food, slept well, etc. She even packed us fresh pineapple and crackers as a snack for our trip yesterday. She didnt want us getting hungry! Our tico dad loves to talk and knows quite a bit about Costa Rican history, politics, geology.... pretty much anything to do with Costa Rica. And he LOVES to tell us about it all. [View Full Entry]

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We just got done with one of the great trips of all time! We left for Isla Tortuga at 615 in the morning on Sunday. We first stoped for breakfast in a Town called San Ramon where we had a typical Costa Rican breakfast of Gallo Pinto (rice and black beans) along with fruit, eggs, and juice. At San Ramon we saw a Tucan and also a Butterfly garden. San Ramon was about an hour from the cost. We arrived at Puntoarenas around 900 and left on a huge tamaran boat. The ride was about 1 and half hours and [View Full Entry]

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HOLA! Estamos aqui en Costa Rica y es tan bonita!!! We made it safe and sound to Costa Rica and it is AMAZING! We arrived in San Jose around 9pm yesterday and took a bus to meet our Costa Rican (tican) family. Both flights went well and surprisingly everything went smoothly getting here. We got to our new casa around 11 and we have an UNBELIEVABLE host family and house. We lucked out big time!!! Our tica mom is very friendly, lots of energy, loves to talk and has cooked us 3 delicious meals so far. We wont be hungry [View Full Entry]

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The summer between my 4th and 5th year at UW-Eau Claire I lived in Cuernavaca, Mexico for 2 months. Cuernavaca was a very fun place to take a summer of classes and learn some Spanish. I will say that in comparision with my program in Valladolid, you need to make sure that you push yourself to learn the language in Cuernavaca. It would have been very easy for me to not speak Spanish at all. If I was at home, around town, or with students it seemed that learning Spanish was not the primary goal. However, if you are going to [View Full Entry]

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If you are in Cuernavaca and you are looking for a nice outdoor activity then go to Tepotzlan and take the climb. It is more of a bluff (nice coulee region of Wisconsin vocabulary) than it is a mountian. It is a nice little hike, not extremely challenging but you will work up a little lather as you go up. As you can see, the view is work the hour plus climb. Also, bring a water bottle because there is no water until the very top they do charge for convience. Tepotzlan, a small pueblo about 25 min outside of downtown [View Full Entry]

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While in Cuernavaca we took a weekend trip to Acapulco in 2003. We arrived late on a Friday evening and stayed until Sunday. It was rainy much of the time that we were there but that did not stop us from enjoying the beach. Our hotel was in perfect position to take advantage of the city. The hotel was literaly on the beach as one of its exits lead straight to the sand. Acapulco was more of a relaxing tip than a cultural trip as I would imagine it is for most people. Saturday we did go to see cliff divers [View Full Entry]

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