Walking Orientation to Heredia

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Monday was a busy day! It is difficult to comment about classes, since everything is so new and different. Maybe it is enough to say that everyone survived the first intensive immersion experience. With only four students to a class and teachers who use only Spanish in class, by noon everyone was ready for a break. We had only two hours to find a place to eat and get everyone served. That sounds simple in the US, but here everything is slower. Still, we had an amazingly relaxing lunch and returned to the school in time for a 2:30 excursion to Heredia, a nearby small city and capital of the province of Heredia. Our tour guide, Johnny, helped us to take the public bus to Heredia so that we would know how to get there and back on our own. Before and after getting on the bus, he filled us in about several cultural points, including the importance of the city market that we were about to visit. This type of market is a disappearing entity in Costa Rica, since large supermarkets and even stores like Walmart are becoming quite popular. We had a great time at the market learning about and trying a wide variety of seasonal fruits that we had never seen before. We also had the chance to try homemade Costa Rican tortillas and other treats. As a whole, the group was very adventurous and not afraid to try anything! After the market, we moved to the city square where we saw and learned about several very important landmarks of this well-known Costa Rican city. Finally, we returned to a different bus stop where we boarded the public bus to San Joaquin (the smaller town where we live). Because there had not been time to get to know San Joaquin very well, Johnny used the map provided by CPI to help everyone figure out how to return to the host family home. All in all, it was a bit of an adventure, but now everyone knows how to go to Heredia (and get back home!) to spend more time there later.

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