Pura Vida en Costa Rica: February 2012

Why I Created This Blog

¡Hola, Bienvenidos a todos!

I am in my fourth year of school majoring in Education and Spanish. I'm from Minnesota and am about to embark on a life changing experience, immersing myself in the language, culture, and pura vida of Costa Rica!

My ultimate goal of going to Costa Rica is to become fluent in speaking Spanish. But along the way, I am going to be visiting a very close friend from high school, experiencing Costa Rican Independence Day and Christmas, traveling to three countries and living on the beach. Oh, and I am taking classes in a university in the capital city, but it goes without debate, most of my learning will be experienced when I am not in a classroom but around the friendly Ticos (name Costa Rican's call themselves) and being out on adventures.

If you're reading this, I miss you, so do your best to let me know what you're up to! And I'll do my best filling you in on my adventures :)

Monday, February 27, 2012

Visiting Mamatica's Mom in Guanacaste

Visiting Mamatica's Mom in Guanacaste

We were lucky to have Mamatica and her mom, Doña Dulce, offer that we visit and stay with her at house. We were not expecting to sleep there nor be fed some meals. But we were offered just that! A place to stay and food with one of the nicest person I have ever met. I hope to go back and visit before I leave!

She lived in a small small community called Lagunilla. This was a real Costa Rican town, no tourists whatsoever, just the locals, their bus stop, a small grocery store, and a center with pool tables and a television. It was about 20 minutes by bus to the next big town, Santa Cruz. When someone dies from Lagunilla, everyone goes. It is small and they care for each other. Unlike San José and most of Costa Rica, here the houses are not "jailed" in by metal bars. I felt safe and absolutely loved it.

On the bus.. Only $10 for a 5 1/2 hour bus ride. (In MN to go to Duluth which is 3 hours by bus costs $90 in Greyhound!)

Dulce's outdoor stove

The chicken coop

Just a few of her hens and roosters

Pretty peaceful place to sit among the trees

Wood burning stove

Broom for the backyard. (Reminds me of one I made when I had my pretend house in my dad's backyard)

At her son's house--Mamatica's oldest brother. If you walk a little farther through her backyard, you get to her son's house. The two houses were maybe 50 yards apart.

Dinner at Dulce's

Breakfast at Dulce's with Dulce walking in- fresh eggs, delicious coffee, fried plantains, gallo pinto and some almond cake from Mamatica.

Playa Tamarindo
We took a bus about one hour to Playa Tamarindo. It was nice, but really touristy. Definitely not my favorite. I don't like to have to pay to sit in a chair on the beach or have to worry about my bag while I'm swimming in the water. In my opinion, too crowded. And too many English speakers.

The cheapest chairs we found were on the property of a restaurant so we ordered one smoothie to share and since we were technically customers (spending only $3-$4) we could sit there for the rest of the day and use their bathrooms.

These two HUGE, but friendly dogs came up to us, looking for a snack! We had packed some grapes, peaches, tuna, and crackers but it was all gone by the time these big guys came to visit.

Love the colors in this photo ^

A lot going on in front of us, typical of Tamarindo.

Really popular beach for surfing. Imagine surfing with that sunset in the backdrop.

Haha, this one was taken with the timer setting on my camera sitting on a beach chair. We both we at the camera when we hit the timer to go. Then we sprinted ahead, trying not to block the sunset, sat down trying to look nice and comfortable and cool and casual and like it didn't just take us 9.5 seconds, all in ten seconds. Success...?

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Beaches Conchal and Brasilito, Guanacaste

Guanacaste

The northern, very dry region of Costa Rica turned out to be one of my favorite trips within Costa Rica. Although on the roads, you could barely see through the dust that was whipped up by the buses and what you could see were trees without leaves, or brown plants, it has some of the greenest beaches that I have seen.

Playa Brasilito in Brasilito. 10 minutes down the beach from Playa Conchal.

Playa Conchal

By far, my favorite beach in Costa Rica. The sand is made up of tiny shells. So when the waves flow in and back out, the sand literally sparkles like diamonds.