Tag Archives: costa rica

My last days in Costa Rica // Hasta luego!

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Hi friends!

Welcome back to my blog, and it’s also a welcome back for me, as I have made it home safely. As I was busy settling back in and participating in my last seminar from my organization Kulturweit, I didn’t have much time to write on my blog. But I’m back now, and there are still a few posts to come and thoughts I want to share.. after that, I will not continue to write on here, as this was just a personal blog dedicated to my time in Costa Rica. I will not delete it, so I can always go back and read through my adventures, and hopefully it will help and inspire some other people out there as well…

So let’s rewind…

After my adventurous weekend in San José and the rafting trip with my family, my last two days of work were ahead of me. Monday and Tuesday were spent as usual – teaching, laughing, drinking coffee at our favorite café and cooking dinner together with Charlotte. Our 11th grade students had organized a get-together for Tuesday night (aren’t they amazing!?), we ordered some pizza and sang karaoke all night long. Wednesday was Mother’s day in Costa Rica and Charlotte spent it with one of the teachers who had basically adopted her as a daugther, while me and Wiebke (new intern) decided to spent a few days at the beach. Spontanously we drove to San José and got into the bus towards Manuel Antonio. We got out at Playa Esterillos Oeste, a large beach in front of a small village. With only our small backpacks, we checked into the only hostel there – The Spot. The owner Roger showed us around his place, that he has built up all by himself. Our dorm and the other rooms were inside old ship containers, in the lounge was a pool table and lots of hammocks to relax in, and the garden was covered in flowers. We immeditately changed our clothes and went to check out the beach – there were barely any people, and Mother nature had formed a few pond-like spots where you can swim like you would in your bathtub at home. The beach there is lovely at low tide but when the high tide comes it gets extremely wild – the old pier is broken down already, and the palm trees are growing aslant. We spent 2 1/2 half days just soaking up the sun, walking up and down the beach and cooking some delicious food. It was the perfect way for me to enjoy Costa Rica’s Pacific coast one last time, and Wiebke finally had her first beach experience here. Around noon on friday we took the bus back to San Jose, which didn’t work that well, but we managed to get home somehow.. On Saturday Lina, Charlotte and I had our last practice with our youth group, and we spent it as usual, practicing aerial silks. Afterwards we went out to eat pizza with our friends, and as a goodbye gift, they had printed out photos and everyone started writing lovely messages on the back, while we were hanging out one last time. We had an amazing last night with them, and I am extremly grateful to have met them and to have been able to practice aerial silks since there are not many options in Munich (but I will try to find something). On Sunday Wiebke, Charlotte, Isaac, his friend Luis and I made a road trip to the windmills in Santa Ana. It’s a popular spot to picnic and enjoy the view – so that’s what we did! Afterwards we spontanously visited the Costa Rican Starbucks coffee plantation, which is a very modern and fancy type of place, but it was cool to check it out! All in all, I had a great last day with my friends and yet again saw and experienced something new! The last days I spent packing, buying souvenirs for friends, cleaning the appartment and saying goodbye to my students and friends one last time. Then the final day came – Wednesday, August 22. My family drove up and we ate lunch together with Charlotte at our favorite Soda, then we drove to the airport. I got onto the plane with mixed feelings, of course I was sad to leave.. more or less I had built up a life here, and I felt suprisingly at home, for only 6 months of living here.. but I was ready to go back home. My time here was precious and I wouldn’t change anything about it, but it’s always good to come home, and I feel the need to stay a little longer this time, before I am off to new adventures again. Goodbyes are bittersweet, but doors have to close, so others can be opened, right?

Next stop: HOME

 

//Olivia

Weekend Edition // San José & Rafting with my Family

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Buenas 🙂 Todo bien!?

I hope you guys are doing well, I for sure can’t complain because my last few days have been super adventurous and fun. On Thursday afternoon I checked into a hostel in San Pedro, San José (University area) and met up with a friend from school – Anna! She has been volunteering in Mexico for almost a year now and was spending some time traveling through Costa Rica before heading back home to Germany. I approached her online and we decided to meet up for dinner – and that’s what we did. We went to Arbol de Seda, a vegan/vegetarian restaurant and had a great time catching up and exchanging our experiences of the last couple of months…but also it felt so unreal to meet someone from back home on literally the other side of the world! Anyways, we had a good time and are hopefully gonna see each other soon in Munich. On Friday I met up with Lina and we went to another vegan restaurant called Mantras Veggie Café. We also hadn’t seen each other for a while (if we don’t see each other for a week, that’s already long!) so we also just kept talking and eating, sharing new stories and thoughts… then we just hung out at my hostel and waited for Wiebke (the new intern at our school) and Charlotte to arrive, when they got there we went out for dinner to Luv Burger, another awesome vegan place here. Our plan was to go out afterwards so we walked around trying to find a good spot. We ended up drinking some beers on the street, which by the way is illegal and we did know that  before the police officers approached us – but we just pulled the “foreigner card” and said that we’re not from here and that we had noooo idea  that it was illegal and they were just like ‘no problem girls’ haha. Charlotte and Wiebke were kind of not feeling it anymore so they split an uber back to the hostel and Lina and I ended up going to Casa Felix – a very big and awesome club. They have different bars and dance floors with different types of music and an inner courtyard to chill out. We ended up dancing until 3am, and then Lina went back home to Heredia and I went back to my hostel in San Pedro, SJ. I can definitely recommend this place because it has somethig for everyone in it and they let anyone in, no stupid dress code or nada! Saturday – Charlotte, Wiebke and I ended up eating out again (at this point I really don’t care about my money anymore cause I’m already broke af haha) at the other location of Mantras Veggie Café and afterwards we split, Wiebke went to a phone store to fix her phone and Charlotte and I met up with Lina to go to Freakz, our youth group where we practice aerial silks. We had a great time as always, but let me tell you it’s definitely super exhausting! Afterwards we just hung out with our friends at Taco Bell, like almost every Saturday, and later that night I went back to the hostel while Lina and Charlotte went back home. Guys, I was so happy to have been able to check out San Pedro’s vegan options because y’all know I love vegan food so much and inlcusion is so important! Yes I spent some money but it was worth every bite. If you are vegan/vegetarian or are looking for some yummy healthy food, then San Pedro is the area you wanna go to! It’s basically the University area, with the UCR (University of Costa Rica) and the UA (Universidad Americana) – there are a bunch of cool, ‘hipster’ and alternative bars, restaurants and cafés as well as cute little shops and lots of street art, which makes it one of the prettiest if not even the best area to hang out in San José (in my opinion).

Sunday. 6:00 am. I got picked up at the hostel by the rafting company my mom has booked – Exploradores Outdoors. After a 2 hour ride to Siquirres, Limón I met up with my family at the company’s meeting point. They had a bufet style breakfast to prepare us for the adventure ahead, so I really tried to take advantage of that. We drove another 30mins up the river to the starting point and we were assigned a group, a boat and a guide. Our guide’s name was Santiago (I think) and we were a group of 6 people – my mom, my sister, my brother and I plus an american couple. My brother and I were sitting in the front of the boat, and my sister and mom in the back. We started paddeling and tried to synchronize our movements while listening to the commandos of our guide. We hit a lot of different currents with different types of levels – we were told that on the Pacuare river the highest level is 4 ( 6 is apparently a waterfall), and we definitely paddled through some rough waves, really putting in a lot of work. It was very exhausting but to be honest so much fun, kind of like a rollercoaster ride but actually way better than that. After about 2 hours of paddling through currents and stunning scenery (we saw waterfalls, birds, monkeys etc.) we had a lunch break in the middle of the jungle. Under some simple, wooden huts our guides started prepping veggies that they had brought with them in a container, then we all ate in a bufet style – burritos and/or sandwhiches. After eating and a bathroom run, we all started paddling again, with about an hour left towards the base. Then this happened – were in a heavy current (I think it was a 3) and we were struggling with our paddles when the guide in the boat in front of us started yelling: “Snake!! Snake!! Watch out for the snake!!”. And I was like yeah whatever because before him, all the other guides had made jokes and told us “look there’s a Tucan (or another animal)” and then we would look and they splashed water in our faces, so when this guy told me there’s a snake, I literally thought it was a joke. Well, turned out that it wasn’t, I looked to my right and the american guy behind me was trying to throw the snake off of his paddle, as she was climbing up on it. The snake was relatively small and brown but it was crazy fast. We were still in the current when we got showered by a massive wave, and the next thing we realized is that the snake got thrown in with it! It landed between the legs of the american woman, she started screaming out of shock and stumbled back and fell into the space between my sister and my mom. We all freaked out and were focused on the snake, trying to throw it out again with our paddles but it was so difficult because there was water in the boat and the snake was moving extremly fast in it. As we struggled, our guide started yelling: “Kill it! Kill it!”, and my brother and the american guy tried strangling the snake by pushing the paddle against its neck. The safety guides that follow the rafts in single-kayaks came closer and tried to help us but it was too difficult, and it took a very long time to kill the snake because we were literally moving so fast, hitting lots of rocks riding through the current. Then finally the water was calm again and we were out of the current, I saw the blood spilling out of the snakes neck and I closed my eyes for a second. It was very painful to see her get killed I must admit… but I know there was no other option. Guys, what are the chances that something like this happens? They are very very very low, yet it still happened to us. We threw out the dead snake, washed off the blood on the boat and kept paddling. We were all still in shock, and just so grateful that nothing worse happened because our guide told us that this type of snake indeed was poisonous! *Sigh* – what an adventure that was! Nevertheless we had an amazing time rafting and I recommend it to anyone really. It is definitely a lot of work but you don’t really notice it, because you’re having so much fun riding in the currents. Once we got back to the base my family and I split up again, I took the company’s shuttle back to San José and my family continued their trip, driving towards Arenal (Vulcano) next.A few hours later I was finally back home in Poás – I laid in bed for a while, reflecting on the crazy day it has been…

I had an amazing time that weekend, and I was super glad to have been able to spent more time with my family and experience this crazy adventure with them! To many more adventures.. but hopefully without snakes…

 

//Olivia

Interview with Isaac // Teaching German in Costa Rica

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HolA! Since I have been writing mainly about my travels and adventures, I decided to switch it up a bit and give you guys more of an insight about my volunteer work at the school and what I’m doing here on the other side of the world. Well, in this post I am introducing you to my colleague Isaac. We did the interview in german, but since my entire blog is in english and I wish that more people are able to read it, I translated the whole thing. I hope you guys enjoy.

The Interview

Isaac: “Hi! My name is Isaac Murillo and I am 23 years old. I’m born in Costa Rica and I have lived my whole life here in Poás. Actually I am a music teacher, that is what I have studied, but I am currently working as a german teacher since last year.”

Olivia: “Why?”

Isaac: “I don’t know haha.. it was an opportunity.. here in Costa Rica there is no possibility of studying German at university.. so there was a free position at the school, they needed a German teacher and I already could speak a little german and I had been studying for being a teacher as well, and that’s why I am working as a German teacher right now.”

Olivia: “So you started teaching last year?”

Isaac: “Yes in March 2017.”

Olivia: “Before you started teaching, did you have to do a German language course?”

Isaac: “No, I had already learned german in high school in Marco’s class (he is also a German teacher at the school). There were 3 scholarships and I won one of them.”

Olivia: “Really? A scholarship for music or..?”

Isaac: “No, a scholarship for German through PASCH (german partner schools supported by the Goethe-Institute – Liceo de Poás is one of them). In July 2011 I flew to Germany for 3 weeks, I was 16 years old.”

Olivia: “Wow I didn’t even know. Where in Germany were you staying?”

Isaac: “In Sankt Peter Ording in the North Sea. I got my A1 certificate there.”

Olivia: “Nice.. what is your favorite German word and what is your favorite German food?”

Isaac: “I think my favorite german word is ‘Entschuldigung’ (Excuse me/ I’m sorry). And my favorite food.. well I don’t know if it’s actually german but it’s ‘Döner’ (kebap). “

Olivia: “What do you think about the Goethe-Institute and the PASCH program?”

Isaac: “The PASCH program is very important for us.. I always tell my students that. It is a great opportunity to learn German for free at the school and usually if you want to learn German in Costa Rica you have to go to San José and it can take up to 3 hours to get there and back.. it doesn’t cost too much but you have to invest a lot of time into it. And here at Liceo de Poás you can learn for free, it’s close and we have a lot of material to work with. Also because of PASCH only, I was able to travel to Mexico twice to do some workshops which was an awesome experience. The students here have many options, recently we did a play in German for one of the international contests that PASCH offer.”

Olivia: “If you could change anything in the program, what would it be? Or what do you wish and hope for the future of this program?”

Isaac: “Hopefully more scholarships for students and teachers, and with the help of the Ministry of Education we can improve many things in the future.”

Olivia: “If you could travel to one country you have never been to, where would you want to go and why?”

Isaac: “Hmm…maybe Spain because we have a huge spanish influence here, the language, culture etc. due to Colonialism.”

Olivia: “Okay last question.. where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

Isaac: “Ohh hmm.. well I atleast want to have a B2 or C1 level in German and complete my Masters degree. And maybe work at Liceo de Poás, or at a different school or even at the Goethe-Insititute. Also I am a musician so it would be cool to play in a band.”

Olivia: “But you want to stay in Costa Rica?”

Isaac: “Jein (Yes and no). I would like to live somwhere else for maybe a year or so.. maybe in Germany.”

Olivia: “Alright, thank you for the interview!”

//Olivia


Bienvenidos a Costa Rica! // Family Travel Edition // Tortuguero

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Hola amigos! Guess what?! My family made it to Costa Rica!

So here’s what’s up – my mom loves to travel and wouldn’t miss a chance to travel somewhere new and since she has never been to Latinamerica she just couldn’t resist and booked a flight. Last year when I went back to Michigan to visit my former host family and friends, she wanted to tag along for a while but sadly it didn’t work out at the time.. so my mom, my sister and suprisingly my brother (who has just finished his apprenticeship yay!) flew out to Panama City on Saturday (7/28/18). After two days in Panama they flew to Costa Rica…

After my Tuesday morning class I cleaned up my appartement and waited for my family to arrive. It felt weird knowing they would visit me here, me being like a tour guide as if I knew all about Costa Rica.. I guess I really have gotten to know this country pretty well but there is still so much more to learn and experience here. Around 2pm they arrived with their rental car at my place and got everything organized and settled. I was very happy to finally see them again but it also felt so weird – in “my” appartment, on the other side of the world, where I myself have just spent a little over 5 months… we ate some food at a local Meditarranean restaurant, and my family got to know Charlotte after she came back from work. In the evening we all ate dinner together at our favorite Soda (Typical Costa Rican restaurant) which is right next to our house. The next day we cooked some pancakes for breakfast and then visited my workplace – LIDEPO (Liceo de Poás). My students have been so excited to meet my family and when we got there everyone introduced themselves in german and we handed out some german candy that my siblings had brought. We also got to know Wiebke, a german university student from Hannover who is doing an internship for a month at the school. Later that day we all went out for dinner at a local Soda (Wiebke, Charlotte, Lina – she came from Heredia, Marco & Isaac – the german teachers, and my family) and just talked for a while. The next morning my family and I drove out to Mi Cafecito –  a local coffee plantation and production site north of Poás (close to San Miguel). We had a great tour and learned a lot about the origin and production of coffee, and it was awesome to see a local, fairtrade workplace after living in the mountains for so long and seeing huge coffee plantations everyday. Afterwards we drove further towards Guápiles and stayed there for a night. On Friday morning we kept driving towards Tortuguero – we left our rental car at the secured parking lot and took a boat towards the little town of Tortuguero, which was about an hour long drive through the connecting rivers. We arrived at our home for the next two nights – Tortuguero Natural Hotel . Later that night we went on a tour to see the turtles – we we’re a group of 6 people and waited patiently for the turtle watchman to bring us to the beach. Disoriented we walked through the darkness, closely following our guide. A turtle was spotted and group after group we were able to see it laying eggs with the infrared flashlight focused on the turtles lower body. It was so intresting and amazing to see an animal laying eggs! We stayed a little longer and were also able to see the turtle camouflage the eggs by putting more and more sand on top of them. I learned so much about the green sea turtle – for example they return to the same beach they are born at to lay their own eggs and out of over 100 eggs only about 2 baby turtles survive as they walk towards the water (all the others get eaten by predators). I learned so much more and if you want to know more just do a little google research – or visit a hatching site or National Park! It is definitely worth it! If you are an animal and nature lover, Tortuguero is  a must-see in Costa Rica. After an adventurous night, we didn’t stop exploring and spent 2 hours on the river on a Kanu with a local guide. We saw some amazing wildlife like Caimen (small alligators), different types of monkeys and birds and some smaller turtles. We had a lovely morning out in nature and spent the rest of the day chilling in our hotel’s hammocks, laying at the beach and exploring the trails of the National Park. On Sunday morning it was already time to leave again, and we took the boat back to the parking lot after we ate breakfast. From there we drove back to Guápiles, where I took a bus to San José and from there I went back to my place in Poás while my family continued driving towards Puerto Viejo on the Carribean coast.

We had a great family reunion and I’m so excited and happy that my family is here to explore this beautiful and unique country that I was able to call home for almost 6 months now! They are staying a total of 3 weeks and I will meet up with them again next weekend for some more adventures. For now I am enjoying my last 2 weeks of volunteering at the school…

Hasta pronto!

//Olivia

Dominical y Uvita // Weekend Travel Edition

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Hola!

Do I ever stay home?! Well.. barely. The reason why I travel so much is simply because I want to use my time wisely and get to know as much as I can of Costa Rica before I leave. Which sadly is very very soon… I have also mentioned before that the little town that I live in doesn’t really have too much to offer, so there really is no point in staying in and watching Netflix at home all day. I can do that when I am in Germany! I should take advantage of my time here, shouldn’t I? That being said, Charlotte and I have decided to make a short trip out to the Pacific coast. Wednesday was a holiday (Annexión de Guanacaste)  and we took Thursday off, and since we have a new schedule (it changed a few months ago) we also have Fridays off!  So we had 4 days in total for our mini vacation. On Tuesday night we slept in a hostel in San José, so we would be able to catch an early bus the next morning. On Wednesday it took us only about 4 hours to get from San José to Dominical. We stayed at the Cool Vibes Hostel, which is the most popular one, and there aren’t many others around because it’s a very small beach town. The rest of the day we just chilled, walked around a little, checked out the beach and cooked some food. I had a late night yoga session before going to bed. The next day we made plans to go surfing in the afternoon, so in the morning we just went out for breakfast and chilled by the pool at the hostel and talked to some other travelers. A few hours before our surf lesson we got a call from our instructor that the waves are too high right now and that a storm was coming.. so sadly our class got canceled and we rescheduled for the next morning. So Thursday ended up being another chill day. On Friday morning we had our surf lesson, and it was Charlotte’s first time trying it. I was super stoked to get back in the water because I’ve been enjoying surfing so much and just never want to stop learning it! We were a group of 4, two brothers from the USA joined us, and we had two instructors – Oscar and Sarah. They explained everything super well, we practiced for about 20min at the beach how to stand up on the board etc. Then we got into the water and started catching waves. It was so much fun and it was my best surf lesson so far, because the explanations were very precise and they always told us what we could do better. I was so happy that I was able to catch so many waves! Charlotte also really enjoyed it even though she had a harder time but that is totally normal, because it was only her first time and I think she did really well for that. The class lasted 2 hours and we had a little snack break with some cookies and watermelon, in total it cost 50$ – which I think is a good price because they were really good instructors! Once we got back to the hostel we just chilled for a while and then cooked some lunch before we headed to Uvita. It took about an hour by bus to get there (it’s just a bit down south) and then we walked a few minutes to our new place called Flutterby House, which is located close to the Ballena National Park. It is a super cool hostel with treehouses, a yoga terrace and a very open and light atmosphere. They focus on sustainability and recycle, compost and try to minimize their waste, and they also have a restaurant that offers many vegetarian and vegan options, with their aim to use as much organic and local grown food as possible. Definitely a very cool place I can recommend and they also have private rooms. On Saturday morning we were up on our feet at 5:30 am. We wanted to check out the popular Nauyaca Falls that are located close to Dominical (we wanted to do that while staying there but our plans changed due to the surf lessons), so we took the 6am bus towards the entrance, and started hiking once we arrived. The trail was about 5km long, with lots of up and downs, we walked through small streams, dense jungle and had some amazing views of the valley and surrounding mountains. After about 1 1/2 hours we made it to the falls and we were completely blown away! I haven’t seen that many waterfalls in my life so far, so I was definitely impressed. There were two different waterfalls, one more high up that was incredibly beautiful and a lower one which was more like a cascade. We took a dip in the lower one and it was cold but so refreshing after the hike. It was only us and another couple from the Netherlands, so we had the whole place to ourselves really. It was so beautiful and relaxing to swim, and sit by the waterfalls…we were both in awe of Mother Nature’s beauty. After about 45min more and more people kept coming and after an hour and a half we decided to hike back. We had only eaten a few nuts for breakfast so we were starving. As we left, the horse riding tours made their way up and I just gotta say – PLEASE do not support these tours here!! They’re awful. When we arrived at 7am, the horses were already sattled up and had to wait for 3 hours knotted to a pole.. also the hike is definitely manageable and if you do have health problems you can be transported by car to the waterfalls! Back at the hostel we ordered some food at the restaurant and just chilled out. It ended up raining the rest of the day so we just spent our time socializing and reading. On Sunday we made ourselves some breakfast and then headed out to Marino Ballena National Park. We had to pay 6$ to get in, then we walked for about an hour along Playa Colonia, which is a very beautiful beach. The park is named after the humpback whales that migrate to the region from about August to September and December through April. It is also famous for its whale tail that appears only at low tide, which is a 1km long “beach” of rocks. We were super impressed by the symmetry of the tail as we walked along it! Mother Nature really never disappoints. Then Charlotte and I parted our ways because I went to get another surf lesson, and she didn’t want to so she went back to the hostel. I had a private lesson with Oscar and it was sooo good! I was able to actually ride some real waves not just whitewash waves! He also challenged me with a smaller board and it was definitely more difficult but I think I did a pretty good job. After the lesson I met up with Charlotte at Flutterby house and we got ready to take our bus back home. The bus was supposed to leave at 3pm but ended up leaving at 4pm, and we got stuck in traffic pretty badly. At 10pm we arrived in San José and from there we had to take an uber to Alajuela, otherwise we would’ve missed the last bus to Poás which is at 11pm every night. We got home super late and immediately fell asleep…

We had an amazing short trip to the Pacific coast and I am so happy that I was able to go surfing again and explore more of Costa Rica’s stunning nature. Yet again we met some great people (a lot of teachers from Germany!) and we enjoyed ourselves so much. Now we’re back at work, and we only have 3 weeks left! 3 WEEKS!!!! I can’t even believe it and I have such mixed feelings about leaving and going back home.. time has passed by so fast! Right now I am actually waiting for my family to arrive! They are traveling through CR for 3 weeks and I will join them on the weekends when I don’t have to work. I am super excited to see them again after such a long time but it also marks the end of my time here which makes me feel very nostalgic… I am definitely going to make the best of my last few weeks here.

//Olivia