Estoy Aprendiendo Espanol!

Tomorrow is my last day in Spanish school. I have had a busy week filling my brain with new vocabulary, verb conjugations and spending my evenings doing homework instead of reading novels.

I spent a week attending Spanish lessons 4 hours/day at the Samara Intercutura Language school. It is a completely immersive school meaning they only speak Spanish in the classes and student are only allowed to speak Spanish with the instructors and each other. If you want to speak your native language you need to leave campus. They believe people pickup languages faster and develop better skills this way.....and the students are from all over the world and the whole class doesn't speak the same language anyway. My class has two girls from Switzerland, one girl from Germany, one girl from Vancouver and a guy from England.

Samara Intercultura Language School

I took a "Spanish for Travelers" class in Calgary this Fall and thank goodness.....my teacher in Calgary was really excellent and since it was such small class we learned a lot. I would have been completely and utterly lost had I shown up at this school without a word of Spanish in my head other then cervesa and banos.  They interview you in Spanish on the first day and place you in a class based on your Spanish conversational skills...not your knowledge so much as your ability to actually use it. I understood a lot of what he was asking me but didn't have the skills to answer him very well so I was placed in the beginner class. I, surprisingly enough, understand about 90% of what the teacher is saying...more than enough to get by and figure it out. We all have a Spanish/English dictionaries to look up anything we don't understand.

View of the beach right outside the school campus

My Spanish has improved so so much, especially my vocabulary. You learn tons of words being in an immersion program that you wouldn't learn in one where the instructors speak English. My ability to use what I know has improved exponentially too. It's been a great experience and I'll get to keep practicing throughout the rest of my trip. Saturday is sadly my last day in Costa Rica as I fly into Guatemala on Sunday.

I'm sad to go. This place is right up my alley. It's really beautiful here: sunny, hot and humid! The ocean is warm, the food is good and the people are really friendly. Me gusta Costa Rica!

Walking home after school.

Sunset view from my balcony.

My Dirty Little Secret

My name is Deb and I have a large collection of Central American Insects trapped under glassware all over my rental house.

It started with one, which was supposed to be removed the next morning once it had a chance to suffocate and die, then it snowballed into three and things got overwhelming.
I’m running out of usable glasses to drink from….



It almost became four, however, the large wiley spider that hangs out on the wall of my kitchen, and has recently in the last day taken to lounging about on the counter, is faster than my glass trapping skills. Every time I attempt capture he runs under the counter overhang…one day soon little spider….your days are numbered!



Anyway, the maid comes back to clean on Wednesday and I can’t have her walk in on this freakshow creepy bug museum I have going on (as she’ll think I am a crazy gringo)…so tomorrow I intend to do a full bug removal. Ugh, wish me luck.

My first week is already up and I am in week two…time flies when you are on vacation!
The weather has been ridiculously hot…even I am almost too hot and that’s saying something. I have been tanning, reading and sleeping really well so I feel great. The horrible flu/cold/plague that I suffered from prior to leaving Calgary has completely cleared out of my body and I feel really healthy again…finally. I can’t remember the last time I have has so many really great sleeps with out the aid of immovane or complete exhaustion post night shift.

I found a better route into town, it’s still a long walk but I found a dirt road near where my house is that puts me on the beach instead of a sketchy highway….it’s flat and beautiful and I can walk in the warm ocean water with my bare feet all the way into town. The internet stopped working here Saturday night….the owners of the property say they don’t know what’s wrong and hopefully it can be fixed tomorrow. Super annoying. I also have new neighbours, the other house I share the pool area with has been empty until today. No more topless suntanning I guess.

I started Spanish School yesterday! I’ll write all about that in another post as I have homework to do tonight and I don’t want to get sent to the principal’s office on the second day.
Below are pictures of my walk into town from my rental house.

R&R at Casa Mango

I spent one more day at my hotel in town before I moved into my little rental house yesterday and got settled in. The giant Iguana paid me a few more visits. I literally jumped in to pool for 2 minutes to cool off and when I got out the iguana had climbed up onto my lounger and was stretched out on my towel waiting for me! He came back later that day and tried to eat my sandals… What a beautiful lizard!

Notice the look of horror...

My new digs are in a one bedroom house with a full kitchen and a little pool just up the hill overlooking Playa Samara. The view is fantastic and it’s quite a beautiful little spot.

It’s a bit of a walk into town though…I knew it was a 20 minute walk in when I rented it, and don’t mind walking, but what I didn't realize is that most of the walk is along the side of a highway with no shoulder…not such a big deal during the day but if I want to walk down for dinner, by the time I am returning it is pitch black and uphill. I was fairly concerned about getting smoked by a car while walking home last night…and carrying 2 bags of groceries was a bitch. I planned on cooking my own breakfast and lunch and waking down each night for dinner but it’s a bit too much of a pain. So yesterday at dinner I just ordered 2 meals from the restaurant and brought one home to eat tonight and I’ll do the same thing tomorrow to save me a trip and reduce the possibility of becoming road kill.

The view from my balcony!

I think this location, as beautiful as it is, is more ideal for someone with a rental car…the hotel in town, where I spent my first 2 nights in, was a far superior location for me. Oh well, live and learn.

I am still having a great time though just relaxing and reading in the sun. I'm on my third book (yeah, kindle!), I've got a hammock, a sun lounger, my own pool and 3 more days to soak up the sun until I start my week of Spanish classes in town on Monday morning. 

Attack of the Killer Iguana!

That giant beast of an Iguana successfully had 3 grown adults screaming/cowering on the other side of the pool when he climbed into the bag of the guys sitting next to me, ate all their bananas and chased us away when we tried to remove him! It was pretty funny. How huge is he?!

I finally arrived in Playa Samara, a cute little beach town on the west coast of Costa Rica, around 11:30pm last night. Two 3.5 hour flights, a 4 hour layover in Houston, and a 1.5 hour taxi drive later.

Thank goodness I ordered lunch in Houston....with a portion size large enough to feed a family of 4, to get me though as I completely missed dinner in all the traveling. 

Thankfully, the hotel served a yummy breakfast this morning.

I am spending 2 nights at a hotel in town before I am able to move into the little house I rented for the rest of my stay (tomorrow). 

So far I have been sitting in the sun, reading and generally enjoying the wonderful oppressive heat!

Well, I'm off to forage for dinner!