Finca Rosa Blanca Heredia

Saturday:

The day began on a nearly disastrous start because my host mom and I miscommunicated and I didn't have a taxi to leave at 5:45am. Once I did get a taxi that too was an adventure as my driver proudly multitasked reading the paper and driving my car….After a brief reminder I was late he cut it out and I got there only a fe...

My friends told me that they thought I was brave…brave because I'm a "mature" person…not a traditional university student going abroad…I’m a wife, a mother, an early retiree from a successful professional career, and a grandmother. Personally, I don’t think I was brave. I think I was fortunate. Going to Costa Rica t...

Living in Costa Rica these five years I have learned much about myself, other people and the similarities and differences in cultures. Recently there was a survey posted on CNN announcing Costa Rica as the happiest country in the world. This was based on general contentment, life expectancy and ecological footprint. While there are areas which c...

Long time no chat. Amanda speaking.

Sorry for the long time between posts, but it seems odd to have daily posts when we are in the same place everyday.

For an update, we have started our classes. They are a bit unorganized, but I think it will all work out. We won´t start our volunteering until next week. This week is reserved...

Hi!

Last weekend I went to Manuel Ontonio, which is a national park with gorgeous beaches. I went with some of my friends who are in my program as well as with some Tico boys that we know. We spent time on the public beach as well as some of the private beaches that are part of the national park. They are beyond beautiful and simply ama...

So it's the last night before my amigos take off and I'm on my own. We got into San Jose mid afternoon and wanted to catch the 2 game 7's (Lakers vs Houston and Orlando vs Boston) but it's not the easiest thing to find in a Central America country so we found ourselves and a "Casino" called Del Reyes. One experience I won't forget since in addit...

After 2 years of living in a foreign country, the little things really began to get to me. I knew it was time to go, when everything just annoyed me and I started every sentence with Only in Costa Rica... does every DVD scratch, everyone gets paid on the same day (can we say long lines at the bank), does it take 4 hours to go 44 kilometers, good...

I arrived on Sunday to Heredia, Costa Rica, where I will be for the next 4 and a half months. I will be studying at La Universidad nacional (UNA). It's located around 20 minutes or so outside of San Jose (the capital). There are three big bus companies that travel between the two cities, so I can go to San Jose any time I want. It was fairly ho...

When we got into San José around 11pm we got the usual runaround. All the taxi drivers (who want your business) tell you that there´s no where nearby that you can walk to and convince you to go with them to a hostel. We had heard San José is dangerous so we gave in and went with a seemingly shady character. He told us he would take us for 3,000 ...