In the summer of 2012, I studied abroad through the University of Idaho and USAC in San Ramon, Costa Rica. Originally I had considered Australia as an option, but my study abroad advisor suggested that South/Central American countries have a lot to offer too, and a lot of people pass them by.
This means it can be easier to get scholarships for studying in these countries because there is less competition for it. Not to mention, I wanted to go somewhere where I can see wildlife, and really get in touch with nature. Though Australia would also offer me this chance, why not immerse myself in a whole new culture at the same time?
In the process of figuring out where I wanted to go, my house mate, Annie, and our friend Manda, also became intrigued and started to come to the study abroad fairs with me. Soon after, we were filling out forms and scrambling through applications to get accepted to go to the Universidad de Costa Rica.
We discovered that there would be no dorms for students at the university, and our only choices would be to find an apartment to rent, or home-stay. When we realized we were probably going to do a home-stay, we panicked a little. I took two years of Spanish in high school, but that was back in 2003-04! Meanwhile Manda and Annie were shy and reluctant about the idea..but, if we're going to get immersed in the culture, what better way is there to do it?
Weeks before the trip, after finals and a busy May Term, I frantically tried to learn some Spanish, but admittedly when the day of our flight came, I only felt strong about my knowledge of the words food, bathroom, and tired.
On Monday, June 25, we woke up at 5:30 a.m. after spending the night at Annie's house near Boston so we could catch our early flight.
We flew from Boston to Miami, where we had several hours of layover, and dutifully spent that time looking for the best ice cream and other snacks.
We arrived late at night in Costa Rica, where we bumped into another USAC student who had had a late flight in as well. We located our driver from USAC, who had agreed to pick us up, and luckily the other student, Kate, spoke very good spanish because the man picking us up didn't know a lot of english. I discovered that although Annie and Manda had taken Spanish much more recently, and for longer then I had, neither of them understood our driver, though this may be due to the fact that it was late, we were excited, and just a little nervous about going off to meet our host parents.
It was about an hour drive from San Jose to San Ramon, and one by one we were dropped off at our host parents house. All of the houses were gated. The streets were dark and the houses all clustered together. It looked a little spooky.
Last, we came to my house, and this sweet little old lady came out to greet me. I had gotten a short bio from her before the trip, so that all I knew about her was that she didn't speak any english, and she loved to cook. The other girl, Kate, was to spend the night with me because her host parents weren't answering the phone. This turned out to make a very stressful experience a lot easier to deal with, because now I had a translator!
If I have one complaint about USAC, it's that they didn't do a good job of telling us what was going on. We had signed up for a one week tour before classes began, but USAC failed to tell us when we were supposed to meet the bus, what was happening after we got off the plane, etc. So it was up to our host parents to tell us what was supposed to happen tomorrow. Which was a problem because none of our host parents spoke any english, and I didn't understand any spanish. This is why I was especially happy that Kate spent the night in my host mom's house with me, otherwise I wouldn't have had any idea when we were supposed to get up and walk to school the next day.
Where I was lucky, Annie and Manda were less lucky.
Though they understood and spoke very basic spanish at the beginning of this trip, the lack of information from USAC managed to cause some issues for the two of them this first day. On Manda's part, she thought we were getting a tour of the campus before we left for the week tour of Southern Costa Rica.
So while she understood her host parents that morning that she had to get up and walk to school with them to get on the bus, she didn't realize she was supposed to be packed for the tour, and was confused when her host mom kept saying "is that all you're bringing? what about a rain coat? Bring more than just your notebook!" So, as a result of this, though Manda did manage to confusedly pack some clothes to appease her host mom, she left out important things like sun tan lotion, a bathing suit, and a few other things she would have LIKED to have brought, had she realized she'd be gone for a week and leaving most of her stuff at her host parents.
In Annie's case, an even worse misunderstanding had occurred. USAC had failed to process the fact that she signed up for the tour, and her host parents were wondering why she had shown up a week early for school. Annie must not have understood their confusion until the next morning, when she began wondering why she hadn't been told about when the tour is happening. Her host mom finally figured out that she thought she was supposed to go on the trip, and she called the school, and Claudia (a wonderful woman who was EXTREMELY helpful with ANY problems we had) got her set up to take the public buses by herself to catch up with us. So Annie set off with her basic Spanish to try and navigate the public buses for a 6 hour drive to southern Costa Rica.
Meanwhile, Manda and I had boarded the bus that morning and wondered what on Earth had happened to Annie. But we had no phone and no way to contact her, and when we asked the instructor with us why she wasn't there, he told us everyone who was supposed to be on the bus was on the bus. We had no clue what had gone wrong, and could only try and enjoy ourselves while we questioned her absence.
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| Here we are on the bus, wondering where Annie could be.... |
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| We stopped at a restaurant for lunch, and Manda poses, pretending that Annie is just invisible. At least we were thinking of her! |
After stopping for lunch, since it was a 6 hour drive they let us stretch our legs at a beach. It was a gorgeous little beach, and it was interesting to see what kinds of sea-life we could find.
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| It didn't take us long to locate these sand dollars! There were lots of them on this beach |
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| Here the sand dollar is burying itself in the sand |
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| This sand dollar was dead |
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| We also found a bunch of these snails |
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| They also seemed to like being buried in the sand |
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| There were hermit crabs too, lots of them! |
Manda and I found some interesting holes in the ground, with strange balls of dirt near them. We kept looking and looking, until we finally figured out what was making these holes.
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Crabs!
We saw these little guys scurrying in and out of the holes, and mounding up the dirt into balls, perhaps searching for food
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| The beach we were at. In the distance, we could hear the strange beating sounds of howler monkeys! |
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| A hermit crab with a broken shell. |
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| This is the place we stayed the night at, where late that night Annie eventually caught up to us. |
We had some time to kill before dinner, so Manda and I explored the area.
I was the first to spot this green iguana chilling in this tree. What a cool lizard!
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| This lizard was in the same tree. Not sure what kind he is. |
We heard scratching noises coming from the A.C. and wondered what it was. We saw this guy hanging out back of the hotel, and further back we saw one iguana sitting on the A.C. unit. That explains the strange noises!
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| Leaf-cutter ants! These guys are hard to get a picture of! |
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| There is a lizard in the center of the photo. It kind of blends in a bit. |
Before Annie caught up with us that day, Manda and I also looked out in the water, where I saw a strange sight. It looked like a log, but remained stationary despite the current. I stood up from where we were sitting and frowned at it, it was kind of far away, about 50 feet from us, and maybe 8 feet long or so. "I think that's a crocodile" I remarked dumbly to Manda, and we noticed the narrow snout that would separate it from a caiman. Once we realized what it was, it blinked, then was gone. The whole thing took less than 2 minutes, but it was still very exciting to see my first American crocodile.
After dinner, I grabbed my flashlight, and Manda and I looked for crocodiles. We had no luck, we went frog catching instead in some puddles near the hotel. I found some, and some local kids came to watch Manda and I catch the frogs.
I quickly grew suspicious however when I noticed that the frogs didn't even try to hop away when you caught them They just kind of sat there, stupefied, and it was very disconcerting. Suddenly I noticed just a few inches from my hand there was a small snake, about 7 inches long.
When I pointed it out though, the local boys began backing away, and making gestures, such as running their fingers across their throats. "oh", I realized, "this is a poisonous snake!"
So Manda and I carefully moved away, and went back to the hotel to look up what kind of snake it was. Turns out, it was a
Fer-de-lance!
No more frog catching for me.
The next day, we (Annie included) hopped on some boats that would take us to Drake Bay, which is where we would be staying for a week.
At one point we drove right up to some trees, the driver had actually managed to spot this curled up boa-constrictor!
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| We took a detour through the mangroves |
When the river ended and we got through the mangroves, they made us put on life jackets, because the open ocean has much choppier seas.
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| We were almost there when it began to rain! |
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| Destination in sight! |
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| Drake Bay is a really amazing place, and they have some awesome tours! |
The three Maine girls, (Manda, Annie and I) all got a room together.
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| The inside of our room! Only two beds though, Manda and I had to share. |
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| This is the view from our doorway |
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| The Bar/where lunch is served |
After lunch we explored the area
I just got a new camera for this trip, a water proof Nokia Coolpix aw100. So, I had to test some underwater shots! Here is a sea slug, which we later found out it was unwise to touch. Lucky for me, it was only Annie who took this risk.
A scarlet Macaw sat and watched us while we were in the pool.
Later in the day we took a walk from the lodge to the beach. On the way, we saw a mother sloth and her young one!
We also saw a small family of Capuchin (or white-faced monkeys)!
We played around on the beach for a while, and someone found a hermit crab without its shell. This is what they look like without the shell!
We also discovered a cool spider.
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| Annie stole that shirt from me. |
We were fed a large dinner (all the meals so far have been large, with lots of rice and black beans (A big thing in Costa Rica). The food has been delicious so far, and I have enjoyed eating Costa Rican food. It's not spicy, and you rarely see black pepper anywhere, but there is lots of fresh juice, fruits, and avocado!
The next adventure planned for us...canoeing up a river and then floating back down the river in life vests. Will there be a crocodile encounter? Find out next time!
