Costa Rica
COSTS : In-country: £1659.65 (£14.43 a day) // Out of country - £ 289 (see breakdown at the end)
CURRENCY : Colones ₡
DATE : 30th April 2022 - 21st August 2022
DURATION : 115 days
AGE : 20/21
TOP APPS : Workaway / Currency Converter / Reverso Context
Costa Rica is a beautiful country, filled with friendly, proud people. I was lucky enough to start my Spanish language learning journey here, working as a summer camp leader for a Spanish language School, which you can read more about here :)
Costa Ricans are referred to as ‘Ticos’ by the rest of Centroamérica because they add ‘ico’ (a diminutive which translates to ‘a little’) to many words in a very endearing way. For example, ‘un poquitico’ (a little bit) and ‘un cafecito’ (a little coffee).
Another example of their endearing culture is 'Pura Vida’. Everyone in this little country says it and in many different contexts. The meaning of Pura Vida is Pure Life or simple life. This has a lot to do with the culture of Costa Rica and the attitude of Ticos. After 4 months of living here, I found my own ‘Pura Vida’ and I am so grateful to all the beautiful people here for that.
Contents:
🔶 21st Birthday Holiday
🔶 Top Moments
🔶 Cultural Notes
21st B-day Holiday
After an intense week of uni work in a hostel in the capital, San José, my mum arrived just in time for my birthday !
We enjoyed a wonderful two-week whistle-stop group tour around Costa Rica. It was the perfect introduction to this beautiful nation.
Here is a map of our route ( + info about the company we used in the link) and some of the photos of lovely memories I will cherish for a lifetime . . .
We ziplined, saw beautiful wildlife, reconnected, danced, tried exotic fruits, drank (many) cocktails, enjoyed each other’s company and that of the rest of our group.
It was the perfect compromise between her, luxurious ‘lying by the pool’ kinda holiday, and my adventurous backpacking lifestyle.
Top Moments
After the fantastic trip with mamá Angie I reluctantly retreated back to San José to work more on my studies with Open Uni.
I did this, however, in style, at a lovely co-working space run by the snazzy hostel chain Selina.
Uni work . . .
in a hammock 😜
I then moved to Heredia, a small city just outside San José. I lived in what became my home for two months in a homestay with a lovely tica señora.
Outside my job as a camp leader at Tico Lingo, I enjoyed life to lo maximo, including highlights such as :
Going out to bars and the cinema + enjoying spending time with myself and friends - I especially loved a local bar which had incredible jazz nights every Tuesday
Lunches with my mamá tica : the one, the only, Doña Maria
Having my own room and desk to get work done and feel grounded
A trip to a town called Guapiles: being thrown in the deep end, both metaphorically with the language and literally via bridge jumping :)
It was a far more authentic cultural immersion and a chance for me to see the real way of life of ticos (not just gringos who I was working with)
A visit to Límon province with my friend Caleb. It was wonderful travelling with someone; firstly, to have company and someone to share the experience with, and secondly, to feel safe and protected, as Caleb is from Costa Rica and basically acted as my personal tour guide, body guard and professor de español 💛
Getting a tattoo of a ‘signo de pregunta’ - a symbol of my spanish language learning journey and all the unknowns of life
Awesome unexpected encounters, such as with a lovely Chilean who kept me company on the bus ride back from Nicaragua and a gorgeous Argentinian who reminded again just how diverse the Spanish language is . . .
Visiting La Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles and collecting my very special journal
Catching up with my mum via a video call con rum and coke
The beautiful diversity of fruits and vegetables
Cultural Notes
Here are a few cultural highlights that stood out to me, but there are so many more :)
Also everyone is good at dancing. Salsa, bachata, merengue, you name it, they are raised with it and not afraid to show it 💃
Out-of-country cost breakdown
£ 149.64 Flight (I split the cost across the whole Central America trip)
£ 51.48 Travel Insurance (^ ditto)
£ 89 Health-related costs: nothing special, just paracetamol, suncream, STD test etc. - make sure to have had a yellow fever vaccination before going :)
£ 0 Visa : visitors are allowed to stay 90 days without a visa I even overstayed by 3 weeks and the border guard just winked at me 😂
¡Pura Vida!
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