Costa Rica Trip Report

[bigbabyjesus]

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When planning a trip, how do you go about choosing where to go and how long to stay?

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I planned the trip mostly on impulse. I wanted to go somewhere new, and soon, and figured in a program like this I'd learn two things I wanted to learn as well as have people to hang out with.

I had been interested in Costa Rica before, perhaps as a place to play poker and live for a few months. It just seemed like a cool place that was America friendly.

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Why specifically Costa Rica and not some other affordable America-friendly country?

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No real good reason to this. I wanted to learn spanish and surfing and have considered (based on ome readings) costa rica as a place to live to play online poker. I didn't do too much research on similar places.
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What percentage of Costa Ricans can speak English?

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In the service industry, most of them speak it ok. Some speak it very well, some speak very well, some speak none at all. You could get by in this area without any spanish but it can be hit or miss with the locals.
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What do you do on a daily basis? What does your schedule typically look like?

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For the class, I do 1 2 HR session of surfing a day. I do 1 2 HR session of spanish (w/ a class of 5 right now,) and then a 2 hr "Lab." The lab is more of learning new words or playing memory type games, etc.

Once a week we do a trip type thing during the day with the school. Last week was a kayak tour, this week is a croc tour.

We just chill alot otherwise. I've been reading books in my free time. We go into town and eat out alot. Me and some other students have begun to rent boards so we can surf in non-class hours ($6 a day.) Unfortunately me and another student basically ate [censored] on the same wave near each other and the fin of his board managed to slice my board.. probably about $50 to fix.

We party on occasional nights. This weekend we will probably make a trip to another area of Costa Rica (the national park fo Manuel Antonio is within 2 hours, and is one of the biggest tourist attractions around. Supposedly there are monkeys everywhere which sounds awesome.)

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How do you get around there? Can you rent a car?

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You can rent a car. I am not sure of prices but it's probably not that expensive.

When we go to manuel antonio and such we will probably just take a bus. They are very cheap and probably bearable if you're with a group. Alot of the roads are in poor condition here, especially in the more rural areas (which 95% of the land around here is compared to the States) so it can take awhile to go to other regions.

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How much cheaper are things there? Give examples plz.

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Thigns aren't really that much cheaper. I am in a town that is beginning to "blow up" with tourism; there are probably 5-10 huge condo projects that are just beginning here. This town w ill be much much different in 10 years. You can find pretty good meals (rice, beans and fried plantains + a meat is a meal called casado and very popular, can get for around $5-7 after drink + tax + tip.)

Alot of goods here are more expensive then in the States due to import tax. You can find some things that are pretty cheap here and there but really it's not like a huge bargain, just 10-30% cheaper than what you're used to.
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How much surfing experience do you have?

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Not much. I took some lessons in LA in summer. I surfed a little with my buddy but had to ride his 6'2" shortboard and I never got close to catching a wave (I caught waves during the lessons but they were with a bigger board and better beginner waves.)

90% of the people who are here have little to no surfing experience. I'm standing up pretty consistently and am now learning to turn, recognize waves, etc. Surfing is a sport that is very hard to get good at. I'm standing up on waves but in reality I still suck very hard.