The most common drink – and probably most common souvenir as well – in Costa Rica, is coffee. Wanna know a little secret? Coffee plants are NOT native to Costa Rica! (Neither are bananas, but that’s another blog at another time.) They arrived in the late 1700s in a serendipitous import – the “coffee barons” […]
Many of our students leave course, wanting to relive their glory days in Costa Rica when they experienced unique activities, connected with the environment, challenged themselves, practiced Spanish, learned new skills, self-evaluated, stayed in shape, and/or ate incredibly tasty and amazing local food. While we can’t provide solutions for every one of these nostalgic desires, […]
Our Surf-Intensive course students were lucky to arrive last Saturday, the same day the “Olympics of Surfing” came to Jacó, Costa Rica for a championship tournament. Costa Rica is host to The Billabong ISA World Surfing Games from August 1-8, 2009. The event will take place on Playa Hermosa, with 40 nations and 280 surfers […]
St. John’s Little Summer Typically around June 21st (summer solstice) of every year in the Southern Hemisphere, the Veranito de San Juan reaches Costa Rica. But this year it’s late, and we are enjoying a break from rain in the middle of July. Our rainy season (or winter, as locals call it) lasts from May […]
Recently, The New Economics Foundation (an independent British research team) did a study of 143 nations on this planet (comprising 99% of the world’s population) to find just what populations are the most content. The winner? HINT: This country won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for trying to help end civil wars in several […]
Tree Day, June 15th Today, on June 15th, the world celebrates Tree Day. On this day, everyone is encouraged to plant a tree to help the environment. It may not be a heavily-publicized day in many parts of the world, but Costa Rica places a lot of value in this day, as they do for […]
June 8, 2009 News flash: Costa Rica has oil, but it has banned drilling. About two months ago, a New York Times author, Thomas Friedman, came down to Costa Rica for an eco-tour, and he brought back with him better understanding of how to operate a country’s environmental systems. One of these guidelines includes: no […]
Friday, May 22, 2009 El Rio General, where the Leadership and Multi-Element students are rafting for four days in Class III-IV rapids until Sunday, is located in one of the most biodiverse areas in the world called South Puntarenas. From rare species of birds to endangered animals, a plethora of wildlife can be seen in […]
It may be hard to believe that it’s possible to find our CRROBS base on Google Earth, given that we are in the middle of the rain forest covered by trees, but we did it. This is proof to the world that we do, in fact, exist. For those of you who have not been […]
Many of us did a “homestay” at a “Mestizo” village. But most of us did not know what that meant until we got there. Now we understand that a “homestay” is staying with a local family to better learn the local lifestyle. And “Mestizo” is a term for a culture of people in Latin America […]