Where I Will Be

Map of Costa Rica

Okay so this is Costa Rica, south of Nicaragua and north of Panama. Right in the middle (central Costa Rica) is where I will be most of the time. I'm flying into San Jose (the capital) and then north of there- Alajuela- is the city where my host family lives! I'm told the city is only 3km from the airport. During the week we will be taking a Spanish class in the mornings, and activities in the afternoon such as going to INBIO Park and dancing class. The first weekend, May 20-22, we will be in Monteverde (a cloud rainforest). On the map you can see it is NW of Alajuela I'm not sure how long a drive that will be, probably a few hours. There we will be hiking and zip lining!!

             Monday we return to Alajuela to our Spanish classes and host families. The following weekend we are spending Friday night, May 27, and Saturday morning in Manuel Antonio. Manuel Antonio is located in the Pacific region of the country on the south coastline. In the park there we are going to see monkeys, iguanas, sloths and toucans, but right down the road is Costa Rica's most beautiful beach! That Saturday afternoon and evening we are spending at Punta Leona which is not on the map but its slightly north of Jaco, which is still on the coastline. There is an "exotic and beautiful reserve" which is home to a lot of rare birds and mammals. Sunday we will be at Carara (outside of San Jose) in the morning which supposedly is great for bird watching (probably what I'm least looking forward too...) and the afternoon we will be in another bird park called Palo Verde which is also not on the map but it is due west of Monteverde passed Las Canas. In that same area, on Monday we will be going on a river boat ride through Palo Verde park which is supposed to be very relaxing! That night we head back to stay with our families.

            Tuesday, May 31, our group will head east until we reach Turrialba. There is Costa Rica's most important archeological site, Guayabo. After walking around the ruins in the morning we will be touring the CATIE botanical gardens right across the street where they study agriculture, so we'll see fruit trees and maybe have a juice tasting session!

             Our last day in Costa Rica (June 1) we are spending in Poas with the volcano named La Paz (which ironically means "peace"). This is on the map north of Alajuela, depicted by a red triangle. And June 2 we return to the States!

Man, that took longer than I thought it would...we are clearly in for a busy, but fun, time!