Our last two weeks have been busy, so we haven’t had a chance to update our website much. Sámara’s beautiful beaches were lovely, but we’re really enjoying Heredia as there’s so much more to do here. Classes have been fantastic – students and teachers alike are all fun to spend time with, and Lillian has been able to continue having 1-on-1 classes, so she has made some incredible progress in the 3+ weeks we’ve been at Intercultura (but honestly, so have Jordan and Jackie).

We’ve done lots of dancing classes through the school with Kike, the school’s fantastic dance instructor. We’ve enjoyed learning Salsa, Bachata, and Swing Criollo, and then once a week we’ve unwound with a yoga class (actually a pretty strenuous one!). We’ve also been to a couple of cooking classes at the school, and those are enlightening and delicious. Yesterday we made empanadas de platanos (last week’s cooking class recipe) in our apartment, and we were very satisfied with our efforts.

Each Thursday we’ve headed out on walking tours of nearby towns with a group from the school — mostly this is a chance to become more comfortable with the bus system, enjoy a nice lunch in a restaurant, and get to know some of the other students here at the school.

We’ve ventured out on our own a few times, too — first, we walked to Cafe Britt’s gift shop and coffee tour location in nearby Barva. It was a long-ish walk, with some cool flowers along the way. We got a hot tip that guests were welcome to walk around the plantation tour area for free and enjoy the butterfly garden, so we skipped the paid tour and spent some time in the green space.

On Saturday, we wandered around the downtown area a little bit more (getting a few streets further afield from our usual grocery shopping / park routes) before the rain arrived. Earlier in the day, Jordan went for a swim at the Palacio de Deportes, and a couple of local swimmers invited her to share their lane and swim their set with her since they were pretty evenly matched. At the end of their swim, they swapped swim caps… Jordan got a pretty cool souvenir along with a fun memory. They invited her to join their practices at 5am on weekdays, but… that may be a little earlier than she wants to get up most days. In the evening we heard what sounded like a marching band drawing near. Last weekend we heard the same drumming, but never saw a marching band, so we decided to go on an 8pm adventure and see if we could find the music (along what we know is a safe and well-lit route, don’t worry Nana…) We quickly realized it was coming from the Central Park just a few blocks away, and when we arrived there was a marching band of probably 150-200 people practicing! Apparently La Revo practices there every Saturday at 7pm. We stuck around for about 30 minutes and then left a few minutes early to beat the crowds and get back to our apartment.

On Sunday we Ubered to San José, then took the bus from there to Cartago. We invited a friend from the school to come along, as she is traveling solo and we figured we’d all enjoy each others’ company. We fit a ton into one day: first we visited the local market (much like Heredia’s mercado central, this is a vibe), then we walked to the Museo Municipal de Cartago to check out their exhibitions of pre-Columbian artifacts.

From the Museo Municipal, we walked a few blocks to the Ruinas de Cartago – a site where several churches have been located over the years (the earliest dating back to the mid-16th century) but efforts to build the most recent iteration of the church (in the early 1900’s) were scuppered by (yet another) earthquake, so most recently it is just a beautiful walled garden & public park. We didn’t bring a picnic lunch with us, but we decided that if we visit again it’s a perfect spot for an open-air lunch.

After the ruins, we walked several more blocks to the Basilica de Nuestro Mujer de Los Angeles. The cathedral is big and beautiful, and the inside is ornate; we didn’t do much more than peek inside, as there was a mass going on and it was PACKED. People were walking around outside and lining up to get holy water from the fountain there, to touch the “finding stone,” and to leave or look at the exvotos that pilgrims have left there. If you have a second to read about the legend of La Negrita, it’s a pretty fascinating story, and it’s clear that is has a lot of significance to the people who visit. Even from a secular perspective, it was moving to look at all of the exvotos and think about how each one represented the hopes, wishes, and successes of the individuals who offered them — thousands of tiny miracles.

From the Basilica, we grabbed some goodies at a small pañaderia and waited for our Uber to the Lankaster Botanical Gardens. Soooo many orchids, and we went a little crazy taking pictures of our favorites. After enjoying the orchids in the greenhouses, we wandered the paths through their succulent gardens, Japanese gardens, etc., etc. – we were too busy enjoying the scenery at that point to remember to take too many pictures.

Finally, we took a (harrowing) Uber trip to the other side of Cartago and up a smallish mountain to get to Solo Rosas, which our friend’s “MamaTica” (host mom) had recommended. It didn’t look like much from outside, but once we stepped into the greenhouse it was definitely worth the trip! (Also, conveniently, it was inside, and it had started to rain and was a little chilly up at that elevation, so it was perfect!) After the rose garden closed up at 4, we Ubered back to the bus station in Cartago and hopped on our bus back to San José, and from there another Uber to Heredia. (And then we got pizza, because we were too tired to be bothered with cooking!)

Jordan is just getting over a brief cold (in spite of all of the Vitamin C she’s getting via fresh mangoes, pineapples, oranges, lychees, etc.), so Monday we took it easy and only ventured out to the supermarket (but then we made those yummy empanadas, see above…). Today, though, we wandered to the University of Costa Rica’s Heredia campus and enjoyed a stroll through there. Since today is the second non-rainy day in a row (!!) we felt we needed to do it justice with a two-hour walk. The fresh air was nice, but you have to keep your head on a swivel or you will get run over by a motorbike.

We can’t get over how lovely everyone has been – from folks riding the bus with us, to Uber drivers, teachers, fellow students, shopkeepers… literally everyone is friendly and helpful. We’re glad we have two more weeks here, and we plan to get out for a few more adventures before returning to Maine for the holidays!